Happy Birthday...

...to Me!

Alas, I am another year older and supposedly wiser.  If only I could remember what it is I'm supposed to know.  :)  Oh well--go out and eat lots of cake in honor of me today!  It's calorie-free, I promise!  My favorite type of cake is marble cake--unless you count the chocolate chip cookie cake my dad sent me at work one year.  (That one was pretty good too!)  No matter what type of cake you have, enjoy it!



On a less than sunny note: Tomorrow the students invade and another school year officially starts.  I'm hoping that I have at least a few things ready for when they arrive in the morning.  Since my classroom (the library) is used by everyone, I haven't had two minutes to myself to even figure out what I need to get finished.  Then, we of course, have meetings non-stop, so there's little to no time left to work in our rooms.  AAACCCKKKK!  I feel like Bill the Cat.  Please pray that everyone has a great 1st day!

And My Summer is Officially Over...

Maybe that's why I have the Imperial Death March song from Star Wars playing in my head.  In Darth Vader's voice, my job is saying..."Heather...(fuzzy static)...I AM your job....(more fuzzy static) you NEED me..."  Here it is, so you can enjoy too:

I Don't Wanna Go!!

Sadly, this time tomorrow I will be making sure that I have everything ready to go back to work (school) on Monday.  (Excuse me while I wipe away the tears.)  I know I should be thankful in this economy that I actually have a job, but just thinking about returning to "that place" makes me want to toss my cookies.  (And who really wants to waste that chocolaty chip goodness?) 

I LOVE being a librarian.  I love being able to match readers with books I think they'll enjoy, and then having those same readers return and ask for more.  Unfortunately, I don't really get to do that part of my job anymore.  Instead, I have to point students in the general direction of where the book should be located while attempting to juggle all of the other responsibilities that administration and this school district has decided to dump on me. My job is no longer fun. 

I know that some of you are saying, "Oh poor thing.  She has the whole summer off, weekends, and holidays.  We should really feel so sorry for her."   My response is--obviously you've never taught.  Even when I was in the classroom, I didn't get those times off.  I graded papers evenings, all weekend (just ask my dad), and summers were filled with workshops and other jobs so that I could pay the bills.  I resented my time being constantly centered around my job so I decided to leave and find something different.  I liked working with the students and helping them find books, so I decided to go back to school and become a librarian.  Now it seems, that I'm in the same predicament.  My problem is, I don't have the money to go back to school and I'm not sure what direction I want to go .

Yes, I have definitely prayed about it.  In fact, I've been praying for several years.  The last response I received a little over a year ago was: Nashville, Tennessee.  WHAT?!?!  I've never been to Nashville.  The only things I know about Nashville are that it's the home of most things music and that it's similar to Tampa as far as size and suburbs go.  Otherwise, I have no idea where to even start there.  I know there are a few publishing houses, which would be AWESOME to work for, but I have no idea what I would do there.  (Although at this point, cleaning toilets is sounding pretty good.)  I'm horrible with grammar (in case you hadn't noticed) and I'm not pushy enough to be an agent, nor do I have enough contacts.  I would love to design the layout of the books and maybe even do something with the artwork on the cover, but I have no idea what qualifications I would need to even attempt to apply for a job like that.  Not to mention the fact, I would need a job that could pay the bills, and I would need to find a place to live if I move up there.  (Don't worry, I'm saving my pennies now so I can try and get up there sometime this year so that I won't write another post like this next year.)

So, I guess all of this is to ask you to please pray for me.  I'm already getting off to a rocky start because I'm kicking and screaming about going back.  But I really need direction in what I'm supposed to do next--especially with Nashville seemingly on the horizon.

I'm a Right-Brainer

I can't take credit for this quiz (You can take it here.), which is hosted by The Art Institute of Vancouver I actually saw Angela Hunt's results on her blog (she's left-brained) and decided to take the test for myself.


Thank you for taking the Creativity Test. The results show your brain dominance as being:

Left Brain                 Right Brain

40%          60%

You are more right-brained than left-brained. The right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. In addition to being known as right-brained, you are also known as a creative thinker who uses feeling and intuition to gather information. You retain this information through the use of images and patterns. You are able to visualize the "whole" picture first, and then work backwards to put the pieces together to create the "whole" picture. Your thought process can appear quite illogical and meandering. The problem-solving techniques that you use involve free association, which is often very innovative and creative. The routes taken to arrive at your conclusions are completely opposite to what a left-brained person would be accustomed. You probably find it easy to express yourself using art, dance, or music. Some occupations usually held by a right-brained person are forest ranger, athlete, beautician, actor/actress, craftsman, and artist.



Me, a forest ranger or an athlete?  Obviously they don't know that I HATE being outdoors (mainly because I'm allergic to it) and that I'm quite a klutz (who else can trip over nothing?).  Otherwise, I kind of like the assessment and I think it's surprisingly accurate  I guess this explains why I imagine everything in cartoon--which is why I bust out laughing at the most inopportune times.  (I'm sorry.  Everything is funnier in my head.  Really.)  I prefer to be a behind-the-scenes person as opposed to being in the limelight, but I have on occasion pulled out my Drama Queen hat too.  Craftsman and Artist would work--except they don't really pay the bills unless you have a "name" like Picasso or Monet--although I'd be much happier with my "job" because I could create things all day.   

Let me know how your results turn out when you take the quiz.  Do you think they are accurate?