Hard at work...or....hardly working.

Sometimes working as a corporate librarian requires me to be willing to be flexible.

For example, last Wednesday the Esthetician class had an uneven number of students.

A request went out for someone willing to step in so every student would have a chance to work on someone.

Turned out I would be made up by Kelley.
I know Kelley pretty well; he has completed both the massage programs and now is working on his Esthetican degree.
He will one day be the "go to" guy for all spa work...massage, facials, make-up...

Kelley had a photograph of a model, and his task was to replicate the model's make up on me.

Pretty fancy eyes for a routine day at the office.

Funny...I don't recall any thing in Library School about this kind of duty.

(Kelley got an "A"...of course!)

The Last Weekend of Summer 2009

September 19, 2009
A beautiful Saturday morning

The newspaper arrives with free samples of cereal.
I comment to Bernie: It is just like finding manna out there!

In rapid repartee, Bernie shot back: I'd rather have quail.

Turns out the quail was to be found just a bit over from the manna in the front yard....
(And did you know that quail nest on the ground? Such nesting habits were important if they were to feed the Wandering Jews in the Wilderness long ago.)

After coffee, juice and newspaper time on the deck, B. turned to working on the fence, while I went for a much needed massage.

Can you believe it? When I got there, there was a need for volunteers to get facials so the skin care students could get in enough clinic hours in order to graduate on time.

Shoot...I had to get a massage AND a facial.
Well...twist my arm.
OK.
I'm in.
Facial first please....

I do love those anti-ageing tri-enzyme rose scented steamed lavender exfoliation orange toner and I forget what else got rubbed on me during the hour that I spent reclined for beauty treatments.
I did count three hot towel wraps however.

Why men gave up going to the barber shop for shaves and hot towel treatments mystifies me.
A hot towel around one's face is a wonderfully thing.

The students still needed more clinic time...and since various places on my face could use a touch of wax to "tidy" things up...I stayed another hour getting pretty.

WARNING: You might want to wait until sometime when you feel steady and are not eating before you see what else went on.

Don't say I didn't warn you....

The dreaded nostril waxing!

I had talked to everyone who had had the procedure done around campus and everyone swore it was just no big deal. Painless really. All the nostril hair tears out at once so there is no one hair registering a big old ouch.

So what the heck...bring it on!

Believe it or not, it really was painless. A stick dipped in wax was inserted about 3/8th of an inch up the nostril, then that side of the nose was pinched slightly, and about 15 seconds later the stick was pulled out swiftly.

Boy are there some old guys who should give this treatment at try. Either that or they should start braiding their nose hair, one or the other.

You know what I mean?

Apparently nose and ear hair develop and thickens with age, so that's one more area to worry about as the years roll by.

But now you know.
Nostril waxing: No big deal!

Then it was time for the massage.
Ahhh...the student will be graduating in 4 weeks, and is really great on sore shoulder muscles and trigger point (those little painful knots that can form.)

Yes...my job as a librarian is tough sometimes. The free unlimited massages and facials perk makes it all worthwhile. Next week I'll be going back in for some more of this kind of action.

I'm lobbying for full body skin treatment sometime. Arms, legs, back, feet...yes, rub and scrub and wrap and moisturize me until all my skin looks baby fresh.

Oh...but it was only three o'clock by the time I was done.

There was so much more to do...like:

To be continued!!!!

A Good Reason for Regretting Becoming a Librarian

I've just been asked to research what is precisely permitted by law in student esthetician clinics/classes in terms of practicing Brazilian waxing.

OMG.

(everyone sing along...)

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be librarians.
Don't let 'em pick titles and drive them book carts.
Make 'em be doctors or work at Walmart.
Mama don't let your babies grow up to be librarians.
They're always researching and they're always alone
Even with data they love.

Librarians ain't easy to love and they're harder to hold
And they'd rather give you information than diamonds or gold
Wearing big hair buns and old clunky shoes, each night begins a new day
And if you don't understand her and she don't die young
She'll probably just research away.

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be librarians.
Don't let 'em pick titles and drive them bookcarts
Make 'em be doctors or work at Walmart
Mama don't let your babies grow up to be librarians
They're always researching and they're always alone
Even with data they love.

Here's one for ya...

At the Smith's grocery stores, (in fact, come think of it, all the Salt Lake City grocery stores that I have been to so far) the magazine racks at the check out stands have blank out boards placed over the covers of some of the magazines.

These boards, (I think) are to shield innocent eyes from the magazines with lurid headlines, or sexually provocative article titles.

I can't say for sure though. I looked at the Instyle Weddings magazine cover, and I didn't see anything that I found the least bit titillating.

Maybe I am just used to the idea that weddings are followed by honeymoons to nice places. Is the word "honeymoon" too explicit of a word for what most newly married folks do after the wedding? Or like me, maybe someone thought that it is the wedding and honeymoon costs that are obscene.

Who knows.

As to the other magazine covers...maybe I am no longer easily shocked after years of life in Southern California, and living in college dormitories.
Or attending women's Bible studies for that matter.
(There is an awful lot of stuff that goes on in Christendom that would make a soap opera writer blush.)

As an adult, I find my curiosity peaked by these blank out boards. If I wait in line long enough, I general find myself staring at the blank sheet, and reviewing what I knew about the publication in general. Sometimes I peek, and wind up wrinkling up my nose at what I see. Other times I am just mystified as to what about the magazine cover proved so distasteful that decent people needed to be shielded from the offending publication.

If it really that bad, why does the store carry it at all?

As a young mother, I would have appreciated this approach to some publications. Cosmopolitan has article titles that surely must be written by seasoned prostitutes. I could have done without seeing those with my 12 year old son. I've never understood that magazine anyway...why do they usually feature a woman with so deeply revealed breasts that when toddler see them, they start salivating?

Think about it..why does a magazine written to a female audience feature mostly revealed women? That's just weird.

Southern California has "men's magazines" out in plain sight at most convenience stores, and often right next to the candy displays. I've made a point to inform those store owners that I would be taking my business elsewhere until they rethought their merchandising.

But then sometimes I start to think that ALL woman's magazine should be blanked off.

Seriously, I detest those stupid magazines with headlines blaring "Have The Best Christmas EVER! With Our All New Recipes for 100 Festive Holiday Cookies For You To Bake!" which, of course, is right over the words "Lose 15 pounds over the holidays!" followed by "Great New Ways to Look Your Holiday Best!"

It makes me want to weep for women with such tiny worlds that such articles would entice them to buy the dribble.

Any one with two brain cells still functioning knows that you can either bake 100 kinds of cookies OR lose 15 lb over the holidays OR look your holiday best.

Any sane woman knows that those three activities are mutually exclusive.

Unless you are on crack.

Obviously.

I wonder what on earth was on the cover of People magazine that made it deserve a white out screen? Cosmopolitan got a black one...is there some kind of visual cue as to what the blanks indicate?

Salt Lake City sensibilities are actually pretty nice.
It is strange to think that I actually found it strange to see that salacious material here would be shielded.
And stranger still to wonder who it was who went about deciding what is and is not fitting for my eyes.