Day in the Life of an Idiot

 ...at the library. Wish me luck.

At least I've only agreed to work at libraries that are not opening at ALL to the public. Even so? I'm not looking forward to it.

 I still don't feel like I've been reading very much, but I am mostly keeping up with daily The New York Times. I also did some heavy skimming/light reading of the Star Trek: Adventures RPG; Science Division book that showed up the other day. I also got mostly through the introduction of the Indigenous SF anthology that came at the same time as the RPG manual before my brain did that thing that it's been doing during the pandemic where it just sort of goes "blah, blah, blah, wouldn't you rather think about how many potential virus vectors you encountered today??"

No, I would not.

Though I will say that working at the library was FINE. Like, probably the room is on fire fine, but it was so crazy-busy that I didn't have a chance to really think about it. Turns out, the good people of White Bear Lake pretty much think that paper books are as essential as groceries... and as a lifelong reader and erstwhile writer, I can not fault them? But, do wish a larger percentage of them would wear masks while picking up their "curbside" delivered books. However, the phone rang off the hook while I was there with people scheduling their pick-ups (which involves us checking the books they placed on hold out for them.) So, that was a blur of activity that I am only just now starting to recover from. 

But the people who work at libraries (librarians and circulation staff) are more often than not people who are very conscientious about rules and good practices and following policies and procedures... and helping OTHER people, so, like I felt like everyone I worked with was compliant to the best of their ability. 

One thing I learned, though, is that, if it is hot, it is impossible to get a drink of cold water without taking your mask off momentarily. It's also unreasonable to imagine that you or your colleagues won't need a single drink of water the entire time they're working. So, masks did come off now and again. It simply can't be helped. I did my best to be away from my colleagues when I took my sips, but seriously, I can not go to the car or something every time I need a drink, not when the phones are ringing constantly. 

I mean, we all did our best? But this isn't a surgical theater.  

They were quarantining books for a week, however, so at least I didn't have to deal with check-in. However, I was doing the delivery one box load at a time so that I could do it in the few seconds when the phone wasn't ringing. Because, if we don't keep up with simple maintenance, there will be no books available for people to check out.

It was pretty insane.

Not sure how often I'm going to be willing to do that again. Fortunately, I don't need this job. I feel so much more empathy than I already did for essential workers and anyone else doing service/public-oriented work. I had already been doubling my 20% tip, but I'm not sure that's enough gratitude to gap the inequity of the distance between those who can drop-in, maskless, for a cup of coffee and wander back to their work-at-home and the people who spend all day working to fill those cups.

 Hisashiburi desu! Long time, no see!

How is everyone?

I've been obviously kind of out of it. Once again, I don't have any particularly good reason, although, as I reported earlier, I was at Maplewood Library a TON last week, filling in for someone having a family crisis. I was there Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday mornings, all morning, until 3pm.  I like Maplewood. Once again, I got a vague non-offer to consider working there more regularly...which I would love, but, as I told them, that's not even in the picture until we get Mason off to whatever college/university he's considering sometime after next year. 

It's physically demanding work, though?

I know that most people imagine working at the library as very genteel. Shelving books at leisurely pace, answering one or two patron's questions in a quiet, contemplative space, while sitting at a desk surrounded by books.... no, I WISH. I liken being a circulation staff member to working at a book factory. It's HARD labor. When I come in, typically, there are deliveries to tackle. Deliveries come in HEAVY plastic boxes and giant metal bins almost as tall as I am. When I'm at Maplewood, Shoreview, or Roseville, the GOOD NEWS is that I don't have to check-in all those books by hand, but I do have to put them on a conveyor belt that sorts them into the appropriate bins. When bins fill, they need to be sorted by hand, but they are at least all of a type, say, all the fiction (though you do have to separate the genres, make sure the new books go to the right book truck, etc., etc.) There are also movies and other media that need to be sight checked before they can go onto carts, because people will forget discs or put in the wrong ones. Then, there's all the requests, which the bin sorts, except, we have to print out receipts for each one and get those alphabetically by borrower on a separate cart.... and that's just when you're working the check-in machine. Remember, too, you are lifting boxes and twisting and setting books onto the belt. I literally sweat doing this work, because it has to be done before the SECOND delivery comes and you start it all over again.

If you're not on the machine, you're doing all sorts of other check-in work, except by hand. There's all the expired-requests that have to get taken off the hold shelves and returned to other libraries, request lists from other libraries that need to be pulled from the shelves and hand checked in to print out the slips and sorted into the appropriate boxes to be shipped to the right libraries, etc., etc., etc., until your arms are tired, your brain is fried, and your feet hurt.

Even so, I hate shelving the most. I know a lot of people who have volunteered or worked as high schoolers in a library who think back fondly of being in the stacks and shelving or sight-reading the shelves. I actually don't hate sight-reading, but if you think that we ever have time for such a leisurely activity at one of the Ramsey County libraries, hahahahahahahaha! (<--insane laughter.) I hate shelving because it's also a time crunch and a lot of it is, oh, here's yet another Vince Flynn book to stick with the thousands of others or James Patterson or Nora Roberts.  It's not the "oooo, look at this precious gem of an unknown author that looks so interesting...." 

That might be the fault of Ramsey County, though, because they are not in the habit of keeping things on their shelves that people don't check out regularly. 

I do love shelving in the manga and comic book sections because they're often small enough that I can do a little sight-reading (making sure all the volumes are in the right order, etc.) and shelf straightening and browsing. 

But, yeah, normally, it's not RELAXING. I still love the work, however, don't get me wrong, I just really wanted to write this to disabuse people of the sense they seem to have that my job is somehow slow-paced and pleasant. (No, I get 11.50/hr. to break my back lifting boxes of books). But, yes, I still like this job better than almost any other that I have ever had, because love books that much. And libraries attract the very best co-workers. The VERY best.

Also, I have a weird sort of pride in how busy our libraries are. So, like while I'm sweating, I'm thinking, "Yeah, you know, we're only this busy because people are reading this MUCH." Which makes me happy?  Plus, libraries these days provide so many services. One of the reasons they wanted to make sure someone was covering this last week is because they started up their annual AARP tax help service--which is free by the way and open to anyone, just the AARP sponsors it and it's aimed at helping seniors. But, this means, there's a LINE waiting to get in in the mornings, because it's first come, first serve.

Libraries are crazy, awesome places.

And, word has gotten out that I am a manga fan so I actually am going to have a chance to talk to one of the major manga purchasers for my library and give them my fantasy list of titles I want them to buy. I've been collecting titles all week, in fact. If you are a manga fan, feel free to drop a title in my comments, but, it may be a surprise to you, but the library has a LOT of the titles you're probably thinking of, even brand-new stuff, but certainly most of the "classics." I've actually learned about hot new manga from the library. I read most of My Hero Academia through the library and One-Punch Man. 

In fact, I just binge watched the first season of an anime that I discovered as a manga at my library: Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku. 

So, you know, it's all good. 

So, tell me something that would surprise me about YOUR job!

 Me, apparently.

And, then I promptly forgot I was supposed to be at White Bear Lake library until I got a call from my boss about twenty minutes after I was supposed to have started, who said, "So... are you planning on going to White Bear?" There was some work inappropriate swearing, fumbling, and rushing out the door. I made it in an hour late.  White Bear was surprisingly gracious, even though I kind of looked a bit like I'd rolled out of bed. 

The other funny part of this story was that I was doing the dishes before my boss called, and I was watching a very SPECIAL episode of "Morose Mononokean." It was a story about saying goodbye to a friend and I was sobbing like a fool. So, when I answered the call from my boss I was clearly coming off a crying jag, which may be why I got a question instead of a stern talking to?  

I'm going to go with yes.

Surprise!Work, of course, derailed all the things I was going to get done yesterday, but I mean, it was a rainy, dreary day anyway, so I might as well have spent it making a few dollars.

I have double-checked the calendar. I do NOT work today. So, hopefully, between that and the sunshine, I will get some stuff done today.

...so that means I'll probably get nothing else done today.

Though to be more accurate, I started the day out feeling extremely stymied.

We seem to have developed a slow leak in one of the rear tires of our car. Mason, who would like to practice driving, had been bugging me to take care of it for days. Today, I finally decided that I would drive to my mechanic and see if they could just do that quick thing where they check for leaks, slap on a patch, and you drive away. ALAS. Tor told me that they can't get me in, even for something simple, until Monday. Poo. So, I drove home and made myself coffee.

Determined to get something done today, I decided to try to log-in to my work e-mail account. Ramsey County was hacked some time in September and so they briefly locked out all of us who were remote accessing. I thought that I had been keeping up on all the memos as to when/how it would be fixed, but apparently I missed a critical one that told me some instructions to get reconnected from home. So, when I attempted to log-in this morning from home (I wanted to figure out my work schedule for November as I missed most of October and, you know, a paycheck is important,) I got the weirdest message which was, paraphrasing, "Yep, your info is good, right log-in and password, but we're not letting you in because you're on a browser." I was like, "WTF." So, I called in to my supervisor and left a rambling message, because I had wanted to check in about a half-dozen things: my schedule, the up-coming Inservice day, and also now this whole "what is up with my email thing."

I thought, man, I need more coffee.

So, just as I sat down to complain to my online friends about how everything I tried to do today was blocked, I got the call from Amber at work and the fix is in, as it were. Whoo! I will still have to follow some instructions on my email to figure out how to log back in, BUT I now know when and where the inservice is and I have several dates to work in November.

Since I felt like I was on a streak, I texted a friend that I have neglected to get back to in a while and hopefully he and I can connect this upcoming Sunday, as Shawn and I are signed-up to do the "fall colors" tour in Lakewood Cemetery at 2 pm. It goes rain or shine, but I sure hope we FINALLY get a break in the rain.

In other news, Mason brought home a rather curious award from one of his debate tournaments last week:



The award reads "Fifth Speaker" which felt to me as if it were missing the word "BEST," but, because I first posted a jokey post about this on social media, I was inundated with explanations as to what this means in debate. Probably the best one came from my FB friend Laurinda Holm: "As a high school (and college) debater, I can tell you the 'best' is assumed and this is really good. It means he had the 5th most speaker points in his division."  My family, of course, just finds the wording humorous and Mason has been running around telling people silly things like, "I don't know who you think you are, but I'm Fifth Speaker." :-)

It does seem like he got an award for speaking fifth in a row, you know? Like, hey, you went fifth, so here's an award!

Anyway.

Otherwise, the New York Times thinks all y'all should catch up with us cool kids and write hand-written letters via snail mail. "We Could All Use a Little Snail Mail Right Now.'

My birthday is coming up in about a month (Nov. 18) so y'all have time to write to me.

Yeah, I know it's not necessarily unseasonable weather, but, frankly, I'm tired of it.

I'd been hoping that the snuggly weather would make me feel in a writerly mood, but, instead, I've been kind of zoned out or distractible all day. This kind of weather always makes me want to cook and eat All The Things. So, I distracted myself with some cooking. I made a big batch of borscht again this morning and had two huge bowls for breakfast/brunch. I pity my co-workers at Maplewood tonight. (Beets make me FART.)

I didn't really want to say 'yes' to work tonight, but, somehow, I managed to miss the call last month for regular hours for THIS month.  It's kind of on-call for me for April, or nothing at all. Of course, tonight is kind of the worst possible night to have to drive all the way to Maplewood (and back after 9 pm!) They're expecting as much as 8 inches?

Did I mention how done I am with this weather?

We keep getting random texts throughout the day from Mason.  Today's best one was, "Have seen three street preachers in two days so far.  If you listen closely you can hear hundreds of people's un-given f*cks."

That's my boy, the comedian.

He also reported today that they were on the Staten Island ferry, so presumably they made it to see the Statue of Liberty and all that.  Ms. Auyeung's itinerary for them was fairly ambitious. They had to bail on a bunch of things yesterday, though I notice things aren't so tightly packed today.  Today it was supposed to be: Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange, Battery Park and ferry to Staten Island (for AM), in the afternoon: Manhattan Chinatown for lunch, Museum of Chinese in America, some shopping time after, and then...?  She has nothing for the evening, but they're staying in the Chinatown in Queens (which apparently at one time was known as "Little Taipei" for all the Taiwanese that settled there) so I suspect they'll explore their own neighborhood, as it were, in the evening.

I'm really sad that I'll miss whatever texts come through while I'm at work tonight, but I'm so glad that he seems to be having fun.  Apparently, they only briefly lost some students in Times Square.... 

Yesterday, at work, one of the librarians came over and asked me, "What's this thing you were a...speaker (?) at recently? Or maybe coming up?"  I look at her for a long moment, because, honestly, I have a terrible time remembering the names of people I work with regularly, and I'm also thinking, 'do mundanes know about cons?'  Hesitantly, I say, "Uh, well... I'm going to be a guest of honor at MiniCON over Easter weekend?" She shakes her head, "No, no this would be something recent."  "MarsCON?" I offer in my squeakiest, most uncertain voice. She smiles with recognition. "Yes, that's it!"

Then, without missing a beat, she adds, "What *is* it?"

Which is good, because, briefly, I was totally freaking out that someone outside of our community might actually be aware of the local SF scene. I mean, heaven forbid!  (TEASING. It would be lovely if regular people started knowing more about what we do.)

I've been wracking my brain ever since, trying to figure out how this person even heard of MarsCON in the first place. It occurs to me only just NOW that John, the branch manager at Roseville, called me Saturday morning hoping I could work a few hours. I told him that normally, I totally would, but that I was headed off to a panel at MarsCON. It's entirely possible that John mentioned that in passing (because I gave HIM a quick low-down on what MarsCON was, too) to other folks at the library.  Probably people figured it was something as cool as ComiCON in San Deigo and were shocked that something like that existed here in Minnesota.  (Don't worry, I put that idea to rest.  I told the librarian "You can think ComiCON, but think on a significantly smaller scale with more nerds and fewer celebrities." I think that's fairly accurate, wouldn't you?)

That was one interesting thing that happened at work.

The other is that a few minutes later,  I had to show something to the librarian... regarding their change in how graphic novels are going to be shelved. They've decided, I think wisely, to shelve by title. Okay, let me back up, here's what's dumb is that they kind of did this before, but it was somewhat haphazard. Like, they might collect a single copy of something, like AMERICAN BORN CHINESE and shelve it by author (makes sense) and then put all the SPIDER-MANs together (also makes sense, until you get to the fact that 9 out of 10 circulation staff don't READ comic books, don't bother to check the list to see which titles are series being collected, and don't understand how graphic novels are organized in terms of is Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man title, yes or no?)  The previous "solution" (which actually worked fine for the most part) was to organize first by collected series title (Spider-Man) and then by author (Bendis) and then by volume (number.)  

As any long-time superhero comic book reader will tell you that MOSTLY works, until, of course you hit the end of JMS's run of Spider-Man and the final volume in that series is actually written by someone else entire, since JMS quit over artistic differences.  (which is, of course, very different than manga where the mangaka and the manga are inseparable. You could organize manga by author, since the author never changes. They do those by title, because that's how most readers look for manga.)

To solve this, the libraries figured that they would just switch to volume title and volume number.  Hahahahahaha!  Yeah, that's WORSE. Because they're not collecting individual comic books (which are, for the most part numbered sequentially) but graphic novels, which collect, say issues 147-153, but might be volume 5 of Fraction's run.  So, I pulled out three AMAZING SPIDER-MAN volume 5s to show them this problem. I should have shown them the title page that explains which issues are collected, because honestly, if they organized this by ISSUE numbers they could mostly solve this.

But, the likelihood that they care this much about graphic novels is low. The comic book section will become a complete mess where Spider-Man will have 17 number 5s ALL FROM COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY ARCS and readers will be like, "WTF" and probably stop bothering to follow an arc.

Which is too bad, because, frankly, comic books/graphic novels are expensive and I feel like more comic book fans would read collections via the library if they knew they collected them (and how to find the ones they wanted.)  

So, yeah, that was work.

 I have to leave for work in 20-some minutes. I have a short shift at White Bear Lake: 10 am to 2 pm.  Four hours should be very do-able, even though White Bear is one of the branches that's small enough to be busy/not busy in odd ways.  I'm sure it will be fine, though, I like the people there a lot.  White Bear has a strong science fiction collection.

Otherwise, like a lot of people, I've been cheering on the surviving students from Stoneman Douglas in Florida. When people are asking "why are these students so different than those that came before," I think it's important to note that this is the year Teen Vogue went rogue, went radical.  I think it's just as important to note that the student leaders are mostly white and affluent. Sadly, their whiteness means they're being listened to in a way others have not been.  But that does not negate the power of their message. If it takes a cis-perceived, straight-perceived white boy to bring down the NRA and to stand up to Rubio and make the news, I'll stand behind him.  I'll stand behind all of them. 

I've already told Mason he has our blessing to walk out of school, to organize... whatever he needs to do to not feel helpless in this day and age. I tell him every day to smash the patriarchy, and this is how you do it. 

Right, well, I'm off to work.  Viva la revolution, my comrades.

Wow, today, huh? It started out nice enough with a Valentine's Day smooch from my wife, but then it proceeded to get... hassle-ish? Shawn needed to pick up doughnuts for her volunteers. We stopped at our usual place, Sugah Rush, only to discover a sign that said "Closed" with a "back at 7:30" sign underneath that.  Okay, that was weird, since they're usually up and running at 6:30 am, but okay. I dropped Mason off, then Shawn, bought myself a coffee, and drove back. I arrived at 7:32 am. The door was still closed. So I waved over the counter girl who explained, that no, they were closed the whole week (possibly for Chinese New Year?) I suggested maybe they handwrite a sign? Because we could have gone somewhere else rather than looping back.

I go next to Wollet's, which is open, but significantly more expensive. I make up the difference between what Shawn gave me from petty cash and have the nice lady there give me an assortment.

Off I go to MHS. Only to discover that the History Center's doors are locked AND I'm completely out of minutes on my phone. I see someone coming in and I say, "Excuse me, these doughnuts need to go to Shawn Rounds in the State Archives. Could you deliver them?" He says he could, and I think, "Okay, good. PROBLEM SOLVED."

Only, when I finally get home and call Shawn on the landline, she hasn't seen her doughnuts.

I think someone just stole our doughnuts.

I'm hoping Shawn will call soon and let me know that I'm wrong and that they actually arrived, unscathed.

It's Reading Wednesday also, I guess? Well, I finished that manuscript that's been hanging around my neck like an albatross. So, that's definitely a good thing. I also read Tropic of Kansas by Christopher Brown, which is a book that I got from the library which was listed on the most recent Locus Magazine "recommended reading list," in the subcategory of debut authors. I like reading debut authors for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that since they're brand-new, it's extremely unlikely that I'll have to hunt up the rest of a series in order to enjoy their current title (sometimes, of course, this might be a first novel, but they have a ton of short fiction.) Also, obviously, it gives me a taste of the new blood coming into science fiction/fantasy.

I really liked Tropic of Kansas. I'm going to go over to Goodreads in a bit and see if I'm alone in this. Thing is, I could see people feeling differently, if only because the book very much goes off the "if things continue this way" premise of Trump-inspired future. Brown does take some pains to make it clear this is actually an AU, (Reagan's assassination is successful, for one,) but the fascist dictator and his "first girlfriends" bare a certain resemblance in spirit to 45. Luckily, the story is about the underground attempt to overthrow fascism, which is always a story I can read, even in these, the waning days of Babylon. (Goodreads has very mixed reviews that do seem to depend somewhat on one's political leanings.)

I read a couple of fluff volumes of manga, too. I read Plum Crazy!: Tales of a Tiger-Striped Cat (volumes 1 & 2) by Natsumi Hashing. I picked those up at the library, in the juvenile section (even though its Japanese publishing rating is  'josei' which is for more adult readers). This is a story about people who own cats, or maybe cats who own people.  Plum belongs to the household of a woman and her son who run a traditional dance studio in small town Japan.  Plum has adventures there and, along the way, discovers an abandoned kitten, who she rescues and who causes all sorts of trouble. It is, however, kind of about nothing at all... which is often the kind of slice-of-life manga I adore tremendously.  A good antidote to the dystopia of Tropic of Kansas.

What are you reading?

I'm off in a little bit to go fetch some ingredients for Mason's Chinese class. He and another student are making "longevity noodles with chicken" for the class's Chinese New Year celebration tomorrow.  I'm thinking about hitting United Noodle because I love that place. (I'm pretty sure I could get the noodles elsewhere, but hey, and excuse to go to United Noodle for the win!)

UPDATED DOUGHNUT STATUS: UNDELIVERED. But, Shawn was able, through an MHS-wide email, discover that my "helper" had dropped them off at the information desk with no note or explanation. Shawn is on her way to pick them up now. 

In related news, I now have minutes on my phone.

I had a seven-hour shift at New Brighton library today. It was... well, there were a couple of things that made it a little rough around the edges. One, the library shares its space with the Eagle's Nest, an indoor play place. Saturdays are especially busy because a lot of parents book it for birthday parties, and when there's overflow the staff at the play place helpfully suggest that parents and their squirrel-y children could go "hang out" in the library. I think that this is, on paper, a good idea. There are a lot of people who go to this community center who would not otherwise think to stop at the library. But this is functionally a bad idea because the kids really want to play, they don't want to sit and read, they want to be at the Eagle's Nest RUNNING AROUND AND SCREAMING THEIR HEADS OFF.

So, that made work... entertaining. I was told that I needed to clean up the children's room more often than normal because the kids tend to destroy it. Though, to be fair, not ALWAYS. Once, when I went in to clean, there was a dad with a small boy in the room. The place had clearly been, let's say, fully explored. I stopped in my tracks, because there's no point cleaning up when someone is actively playing. That makes people feel like they have to leave. So, I just smiled and probably muttered, "Oh, you're still at it; I'll come back and clean everything up later." When I came back, five minutes later, they had done it for me. That was nice.

The other thing that was rough? I worked seven hours with two other people who were... particular. A lot of librarians/circulation staff are. Being a little OCD is considered a feature, not a bug in the library business. Normally, I have no problem rolling with it, but normally I'm only there for half a day. A full seven hours with people who neaten your neatening is a little demoralizing. At one point I was told to go stack some weeded books on a table. I did that. Stacking books is not a difficult job, I figured. You pile them up in an orderly fashion so that none of them will fall and that's a job well done, right? I came back to the backroom for something and my pile had been rearranged. Nothing makes a person feel more incompetent to find something they just did, redone.

But that's over now, and I have resolved never to work there for a full 8 hours again. I will happily take short shifts, but now I know that any longer and I might murder my co-workers.

In happier news, Shawn bought herself a bento box. I like to tell her it's the best thing she ever bought for herself that's clearly actually FOR ME. I have been having a tremendous amount of fun packing her lunch and making it "kawaii." (The overused by otaku, Japanese word for cute.)

Traditionally, bento boxes are wrapped in cloth that can serve as a napkin/tablecloth. So, this is the box wrapped in one of our checked napkins:



Then, just to show you the box:



This particular brand of bento box came with a wooden spoon and a fork, which aren't pictured. The elastic strap holds the two sections together and you can tuck the silverware underneath it on the top.

Here's the first lunch I made her:




(The top part is furthest from us in the picture.) You see the top part with the little dividers (bought separately, alas) with cheese and baby carrots. The circle is a turkey sandwich cut with a cookie cutter. The lower tray has candy hearts, a star shaped turkey sandwich and girl scout thin mint cookies. A thoroughly American adaptation of a Japanese tradition.  :-)

I have never had so much fun making someone else's lunch.

On Friday night the whole family went over to my friend Sean Murphy's house to watch the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. That was a lot of fun.  I have one take-away: Tongan athletes are HOT and should be required to compete half-naked as well.  Otherwise, it was fun to try to listen for the one phrase I remember from Korean (our martial arts was Korean, so we counted and said a few phrases in Korean) which is "thank you very much."  

Okay, it's early, but I might go to bed soon. I was hoping to write a few letters to my pen pals.  I'm not sure I'm going to be able to keep my eyes open long enough, however. Work really took a lot out of me.