ooops, i forgot to post this

you miss me, don't you. i know. it's hard. but i'm a busy lady! and then earlier this week i came down with yet another sore throat. but luckily i was able to stave it off without becoming seriously ill! yay! so here are some tidbits for your enjoyment:

today this woman came in asking how to check her email. this is a normal thing. lots of times older patrons have set up an email account, either through a class or with the help of a young whipper-snapper relative, and now have no idea how to check it. so my friend approaches her. "do you have a library card?" she asks, "you'll need a library card to get on the computer. then i can show you how to check your email." seriously the patience of a saint, that one. so the woman looks at her, then looks at me and says, "oh, i need to get on a computer?" then my friend reiterates that yes you do need to get on a computer to check your email. then the woman frowns, obviously disappointed, "oh," she says, "i thought i could just check it. i didn't know i needed to use a computer." she says this as though we are going about unreasonable methods for e-mail checking, then she walks away. walks away! as if she might find a different solution elsewhere. as if at some other library maybe they can pull her emails out of the sky. damned. i wish we had that kind of technology. all we have is RFID.

then the other day i was talking with one of the teens that works in the library and she was asking me how long i've worked here. "you've been here a long time, right?" she asks. so i tell her i've been here almost a year and she says that she thinks that's the longest time a children's librarian has ever been here. wow. that's a bit sad. "so," she continues, "you must really like it here?" and i tell her that i do in fact like it here, and now that the atmosphere has changed to be the new peachy-go-lucky atmosphere that it is, i do like it here. and then i add, "you know, when i first got here the kids were crazy." she nods in agreement. i continue, "they were insane. but now they're actually really good." she agrees again, and then we have a nice little discussion about how it just takes a while for the kids in this neighborhood to trust anyone. and i left the library pondering how remarkable it is that these kids are now behaving and learning stuff. damned i'm good.