Library Woes

Keri Lynn is off at choir tour. So far I've had to field three babysitting inquiries and had to relay the sorry truth that she won't be available until Tuesday.

Kristofer is moping around because all of his friends are either sick, unavailable or away. Poor baby. He's not bored, though. The instant he tells me he's bored, then he's got a few chores to take care of.

Kathleen and Kylie are at a friend's house at her pool.

Kade and Konner have just flown off to their friend's house to his pool.

Must be nice!

Then there's Keva. I'm going to have to check on her in a few minutes because her diaper undoubtedly needs to be changed. She's been sneaking upstairs lately to hang out. If she goes to the boys' room, nothing much happen. I found her yesterday spread across Konner's bed sound asleep a la Goldilocks. Perish the thought should she find her way into Keri Lynn's room. There she has done way too much damage already.

We had a thunder storm come through yesterday afternoon. All three of the boys were at the pastor's house down the road when it hit. (That's so fun to say.) Little did I know, until Amy (the pastor's wife called), that she wasn't there. I had just assumed that she was, but she wasn't. And all three of my boys were over there playing with her two boys. Oh dear. My first question to her, half joking/half not, "Is your house still standing?"

I've been mostly just reading and keeping the house from self-combusting from mess. I've been reading during the morning and early afternoon and then I go on a tirade throughout the house to make it look like I've been working real hard all day when Keith comes home. (Shhhh, our secret!)

I'll take a little trip to the library tomorrow, but I think I'm going to go by myself because I've got some business to take up with a certain librarian there. I owe over $40 on Keri Lynn's card. Here's the deal. I've always put all of our materials on my card. The two nice librarians would always override the system and ignore the rule about the number of books that ought to go on one card. It was easier for them and it was easier for me.

Then, the mean librarians got in on my card. The meanest librarian decided that I was Persona Non Grata and flagged my account because I had had too many charges forgiven to my account. What she didn't understand was that it had been the nice librarians who hadn't always checked all of my records for renewals, so those overdue charges had been forgiven a number of times through the months of November, December and January.

I didn't know any of this was a problem until I came in one Monday after Easter week to ask if three days worth of charges could be waved. This was the one time I'd asked for my own sake, not for the renewal issues. I was about to launch into my sob story about how we were involved with the Pageant at our church, I'd had company over and I'd painted my kitchen, but I didn't even have the opportunity to make anyone cry. There was no way three days worth of fines were going to be renewed, not when I'd been forgiven all those times in the previous months.

I was so flustered at being called out for these charges and given a little lecture about how "We don't make a habit of excusing overdue fines . . . " that I didn't know how to respond.

From then on, the meanest librarian had me in her sites. She made sure that only the number of books that were supposed to be on my card were put on my card. This meant that the rest of the kids needed to bring their cards out for the check-out time. So each time we would come to the counter now, we'd have to make sure that all of our cards were up to date and we hadn't forgotten anything. Gone were the good old days of carefree joking nice-librarian checkout times.

Now we come to the reason I'm giving you the sob story now. Last Friday, the meanest librarian called me, "Thought you'd like to know, Mrs. Johnson, that you're daughter's card has a $46 fine."

"What? Why didn't I get a notice?"

"Oh, we don't sent out notices, Mrs. Johnson. Would you like to come in today to take care of this?"

I then proceeded to explain to her that there'd been a mistake. I hadn't realized that there was anything on that card. I thought everything was on Kristofer and Kathleen's cards and mine. THOSE were all up to date. She was not moved, she was willing, though, to renew the items that were still out. Ack!

Ever since, I've been trying to figure out how I'm going to go in to the library to take care of this. I AM responsible for the things on that card. I SHOULD have made sure it was clear. But that particular card fell through the cracks of my poor little brain. I really don't think I should be held responsible for it. And I'm feeling not a little self-righteously angry about it. I think my whole library record speaks for itself. It's not a big thing in the grand scheme of things, and I'm certainly not going to go in yelling and screaming. And they may decide to go ahead and waive the fees anyway without a problem, but I keep anticipating some friction, especially if I have to deal with the meanest librarian.

Better check on Keva's diaper now! Oh, and Kody's just come in with peanut butter all over his back. Oh, no!