The kids went back to school today and after 2 weeks of sleeping in - it was hard to hear the alarm go off at 6:15 am. This is when I wished that I had a coffee pot right next to the bed so I could take a swig off an intravenous drip before I dart out from under my warm comfy blankets. It was equally jolting picking up the newspaper since it was a brisk 22 degrees and I was in my jammies; however, this is nothing compared to my friends and family who live
further North. They are caught in an arctic freeze with snow piling up in foot increments. Anybody heard from Al Gore lately....nah....me either.
Off toward school to drop off Gray - uneventful. Pulling into the driveway would prove otherwise. Tuesday is trash and recycle day for us. Recycle bin one side of the driveway and trash bin on the other side. We have lived in our house for 13 years and neither the driveway or the garage has ever moved, but I have the uncanny knack for hitting the right front quarter panel into the garage on a semi-regular basis. Today would be no different except for today as I was dodging "the bins" - BOOM - I took off my right side mirror. Didn't just ding it - nope - I popped that bad boy so hard it banged against the car as I continued to pull into the garage. I am such a dork. So there in the garage, in my jammies (yes, I wore my jammies to drop her off at school - oh don't go there - you have never driven somewhere in your jammies?!?!?!) I am trying to fix my mirror. Hhhmmm...it will not pop back on. I pause and look around the garage and in my best Martha Stewart moment - I get to fixing' my mirror. A pair of scissors and black electrical tape and from a distant it looks good. Ok - maybe not good, but doesn't look broken either. I guess it is fortunate that I have a black car so the black electrical tape worked well. Would it hold??? Guess I will find out later. I almost forgot about my mirror until I pulled into the library. It held and is still holding - for now. So I decided today mosey over to the library to say hello.
In hindsight finding someone to say "hello" to at the library is a little more difficult than I thought. First of all, Tuesday is a busy day for the reference librarian or just a lot of needy readers on Tuesday. Second, just to dang quiet to have a conversation. So I decided to flip through a couple of magazines in the "periodical room" and for an hour and half - not one soul came into the room until I had already stood up and ready to leave for a different part of the library. Nice man with a little girl - maybe his granddaughter whose only request was to xerox her hand on the copier. She got her wish as I moved on. Reference librarian still busy so I decide to "meet" the check-out librarian. Who really isn't a librarian at all. In my head, I kept singing "Miriam, the Librarian" duet with Robert Prescott and Shirley Jones from the Music Man and I thought wouldn't it be something if her name was Miriam. As I approached the check-out desk, I surveyed "Miriam". Long white hair below her shoulders styled in a 2009 retro-Farrah do. Glasses (required part of the librarian uniform), probably wearing sensible shoes. She glanced up and with a slightly parted smiled - said not a word. She was younger than she looked from a distance and with a bit of mascara and blush she would have been stunning with her pretty white hair. So I asked her; "Can I ask you a question?" She replied, "Yes". "Did you always want to be a librarian," I asked. And in a quiet librarian whisper she replied, "I am not a librarian." Hhhmm - Really??!?!? I thought everyone who worked at a librarian had to be a librarian. So I asked, "Do you like books?" She said, "I had never really thought about it until I started working here - I just needed a job." At this juncture, she took a step back from the desk like I was a leper so I thought it best to tell her of my mission. With an extended hand I said, "Hi, my name is Donna and my new years resolution is to meet one new person a day. And I just wanted to say hello." "My name is Anna - it's nice to meet you," she said as she shook my hand. Librarians are short on words and long on snarly glances so I knew with that I had really worn out my welcome unless I was checking out a book. So I wished her a good-day. She like-wise to me and I left.
Quick survey of my car and the mirror is still holding. SWEET. Drove home thinking I have 363 more times to say, "Hi, my name is Donna...." and wondering if it sounds too ordinary??? But then I realized, I should be thankful that my name is not "Susanderaninomisusionnestulolpestnert" which, according to the Internet, is the longest girls name recorded. She lives in Japan.
Domo arigato, mom and dad....."Hi, my name is Donna" works just fine.
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