35. important update.

someone finally took the can of cat food.

34. free to a good home.

we have this designated table in the break room/kitchen at work for giveaway things. people put out whatever they bring in that's free for the taking- old magazines, tiny bottles of hand lotion, random housewares (i scored a basket once), etc. the other day it was looking particularly library-ish:

clockwise from upper left:
1. bookmark
2. can of organic cat food
3. a bracelet with the words, "some like it haute"
4. avon catalogs
5. early reader copies from the public library association conference in philly

around christmas, things were a little bleaker:

29. beyond the sea.

i'm presenting my first solo story time in the morning for 3-5 year olds.
this was really fun to put together, and helping plan the one last week was great practice.

we'll be reading about otters,

 rhyming about ocean friends, 

making paper bag puppets,

and of course, dancing.

my mom pointed out to me that the one thing i said i didn't want to do upon entering grad school was be a children's librarian.
i still don't know if i'd have the energy to do it full-time, but getting to work with kids at least some of the time is certainly a highlight of my job.
and frankly, making crafts and dancing around with toddlers sets a pretty good tone for the rest of the day.

23. roofi.

i'm being trained for toddler storytime and planning my first solo one at the end of the month, which involves a lot of looking up rhymes and picking songs.
and all i can think about is the simpsons.

this is going well.

21. not a lady.

a large vendor did a presentation at the library yesterday on upcoming children's releases. i didn't attend since it was my day off, but there were some leftover tote bags in the break room today for whomever wanted one.
i'm not one to pass on free library swag, but i was not expecting to find this among the YA werewolf/mermaid/ghost sex fantasy lit that filled most of the tote:

15. wandering eyes.

i proctored an exam for someone at the library today and it took me back to my first year of grad school in 2009. i got a job as an exam proctor, staring at undergraduates for $10 an hour in large lecture halls.
my favorite place to proctor was foellinger auditorium (capacity 2500), former site of my own class lectures and several concerts.
one time a student fell asleep during a three hour final ("no, it's okay, i'm almost finished"), another the proctors played a very silent, very slow game of tag.
we couldn't sit while proctoring, or read, or talk, or do anything but watch and circulate.
foellinger was the best because it had the most places to lean:

today's form of proctoring was much more agreeable: sign the student in and peek at her computer screen every 15 minutes or so. otherwise, go about my work.
i like my job.

11. weeding, two.

in december i was assigned to some of the 900s for weeding.
this was a bit more fun to browse, and i checked a few titles out along the way (but not these).

1. "from susan b. anthony to xena":

2. the shrutes?:

3. and just to test my emotional limits:

at least they can find good homes at the book sale.

03. weeding, one.

i may not be cataloging strange books anymore at my current library, but i do get a monthly weeding list. our policy is to generally discard things that haven't circulated in over year (with some exceptions).
i chose to document only the ones that appeared ridiculous. i really can't speak to the content of these particular items, and there are certainly people who enjoy these titles.


with that said, first on jc's chopping block (also the best possible section for me to weed because i have no emotional attachment to the content):

adult science fiction/fantasy 

1. because knives are for sharing:

2. it is 2012:

3. if princess leia was also a sim:

4. i'm afraid to see what the non-prodigal troll looks like:

5. more like mother of knives (am i right, people?):

 and as a bonus:

01. you say it's your birthday.

welcome back. i fell out of posting about the year 2-6 after returning from mongolia. i'm also bad at keeping in touch with people on a regular basis, so this might help.
a lot of changes since last january 7th: a new job, new state, new home, new $15 eyeglasses.
as my friend robin wrote in the card she sent me, this is my first full year as a "real" adult (the card had bananas on it, so it's pretty authoritative).
 it's strange, i very sincerely thought i was never going to find anything i liked doing, that i would spend my life in jobs that i hated, being generally unhappy for roughly 40 hours per week. i don't know why working in a library didn't occur to me until after i was already done with college, but i'm glad to have found it and am so grateful to have the job i do now. it may be far away from most people i know, but it sure feels like the right place for this moment, for this twenty-seventh year.

but i still wish we were all having cake together tonight.