The First Week of Work

If this was the first of thousands of weeks of work before I am allowed to retire and die, then I guess I'm going to be just fine.

In the mornings a handful of kids hang out before the bell, reading magazines and Far Side comics in the beanbag chairs. I am then left alone for hours to work through the considerable backlog of books. Some are brand new, some are donated. I catalog them, barcode and label them, tape their spines, jacket the covers in plastic, then put them up on the new book display, and by the time my afternoon classes are through, most are checked out. I average about 15 books a day, with hundreds still to go. Teachers browse throughout the day, offering suggestions for books and videos they would like. In the afternoons, between classes (20 minutes of frantic book checking with 15 kids), I make up lists of potential books to purchase. On Monday I will be placing my first order for supplies; book tape and book covers. I'm working on decorating my door with construction paper frogs and butterflies. There is no monotony, no boredom. It's great. Next week I'm putting out a sign-up sheet so teachers can bring in their classes steadily every week, as they have been on a starvation schedule due to having no librarian for a year. I'll have to do storytime and book talks, as well as teaching information literacy. This was intimidating until I learned that I would have a short 10 minutes to do this before the kids are set loose to browse and check out books. No problem. My biggest task will be figuring out which books to read every week, and that is no chore at all. I want to make up pathfinders to internet resources, and create a fun poster to help visually identify the Dewey Decimal System, and make up flyers of cool books for the high school kids (who appear to be allergic to the library). As I drive home, I get to see the Koolau mountains in afternoon light. Not a bad way to earn a living.

I rarely see Mike. I leave at 6:15am, before he is awake, and he heads to work just as I arrive home. Yesterday I came home a bit late; he turned his motorcycle around and came home just to hug me before heading back out to work. Today will be the first day I've had time with him since Monday, but even tonight he has to work, so no movie date for us. This will change once he quits his theater job (although we will also have no more free movies). But we're good, I think.

Giant beers from Dixie Grill are on me once I get my first paycheck, Yuri and Marie.

So I am busy and happy at work. I got very excited about the season premier of Battlestar Galactica last night.  Gavin has been doing just fine with his 8 hours of independence from me every day, we spend the evening laying around demolishing leftover Christmas candy and pushing his trains around in circles.

Not bad.