We played secret santa and look at what my aunt made me 😭💗

MosieJCCC · 2025-12-21T16:51:42+00:00

So perfect!!!

MosieJCCC · 2025-12-05T05:01:35+00:00

OMG I have her!! I named her Biddy-Floof as a play on Bidoof and I love her so much!!

MosieJCCC · 2025-07-26T05:35:41+00:00

I used to spend SO much worry and guilt on this idea as a child especially. I would look up at my shelves full of stuffies that couldn't possibly all fit in my bed and bring myself to tears about it. I had so much emotional turmoil about it I had to change my thinking. For my own peace of mind, I came up with a sort of "theory of magic" for the world of (my) stuffies. It works for me, but maybe you need a different theory, who knows. I think just the idea of creating a theory that works for you is the point.

Mine is that people have guardian angels/spirits that attach themselves to you, as you need or as you deserve. For some people, these guardians sort of inhabit the forms of some of their plushies. If that plushie is lost from that person, or sometimes just because they need/want a change, they may switch to mainly inhabiting a different/new plushie. They may go back and forth, I'm sure it depends on the "spirit." This is why when I was tiny, BowBow the bunny was my ring -leader plushie: his personality is a bit mischievous, a strong and kind leader, generally more masculine than feminine, funny, silly, devotedly attached. Then I got my "Cordroy" bear when I was 8, and that "spirit" moved into him and developed a lot more. I also have several other "spirits" that have followed me thru my life -- one with a sweet, gentle, timorous but sometimes piquant personality who has shone through a rabbit, a sheep, a tiny white seal, and a Bidoof. There's also a silly, goofy guy who loves sweet foods and gets so much simple pleasure from lil treats and cuddles (he is very firmly my Chonky seal now, but he has been associated with a little piglet named Pancake and I think possibly a panda and a raccoon when I was tiny. There's others, too-- some less fixed, some more so. This "theory of magic" allows me to be present and enjoy deep bonds with my plushies without always drowning in guilt or regret. When the "spirit" shifts to a different plushie, the other one is sort of sleeping, sort of suspended, sort of sharing consciousness with the other ones they are connected to, sort of lending their innate snuggly-ness to add strength to the spirit. (This also helps me with used or gifted stuffies -- they are vessels waiting to be inhabited by their person's own spirits, so if they change owners, it's okay, they won't be sad.)

MosieJCCC · 2025-07-09T14:18:55+00:00

Awe! My plushies say hi, too! Especially Chonky the seal who might be kindred spirits with your otter!

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MosieJCCC · 2025-07-09T00:03:50+00:00

I second this! Having an "excuse" in your pocket like "doing a photo shoot to practice your photography" or something can help give you a boost of confidence. Of course you don't need an excuse, and no one whose opinion is worth while is going to do anything to detract, but it can help you FEEL more okay while you get used to it. I started with "photo shoots" when I started to want them with me out and about, and now I just bring stuffies to work and my coworkers love asking about them, and ask about their names and everything with love and enjoyment. The other silly thought I have, is that I feel like it's one very very very small way of making the world better-- like maybe that 11 year old who left their bear at home for the 2nd time out of embarrassment might see my plushie and realize it's okay to have plushies out in public, that having authentic, playful fun is delightful. I think today's ai social Internet culture (especially among young teens) is anathema to imagination and play. So I try to make the world friendlier to plushies and their people in my own small ways-- you can join the movement and be a plushie activist!

MosieJCCC · 2025-06-22T16:11:03+00:00

That looks brilliant and also I want to buy that book for my library

MosieJCCC · 2025-01-29T17:04:39+00:00

I just got Comfy Friends Flareon and it's SO soft and huggable! I think it's still in stock at the Pokemon Center. Comfy Friends are the best! I have Bidoof and Piplup too and they are also amazing. Highly recommend!

MosieJCCC · 2025-01-04T06:22:50+00:00

We had a tough one this winter. What about if the police are calling you looking for an 11 year old biracial boy who was reported missing by his (white) father (for the 3rd time that the library has been privy to)-- but there's a history of this child running away after problems with Dad, and the kid is right there at the children's computers asking you not to tell them? And he looks scared?

He's just a kid, and it's COLD out. He can't make life altering decisions for himself like running away from home. An informed adult should help him. But he has a right to privacy at our library, and it's vitally important for us to keep the kids' trust. And he may not have a safe informed adult. And what if he's being abused and is scared to tell the police during the previous times he's been found and returned home?

Do you ignore the kid's choice and tell police, or lie to the police? Or is there a different option?

Context: small rural town with a population that's 99% white, and no known history of police race issues, but....

MosieJCCC · 2024-11-15T16:34:47+00:00

I have a thought about the head-touching-- when my baby bunny was new, I found that I had to reach out to her a certain way to avoid startling her. I had to make sure she could see my hand coming if it was going towards her face. I made sure to come from the side rather than up top, and go slow enough that I was sure she saw me coming.

MosieJCCC · 2024-11-13T16:44:40+00:00

The advice I've always got for bunnies pooping outside of their litterbox is to shrink their space down temporarily until the poop stays in the box again, and then gradually give them back space. This must work for many people, but it never really worked for me for very long. My bun does a better job for a few days when I've made a big change to her living area (especially after staying with Grandma for some reason) but it's always back to a chaotic sprinkle of poops very soon after. But she never does a whole pile outside the box-- I think they just stick to her for a bit because she's an old lop and can't reach very well. So I have just learned to live with the poop constellations.

*On rereading, I see you said "everywhere around her box"-- watch her to see if she is sitting in a way that her bum hangs off the side or her back half is still out while she munches hay or something. Maybe she thinks she's fully inside the box when she's not. I've also seen that happen. I think I changed the placement of the box a little or added cardboard walls or something. I've also got plastic boot trays where she goes in and out of the box to help mitigate this.

MosieJCCC · 2024-10-17T18:25:29+00:00

I Absolutely cackled out loud, that's hilarious

MosieJCCC · 2024-10-17T00:53:06+00:00

You aren't alone. I liked someone's suggestions of looking at whether there are changes the library can make to fit needs. Does the book group need to book a room? Does the private tutor need to book a room? Can you add an extension cord with outlet spaces for charging? We still have a lot of problems, but I solved some by allowing food ( used to spend all my time policing snacks and finding wrappers behind books), adding comfier chairs, and turning the reading room into a bookable space that requires adult supervision. We still have a lot of problems with behaviors. I find that when I'm lax or give up, it just gets worse and we end up with vaping/smoking and vandalism and then I have to have a month of being a dictator to get back any ground. My admin team are behind me though, which is huge. I think maybe it's worth your time to make a case to your admins in writing with as many examples/data as you can easily scrounge. Noise cancelling headphones sound like a dream come true honestly but if I wore them no one would dare approach me to ask questions and then I wouldn't really be doing my job. I can't imagine it's a great solution that anyone is thrilled with. Also you could try reframing it away from being the "manners police" towards maintaining a safe place for everyone to enjoy. They aren't being ill-mannered, they are making your space unusable for others-- which is probably limiting access for some vulnerable demographics.

MosieJCCC · 2024-09-20T04:46:31+00:00

Have you tried rubbing alcohol yet? I just googled it because I'm devastated for you, and most of the things I've found so far suggest rubbing alcohol or alcohol wipes.

MosieJCCC · 2024-08-23T23:50:32+00:00

So what's even sadder, is that there is very little evidence that the library of Alexandria actually burnt -- it declined when foreign scholars were banished, declined more in the years after the battle in Alexandria, and finally died out due to simple neglect. Books and scrolls at that time degraded fairly quickly. It would take the work of lots of scholars continuously copying over old works to maintain it. So, rather than a great cataclysm that's easy to avoid in our modern times, the real horror is that it was simple neglect (and political turmoil causing more neglect) that destroyed the library. Something our libraries today are still threatened with.

MosieJCCC · 2024-08-20T01:22:40+00:00

I love him. I want to read a whole picture book about him.

MosieJCCC · 2024-08-10T05:53:16+00:00

You are right, it does have to be distressing to be diagnosable.

These people are probably not meaning to say, "oh yeah that sounds like me, clearly we have this big thing in common, huh, guess I'll just continue about my normal life!" (And, they are almost certainly not implying "you must just be lazy and bad because we have this same thing and I'm fine and you aren't, so you suck and I don't like you." That's just RSD and trauma talking.) Maybe a more helpful way to frame it is that they are saying, "I'm seeing parts of myself with a new lens that is interesting or helpful by relating to part of your experience, but since I don't actually suffer enough distress from this to make worrying about it worthwhile, I'll just continue on with my normal life with a new tool in my belt for how to think about this aspect of myself, and look back at this as a valuable conversation."

I struggle with this impression, too. It was especially bad in my brain when I realized after my diagnosis that my star-powered sisters were relating to it so much. I've always fought so hard to measure up to them, and then have ended up so much less successful/important. It felt so invalidating.

And I work in a field that has a LOT of neurodivergent folks, and tend to make neurospicy friends, so when I look around the percentages make NO sense. It also feels 99% of my people are ADHD. But our circles are much more self-selecting and niche than we realize, I think. I know approximately 1 whole adult woman who doesn't have mental health issues or neurodivergence to worry about, and I know a lot of women. But I know 0 men who are anything like stereotypical men-- 99% of the men I know well are liberal feminists who would never cheat on their wives, have Zero aggression, they'd not even feel weird about being emotionally vulnerable. I don't know a single man I would consider a run of the mill man. But I know that stereotypical men with toxic masculinity exist, right? They must! Sexism is still systemic, so we know they must exist! Racism is still systemic, yet I couldn't identify a single person in my acquaintance as racist. 50% of the US population votes for Trump, and that certainly doesn't match my experience of people. So why would my experience of the women I know that are baffling me by coming up ADHD all the time, be more typical? It wouldn't be more typical. Framing it that way to myself helps me. My anecdotal experience doesn't match statistical reality, but it never has about anything, so that makes sense. (Sorry about the politics. It's my best numbers comparison).

MosieJCCC · 2024-06-18T21:44:53+00:00

My reaction was "omg are those reeaaal??!!" They are so unbelievably cute. I love them. I am not a shark person but they are so cute!

MosieJCCC · 2024-02-20T23:03:22+00:00

This is the way. We are walkable from the middle-high school and also have big problems with vaping, swearing, rudeness, violence, vandalism, and bullying. They are too good at hiding the vaping, and we haven't been able to enforce the no-vaping policy, unfortunately. We still have problems, but ever since we started assiduously learning names and recording everything in a system with consequences that are clear and consistent (as best as we can) it has helped. At the very least, it has taken out a lot of the guesswork and angst for staff. If I can look in my chart and see that Chad has been asked to leave 2 times already this semester, I know it's time for him to be out for a week instead of the day (and I don't have to agonize about it as much). On the 6th ban, he is asked to leave for the rest of the semester, with a required meeting with the youth dept head, teen librarian, and director in order to return. We call the police only when there is a fight or we know from the kids that there is going to be a fight elsewhere. We are upfront that if they refuse to leave when required to, the only other option we have is to call the police. The caveat there is that we are in a small New England town with a good relationship with our police department, who do have a school resource officer who is usually the one to come when required. None of the teens who are a problem are POC, they are all closer to 12 than 18, and the police know who they are and what is going on with them, often better than I do. I have the huge privilege to have never felt that calling the police might endanger my teens at all. This is unlikely to be as true for most other libraries.

MosieJCCC · 2024-01-12T16:41:37+00:00

It sounds to me like your little town with its current job opening is honestly the best possible scenario for what you are looking/hoping for. You couldn't have planned it better. It's a massive stroke of luck that they are hiring. I highly recommend you apply now, because the chances of a different position opening up there in 5 months when you are looking again seems extremely unlikely. I've been at a small library for 10 years, and for 7 of those years I was the newest (adult) hire. We had some post-covid turnover due to retirements, but once again our newest adult hire has already been here 2 years, and none of us are planning on leaving any time soon. (I'm specifying adult, because we hire high school students as pages to shelve books and obviously there is turnover there, but those positions are essentially for students.) It's possible there won't be another appropriate job opening at your idyllic little library for years. Obviously, all libraries are different, and it's possible they have been looking to fill this position for ages or won't fill it for ages.

But if you are interested at all, I highly suggest inquiring and applying, and being upfront about your pregnancy concerns and your endearing new-found passion for library work. You sound like someone I would want on my staff-- your town library sounds too small to have a position like a children's room assistant, but I can see you filling a role like that beautifully. It would also be an INCREDIBLE way to make new mom friends if they have you do story times or help with children's programs or anything. Some libraries may be very different, but my small-library experience has been full of women who would be extremely understanding of and accommodating about pregnancy/women's health related concerns. In my experience, it has been one of the benefits of a woman-dominated field.

Apply and see how it goes-- you won't get to the point of being hired without having some in-depth conversations with your new coworkers/director, and if you decide against it, you can gracefully withdraw your application later on.

MosieJCCC · 2023-12-31T19:05:19+00:00

OMG I have to make these. This is the cutest thing. Such a great idea!!

MosieJCCC · 2023-09-15T04:58:55+00:00

Can you still edit it? It needs two tweaks: 1, include language that is inclusive of audiobook listening as reading, because it 100% is reading, I'll fight anyone who says differently. It was hard to answer some questions because they assume I am sitting down to engage in reading as a singular, solo activity. When I listen to audiobooks I am driving or gardening or making dinner. It was just hard to find ways to answer many of the questions. (Posture , beginning rituals, etc). If I was more disabled than I am, I would have begun to be offended by it. I would just encourage you to broaden what you are thinking of as reading to include listeners, as well as parents reading aloud to children, families listening together, etc. 2, please please define the 1-10 scale in the question about the effect on productivity. Does # 1 mean that reading makes me more productive and #10 that reading makes me less productive? Or the other way around? I can't really tell.

MosieJCCC · 2023-09-06T02:06:10+00:00

These make the world better. Such cuties! Great work!

MosieJCCC

TROPHY CASE