Halley R

Halley and her brother sit on a park bench with Italian ice in hand. Halley has mango ice and Chad has grape. They are both wearing baseball caps and smiling.

What could have been a way more stressful weekend last week turned out okay. Grateful for broski 💚

A group of six children’s library staff members pose for a photo in various costumes. From left to right, one (Halley) is wearing a yellow teletubbie head, one has on a Captain Underpants costume with black clothing on underneath, the next two have on witch hats, one wears cat ears, and one is dressed as a minion. Many of them hold photo props up and all of them are smiling.

A successful programming afternoon 👌 #skybrarian #childrenslibrarian

Halley’s vinyl copy of The Midnight’s Syndicate is sitting in Halley’s record player. The record is semi transparent green and has swirls of blue and yellow in it. The vinyl sleeve is propped up behind it.

Might not have been here on release day, but still got here earlier than expected. Algae variant 💚
I’ve been beyond obsessed with this album since it dropped. Quiet Earth, Sanctuary and The Right Way are my favorites so far, but the whole thing is fantastic.
#nowspinning #themidnight #syndicate

Halley’s top albums of the last week includes music by The Midnight, Nujabes, Taylor Swift, Night Tapes, The Bad Dreamers, Clairo, Caspar Babypants (thanks to Storytime 😂), Bright Eyes, Múm, Jupiter Winter, Nine Inch Nails, Vacation Manor, and L’avenue.

Yesterday’s Friday 5x5. I’m… not into Life of a Showgirl so far. Actually had to switch to the clean version to give it a chance, which blows my mind. I never thought I’d have an issue with Taylor Swift’s lyrics, but here we are. Now… Syndicate is a damned masterpiece.

Halley’s overall music wrap-up for September. The wrap-up says she listened for 5,204 minutes, her top artist was The Midnight at 736 minutes, top song was Summer’s Ending Soon at 15 plays, and top album was The Bad Dreamers Space and Time at 315 minutes.

Halley’s top 5 artists: 1) The Midnight- 736 minutes 2) The Bad Dreamers- 407 minutes 3) Hayley Williams- 399 minutes 4) Nujabes- 354 minutes 5) Nation of Language- 236 minutes

Halley’s top 5 albums: 1) Space and Time by The Bad Dreamers 2) Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams 3) Dance Called Memory by Nation of Language 4) Syndicate by The Midnight 5) Modal Soul by Nujabes

Top 5 songs: 1) Summer’s Ending Soon by The Midnight 2) One Way Ticket by The Bad Dreamers 3) Runaways (feat. Bonnie McKee) by The Midnight 4) Romantic Comedy by The Bad Dreamers 5) Unspoken, Unbroken by The Bad Dreamers

September music wrap-up 🤍

A small painting of the yellow throated bird from the day before, painted in acrylic. The sky in the background is green, and there are many clouds. The bird is perched on a branch.

Painted my bird buddy to put in the free raffle thing at work. Pretty happy with how he came out, esp. for the amount of time spent.

As things should be 🥹😂

A photo of a small bird in a cloth lined shallow Tupperware container. Text on the page reads: “he and his friend flew into one of our branch windows and we thought they were both dead. I went out to give them a bird funeral (sadly, this happens a lot) and found he was stunned, not dead. I gently picked him up with a cloth and placed him in a Tupperware to give him time to recover.”

The bird is now sitting on the cloth, which is in Halley’s hand, looking alert. Text reads: “once he opened his eyes, I tried to encourage gentle movement to see if anything was hurt aside from his poor noggin 🥺 It took him around ten minutes to open his eyes and start looking around and a few patrons waited on him. I talked to him quite a bit.”

The bird is now alert and vertical, perched on the side of a wall. Text reads: “I wish I had a better picture of this, because it was so special. Once we were open I started moving the Tupperware to the childrens porch so I could keep an eye on him. Hedecided it was time and he fluttered out of the container, perched on the fence about three feet away from me, and just stared at me for a good ten seconds before flying off. It felt like he was saying thank you 🥺”

I made a friend today, and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it 🥺🥹

I feel like I should add, there was no poking or prodding in this. Mostly just watching and waiting. I have an awful memory from college of a stunned owl that then seized, and wanted to be sure to keep an eye on this guy.

Halley tries to take a selfie holding Rupert, her five pound Yorkshire terrier. Rupert, who is not having it, is mid bark, telling the neighbor dogs THIS IS HIS YARD.

Got a double rainbow.

And this gloriously unattractive photo.

Took me a bit, but I think it might be a white flower crab spider 🥰

A grainy closeup from this morning of a completely white spider perched on a zinnia.

The same spider, just on a different zinnia this afternoon.

One last photo of said spider friend.

A few more photos of my tapioca pal.

Smol milk jelly fren.

Let me drag you into my rabbit hole of the day 🤪
Edward Scissorhands a:
1) cyborg
2) robot
3) homunculus
4) something else

My childhood brain read him as some variation of a homunculus, but now I’m not fully sold.

A screenshot of a series of texts Halley sent to her child. It includes two photos of Rupert, a Yorkshire terrier, wearing a pink Kirby hat, followed by several short messages. They read: “It’s 9:00. Also, that hissing was Rupert farting Farts Butts Poop”

I didn’t become a parent to do this to my child, but I did not not become a parent to do it 😌

A photo of Halley’s office, with all location indicators blacked out. Her desk is covered in lots of pop culture, playful, art type trinkets, and now has a Starcadian poster for Midnight Signals propped up on the backer.

Office mess updated to feature this rad Starcadian poster 🥰

Bonus: the record shop I got it from this morning was already playing it when I went in. First album of the day 🥰

Two women sit side by side in a Waffle House. The one on the left, Halley’s friend, has red hair and clear glasses. Halley is sitting next to her and has wavy brown hair and has brown tortoiseshell glasses. They are both smiling.

When an old friend from college visits you from the Midwest and requests Waffle House, you make it happen.

A vinyl copy of the Loser (clear with blue splashes) color vinyl variant of Nation of Language’s newest album, Dance Called Memory spins on Halley’s turntable. The album art is displayed behind it, and features the tips of fingers picking up red cherries from a yellow cloth napkin. Behind the napkin is a blue patterned sheet.

Took a couple of days to pick up, but grabbed a vinyl copy of Nation of Language’s newest, Dance Called Memory. I’ve been listening to it via streaming quite a bit the last few days and knew it had to be in my vinyl rotation 🤍. #nowspinning #nationoflanguage #dancecalledmemory

Over 50,000… plus one 🤘

We’ve canceled too!

A grid of Halley’s top listened to albums of the week. Offerings include albums by Ollie Wride, Djo, The Midnight, Maxx Parker, Nujabes, Dr. Psilocon, Michigander, Com Truise, FM-84, Starcadian, Peter Gabriel, The Secret Chord, Timecop1983, The Bad Dreamers, Carpenter Brut, The Midnight & Magik*Magik, Hayley Williams, Nation of Language, Young Empress, Taylor Swift, and The Strike.

Friday 5x5 🤍

Bought something pretty without realizing I still had my teenage copy. Whoops 🫣 Admittedly, I loved her Chrestomanci and Dalemark books a bit more growing up- still was quite fond of this one. Happy to have such a lovely copy in my collection now.

I’M HELPFUL

A screenshot of the Freegal page for The Midnight’s new album, Syndicate, which will come out on October 3rd.

Okay so. Hear me out. As a public librarian who has a free streaming platform for Syndicate I can share with people, I feel it would be prudent to patron interests and their well being to be reaaaalllly obnoxious about this album on release day.
Just… a helpful librarian doing helpful stuff.

Also, full disclosure: listened to Vindicated enough for Dashboard to get a square. Not sorry.

Halley’s top albums of the week. Includes albums by The Bad Dreamers, Hayley Williams, Lofi Lia, Coffee Date, Max Parker, Soulwax, The Midnight, Starcadian, Curtis Harding, Robin, Com Truise, Nation of Language, Bibio, Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini, Dashboard Confessional, Duett, FM Attack, John Carroll Kirby, Lustt, Makeup & Vanity Set, Miami Horror, and Mindchatter.

Friday 5x5. Became really enamored of Hayley William’s solo stuff, which still comes as a surprise since I was never able to get into Paramore even when I was much younger & into that genre. Also, The Bad Dreamers is AMAZING.

Update: down to 3 now 🤘

(2/2) reasonable to be blaming unhoused populations. It’s cruel. These are just people, and the system has FAILED them.

I’m a public librarian in a location where lots of folks experience homelessness, and frankly, this terrifies me. It only takes one to elements being different for most people in this country to be put in the same boat. While some crime does happen due to people in this position, it’s not at (1/2)

An image of Halley’s desk, facing out. At the end, there is a shiny green pumpkin decoration and a plush mushroom. Lined up across the rest of the desk is six oranges, out in clear sight.

I made it so I won’t forget to eat the fruit I brought to work 🫣