And I'm trying to avoid political discussions because they make me sick. So I have a short list of people I am willing to engage in political conversation... e.g. My mom and David.
I've been struggling to keep up with my homework and classes, etc. I ended up calling in sick to work today because I needed to rest after my party last night. It's okay though, because I have plenty of sick leave.
I was upset by my Latin teacher this week because he gave my class a big lecture about how we are lazy, etc and how he worked his way through college and that maybe that was the reason he always took his classes seriously as opposed to modern students. It hurt my feelings a little because I've been working really hard lately both with school and work, and sometimes I feel like none of it makes any difference. The library is still falling behind and my teachers still lecture me like I'm some jobless loser living in the dorms.
Well, I guess I'll leave you with a cruddy little excerpt of a piece that I had to write for my nonfiction writing class. It isn't finished and its a bit pieced together, but it's something. Maybe not square pancakes, but it's something:
Crumpled Hearts -- excerpt
"Ma'am, would you like your receipt?" A woman with a large pile of children's books was quickly moving away from the circulation desk towards the exit. She looked back at me and her curled receipt, looped into a heart.
"Uh, no that's okay. You can keep it." It was just such a strange way to word it. She didn't ask me to throw it away. She told me to keep it like it was some great gift.
Keep it. As if I would place it in a jar, close it up tight, and set it over the fire place.
She didn't want my heart, so I held it to my breast --
"I'll treasure it always."
-- and crumpled it into the overflowing trash can.
Receipt slips are perfect for making little paper hearts. The longer the strip of paper, the better it is for the craft. Fold the strip in half as many times as you can, but don't crease anything until you can't fold anymore. Then pinch the end with only one loop so that it is flat. The other side will have two loops of paper that form a heart.
I give my hearts out twenty hours a week to patrons of the Centreville Regional Library where I work as a Library Aide. I cannot remember when I began doing this, but it was at some point within the past five months that I have been working at the circulation desk.
I began working at the library as a Page just after I graduated from high school in June 2006. My new bosses were two middle-aged women, one from India and the other from Baghdad. Their thick accents were confusing and hard to understand at first, but I soon came to love the rich sounds they gave to flat English words. Not to mention, their fashion and class could not be outmatched.
I came home after my first day there and professed to my mother that I finally fit in somewhere and that my coworkers were just like me. These people cared about books and people and were changing the world little by little by keeping the library up and going.
Not only that, but I was one of their prized possessions. I had volunteered in a library before and could quickly and accurately put books in order. It's surprising how hard it is to come by people who actually know and understand proper letter and number ordering.
ABC...123... R comes after S, right?
I was given my own little cubby box and a locker with a key I could wear on the lanyard around my neck. The shoe-lace like string also had a tag with the lettering "LIBRARY STAFF." I often wore the lanyard after my shift as if it were an expensive necklace. My mother even crafted a beaded one for me so that I could look fancy. I was going to make some for Christmas to give to the rest of the staff, but another worker made a bunch and sold them for $10.00 a piece in the break room, so I just wore mine until the wire broke.
I was told that the management wanted to promote me to a Library Aide after 6 months.
It took two years, repetitive stress injury, and almost quitting several times, but I did indeed get promoted to the circulation desk. This meant double the time and a whole $5.00 more per hour in pay.
By then I had lost the key to my locker, broken my beaded lanyard several times before resorting to a faded clip-on "LIBRARY STAFF" badge, and my Page Managers had each found better positions at different libraries.
I never did return that badge even after I got my new lanyard with a professional photo ID from the Fairfax County Government Center. It's still sitting in one of my drawers somewhere, probably beside the school bus patrol badge and sash that I never returned to my rotten guidance counselor in sixth grade.
And now I listen to patrons complaining about fines and the way it is "highway robbery." And when they finally pay their 25 cents and check out some books, I hand them one of my hearts.
Most people stuff the receipts into their pockets or purses right after I hand it to them. Others simply ask me to throw it into the trash. And, of course, there are always those environmentally-conscious people who yell at me for printing the receipt and wasting paper in the first place.
"What do you mean 'it prints out automatically'?"
"Well, the idea is that patrons should keep the receipts so that they can better keep track of when books are due."
"Well, whatever. You at least recycle, don't you?"
At that point, I usually just say, "Yup," as I toss it into the wastebasket behind the desk. We do have recycling bins, but the therapy in tossing those people's receipts in the trash is far too comforting to compromise.
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