Walk-O-Rama Special Edition: Ode to a Library

I am a sentimental person.  This trait has inevitably led to picture hoarding on my phone, which must come to an end, if only for internal memory purposes.  While scrolling through the images I tried to think of why each had been saved, and I came to the conclusion that it was because each represented a happy moment that demonstrated how awesome working in a library, at least with my borderline insane awesome coworkers can be.  Allow me to explain…

1) We love attention, at any cost. Seriously. We have no shame.

Library outreach has been stressed more than ever over the past year or two, since students, for whatever reason, do not seem to be aware of how awesome we are.  In an effort to correct this oversight, we have made our presence known all over campus, whether it be highlighting library services, or just horsing around to make a scene.  No arrests have been made thus far, so apparently we are on the right track, or at least acting within legal limits.  We have displayed our artistic skills at booths in information fairs and tried our best to provide our students with stress relieving activities to show that we’re more than just books.

Kathy works very hard to make a rock ladybug to symbolically show students that our resources are as numerous as all those tiny bugs that have been invading US fields and buildings

Though I do not recall where exactly this was taken, I’m pretty sure it was an early example of stress relieving student outreach. This may or may not be replaced by dog and/or llama therapy.

We dabbled with celebrity appearances, though they were not very convincing, perhaps because of the sticks…

2) Staff that plays together stays together

Our staff knows how to have fun, on and off the clock.  This is not often conveyed in Google searches of the words ‘library’ or ‘librarians’ (though if you perform a search for ‘sexy librarian’ you might stumble across an image or two of John’s runway swagger or Diane’s truly distracting happy dance when she got her bacon salad).  By finding activities that we can all work on together as a team, we have learned more about each other than we ever could have by staying at our desks all day every day (I’m not the only one who has to work those hours, am I?)

Poetry board in the Central Reading Room. Someone knows us.

Perhaps that poet has seen this picture…

Library workers caught in the wild. Don’t feed the animals (unless it’s dessert – we like sugar)

Working behind the scenes does not keep staff from dancing and having fun

c) We follow our captain

The Roth Regatta brought many staff members together to prove that “Yes we can!” build a cardboard wiener that will float.  And we did. So many other staff members who could not contribute time or labor generously donated money, which we wisely spent on booze and slot machines and hot dog costumes. I’m sorry, I could not honestly cross out that last item in the list.  Our team, the Melville Hot Diggety Dogs beat out numerous other cardboard vessels and brought many proud colleagues out of their offices to cheer on Donna and Ken.  We must thank Ken for volunteering to be our brave leader, and for unknowingly being the one to go down with the ship if the project was a failure. Hooray! It was not. Good job, all, for the second year in a row!

Ken, the fearless leader (yes, Chris, that’s the missing hat)

Donna was even able to con outsiders into helping with our library effort. Thanks a bunch, Bob!

All those who doubted our success were told to keep their mouths shut. Hey!!!

4) We know each other well and like each other anyway

Richie Feinberg left behind a fortune in art work known to all as Feinbergs.  Many of these treasures prove how well we know each other, without having to share things in words.  For instance, Richie somehow knew that Kathy loved the color yellow, which was predominate in her painting, as did he somehow guess that Kristen secretly wanted a little yellow house with a small garden and her own moon that was always in the waxing crescent stage.  Wait a minute…did Richie break into my office?!!

Richie’s painting bore a striking resemblance to a picture already hanging in Kristen’s office. I suspect tracing paper was involved.

So thanks to all for being so much fun to work with, and for providing an interesting place to come each day (for me and our students I’m sure).  I hope to see more of you on our Walk-O-Rama outings!

 

 

 

 

 

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Walk-O-Rama: Happy Feet, Miserable Bladders

Today’s outing began with happy dances of many colorful varieties, and ended with the same.  What happened in between was another story, which you will soon, whether you want to or not, learn all about.

With the best of intentions, we set off on this sunny afternoon to celebrate Celeste’s birthday! Being quite starving, we were all extremely giddy about our upcoming meal.  This giddiness caused some Walk-O-Rama members to initiate their trademark happy dances, which were all very inventive.

John’s penguin dance looks more like a runway swagger when captured digitally

Diane pauses mid-dance to accommodate Kristen’s slow camera

Celeste and Diane began a lovely discourse that caused them to lose focus and slow in walking speed, incorrectly assuming that Kristen and John, who had both been angry hungry for hours, would follow suit and slow their speed out of common courtesy.  With their destination in site, the two raced into incoming traffic and sped down the street, envisioning their tasty meals as they ran.  By the time the chatty duo arrived, Kristen and John were already ordering the check.

John and Kristen move onto the second course as their fellow walkers arrive

Diane distracts Kristen from placing her order by photographing her…button

The grudge caused by this walking mishap led to an eating showdown, with both nutrition and eating speed being judged by Diane, who defended the healthiness of her slab of bacon salad.  As her defense began to lose ground, she changed strategies and began to mock the speed at which Kristen was eating her meal, and took a set of action shots to document this lack of adequate eating progress.

Diane’s “healthy” salad, after it had been ravaged of its bacon

Kristen’s meal before…

Kristen’s meal after. Totally different.

Kristen later got her comeuppance for her failure to walk slowly when they left the restaurant and she almost instantly had to…freshen up in the powder room.  Though several makeshift stations for that very purpose were passed in the sports fields on the return trip, none seemed quite adequate.  Just when it seemed like all hope was gone and that Diane’s llama bathroom stories would cause a bladder explosion, the Union came in view.

It was a serious situation

John is not impressed with these goings on

Full bladders, run this way!

As with all Walk-O-Rama adventures, a happy ending was in store and all was right with the world again.  Though the excitement left us frazzled with no time to consider what next week’s walk will be, we do hope you will join us with some awesome ideas.  Or without awesome ideas…we’re not picky.

Rays from Heaven shown on this sign

Kristen stole John’s happy dance on the way out

…and yes, we all felt like winners!

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