Library Music

This is flash fiction. That means it is not true. But it could happen. Oh and Happy World Book Day 2012!
 

Finding a sweet spot in a library is a thing that money can’t buy. Finding a library that you can sneak coffee into is precious. And then to add to this deliciousness of finding a library that lalso ooks out over a night club that you use to frequent as a 20 something is hilarious.

Not gonna lie, I was feeling pretty smug. So you can imagine my horror when I came to the realisation that the library was perfect but the people in it were not.

 How am I meant to get anything done when:

·        A red faced, white tracksuit wearing, college girl sits beside me playing music. Her headphones  leaking her white noise and her scowl glowering.

·        She removes her jacket to share the smell of a long, healthy, fast paced walk. Mhhhh salty sweet.

·        I am interrupted to ask, ‘how did you sneak that coffee in?’ As if I was going to share that gem.

·        I turn up my music and move about, trying to drown out these people.

·        One young gentleman looks at my laptop. I smile, yeah..it is nice...I think. Then he stares at my headphones. I suppress my smile. They were a present, jealous much? I throw him a look trying to tell him; when I was your age I was out there man. In that night club waisting my money. Now, Now I got nice things. You will get there. But he obviously is not well versed in mind reading because he moves away.

·        The sweaty girl sprays some body spray. At least someone can read minds. But she stares at me when she is finished her task. Hey eyes rest on my hands which are on the laptop. Yeah, I think, they are painted dark blue....what? You gotta be like 10 to have blue nails? Kid I’m way younger than Kate Moss...now stare somewhere else.

·        My phone buzzes, it is a friend asking to meet for coffee. I take off my headphone and pack up my pens and books and lesson plans. I silently nod my head to my music.

Wait...my music?

The price of deodorant?   2.50

The price of IT equipment? A lot

The price of accidentally pulling out your headphone so that your music fills the library.....priceless and morto!

Barbra has a lovely piece written about World Book Day over on her great blog.

Have you have ever witnessed any strange or funny things in a library? If yes, leave a comment. Or leave a comment anyway. Ya  know, just for kicks!

Interesting Random Stuff Y'all Need to Know

Why do you guys read blogs? Me? Well I like to learn or be entertained. This post falls into the former. We will learn about some new social media platforms and some deadly agent writerly tips.

I will be a Famous Writer

It was a Saturday; I was fooling around town.....when I saw someone coming over to me. It was a psychic and she was talking at me. ‘My naaameee is Christina Sayer (ChristinaSayer@yahoo.com) and I can foretell your liffffe...’

I am a Rubber Bandits. After a day of teaching - I like to drag down my hair, load on the red lippy, tear off the carrdie, climb into the heals and blast on Rubber Bandits! (Preemptive note: This band is ironic, no this is not how Limerick people are and yes..even though I am a teacher I am allowed to have a sense of humour out of class!) Oh and yeah...I do sing along in a high pitched voice!

Anyway back to the point. I was at a psychic and she asked me if I was famous! ‘Whhha? Like, no...I mean, I have a Twitter account...but sure that doesn’t count?’

She smiled and said that no it doesn’t count. She said she saw success and victory all around me, a happy life near a train station and fame.....

Here is a tiny bit of what she said:

You will go on to study a masters.                                                                               TICK

You are getting married this year.                                                                               TICK

You love to learn and are very career orientated.                                                    TICK

You love teaching but I can’t see you teaching for long.....                                     TICK (wait...what?)

And you are going to be a famous Romantic Fiction writer....this year                BOOOOOM

It wasn’t the famous part, or the writer part or even the teacher part...but the genre part! I have written a YA book and a middle grade book. Both of which are being left to age for a while. And here I was being told that I was going to change genre completely and then get a book deal and become famous. Say whaaaat?

 So, there you have it. I will be a famous romantic fiction writer, this year! And here’s the rub; I have been to psychics a few times before, OK...a lot of times, and most of what they said came true! But as the mammy says, ‘everything tastes better with a pinch of salt!!’

Right, I’m off. I need to do a bucket load of research on rom-com fiction, suss out agent du jouir Sheila Crowley, oh and season my future book dreams with salt!

                  Wanna share any psychic stories you have in the comments section below? G'waaan!

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A Different Shade of Green

Update: I should have said that this post is based on one true event, the rest of it is my imagination. I did wait in a car for himself and I did write a story on my phone....but nothing else is true....I can't tell a story without making....more. So I guess this is kinda flash fiction!

Enjoy!




I sat down about a year ago and wrote a story*. It was a Monday. I was studying for my post grad in teaching. And I was parked in Limerick, in a cold, coffee stained, car - packed to the brim of balloons, coloured paper, pages of stickers, and was feeling blue.

You see, I was waiting for the stock market to chill-out so my hubby-to-be could leave and grab lunch with me. I rocketed through the radio. I messed with my nails and hair. I tapped my fingers like loud drums against the steering wheel and 30 minutes later, I was still waiting.

I finished my story* as I surveyed my car. Full to the brim and boot it was, I may as well have been a travelling stationary and book seller.

I investigated a hissing sound; it was a green balloon slowly deflating under the passenger seat. I stared at the dull, dreary, bleak, building that held my man and thought of my time, captive, in a similar place in Dublin. I was a coward for staying in the accounting world for so long. Pure yellow I was! But, the King and I...we studied the same degree and then worked in the same industry and change is bad, right?

 Wrong!  I smiled, because my life is now so different. Changed utterly, a terrible beauty it is now. My eyes glazed over as I stared into my engagement ring, the rays of light held me. And I reflected.

I thought of TP, my teaching assignments. Then past pupils and then my thoughts flitted back to Teaching Practice. Teaching practice are two words that most teachers say in hushed and snarly tones, and I had just been through one. Forget about auditors, the financial regulator and having the IFSC bond with Mr. King. TP was a different beast.

Can you imagine leaving the world of lattés and numbers for the world of little people and words and TP? I complained on my first day of TP. ‘It’s like leaving the one dimensional world of the IFSC; to step into this 2-D world of words and little people saying...’teacher, teacher,’ all day long!’ The listening teacher smiled and said, ‘It suuuure is...what was it like...the number world?’ I may have been over zealous in my IFSC tales but, what harm? This teacher, who was younger than I, hopped up from the child’s seat beside me and asked, ‘1 D plus 2 D equals?’ I answered as I swung my legs back and forth, ‘3 D.’

My sparkling day-dreaming thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Mr. King’s steps reverberate as he crashed over puddles and zig-zaged the plopping Limerick rain – I stared up; my engagement rings' light releasing me as he dazzled me with a smile. The car door was pulled open in one movement and in he hopped, full of tales of the index, bloomburg, pricing, excel macros, x-dates....It sounded exciting, this world of numbers he talked of. Questions ping-ponged back and forth of the number world and the word world variety through out lunch.

‘The grass is always greener’, they say. But maybe ‘they’ got it wrong! I merged my yellow IFSC with my blue teacher side....and it was a shade of 3-D green that even Scarlet O’Hara would be proud of.


And now, sometimes in class I ask the children to write their hopes for the day on paper and fold the paper into one balloon. We hang this one balloon from the board and at the end we pop it just to see what hopes were realised. And the colour of the balloon....why green of course!

* I developed the story I wrote into a children’s middle grade book and I am half way through editing it. I added some sparkles to my green!

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