Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. - Frank Zappa

I am very very happy here. My weekend was mostly spent curled in my new red corduroy IKEA chair reading while the rain poured outside. I chopped up the rainbow potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, beets and zucchini and flung them, oiled and spiced, into the oven to roast which made the entire house deliciously warm and fragrant. I am in a new library today and have made a friend of a teen librarian my own age with similar tastes and predilections. We had dinner together on a break and I am so excited to have met her. I'll have to pick a pseudonym for her as well because I anticipate our camaraderie growing.

I am VERY happy about the election. I am VERY unhappy about Prop. 8. The fight has only just begun . . .

I am enjoying my time in the various libraries because I am gaining useful perspective on the universality of patron complaints. They are nearly all the same though studded occasionally with gems. Today a man asked for a book on the planets of Earth. He meant continents, which we discovered in the reference interview process, but he was very sweet and interested and not in the least a figure of fun. But for every one of those, there are a dozen who want to complain about everything under the sun. People fail to be impressed with the fact that I work in a place that allows one to take away thousands of dollars worth of merchandise for free, in addition to providing assistance to anyone with a question they can't answer alone. They have free access to the Internet, unlimited books/DVDs/CDs and all we ask is that they bring things back. They complain about a fine incurred because they were unable to bring back the materials on time (and 3 weeks is a long time to be allowed to keep something that isn't yours, not taking into account renewal possibilities) and can't understand why they should have to pay. And of course, there is the babysitting service. See here to understand. BUT . . . I am not complaining because regardless of the challenges, I love the library and I love my new home!

(though I miss Jane and Zelda dreadfully. And Sam and R. Batty, though I didn't see them much. But no Internet at home is really slowing me down)

The goal of life is living in agreement with nature. - Zeno

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Glad to know you're settling in and happy in your new home and library. Hoping you'll be getting into children's/YA services soon--can't wait to hear about it and if there will be a difference in patrons' interests there as opposed to what we have here. Desperately miss your booktalks! You'll have to blog some titles soon. At least we have you in "cyberland" (though not as good as in person). Kudos as usual!