Filed under: Uncategorized
For the Next two Weeks I will begin the final two weeks before opening the library. Me and my crew will be working overtime adding all the materials into the system by hand. Because of this I will not have the time or brain to post new blogs. All of the days will be posted when time is available. Have a great day and I hope to continue to hear your interesting questions and comments.
-Jeff:)
Filed under: Library, Reservation, Shaping Things | Tags: building library, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, labeling, Library, Reservation
April 24
Today I helped Jeremy finish putting contact paper on remaining books in the teen room. As I’ve mentioned many many times before I hate putting contact paper on paperback books, but it had to be done. I snarled my teeth and winced through the pain.
Later Jeremy called me into the room and pointed at the DVD. “You worked at Blockbuster, you probably know how to organize them.” Within five minutes all of the fifty odd dvd’s were stacked in piles based on their genre, Kids, Action Horror, Comedy, Drama and Native American. We then moved on to the CD’s and Jeremy, Katie and I organized those together. We then printed labels for all of the media and stickered them. Jean told us that she wants us to bring home and watch the movies in our Native American selection, so we are familiar with them. I have come to the opinion that Adam Beach in three quarters of our Native American film collection. I am taking home Windtalkers and Skins for the weekend. So now I eat sleep, dream, bleed, Indian community library, now I can watch the cinema as well.
Filed under: Library, Life Lessons, Reservation | Tags: building library, indian comunity library, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, Library, Reservation, visitors
April 23
Arizona State Museum board used our conference room. We pretty much went about our business until around three when they were given a tour of the library. Like always Jean hands the groups off to me when we get to the childrens area. I love it when everyone tries to get the childrens to be the first stop on the tour, but Jean grabs their concentration to introduces them to our fiction area instead. Childrens is the grand finale and that’s what makes it fun. I love talking about all the great things it has and introducing them to Scooter and his wacky love for candy and using his imagination. That and the wood block’s,everybody loves the wood blocks.
Jean asked me if I could take all the lists that we had started our days with this month and compile all the things we had done on them to one page and then split up the items between Jeremy, Katie and I. Its amazing to got though a months worth of tasks. Some tasks took forever, while others were finished the same day they were written. Don’t get me wrong that’s the way life works, but actually seeing it on paper like that and remembering all of the wacky, not so wacky and insane things we did just made me glad to see how much we’ve achieved and how much we have left.
Ray showed up with a Chess/Checker/Backgammon table that was completely caked in mud. Apparently it had been received at the Po-Nam farm, so it was placed in the back of a barn for the whole weekend with cows. Geoff (great guy from Parks and Rec) took the heavy headboard outside and spent thirty minutes with me cleaning off all the mud from the dirty table top.
In the end it looked brand new. We screwed on the table legs and place the table in front the teen room glass. I later grabbed out our chess set from the board games and put the chess pieces on it to bring the board game table to life. Jeremy joined in later to point out that I had castled wrong.
Filed under: Library, Puppets, Reservation, Shaping Things | Tags: building library, childrens, grunt work, indian comunity library, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, labeling, Library, puppet, Puppets, Reservation
April 22
Today I spend doing a Hodge podge of things starting with writing out a long list of programming we could do. It took me about two hours to think up create programs we could do that weren’t craft oriented, because we already have a years worth of those. I then organized the programs by the audience they were suited for and vola!, the programming stage was set.
I then started to help Jeremy with his current and ongoing task of ‘making the shelves look pretty.’ He goes through each book making sure the label cover stickers aren’t pealing and grabs all of the paperback books that don’t have contact paper on them so he can put contact paper on them in the backroom. I hate, and I mean this in the most truest sense of the word, HATE cutting contact paper to put on paperback books. But I want to help in all tasks of opening so even the ‘necessary evils’ as my mom called them when I was a child have to be worked on and Jeremy shouldn’t have to work on all the books throughout the library alone.
Of course I got distracted when I finished helping him pull a bunch of books off the shelf. I went to my computer to write a little puppet script and realized that my main character has a sockasaurus pet, but when the sockasaurus leaves the stage I can’t take the sock puppet off of my hand without the help of my other hand and that one is stuck on stage with Scooter on it. So I descided to make a Sockastickasaurus.Sockastickasaurus super cool and will be talk of the native sovereign nation.
Jean showed up around noon to give us the big news that we will be opening on May 30th. “May 30th!” I erupted a couple seconds after letting it come to my senses. I went on to talk about education and c’mon people we were ready to do a soft open at the start of the month. We may not be able to check out books, but people can use our computers. We can put on programs, jeez!!@! So i ask Jean if we could at least have the preschool come over once a week next month so I could get my coworker’s used to doing programs. I do not want to find out I’m leaving the country and leave them unpreapared to run the childrens department alone.
Tomorrow staff from the Arizona state museum are coming to take a look at the library and use our conference room as a conference room. Jean, Jeremy and Betty (one of our house keeping staff) and I figured out how to use the terribly awkward tables we have to use in that room. I don’t know who would make a table without wheels to be so clunky and heavy.
I cleaned up and staged the childrens area again, but this time I added used coloring pages with crayons. Its a nice touch for a place that wants to put those crayons in childrens hands. When we left the building the place looked like a brand new library, wait, it is.
Filed under: Fitting In, Library, Reservation | Tags: building library, grunt work, indian comunity library, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, Library, Reservation
April 21
Today was round two of Outdoor furniture production. But like many sequels to movies, this time it’s personal. We got three times at much stuff to work. Jeremy and I had to manually carry things out of the truck because the pallet was too big for the automated lift at the back of the truck, we knew we needed help. I quickly asked Jean if she could ask for Parks and Rec or Maintenance to come and help us. Unfortunately both were busy doing other things. So Jeremy and I were stuck putting together two trash cans, two picnic tables and four benches. I was glad I brought sweatpants, because it was going to be a long day. Then suddenly out of the mist a firetruck drove into the parking lot and parked. Six firemen came up to me (Jeremy was inside printing directions off the internet), and asked, “So we hear you need to help getting ready for a picnic?”
I said, “yes indeedy.” I pointed at all the pallets and the long boxes we had to manually taken out of the truck and they just hopped into gear. They definitely have team work down and within minutes all of the pallets had been broken apart and all of the pieces had been itemized. Now it was go time and Jeremy showed up right in time, because I’m a worker when it coming to constructing heavy duty stuff, not a leader. Things like self lock nuts, and teeth grip washers are not in my repitouare. Three hours later the furniture was constructed and Jean came out of the library with strings cheese and the apples that I had brought in that morning. We all sat back on the picnic tables and enjoyed our healthy feast with a bit of pride, that we had yet again built another piece of the library.
Filed under: Exercise, Library, Reservation, Shaping Things | Tags: indian comunity library, inventions, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, Library, losing weight, push it to the limit, pushingthecarbon.com, Reservation
April 20th
I ordered crafts supplies for the entire day.
Based on the craft list I wrote last week, I spent two thousand dollars at a wholesaler web site and have a detailed list of where and what we need to get at other places. After we have all the supplies, we should be able to do craft times with Tweens and Teens for at least a year. Not bad stuff.
I also made A ‘Scare Jeff’ to protect me from the sun until we get blinds for my window. I took my Earth Day T-shirt and combined it with some random dowels that no one has questioned me about. I added my Oakland University ball cap for a head, so Jeremy can always get the feeling that someone is looking down on him from the other side of the office. No, don’t think ill of me, adding a head was his idea.
Jeremy and I also figured out that a walk to the mailbox and back is almost a half a mile. I walked out there earlier today but forgot the mailbox key, so in reality I walked a full mile for this job. Dedication is my middle name. 
Filed under: Good Eats, Life Lessons, Reservation | Tags: Dieting Sucks, food, fry bread, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, no longer a member of society, Reservation, weight watchers
April 19th
I rejoined Weight Watchers.
I don’t want to make this a health and well-being blog, but I think it’s important to trace the important things that happen in my life. I weigh three pound less than I did last year at this time. Two hundred fifty-one compared to two hundred forty-eight. Last year, I joined and lost fifty pounds but had a conflict of interest with one of the cashiers at Weight Watchers. That pretty much screwed up my progress the same week I got my medal for losing fifty pounds.
Now I’m back in the saddle. I have more to worry about when it comes to eating on the res. Fry bread seems to be the main food in all of the dishes I’ve seen. Popovers are a fry bread fold-over with a chili or beans. A taco is fry bread with meat, cheese and lettuce. Sweet fry bread with powdered sugar and honey, fry bread for sandwiches, a dipping device for soups, a side for main courses…
When I got weighed-in to join the Po-Nam excise plan, I weighed two hundred thirty-three pounds. Since then, I’ve counted my steps, and in just a few weeks — look at me!
The game is set and the pieces are out and the dice are ready to be rolled. I’ll be damned if I will let The Fried Breads of This World win.
Filed under: events, Fitting In, Programing, Reservation | Tags: grunt work, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, pushingthecarbon.com, res dogs, Reservation, reservation event
April 17th
I had to go to sleep early the night before to be at work by seven AM for Earth Day on the reservation. Like other events on the Po-Nam reservation, Earth Day is a big program with a lot of stuff and a lot of money spent to produce it. We started the day by congregating outside the HR office. Katie, Jeremy and myself drove there together in the book mobile. The front was packed with Po-Nam natives and employees like myself. We were all given a safety vest and some work gloves. Katie, Jeremy and I were all put in the same group, which was nice. They fed us breakfast pastry things and then programming began.
We were all organized into one large circle and first there was a group prayer, and then the preschool children of the res spoke the Pledge of Allegiance. The chief/chairman then walked into the middle of circle to inspire us and let everyone know that the tribal council would not be joining us today because of an unbreakable responsibility that required their participation. After a group clap, we all found our groups and were driven to our locations to pick up garbage on the reservation. Jeremy told me this was a perfect time to Push the Carbon for my up-coming blog pushingthecarbon.com, so I made sure to take a few vids.
The scariest things I found while walking around the res subdivision were a few syringes in a bush. I hope they were for diabetes, but who knows.
The next two hours were back breaks. I was told we would have sticks with points on the ends of them, but this didn’t happen. The experience constantly reminded me of that cheesy commercial from the eighties where someone driving past in a car drops an empty pop can out the window onto the shoulder. The screen pans to an American Indian who then cries a single tear. In that situation, the offense of people who didn’t care about the environment. Well, after the time we spent cleaning up the reservation, it’s clear that a whole bunch of natives on the reservation could also care less about cleaning up after themselves. I’m not singling anyone out, but we had a heck of a lot of full garbage bags when we finished our vision quest of cleaning back at the gym.
When we were done, Jeremy and I (Katie was driven back to HR to pick up the book mobile) exchanged our safety vests for Earth Day T-shirts and an Earth Day goody bag that had a water bottle, a wildflower packet and a baseball cap. We walked across the parking lot to work on the computers for an hour and then re-entered the gym at eleven to get a free and super-delicious lunch provided for by the res. It was catered by Dilly’s Deli in Tempe, and the food was fabulous. All of us on the library crew decided to grab our food and sneak out back to the library so we could continue working.
For the rest of the day we relaxed, working on library stuff and eating. Dagwood, our favorite tech guy came for a visit to tell us they were serving cake. Jeremy and I said at the same time, with swollen bellies, “I think we’ll pass.”
Filed under: Fitting In, Friends, Good Eats, Life Lessons, Reservation, Shaping Things | Tags: birthday, building library, food, grunt work, holidays, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, Library, Reservation
April 16th
I hate my birthday. I always have and probably always will. I don’t want to go into all the reasons why, but I can become pretty manic-depressive and I’m stuck in this quagmire of whether I want to hang out with people or not. I have these feelings of, Sure! I would like to hang out with people, but I don’t want to impose, or I just need to sulk on my own, I don’t want anyone to watch me sulk. The ladies I live with had to get an explanation on why I decided not to drink on my birthday this year. “I already feel like crap. I’m pretty sure the booze wouldn’t help.”
Now that I’ve explained that, let’s talk about the very special day that is my everyday life.
I showed up five minutes late to work today, this is the first time since I started working at this job that I wasn’t the first one there in the morning. Nobody cared, except me. I decided this morning I would try not to show up a half an hour early for work, so I left a half an hour later than I normally leave and ended up being late. Yes, I know that five minute late isn’t the worst thing in the world, but imagine if I was the goose that laid golden eggs and the farm was about to be sold to the evil Mr. Tumblebottom and one egg laid by me could save the day, yet I lay the egg five minutes after the farm is sold and Mr. Tumblebottom becomes rich while my former owner has to start selling his body for tricks. Yes, five minutes is a big deal for me.
Jean brought all of us take-out from Denny’s for Breakfast to celebrate my birthday. I don’t belive I’ve seen so much styrofoam in my entire life. The food was Denny’s mediocre, but the thought was heartfelt and I appreciated the gesture. Half way through eating I pulled out the list from yesterday and we started going though what need to be done. Jean announced that heavy-duty outdoor furniture would be coming in and Jeremy and I had the pleasure and honor to put it together. Luckily only half of the furniture showed up. Jeremy had brought his tools from home because he likes doing stuff like this. I, on the other hand, feel totally out of my element in these situations. I just try to be helpful and pull my weight.
It took us three hours to put the first four sides table together, complete with connected seats on all four sides. Luckily, I had asked Jean to call Parks and Rec about helping us flip the first table over and they showed up to help us do that — and though Jeremy and I actually had to flip the table by ourselves — they put together the other table for us. We finished by noon. Just in time to take advantage of the new outdoor furniture for lunch.
Though pleasant enough, I had been coming in early and leaving late all week so I could leave at two o’clock to drive up to Piesta peak and do my yearly reflection on the year past. I’ve been doing this for years now, but unfortunately I pulled something in my chest while I was working on the furniture. At first I thought I was having a heart attack, which I thought would be the best thirtieth birthday present ever. But, it only hurt when I moved my left arm so I figured a few muscles got over-extended or something. I still left at one o’clock because I held out on my lunch time.
I had a very nice lunch at the Taco and More restaurant in Maricopa City. The food was tasty and fresh and they have this lime guacamole dip for the basket of nacho chips they give you while you are waiting for your food. A very nice break in the middle of the day.
I drove home to change into my sweat pants for the hike when I decided that I would hold off on the hike until my body felt better this weekend. As a result, I passed out on my bed till about six o’clock. The ladies were home as well as Zella’s girlfriend, Tina. They were all watching television in the living room. I tried to sneak out, because at this point I was still debating on what I wanted to do with the rest of my birthday, I knew I had to get up early for Earth Day on the res and I was having the friends-social or not-social mentality running through my head.
Just as I’m about to run out to the garage, I say to the ladies, “Hey guys.”
“Hey Jeff! Wait.” Of course, I have to stop.
“Where are you going?”
“Out to dinner?”
“Who are you going with?” I have to walk a certain line of lies at this point, since I don’t want to be rude and I’m… Do I really still need to explain how messed up I am today?
“Leigh and I are going out.” Simple lie.
“For what?” Dammit!
“Sushi, or Thai, I’m not sure, we’ll figure it out.”
“Oh ok,” and Amy, other roommate pipes in, “Well, it you aren’t doing anything later, I bought an apple pie and some candles.”
How freaking sweet, unexpected and confusing for me.
I said thank you and that I would be back in a little while. We could have pie when I get back, as long as it was early.
Now I knew my birthday would end on a high note, which was kind of neat.
The emotions I went through while driving in my car were crazy. I kept fighting back and forth about calling someone to have dinner with and after deciding that I didn’t want to bother anyone I went to a Thai restaurant.
I’d been there before with friends, but I don’t remember the food being as bad as it was this day. I base my Thai restaurant ratings on the Pad Thai, a wonderful kind of of sweet noodle dish with crushed peanuts, egg, tofu and your choice of meat if you want it. I like my Thai food spicy as heck, so I generally ask for a side of hot oil or crushed red pepper. I asked the waiter for my food to be hot and if I could, use hot oil or crushed red pepper. He said they didn’t do that there, and instead they had pickled jalapeño stuff (which was gross, on delicious Pad Thai). The dish came out and looked to die for, but as I looked at the garnishes it was possible they had actually died. There were two strawberries, which looked cool from far away, but were a little over the age limit. I digress.
The food looked great, but as the chopsticks lifted to my mouth and the noodles touched my tongue I realized that this Pad Thai was terrible. Who makes a Pad Thai saltly? Totally weird. I felt too guilty to ask for the waiter to take it back. Only a minute ago I had asked him to take a picture of me for my birthday.
I have no idea why I ate most of the meal, but I did, maybe hoping it would get better. I figured I was being punished because it was my birthday. After sitting and waiting for my check for twenty minutes, I noticed a another couple walked to a counter that said nothing about paying for their food on it. Wish the someone would have mentioned this to me. I paid and left.
I drove home and the girls and I decided to do the pie thing after ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ (Yes, I know). Zella and Tina finished steam cleaning the carpet in their bedroom. Amy put three candles in the pie, one for each of my ten years, then lit them all.
My birthday ended with a happy birthday song and three birthday candles in an apple pie. I totally blew them all out. My candle blowing skills rock.
Filed under: Library, Life Lessons, Programing, Reservation, Shaping Things | Tags: building library, crafts, Jeff Stoffer, Jeffrey Stoffer, Library, Programing, Reservation
April 15th
I AM A COMPUTER, A CRAFT COMPUTER.
I PUT TOGETHER CRAFT PROGRAMS BECAUSE COMPUTERS ARE GOOD AT THINKING OUTSIDE OF THE BOX.
Today I put together forty-three craft projects! All of the projects can work with both Tweens and Teens. Some I have done in the past, while others came from the computer, though most of them came from my head.
Now my head hurts.
Too many ideas in one day can cause a brain cramp, I have to be careful of this in the future.
