Tinfoil + Raccoon

Sip n Surf and Neighbors Bearing Bread

I'm typing from the Sip n Surf, an internet cafe/laundromat/tanning salon/coffee shop.  How cool is that?  Actually, it's not too cool, since the used dryer we just bought three days ago isn't working. But if I gotta be at a laundromat, it's nice to have access.

You will hear me go on and on about how friendly people are in La Crosse. It's remarkable.  Tonight, as I was taking trash out, some guy came around the back of the house to introduce himself and offer me a loaf of beautiful bread.  He and his wife serve dinner to homeless people on Tuesday nights, and then bring home the uneaten bread and share it with neighbors.  He picked us tonight since we're the "new ones."  The great thing about the neighborliness is that it's genuine, and not a nosey thing.  People have been so generous and kind.  I've never experienced anything like it in all my time in central Illinois.  From our bread-bearing neighbor, we learned all about the grocery stores in town.  Festival in Onalaska is apparently the place to go. Quillan's--not so much.  And Franciscan Skemp, the Mayo-affiliated hospital in town, has an awesome bakery. 

Tomorrow, I have a half-day at the library, for paperwork, and my first adminstrative team meeting.  Looking forward to it, but wish I had another week to settle in to the house.   

Finally have internet at home, so updates about my La Crosse-love will be more frequent. 

Home

We're here!  La Crosse is awesome--I love my house, my neighborhood and all the kick-ass grocery stores.  So much to write about, but will save it for when I'm online at home, which, I hope will be later today.  Technically, I am online, as I am now the proud/confused owner of a Sprint Pocket PC (It's a phone, it's a computer, it's an ebook reader, it's an audio book thingie...), but I am not too swift with the mini keyboard yet.  Cats survived the trip okay, and have so much space in the house that they aren't demanding to be let outside. Juniorette is digging it all, too, and the Mr. is pleased with our new digs and community.  Just wish Juniorina was here, but she'll join us next week.   Details and pix later!

Final Ref Grunt--BPL

It's my last day at BPL, with a ref shift from 9-1.  In addition to me leaving, our collection devel person is retiring after 35 years--both of us on the same day. (IT guy and my pal, Matt Gullett has his last day next week).  And, shortly after we walk out the door for good, our workspaces will be demolished and turned into holy shrines. Just kidding. About the shrine part. It's a time of tremendous change for BPL, physicially and otherwise.  We're about six months into an expansion program, with phase 1 being close to finished. Tomorrow, workers will start to tear down our workspaces and demolish the whole room, and folks will be moved to temp work spaces.  In some ways, it's been good to have so much stuff going on these last weeks, as it's taken a bit of the focus away from personal departures.  But, the past two days, it's hit me hard, and I'm just plain sad.  I'll see if I can keep from dripping all over the ref desk, though, with my last Ref Grunt at BPL, dated May 19, 2006, 9-1.

• City directory
• Can I use a computer? (Mom with two babies in a stroller--I directed her to the mom/babe workstation in children's.)
• Do you have the book Off Magazine Street? Book that the movie A Love Song for Bobby Long is based on. Yes...retrieved from the bookmobile.
  • Is Brett here? No....maybe you can help me.  Do you know where I can buy a replacement case for a DVD?
  • Is Alllison here? No....she wanted to know what I thought of Love Song for Bobby Long.
• How do I print off my Sprint bill?
• (I'm doing my last book orders--BIO and 700s)
• (Supervisor is training new ref assistant--I provide editorial commentary.  I'm fairly certain that I just introduced the term "foot fetish" to her. Just trying to get her acquainted with the patrons)
• Patron needs help with copier (I fixed, using the ol' press-enough-buttons-and-it-will-work theory)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad (nope..out. sorry we are not placing holds while we transition into a new check-out system. Did you know you can check our catalog online? No...give demo and link to website).
• Where is location ILLRM FIC? (internal reference).
• Big Dad is here. I'll see him before I leave next week.
• P.M., a favorite patron who has given me many juicy reference challenges over the years is here--I thanked her for cookies the she gave and made sure she had my email.
• Children's librarian alerted us to lost 6 year old. He was found in the Big Boy bathroom
• Woman called and wanted the book "Preps" for her daughter. Couldn't find...searched BT, Amazon, World Cat.  I wondered if it was "Perps"--maybe a book about criminals?  She found her note and saw that it was "Prep: A Novel" (singular).  Had it and put it on hold shelf.
• Journal article from some arcane management title. I demoed Proquest...article too old. Dude was a little (a lot) weird. Referred to university library.
• Retired Mayor Judy came in. Wanted to catch her to say hi and thanks for her library support, but she was too quick.
• Patron complaining about getting an "extra" page when she printed. I showed her how to do "print select" and explained that we could not refund due to her not understanding how to print (it was nicer than that, but you know...)
• Call from guy who used to be neighbor, and who I've helped as patron over the past several years. He wanted into on how to become a notary public. (He may have to move back to Argentina to take care of ailing parents.  We exchanged emails).
• Registered two folks to vote, and elderly woman and her son.  The woman wanted to know if I could do anything about "the immigrant problem," what with my big tie-in with the government and all (we voter registrars...we hold the power of the world in our pens).  Heh heh. Uh, no.
• Sandy from business office is cleaning out file and found Polaroids taken for new employees over the years. (Business office is relocating, too.) She gave me mine, which would have been from Sept 1995.  That's when I was in my hair-to-my-ass, huge glasses frames, shapeless dresses and hippie skirt phase. Wow. Those are some big frames. And I looked so young--seriously, like I was 16.  (Showed to my girls later. Claudia said, "you were a nerd!")
• Congratulatory email from colleague from several years ago. A current colleague emailed her to say it was my last day. How nice!
• (My weepiness seems to have abated...I've been able to say goodbye to people without tearing up.  maybe it's because it's been SO busy).
• After a super-busy 2 hours,  it's gone dead.
• Patron needs help with print release station.
• (Awesome!  IM from new neighbor--he's willing to take Bludger, our beloved stray, because he needs a mouser. Now...how to get her up there?  Big Head Tom---I think he's on his own. He's been King Cat in our neighborhood forever, and I don't think he's ever had a home. Honestly, I'm ready to weep.)
  

In all, a decent, satisyfing last Ref Grunt.

Spent the rest of the time cleaning what little I had left with my desk.  Everything had to be removed, due to the demolition. Tied up loose ends. Took a few candids (dumb idea to wait til Friday when most folks are gone).  More good-byes, more tears, some good laughs. Then, like a wimp, I sneaked out 15 minutes early without saying final final goodbyes.  Besides, I still have to return an audiobook (Dry), and our office person who is a Notary Public is going to witness me signing all the mortgage stuff next week. 

Root Canal! and other Relocation News

It's a good thing I have a sense of humor because I think it's hilarious that I had to go in for an emergency root canal today, with one week left at BPL and a house to fix-up and sell and a household to pack up and move and stray cats to find foster homes for.  It's a laff-riot!  Seriously, better now than right after moving, before insurance kicks in at the new place, or while I'm at conference in late June. 

Aside from the dental emergency, things are okay. We are officially approved for our new mortgage and the house inspection last week didn't bring up any horrible surprises. Just the usual old house things, some of which we'll ask the owners to fix, some of which we'll do on our own.  The big bummer is that we learned that the fireplace does not work.  We may be able to retrofit it with a nice woodburning stove, with a bit of chimney work. It's something I hope we make a priority since it was one of the things we most liked about  the house. 

Juniorina had a visit at her new school while I attended the house inspection.  She was quite giddy over the fact that her new middle school actually has recess!  And, the girls she hung out with were appalled to learn that there might be such thing as a recessless school.  I really liked how the new school felt. I didn't have to be buzzed in, there was no one demanding to see my ID, and the administrator and teacher introduced themselves by first names.  I also liked how the kids were boisterous--it was good, healthy adolescent energy.  Juniorina characterized it as "rowdy" and it seemed like a good thing to her, too. 

I spent my birthday evening with friends near La Crosse where I was feted with nettle and morel quiche and $2.50/bottle Andre champagne. Kids and adults played a fun table game, no one had their face in front of a screen, and later my friend Marcee whipped me around gravel backroads so that we could meet a friend of hers at a hole-in-the-wall roadhouse.  Honestly, it was one of the best birthdays ever, despite the next day's ale-head.

Tonight is my last Monday night, and my colleague's last night as well. She's retiring after 35 years.  No--we didn't have an exit pact--just happened that way.  Tomorrow, there's a cake celebration, and I'm sure at some point I'll break down and weep in front of my coworkers.  I just hope I can eat cake by tomorrow.  But, for now,  time to go dribble some potato soup down my throat. 

Rumors of My Relocation...

Blogger friend Pete Lustig wonders where the heck I've been.  He's been into the library to say hi, but hasn't been able to find me. When he asked after me, he was told that I've already bugged out for Wisconsin.  Hey guys--I'm still here!  I admit that I've been preoccupied and taken a lot of vacation days to get my house in shape, but I've got another four weeks at BPL and another five in Bloomington.   

My ADHD brain lives for excitement and challenge, but the stress of having five weeks to sell a house, buy another and move is not so good for the rest of my body.  If you think your house is pretty clean and tidy, look at it as if you had to sell it tomorrow.  I've carted bags and bags of garbage out to the curb, and have filled my garage with items suddenly dispensible, but hopefully useful to others.  There's certainly a lot more I could do to make my house impeccable, but at this point, I'm settling for reasonably tidy.  I listed my house with CIFSBO, after two weeks' attempt at word-of-mouth marketing.  In two days, there have been 238 hits on the page (okay---30 of those are mine), but no queries thusfar.  I'm hoping for some action this weekend and am leaving Mr. Raccoon and Juniorette to be gracious hosts to any and all interested parties, while Juniorina and I head north to scout domiciles.

So yeah, Pete, I'm still here--just distracted and possessed of a rare, intensive industriousness. 

Greetings LCPL and WRLS Folks!

Wow!  It just keeps getting better. I just got my first howdy from a new colleague.  La Crosse Public Library Director, Kelly Krieg-Sigman, informed staff about my hire, included a link to the blog and encouraged folks to drop me a line.  What a nice welcome! (Please indulge me in my increased use of exclamation points as I gallop through this adventure--lots to exclaim about!!!!)   Between my excitement about the new job and panic over the relocation part, I haven't really had any pangs of sadness about leaving. Surely they'll hit, and probably hard, but it feels really good to be going through this process without significant reservations.

I welcome any insider tips from staff. I've already heard that I should avoid 2-7th streets (although I suspect my current neighborhood is similar--lots of rental property, a crack house every few blocks...).  I'm going to be looking at the neighborhood for Central High and Longfellow Middle Schools, so any help would be appreciated. My girls will be in 7th and 10th grade next year. We'll also be looking for private piano and viola teachers. 

I'm contemplating making a scouting trip to La Crosse tomorrow and Friday. I'll drop by the library if I do.  I'm also thinking about everything I need to do here, like get my house ready to sell, apply for a mortgage, prepare for a garage sale....