not an idiot

So, the teens here most of the time think I'm pretty dumb and that I can't see through glass or if they squat down under a table I can't see what they're doing.  Mostly this involves eating or drinking, which they're not supposed to do in the library.  But yesterday morning when the library was pretty empty, a girl asked if she could use my desk phone.  I told her that phone calls are supposed to be made at the circulation desk and that someone up front could help her out.  She wasn't too happy with that answer, but she wandered over in the direction. 

About 20 minutes later she came back and asked if she could use my phone now.  I asked her if she had used the one at the front desk and she said that they wouldn't let her.  When I asked why, she just shrugged and acted like she had no idea.  So I asked her who she had to call, and a half second after she said "my friends" I continued my sentence that you can only use the phones to call parents.  She immediately said "yeah, I'm calling my parents."  When I said that I heard her just say that she was going to call her friends, she denied that she ever said that.  She continued denying until I told her that our standard practice was for the librarian to speak to the parents and ask that they come pick the teen up or whatever else the request was going to be.  She decided she didn't need to make that phone call then, but did ask to use my cell phone.  Surprisingly, that didn't fly either.

Woohoo

Some days, I get a lot of laughs.

good things

So, there are definitely a lot of great things that this library provides to the community, and it is really amazing to see how much the area uses this space.  But it really reinforces how important places like this are when I see people constantly coming in to use the computers to write their resumes or apply for jobs or take out books on studying for the GED.  Computer's don't seem to be ubiquitous in this area, which is something I know I just take for granted in my own life.  I can count the amount of laptops I've seen in this library on one hand even though we do offer free wi-fi.  The teen's are maybe not using the computer's here for things as important as job hunting and exam studying, but it's good for me to remember that they may not have a computer at home to check facebook or play silly games like I do.

To sum up, this place is still hard and challenging, but it's good for me to keep things in perspective.

resumes are hard to explain

an update

So, the blog has been quite quiet lately as I've been settling into my new job.  It has been a pretty crazy 2.5 weeks, and I've really just been insanely tired and whelmed.  The job is....good?  I guess?  It's ridiculously different from anything I've experienced and could have prepared for.  I'm not used to working with so few co-workers and I am certainly not used to being the one in charge when the manager is out, which has been quite a few times already. 

And the kids are tough.  They have been without a YA librarian for a few months, so we're all getting used to one another and I have hopes that once that get familiar with me being here it will be better.  But already I've had to call the police on a girl who took someone else's headphones, refused to give them back, and then refused to leave when I told her to.  And yesterday, we banned a girl for six months after she screamed in my face for not allowing her on the computer after I warned her 4 times that if she didn't stop shouting at her friends I would kick her off said computer.  Additionally, I heard some girls refer to me as a cowgirl, which sounded vaguely insulting the way they said it.  But I'm not quite sure what it meant.

It's really incredible to see how much they use this library.  They come here in droves after school and stay right up until we close.  They come in pretty early on Saturday, as well, and again stay all day.  I will be super interested to see if this continues once the weather gets warmer and when school lets out.  I have never experienced this in a library before, and it's great that they are using the space and that there is somewhere for them to go, but it just adds to the challenge.

So, that's the update!  I plan to be more consistent now that I'm getting into a routine here, so check back to read about the shenanigans that go down here.

So...this is insulting?

the end again

Today's my last day at MIT (again) and I am pretty darn happy about it.  While I am nervous about the new job because it's unknown and I feel like I finally know what I'm doing at my current position, it's just really time to get out of here.  But, as all things should end with cake, they are throwing a little going away party for me today.  I have normally tried to avoid a lot of social interaction here in the office, so I think this will be nice and awkward.  But.  There's cake!  So it can't be too bad.

If the event is as awkward as I am foreseeing, expect some updates later.  Maybe I should just liveblog my last day here to keep record for posterity.  We'll see what happens.

Yum

about time

So last week, Raybert and I were celebrating...

...the fact that I got a new job!  I will shortly be leaving MIT to take a new position as a Young Adult Librarian at one of the branches of the Boston Public Library.  I am very excited to finally get started in my chosen career, but more than a little nervous at the start of this new adventure.  My hope is that one day they will make a librarian action figure of me!

One day!

Snow Day Fail

It's really the worst having to get ready for work while your husband sinks back into slumber, happily returning to his dreams after receiving news that his office is closed for the day.  Due to snow that we didn't get.

I'm super cranky.  And this day is just not ending.

Winter's the Worst

Images of a Snow Day

Woke up early - couch time to catch up on my magazines.

Our street at about 9am.

Yeah, buffalo plaid snowboots!

I really like snow days.  Especially when Beet makes short ribs in the crockpot.  And I get to watch a marathon of 'Top Chef.'  It's just too bad I hate snow so much.

Did you get a snow day recently?  How did you spend it?

Hotel Bars

If there's one thing I love, it's hotels.

And if there's a second thing I love, it's hotel bars.

And then thirdly, I love Beet.

Yesterday the three came together as we went to a delightful hotel bar downtown to celebrate Bert's birthday.  We chose to go to City Bar in the Lenox Hotel because the lovely Miss Schroeder gave me a gift card there for my bridal shower.  Are you thinking best shower gift ever?  Because then you would be correct.

City Bar

I'm not quite sure what the allure of the hotel bar is for me.  They're always overpriced and often crowded and the drinks are sometimes not the best.  But I like traveling and I like the people watching that you can do there.  Of course the best hotel bar in  Boston used to be the one at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, where no matter when you went the same crew of old cronies would show up to party hard.   They were a group of beyond middle-aged men and women, the men quite dapperly dressed, who would stand pounding drinks at the bar, waiting to proposition young women to dance.  This place was the best and I still mourn it's loss.

Bowling

Bowling has always played a part in my life.  When I was little, I was jealous of all the trophy's my older brother had from various academic and athletic ventures, so my mother gave me her only trophy so I could pretend I had one, too (I know, it's a little sad).  Her trophy was from the bowling league she joined when my brother was born, because he was a bit of a crier and the bowling alley offered free babysitting.  Brilliance does run in the family, it's true.  Anyway, she was a terrible bowler, but she still got a trophy at the end of the season, and it has been a prized Withers family possession ever since.

Bringing the story full circle, Beet and I just signed up for a bowling league this winter with some of our friends.  I'm so excited.  I can't wait to orchestrate the entire crowd singing the classic song "Score Tonight" from one of my top-3 favorite movies, "Grease 2."  It is going to be epic.

 

Score Tonight! 

Fun fact!  When I was in high school, I had a bowling birthday party, and my two of my friend's and I learned this song and dance and performed.  Not at all embarrassing and completely awesome!

Secondly

A lot of nutters come to the library.  They often don't like to make use of the material at the library, they just like to chat with whoever will listen.  As people stuck behind the reference desk with no means of escape, they normally talk with the reference librarian, and will not stop unless forced to.  When I'm there, it's almost always with someone else, and as I am not big on small talk in general but especially not with randoms in the library, they usually lose interest in me after a bit and move on to someone else.  Until last night.

Picture it.  I'm alone at the reference desk as my fellow librarian has gone to eat dinner.  Solo nutter comes up to the desk to ask me about the nearby grandfather clock and when it will ring.  He commences speaking about how it sounds like an organ and that organs are used to make music on carousels.  He then asks me if I like the park.  What park, I ask.  Disney World, he replies.

How did random nutter know?

I've never been, I say as I will myself to stay silent on the subject and that he will move on.  This is a tough one for me.  I can be a bit fanatical about Disney, and having just returned from a trip, I am anxious to share my stories.  But he does not stop there.  He begins regaling me with the history of Disney World, getting fact after fact wrong.  I am not responding at all, so if I had shown the slightest bit of interest he would never have left.  The strength it took to not correct him or go into a detailed conversation with him about the merits of the Carousel of Progress was something I did not know I had in me.  If I had joined in, a passerby would not have known who the nutter was.  After 10 minutes, he grew bored with my lack of knowledge about Disney World and moved on, allowing me to finally talk to all the library patrons who had been waiting for him to finish.  I will now cross my fingers that the next time I'm working at the library, a loon will not start spouting incorrect facts about Harry Potter.  I don't know how I can resist a second time.