There is just a month and a day left before the Writing Contest deadline! Any and every public or private, school or college, medical or corporate librarian with legal US residency may enter the contest.

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE! The entries that are coming in are incredibly interesting and excellent. And it’s no surprise – after all they are written by Librarians! So take a few minutes and tell us what we need to know about your life as a librarian! We want to hear all about it!

We go to school until we are 18 and then college until 22 and beyond. We graduate with countless lessons in math, reading, grammar (never enough grammar!), history, science, language and other subjects. But here is what I think we are missing:

1. People Skills – There is nothing more essential to livelihood than getting along with others. Without people skills, success is not likely in either work or family life. But what classes in school prepare us for that? Perhaps every day life events teach us some of this as we grow, but certainly not enough, in my opinion, to prepare us for the work force and for success with friendships, marriage and parenting.
2. Career Counseling – Schools need to have regular visits from a diverse collection of people sharing details about their careers with students. Kids need to hear from small business owners, blue collar workers, executives and others about what exactly it is that they do, what education or training was required to do it and what they like or do not like about it.
3. Bookkeeping – After 18 years of basic math, we are never really taught how to keep records, pay bills, balance budgets and prepare for taxes.
4. Child Rearing – Why can’t high school age students be introduced to the challenges and realities of raising children? What is more important than being a parent?
5. Etiquette – I’d be the last person on earth to put on heirs and require formalities, but it seems that our youth is lacking in manners. Why not teach beyond the basic please and thank you – in particular written thank you notes, kindness and compassion and sharing the road safely with other drivers.
6. Nutrition and Fitness – Most schools no longer offer PE. Our kids eat yucky food in most cafeterias and buy junk out of vending machines. WE NEED TO TEACH THEM ABOUT STAYING HEALTHY. There are grave consequences for sedentary lives and eating high fat foods low in nutrition. Everyone needs rigorous exercise on a regular basis. We also need to make healthy food choices. There are no shortcuts to good health. If we start when they are young, kids will be more likely to stick to healthier ways.
7. Basic Home Repair/Maintenance – A person can go to college for 12 years and still not know what to do if a minor emergency arises at his or her home. It is a shame that we generally have to learn about all that the hard way.

In addition to these life lessons, I have to add that we are gravely lacking in GEOGRAPHY skills. No one should graduate from high school without being able to identify the 50 states, the Great Lakes and point out our major cities.

I am sure I have left some important things out in my list, but it is a start anyway.

I remember when we first got our poodle, GIgi. Our daughter, Rachel was only years old. During the first week we had her, Rachel was upset that she had to go to bed at 9 pm, and Gigi got to stay up as late as she wanted. That was sibling rivalry in its purest form. My husband would tell Gigi she had to go to bed at 9 too, to please Rachel. We always got  good laugh out of that.

Often, Gigi will hop on the couch after my husband gets up, to take his place. She sort of looks around out of the corner of her eye to see if he realizes she took his space over. I swear she is human. (Until she licks filthy dirty puddle water).

Today I was working like a dog (pun intended) and looked over at the couch across from where I was sitting. There was Gigi, spread out, leaning on the pillow like a super model posing for the camera. She knows she is cute, and she uses that to get my attention. It works every time.

Today I acknowledged the fact that certain aspects of every day work life are unavoidable. Here is a list of my top 5:

1. Tasks generally take much longer that you expect they will. (i.e. mundane mailings, telephone conversations, business errands, letter writing, and more)
2. Most people are not consistent at returning phone calls and emails.
3. If I do not follow up, I am generally disappointed at the results, or rather lack thereof.
4. Distractions are inevitable and counterproductive.
5. There are NEVER enough hours in a day to complete what I set out to do.

So what can I do about all this? I guess just be more realistic about what it takes to get things done and celebrate the little accomplishments as well as the milestones.

And I just realized something else. That list above applies to everything in life not just work.

Walking home from breakfast this morning, we spotted this spectacular Silver Argiope Spider, which reminded us of Ruth Less, the villain in The Travel Adventures of Lilly P Badilly Costa Rica. “I love spiders! Actually I adore them!” It sort of resembles a frog a bit, doesn’t it?

These particular orb-weaving spiders (spiral wheel-shaped web) can be found in Southern California, Arizona, Central an South America as well as South Florida (where I live). They like to make their webs near bushes, as this one did along side a tennis court. The Silver Argiope can be recognized due to its silver carapace, a sort of armour that covers the thorax of the arachnid. The legs have distinctive silver and dark bands, and the web has zigzag shaped threads as you can see here in the 1st picture. These are called stabilimenta. It is believed that these are spun to prevent birds from flying into the web and ruining all that beautiful work!

These critters can bite and leave a slight sting and itch on the victim, though they are not particularly dangerous.

By the way, Ruth Less is an ogre-faced, net casting spider, not an Arigope.

Yesterday was my 48th birthday. Usually I do not consume any white sugar, but yesterday my daughter bought me 2 cakes. I ate 3 giant pieces! How can a birthday be a birthday without cake? I am paying the price today, because my heart is racing and I am exhausted from the sugar crash. But it was well worth it!

To celebrate the beginning of my 49th year, we went to the creepiest haunted house EVER. It is called Miami Nightmare and is in downtown Miami in the Design District. This was an amazing experience. The claustrophobia was the hardest part, as we had to walk through a tight maze in the dark through the most personal-space-invading-black-hole-of-terror with monsters lurking around every corner.

We had to laugh about the fact that we paid to have others scare us into a panic. What is that all about? Well worth the money anyway.

There are certain rules of telephone etiquette parents should teach their children (and learn for themselves):

1. Kids too young to talk on the phone and properly had it over to a parent should NOT answer a phone.
2. Talking to someone in the room while talking on the phone is extremely rude. In particular yelling at one’s child(ren) while talking on the phone is ANNOYING beyond belief.
3. Constantly cutting off the person on the other end is also rude as well as frustrating.
4. Calling someone and not announcing yourself or leaving a phone message and not stating your name is arrogant.
5. Leaving a rambling phone message of any kind is somewhat obnoxious.
6. Leaving a phone number too quickly or unintelligibly for a call back is frustrating. You do not want the receiver to have to keep playing it back to figure it out.
7. If you answer the phone and the caller requests to speak to someone other than you, do NOT just put the phone down without saying something like, “One moment please.”
8. If you answer the phone and the caller requests to speak to someone other than you, don’t scream out that person’s name, thereby deafening the caller.
9. If you dial the wrong number, don’t just hang up. Say “I’m sorry. I dialed the wrong number.” If you just hang up, there is a good chance the receiver will just call you back anyway to find out who called, due to caller ID magic.
10. Don’t call people at home or work too early or too late – unless you know that person very well and know it would be a welcomed call.
11. If you are on a cell phone while driving and a business call comes in, let the caller know you are driving if he or she needs to give you information to write down. Don’t kill yourself and others on the road just so you can write down a phone number. You can ask the caller to send you a text with the number, an email or redial your phone number and leave the info on a message.
12. Don’t have loud cell phone conversations in public places. Others do not want to hear your personal conversations (or maybe they do and you don’t).

1. I am in an extremely good mood, and my sense of humor is at an all time high.
2. I am extremely frustrated about something going on in my life.
3. I have had a spectacular workout and have an incredible amount of energy.
4. I have just met an interesting new person who has shed new light on a topic that is fascinating to me.
5. I have just overheard an out-of-the-ordinary conversation.
6. I woke up after having a wild dream that makes absolutely no sense at all.
7. I have just read something that is so well said that it inspires me.
8. I  have reread something I have written a while ago (that somewhat horrifies me) and am overwhelmed with determination to rewrite it and make it better.
9. Someone compliments me on my writing style.
10. I have a deadline and there’s nothing I can do but be be inspired.

1. Parent slapping/hitting his or her child
2. Parent embarrassing child in public by scolding loudly
3. Parent not responding when kid is calling, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy ” 1,000 times
4. Child dangerously climbing all over shopping cart in store and parent not paying attention
5. Parent leaving very young child in cart and walking far away in store
6. Parent speaking to child in a very condescending tone and enjoying strangers listening in
7. Child having temper tantrum and parent ignoring it
8. Child licking filthy dirty shopping cart and parent not doing anything to stop it
9. 2 children beating each other up and parent not stopping it
10. Parent giving babies very unhealthy inappropriate foods