Moving Forward

Today starts a new month, and it's been a little over 3 weeks since I lost my Jackie. I don't want my last blog posting to be so sad, so I'm trying to move forward by posting some fun pics from the past couple of weeks... it's been a busy time in Library Girl's world, and through the sadness there have been great friends, unwavering support, and lots of fun stuff to do.

Last weekend, I went to a Fall Festival w/ my parents and the nephews, Dub and Baby K... they are the cutest, as evidenced below by the pics... the lovely woman with them is my Mother. :) Dub thinks he's a REALLY big boy, now, and is pretty much fearless. It's kind of adorable.

Numb.

I am trying to purge my feelings in an attempt to feel better.

I am devastated to report that my sweet cat, Hollywood Jack, finished his time on earth on Friday. He developed kidney failure and it was best to let him go quickly before pain began. Thank you for all prayers and thoughts. I frankly have no idea what to think, as I have been coming home to Jack and his yowling, prowling, overweight self for the past 11 1/2 years. It was very sudden. Pokey (my other cat) and I aren't sure what to do without our "Jackie", but I know we will move forward to a better place.

The only things I can say are that I feel in alternate moments overwhelmingly sad and then completely numb. I don't want to be home. But I need to be home b/c of Pokey. He's adjusting, too, and has been very restless today.

I can't even look at this blog in earnest b/c up in the left corner there is a pic of my Jack. He's the one sitting up. But I can't take the pic down b/c that would be admitting it, and admitting it isn't what I want to do. I am trying to be a good Mama to Pokey. But it doesn't change what happened. And it doesn't make it back the way it was before, which is what I really want.

Please pray for strength for Library Girl, readers. I need it. And I also need wine. Wine is good, too.

Many thanks.

Missing Blog Mojo

Hey, readers,

It's been a long time! 2 months! I must say that I've lost my blogging mojo a bit. I have had many things to share (ran a 5K, Maks is still on DWTS, school has started nicely, my awesome library technology got indefinitely delayed, my Dad has been diagnosed w/ Type II Diabetes which reminds me that he is a human and not an invincible SuperDad, the cutest nephews ever are still adorable, and much more), but not the drive to do it.

I have moved to Facebook and Twitter and do that pretty regularly, but this blog remains pretty quiet. I'm not going to delete it, but at the moment, I have no energy to blog.

Hope all are well!

I am still reading LOTS of blogs in my blog reader... just not doing much of my own!

Best wishes! I'm sure I'll be back!

T minus 10 days and counting...

I am desperately sad to report that with minimal blogging and much sun and fun, my summer is officially over in 10 short days.

Where did the time go?

I can't even fathom that it's time to return to school.

I do love my job, but you try taking 2 months off from work and then ATTEMPT to be chipper when the 5:40 am wakeup resumes! Just try it... and then you'll know how I feel.

It's been a glorious summer.

More later, readers.

Library Girl is off to dinner at LaVista with N. Yum!

So much to say, so little time...

So much going on this summer - no time to blog about it!

Just got back from my favorite vaca destination... Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Beautiful, fun, relaxing, and family time! See pics!

:)

LC at BWB

Last night, the best independent bookstore ever hosted LC. For those of you who aren't ensconced in the trenches of reality TV, that would be Lauren Conrad, star of MTV's Laguna Beach (no longer on) and The Hills (spinoff of Laguna Beach starring LC). After being on reality tv shows for the past 4 or 5ish years, she decided to write a book and of course, it was instantly published and has made a zillion dollars since its release on the 16th. The book is called LA Candy, and it's a story about a girl who moves to L.A. and gets picked to be on a reality tv show about her own life. Hmmm... sounds autobiographical, yes?

The phone at the store rang off the hook all week, and in particular, yesterday, was so insane that at 4:00, we stopped answering the phone altogether. Literally, from 9-3 when I left to go change and come back for the event, we'd be talking on both lines, hang up on both lines, and they'd ring again... over and over and over. We pre-sold around 650 books and sold well over 100 more at the event. Of course, we couldn't hold all of these people inside our tiny store, so everyone was out in the heat, dressed to the nines (I couldn't believe how some of these girls dressed up for her!), and salivating for their 5 seconds with her when she scrawled an L and a C across their book and occasionally made a comment about liking someone's outfit.

The downside was that her driver got lost and they were very late, which kind of screwed things up, but it still worked out, and everyone got their books signed by the time she flew out of here at 9:15 to catch a plane to Austin.

Overall, the event was spectacularly managed by V, C, and everyone else. Truly, for having nearly 1000 people in a parking lot with a celebrity on a hot and sultry Friday night, it went VERY well.

TALL Texans

Where has the month gone?

I wasn't actually done w/ school until around the 11th or so, so it's really only been about 10 days of summer so far.

Last week, I went to a big Leadership Summit for the Library World of Texas called TALL Texans. It was up in north Dallas almost to Denton, and other than stinky dorm-ish rooms and bad food, it was pretty cool. Oh, the coffee was terrible so I snuck out each morning to get my own yummy McD's coffee! :)



Here's a Wordle that highlights some of what I learned - I made it by transcribing my notes from the 4-day institute. Anyway, it was really exhausting, but I did learn a lot. I'm glad to be back home now and spending some time relaxing at the bookstore and at home.

Yay, summer!

What am I paying Insurance for?

Here's a slap in the face...

I have had some health issues in the past month that are now resolved. Everything is fine, so no worries.

However, in order to get to that diagnosis of "everything is fine", I went to the doctor 2 times, and had 3 procedures, one of them at a diagnostic center at a hospital. I paid my co-pay, and the claims for the visits and the procedures were sent to my insurance which I have through the school district.

I rarely, if ever, am sick. I rarely, if ever, claim anything on my insurance. The total amount that my insurance "agrees" to pay on these office visits and my procedures, apparently, doesn't cover what the office and lab charged for these procedures. So I now owe a whopping $700.00 for these procedures in addition to what I've already paid, which is upwards of $250 in copays.

Ummmm... excuse me?! I thought insurance was for this exact thing... to help save you from over and above medical bills and all that crap. This is completely and totally absurd, and I think there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. And now, all of my summer money that I make from my 2nd job is going to have to pay these people instead of be used to pay other bills.

sigh.

It never ends.