Not surprised, but heartbroken.

I was hoping for justice for Michael Brown, even though I didn't really expect it. And unfortunately, I wasn't surprised that no charges will be brought against the white officer who gunned this unarmed black kid down in the street. This is beyond tragic. I have no words.

#blacklivesmatter

A lack of planning on YOUR part...

... does not constitute an emergency on mine!

Helicopter Mom just came to the Reference desk, with her tween daughter in tow, and said she needed books on orphanages in the 19th century. Hmmm, okay... so, I search, and am unsurprised to find out that we really don't have anything in this library aside from a couple of little-kid story books. However, we're part of a nice big network of libraries, so I expand the search, and find that there are some good books available elsewhere, which I can request for her. Helicopter Mom needs them before Monday morning, though, so that won't work -- our delivery services only operate during the week, so even if I request them today, they won't be here by Monday. (And with Thanksgiving coming up, they might not get here until the following week!)

So, I change search tactics, and start looking to see what's available at the libraries nearest to us. I tell Helicopter Mom that it looks like there are several good books available at one of the college libraries in our network, about 30-40 minutes away, and check the library's hours to confirm that they are open today, until 7 p.m. Mom huffs, rolls her eyes, and says that she can't go there today, are they open tomorrow? Nope, alas, no Sunday hours there. But they open at 7:45 a.m. on Monday!

More eye-rolling, more huffing about how it's just unbelievable that we don't have the books she wants HERE, and that she has to go driving everywhere to get them herSELF, this is awful, etc. So, I start hunting for anything even remotely related to the topic at libraries closer to us -- the next town over has ONE book that appears to have a chapter that talks about the history of orphanages. So I write down the title and call number, check the library's hours, give her the info... and she's still pissed. She wants a copy of a recent novel, Orphan Train, she says, and she cannot believe she's having so much trouble getting one. Um, okay, I thought you wanted non-fiction? But let me see about this novel... nope, every single copy in our network is checked out, and there's a waiting list. Not surprising for a new-ish, critically-acclaimed book! And I try to clarify: does she want this particular novel, or does she want non-fiction books about the history of orphanages? THEN she turns to her daughter and says "I don't know, what do you need??" Because the books are, of course, for the daughter's research paper, and she needs to have a specific number of print sources to show her teacher on Monday morning. Argh. And after another rant from Mom about how ridiculous it is that I can't just produce the books her kid needs right then and there, I firmly (but politely!) explained that, while we do try to have books on lots of topics, we have limited space and resources, and that the benefit of being part of a larger network is that each library has different strengths... but there are also limits on what we can do on short notice. I'd love to be able to produce whatever a patron needs instantly -- I love being able to send a patron away happy! But sometimes the most I can do is tell you "okay, these other libraries have what you need, here are their phone numbers and hours," and the rest is up to you.

And also, for crying out loud, make your kid do her own homework, Mom.

It's a quiet night in Library Land...

...which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Does make the evening crawl by at a snail's pace, though.

Last night I witnessed my first Obnoxious Knitting Comment in the wild! I met up with C. at Starbucks for the sort-of-regular Wednesday-night knitting group. We were there early, so we snagged the comfy couch, got beverages (and I, of course, got a cup of tea that dribbled on my every time I took a sip, so I tried to fix it, and ended up popping the lid off the cup and dousing myself. Oh well, at least the tea had cooled from molten to slightly-painfully-warm by then), and settled in to knit -- both of us with socks-in-progress, although mine are just plain, and hers are fancy two-at-a-time, one-inside-the-other socks.

So. We're settled in knitting and chatting, and one of the local Creepy Dudes who spends most of his time either using the library computers (which is where I recognized him from) or hanging out at the Starbucks came over and asked C. "Are you knitting a hat for me?" C., who is nicer than I am, chatted a little with him about how no, the sock she was knitting was not a hat for him (seriously, wtf?!) while he ignored the clear "please go away" vibes we were both giving off and kept going on and on about how he needed a hat because it's cold out.

I guess my Resting Bitchface must still be strong from my days of taking the T back and forth to Cambridge, because I have never been asked by a total stranger if I was knitting something for them. I've heard of it happening, and have been gobsmacked by the WTF-ery of such a question, but had never witnessed it in the wild! I only ever had people ask what I was making, or tell me how they would never have the patience/time/skill to knit. (To which I always wanted to say "You're sitting here on the T just like I am! So you have time! Also, if I can knit, anybody can.") But mostly, people just left me alone, which was fine with me.

Aside from the socks, I'm still in the midst of knitting Tiny Things, so here's the latest: a Tiny Cupcake!

Also, a Tiny Ear of Corn!

Life at the library...

It's School Midterm Project Time!!! Aaaaaiiieeeeee!!! That means the library is a madhouse of tweens asking for help finding books on the most vague topics possible. And freaking out when the books on their chosen topic are all checked out, because it's Tuesday and the project is due on Thursday, and was assigned a month ago.

It also means the Helicopter Parents are hovering -- I don't mean the ones who bring their kids to the library and sit and read while their kids do their work, or even the ones who walk the kids up to my desk and either prod the kids to ask me for help, or do the asking themselves. No, I mean the ones who come in on their own, no kids anywhere in sight, and pick out the books themselves. Or the ones who call and ask me to put a bunch of books on their kid's topic on hold... usually while I can hear the kid in the background. I always have to bite my tongue to keep from telling the harried moms and dads who are frantically trying to get that one book that will be just PERFECT for the kid's term paper that maybe, just maybe, the kid will learn more if they do the research themselves. And they'll learn an extra-valuable lesson if they don't get the work done on time and have to deal with the consequences.

(I wanted to applaud the mom who, when her 12-ish-year-old son threw a whiny fit because all the books on the Muckrakers were checked out or at other libraries, and thus not available for him immediately, told him "Hey, that's too bad. You waited until the last minute, so tomorrow you can explain to your teacher why your paper isn't done." This, at about 8:30 on a Thursday night. Good for you, Mom! And thank you for not telling me how rotten the library is because we couldn't produce the books your kid wanted out of thin air!)

And now one of our regulars is walking around belching. Loudly. ::sigh::

Grump.

Well, today was a washout. Woke up with a migraine, and couldn't get back to sleep, so once I could get my eyes to focus, I decided to check my email on my phone. Which was mysteriously not connected to the wireless network. "Huh," I thought. "Must need to restart the router." And then I noticed that the bedroom fan was off... and that my phone wasn't charging... so, no power. Lovely! I got up and trundled downstairs to see if our first-floor neighbor had power, which is when I found out that someone from the power company had been there asking for me or Jeff. Uh-oh. Sure enough, I used my phone to email Jeff, and it turned out that his plan of paying just part of the power bill each month wasn't such a good plan after all. (Yeah, no shit, right? I didn't know.) We weren't even that far behind, and I don't recall getting any notices from them, but yeah. No power. Jeff did some scrambling and got it turned back on after a couple of hours, but by that time the migraine had re-asserted itself in a big way (funny how a sudden burst of stress will do that!) and I was a wreck.

Now I'm watching the Bruins forget how to hockey versus Montreal, and I would like a do-over on today, please.

But in lieu of that, here's a picture of Jasper the guinea pig, in his favorite snuggling spot:

(Yes, I know the bills need to be managed better. Yes, I know I ought to pay more attention. Yes, we are having a conversation about this tonight.)

And to keep Tiny Chicken company...

... here's a Tiny Unicorn!

Tiny chicken sees what you did there...

...and does not approve.