mall haiku

On Hipster Paraphernalia
Listen, Urban Out
fitters: Polaroids are not
“retro.” They’re just old.

On Too Much Of A Good Thing
I never thought I’d
reach my Auntie Anne’s limit.
I did. It was six.

On [Im]Maturity
I don’t care how old
I am, I still squee! over
Disney-themed snowglobes.

On Spiritual Awakening
I have seen the light,

and yea, it is called cheese curds.
Rejoice and Be Glad.

On Self-Serve Frozen Yogurt Stands
Give me one reason
not to fill this thing up and
walk away. Yeah. Bye.

**

P.S. Thanks for the all the reply-shout-outs! I can’t believe it worked! You guys really are out there! This blog has a point!

cow cheese, YA Fic, and shout-outs

Since dinner was just completely unsatisfying (grilled chicken and steamed broccoli rarely is), I’m sitting here eating the other half of the turkey-and-Meunster-cheese sandwich that I bought from the library’s cafe today. That then sat in my purse for the rest of the afternoon.

…I know, I’m gross. The thing is, I’ll withstand just about any degree of deli-meat-lukewarmness if it’s slapped on a soft pumpernickel roll and paired with yummy, buttery cow cheese.

Aaaand now it is gone.

***

I’ve been on kind of a YA Fiction kick lately. Since I’ve been thinking about becoming a Teen Librarian, I figured I should probably make up for all the lost years I spent ignoring Laurie Halse Anderson and David Levithan in favor of short-short fiction and erasures.

Here’s what I’ve managed to read so far:

The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan

Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Uglies, Pretties, and Specials by Scott Westerfeld (I’m still debating whether I’ll keep reading Extras)

All in all, I’m blown away with the quality of current YA Fic. This is not the YA Fiction I remember reading when I was actually a Young Adult (although to be fair, I was drawn chiefly to books with hot pink covers back then). These books were far from fluffy, forgettable, or easy. More importantly, some of them (that would be Paper Town and Uglies) resonated with me, captured my imagination, and shocked my intellect back to life, more so than most of the books I read in college.

I guess what I’m saying is, I’m sold. If being a Teen Librarian means I get to support the community of authors that produce such great books, and help young adults (and old adults!) discover them, I’m sold. In fact, YOU should all go out and read all of these right now.

Right now I’m back in the land of Regular Fiction with Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. But I’m thinking Looking for Alaska (another book by John Green) and Geektastic! (a collection of short stories about teenage Nerd Life) are lined up next.

***

Shout out to Karen, Ilana, Abbey, Tintin, Caitlin, Katie, and Natalie (do you read my blog Natalie?). I miss you guys! What’s going on with all y’all?!

Sorry, Linds. I just saw you like, yesterday.

Why I’m a nerd

Why I’m a nerd:

I used the phrase “Joss is Boss” at a dinner party.

I read Terry Pratchett.

I get all teary-eyed when I hear the Shire theme from LOTR.

I depend on Digg as my primary news source.

I recently pre-ordered a CD called This Machine Pwns n00bs

I read so. Many. Webcomics. For instance,
Basic Instructions
cyanide and happiness
Girls With Slingshots
Questionable Content
Sam and Fuzzy
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cartoons (click the red button!)
Subnormality
Super Effective
xkcd

I know what Howl’s Moving Castle is.

I know what the fifth element is.

And I know what sectumsempra would do to you.

My nerd boyfriend and I are going to get a Corgi puppy and name him or her Einstein, after the genius dog in Cowboy Bebop.

Yeah, I said Cowboy Bebop.

You love it.

For the Jameses

James works in the library with me. He’s a supervisor of the maintenance staff — they fix the squeaking doors, re-wire the flickering ceiling light, clean up the bathrooms, replace locks, investigate mysterious stains, what have you. This is the first thing he ever said to me:

No reading at your desk!

I looked up, caught in the act (although to be fair, I was reading a scholarly journal, which is technically allowed). He was grinning. I grinned back.

James is an elderly black man who’s been working for the library for over 30 years.

He’s sprightly, though, and mentally, sharp as a tack. His teeth carry stains, probably from smoking. His fingernails are dry from work. His nail beds are just a mess.

When he found out I’d been hired, James found me in the computer lab and congratulated me in person. He gushed about how insanely awesome it was to work for the library. I asked him: What was your job before you started here?

He’d been a lot of things. A truck driver, for one, making a weekly trip to California and back to New Jersey, delivering I-forget-what.

He’d been the head of maintenance at a morgue in Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. Yes, he said, he saw dead bodies all the time. He had to cremate them, and move them from freezer to freezer. He chuckled at my grimace.

But he’d been a soldier first.

James is a Vietnam War veteran. But he doesn’t dwell on the war. He credits the service for taking him to amazing places: Thailand, India, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines. He remembers the Philippines so fondly that he donated enough books to a school there to fill up their entire library. He brags frequently about the plaque he received in thanks for his gift.

I’m thinking about James and his story today. And I’m thinking about all of our veterans, hoping that they all understand how much they are appreciated, all the time — even by reluctant patriots like myself.

you’re looking at the blog of a person with a JOB.

Almost everyone who reads this blog already knows this already, but I’ll post the announcement here, just because I love saying it:

The library offered me a job.

As in, the Director of the library pulled me out of my shift, sat me down in his office, and said “We’d like to offer you a position.”

I can’t believe I didn’t hug him and jump up and down and scream YOU’RE MY NEW BEST FRIEND OKAY? Instead I very calmly (but enthusiastically) listened to the details and answered his questions about hours and availability (HOURS! AND! AVAILABILITY!!!), nodding often and speaking very little.

The details are kind of underwhelming. The job is:

• a temp position — from now until the end of February. (But there were hints that if the library’s economic situation doesn’t change too drastically, I could be offered a permanent position at the end!)
• not much of a status change; I’m still a lowly clerk, cutting crafts and checking out books.
• getting me into three more departments: the Computer Lab/IT, Circulation, and Administration. I’ll be working a couple hours a week in each department as well as in Youth Services.
• 20-25 hours a week, so it’s a part-time job, and the pay isn’t much, but honestly, it feels like I won the lottery.

Dudes, this is my first post-college job. Oh wait…OK, this is my first post-college job that doesn’t involve making sandwiches. I can’t believe this is happening. The library’s already given me so much. I first met Alice and the Duchess and the White Rabbit in the pages of a library book. The first copy of Rent I listened to was property of the library. Then I graduated from college and came home feeling lost, wondering idly about becoming a librarian but too paralyzed by my TeacherFail to move forward. And the library gave me experience. It gave me Real Voices From LibraryLand. And now here I am, sure of myself, knowing with 100% of myself that I want to be a librarian, I AM a librarian, I always have been.

And now it’s given me a job. I simply can’t believe it, that this is my story. I haven’t felt like the world was busted open this wide since I decided to drop my Ed major. I’m beginning to feel like — wait for it — I’m gonna make it after all.