It's Birthday Season

The flurry of April-May birthdays has begun. Tito J.'s was Sunday. My dad's was Tuesday. S's is tomorrow. And mine is up and coming! Even L.'s is on May 17. Finally, we end with the baby's on May 31.

We had a nice little dinner for my dad on Tuesday night at a local Thai restaurant. I had to order a Sake Bomb and couldn't believe my father had never had one, so he got one too. So much for his not drinking anymore, but all know that will never last. Anyway! My father announced to the entire table that I was his exact carbon copy. All kidding aside, in some ways, yes. Fortunately and most unfortunately.

I want to go see the great Steve Earle do an in-store performance tonight at Cactus Records!!! My dad and brother will be there. However he plays at 5:30 and I am stuck here at work until 6. However, Cactus is only about 15 minutes away. If I sneak out at 5:45 I can catch the last of it. However, then I still need to go to Job #2 to make some quick $, and I won't get to finish until late in the evening. But it will be so worth it!

I'm a little ticked off b/c here at Job #1 we had 9 bloody literature searches come in on Monday a.m. I did all 6 of the ones that got submitted to me--apparently it takes the 2 other librarians here in my dept. who are older and more experienced than I all week to do the other 3. Yet somehow I can do 6 on my own. Draw whatever conclusion you want about that, I don't think it makes them look good regardless. And they weren't very easy searches either, and required hours and hours of me staring at the computer screen, reading and analyzing citations for pertinence (in between goofing off). My eyes even got strained. We did hire a new librarian who started on Monday which is great b/c she will definitely take on some of this work load--once she gets trained.

I went to a nice luncheon on Tuesday at the J.W. Marriott in honor of Minority Cancer Awareness Week. The keynote speaker was Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, the former head of the Tx. Dept. of Health and Human Services. He talked about health disparities, and cited this great TV documentary. However, since I have read several books on the poor working class of America, I couldn't help but be a little outraged when he talked about the uninsured working class and how medical professionals should promote prevention of disease and do what we can to reach poor minorities, etc. etc. and I looked around the room at all the Mexican waitstaff. Then I thought of the Mexican women upstairs cleaning the rooms of the J.W. Marriott. All doubtlessly uninsured and underpaid!!! And I was sitting in a room filled with people with letters after their names like M.D. and PhD. and undoubtedly insured and certainly with 6-figure incomes and these lunch tickets cost $50 each! (The only reason I was there is I took advantage of a ticket that was donated to one of my organizations!) And I'm just thinking, ok, why don't you start with the people in this hotel, Dr. Sanchez. How about the woman that just refilled my ice tea? Let's see when the last time she had a mammogram was!

I left the luncheon feeling discouraged and frustrated. But at least what I do IS a free service to the people. I promote good health websites all over town and offer free consumer health reference assistance to anyone. However--you have to have access to a computer or know my phone # and have access to a phone or be able to get yourself to a public library at the very least. And who has time to do that when you're working and taking the bus and taking care of kids and just trying to stay alive??? Then again, most librarians and libraries have always had a problem reaching the poor and lower class. This is definitely nothing new.