The Long View

Last year, actually about 13 months ago, our new director started. He had been the director at a library about 40 minutes north of us and in another state, and prior to that had worked in a couple of academic libraries I'm connected to (one is at a college where one nephew matriculated, the other was my work-study job while I was in grad school). His former library is also about a half hour from where Sparky is going to college, so he's familiar with the school. It's been a fun year of sharing stories.

It suddenly dawned on me--a literal flash of light occurred--that his previous library was in the same library consortium as the one where PsychoBoss worked after she left our shared workplace 20 years ago. I have kept tabs on her electronically through the years and about 5 years ago--maybe less?--she retired. Nothing untoward about all this, except when I mentioned that I had worked for the former director at [Library Nearby His] he said something to the effect, "Oh, I don't think I met her; she was...er, uh..." Retired? "...yeah, gone, before I started up there. Scuttlebutt says she had some...uhm, creative financial methods."

O M G

And still she managed to skate, for 20 years, leaving a trail of fiduciary irresponsibility in her wake with no punishment. Astounding!

(I just tracked her down on LinkedIn and found that she's working as a deployment counselor for the Air National Guard. Or something. I hope she doesn't have any contact with money. Then again, the military is a giant sinkhole of fiduciary irresponsibility so maybe she's met her match.)

My main feeling in all of this is how idiotically trusting people are sometimes, followed directly by sweet relief that she is far in my rear-view mirror. However, now that I've searched her on LinkedIn, she knows where I am. Still, I have carefully kept my mouth shut and never, ever used her name online. Today was the first time I've said it out loud in a VERY long time. It was weird saying it. Let's hope it doesn't conjure her back into my life.

Blog Challenge

Well, three days in...and I'm already behind.

Yesterday was meant to be Where You'd Like to Be in 10 Years. Ironically, Beast and I actually discussed this in a roundabout way yesterday. In 10 years, we'll be on the verge of 60 years old. That's rather terrifying. Perhaps we'll have married Sparky off by then. Perhaps we'll have grandchildren. Perhaps we'll be living in Colorado. All of these are possibilities, but so is Sparky living in our basement, in this house. I will probably still be working where I am. Beast intends to continue working as well. So I don't really think a lot will change. In any case, I don't really do 5- or 10-year-plans. I'm much more likely to play it as it comes.

Today's topic is Your Views on Drugs & Alcohol. I'm really very laid-back about alcohol and pot until they become central to someone's life; once they become worth lying, stealing, and cheating people for, they own you. Same for the harder drugs too, of course, but those are also more prone to killing you outright, rather than a slow breakdown of your body so I'm less sanguine about them. And I think tobacco is evil.

I gotta repost this, unattributed and obfuscated

...and post-dated to protect the author, and me, and people who know both of us.

It's been a M0nday. I just read a fr!end's p0st ab0ut navel-gaz!ng in l!brar!ansh!p, wh!ch included th!s paragraph:

That's an0ther th!ng that w0rks my nerves ab0ut s0me 0f these c0nversat!0ns…the defeat!st att!tude that pe0ple have that the!r j0b sucks/the!r manager sucks/the!r c0-w0rkers suck/the vend0rs suck/EVERYTH!NG SUCKS but the!r hands are t!ed and can't f!x !t and can't leave. S0mething can always be d0ne. 'But...'… N0. But n0th!ng. S0mething can always be d0ne.

Yeah. That. I'm gu!lty 0f it s0met!mes -- we're all human -- but it's s0meth!ng I w0rk t0 av0!d. Because we hates it, 0ur prec!0us.


And then I just had a pr0fess!0nal interact!0n that has me shut in my 0ff!ce l!sten!ng t0 angry mus!c as l0ud as I can just!fy in a l!brary. It b0!ls d0wn t0 th!s:


I d0n't d0 pass!ve-aggress!ve.


I d0n't d0 wh!n!ng.


I als0 d0n't d0 martyrs.


And s0mething can always be d0ne.


S0 e!ther help me f!x it, 0r s!t d0wn and shut up.


N0ne 0f wh!ch I can say 0ut l0ud, s0 I'm g0!ng t0 c0nt!nue w0rk!ng 0n the stuff 0n my t0-d0 l!st, w!th the d00r securely cl0sed, unt!l I d0n't want t0 snarl th0se th!ngs at the next pers0n t0 c0me near me.

OK, then please let me know specifically how we can:

• create jobs out of thin air
• cure cancer
• solve all instances of mental illness
• stop wars
• raise the dead

While I do actually sympathize with the general sentiment of looking for forward movement and quelling the negative..., yeah, NOT. Anyway, it seems to me that if people "don't do" any of these behaviors or personalities, they've admitted defeat and are therefore saying Nothing Can Be Done with them.

And

• Playing music loudly because you're angry? Why, that sounds mighty P-A to this here Mom.
• The whole post is whiny.
• Martyring yourself by hiding in your office is still being a martyr. Trust me: my family is full of martyrs.

To think I used to like this person....

To think she's in charge of getting information to students. {shudder}

Oh, the irony

Originally dated 10/11/06 and entitled Notes from Yesterday's Meeting

[which, by the way, was the most morale-boosting, work-related meeting I've been at in about a year]

After a pre-meeting conversation involving assassination weapons including, but not limited to darts, knitting needles, and poison, the chair opened the meeting.

And then busted us up by saying, in a completely different context: "I like bullets!"

Later in the meeting, she added, "I may not pass the [c@t@l0ging test], but I like a good fight."

Post-meeting, we decided that we absolutely must start enticing D-and-J our direction: D could joust with MAS, and J could...well, take MAS' job. Funnily enough, Ponytail brought this up as a possibility.* After conquering MAS, D could get to work wiping out the rest of the stupidity which is Our Consortium At Work. That will take even him YEARS. And he has a BAFS--Big-AssFreakin'Sword!

* Truthfully, he only raised the possibility of Lady J's return, since he didn't know she's now a They, a Package Deal.

Interesting how things change in just 3 short years.