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: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and So Do We!

Today we wandered into a room not yet explored by everyone in our group.  It was like the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame of Stony Brook University, from days gone by when campus was fun.  Posters of great artists hung framed on the walls, such as Billy Joel, Jimi Hendrix, and arguably the greatest of them all, Cyndi Lauper.  All of these celebrities and more had at one time performed at our very own university.  It’s as if there was indeed one point in time that was the day the music died – at least for the SBU campus.  This made our little walking group sad, since all we really want is to have fun, and so we left.

To add to this disappointment, it should be noted that Joseph Fiennes apparently does not read this popular blog, as he did not show up today.  I do hope that one of our fans in the UK will please pass this link on to him at once.  But on the brighter side, after a weekend of thawing we found that we did not know the person who we suspected to be an ice covered John from last week.  It’s ok, though.  I think we can all agree that he is easy enough to put up with and is thought by one member, who I will not name but only say that it is not me, feels that he is the smart one in the group.  I think this should be put to a vote at some later date.

With the prediction of an incoming blizzard expected to arrive tomorrow afternoon, we decided to get as much walking done as possible before we were snowed in (preferably at home as opposed to in the office, since we have not yet explored the new hotel on campus and are unsure if it would be up to our standards).  And so we did the unthinkable, we walked both before AND after eating! To make our missing colleague Diane happy, we went over to investigate the damage done by the fire that had supposedly raged within the walls of our campus Sports Complex.  You remember the one (see post).  Much to our dismay, we are not very good reporters, for not one of us felt up to defying authority by crossing over the caution tape.  Kristen could not help but feel that something was amiss, however, and she suspected foul play.  As they walked past a huge makeshift wooden door in the back and curiously coldest side of the building, a large being of some sort heaved on the door with astonishing force, causing her to believe that the whole fire story was a hoax and the university was secretly housing a genetically altered animal of some sort. Maybe the concept behind the film Jurassic Park has been recreated by our students at last!  They are, after all, some of the brightest minds in the country and I wouldn’t put it past them.  Then again, it could just have been one of the building’s astonishingly large cockroaches attempting to break free to invade the new recreation center next door.

In honor of tomorrow’s apocalyptic storm, Diane has suggested that all Walk-O-Rama fans and members wear dorky winter hats.  So dig through your closets to find that one winning winter accessory that you know you love to wear when no one is around.

Group photo time is tomorrow at noon! Unless you don’t show up. Then we will hunt you down in your office to steal a picture and Photoshop some wickedly clever monstrosity of a hat on you as punishment.  Your choice.

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Walk-O-Rama: Calling New Members – Seriously, We’re Going to Call and You’d Better Pick Up

Tragedy struck today as we sadly lost one of our members due to the frigid weather.  We are not yet sure which one, due to the ice buildup, but we should have an idea on Monday after things have thawed.  We are pretty sure it was John, however, since he lost all ability to cope with cold temperatures after spending a month on the beaches of Australia.  For this reason, it was hard for us to weep too uncontrollably.

This may or may not be our co-worker John

This left us in the unique position of having to replace a core member.  Diane suggested one upgrade, I mean replacement, for our fallen colleague.  And so we reach out to you, Joseph Fiennes (can we call you Joe? We prefer Joe). Please be our John upgrade…I mean suitable replacement.

WOR hopeful, Joe Fiennes

Allow me to describe to you the requirements of Walk-O-Rama membership.  Firstly, you must own a pair of comfortable shoes.  I know you are probably used to just driving around in limos everywhere, which is fine.  Should that be the case, please feel free to forget the shoes and bring your limo and driver to cart us around to our destinations.

Members of Walk-O-Rama often use the time allotted for these outings to find delicious food, so we hope you eat food. I consulted imdb.com to do a background check on  you beforehand (I hope you don’t mind, we need to be choosy) and noted that you originated from Salisbury, England.  I think that is a wonderful coincidence because it reminds me so much of salisbury steak, which I find very delicious.  I think we would get along well.  Furthermore, I saw that you were raised in Ireland! Let me tell you, fellow walker Diane pulls off an amazing Irish accent, which should make you feel right at home.  You also moved 14 times growing up! Holy cow! This would give you and Celeste quite a bit to talk about on our adventures, as she was just telling us today how frequently she moved as a child.  I hope you can see how destined we all are to be together.

Walk-O-Rama members, so you are aware, occasionally encounter dangerous situations.  I hope this is ok with you. I figured it might be, since you have been in the Royal Shakespeare Company for years and are undoubtedly skilled in realistic stage fighting.  This will be a great asset on our walks.

I know that you are probably very busy and still feeling all awesome after your good fortune in landing on People Magazine’s Top 50 Sexiest Stars list in 1999.  But let me tell you, that was a long time ago.  It may influence your decision to join us, however, when you learn that this year, as in 2013, you were the top and only star listed on Walk-O-Rama’s Sexiest Stars list, which I just made up in my head.  So you and the dessert called Xango – you are totally rocking this year’s WOR lists of excellent things.

I feel obligated to point out that if this seems in any way to be a bad career move for you, you should try to remember that you are celebrated as a generous charity contributor, and this would be a kind act indeed.  Please consider it and have your people call our people.  We’ll do lunch.

See you next week?  Please bring an iPhone and a cup of any sort of beverage to help ease us through the John-Joe transition.

You’re the best!

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