Library @ MindSay

Something new has happened in my job. I have been loaned out to another library. Yep, just like a bestselling novel, people wanted me and they loaned me out.

 

As it happens, the staff at a much larger library than mine is interested in doing staff exchanges. I was selected to be the guinea pig for this trial run. What happens is that for four days throughout July, I will be traveling to the larger branch and working my shift over there.

 

In return, they will be sending a staff member to my much smaller branch to work in my place. I think it is a pretty exciting opportunity for all involved. It is great to give people a glimpse into the daily hum of the different branches. Being mostly through my first shift, I can say for certain, these are two vastly diverse approaches to librarianship.

 

I can tell you that I already enjoy the experience, for one, I am meeting new people in my field and they tell me networking is a great idea. For two, I am gaining better experiences by working in a larger more bustling library. Finally, it is just plain fun to mix it up a bit.

 

Now, a small caveat; this is only the end of my first shift here--talk to me after I have done the next three and we'll reevaluate the whole situation. If all goes well, I'll still be feeling this good about being loaned out like a tattered, dog-eared paperback.

I get asked all the time about interesting and humorous questions at the library. I do my best to remember them, but this one I feel compelled to report.

 

It was around lunchtime today and I was alone at the desk. There were two customers waiting to be helped and then the phone rang. I picked it up and said, "Information Desk, can you hold please?" A guy replied, "NO! This is urgent." I said, "okay, how may I help you?" He said, "there is someone breaking into a car in your parking lot, call the police." And then he hung up.

 

The guy was very abrupt with me and I was immediately suspicious. He gave me no chance to ask questions or anything, I couldn't get his name, the whole thing was odd. So, I told the waiting customers that they would have to wait just a couple more minutes.

 

Following procedure, I called the security office and reported the incident, as our in-house officer wasn't yet in for the day. They put out a call to the roving patrol, who called me back in a minute. Jeremy, the officer on-call, asked me for details, which I couldn't give because I didn't have any. Jeremy said he was nearby and would be there in five minutes. In the meantime he said he would send Richfield PD to cruise our lot.

 

The PD did swing through the lot and saw nothing suspicious, so they left, leaving the incident in the hands of security. Jeremy arrived moments later, he also checked the lot and found nothing. Then he came inside to talk with me, and I gave him the phone number of the person who called, off of caller-ID. He called the guy back and asked him for more information. The man reported seeing "a middle-aged" woman breaking into an "older model gray minivan" with a wire coathanger.

 

Well, gee whiz, clearly we've got a major crime on our hands. I've heard that Richfield has been besieged by middle aged women creeping about town, stealing old minivans.

 

I did ask Jeremy "where would they get a coat hanger from?" That isn't something that people just carry around with them, is it? He, being a slightly more serious employee than me, said he would follow through with the investigation, while I had already chalked this one up to a practical joke or something.

 

Jeremy went back into the parking lot and came back a few minutes later with this information. There is, in fact, an older, gray, minivan in our lot, and it has its keys in the ignition. Aha! So whoever it was probably locked their keys in the car and was trying to get in. But, like any good sidekick, (Batgirl is a librarian by day...did you know that?) I couldn't help but wonder...where did this mystery woman get a hanger from?

 

Okay, so you'd think that'd be the end of it, right....wrong. Jeremy ran the plates on the van and it was registered to a man. Hmm. The witness definitely said it was a female breaking in.

Well, there was nothing more we could do. The van was not stolen, there were no suspects lurking about, it was seemingly finished. I asked Jeremy for all the information he had gathered, as I had to file an incident report. He gave me the name of the man who called and the name of the man who owned the van. That's when we got our big break.

 

The last name of the man who owned the van struck me as familiar. We have a staff member here with the same last name. I went in back and asked her, Vicki, if she could shed any light on our case. Turns out that the van belongs to her, registered to her husband. She left the library to head out for lunch when she realized she locked her keys in the van. She tried all the doors and windows and couldn't get in, so she came back into the library, raided the staff closet and found a wire coat hanger. She went back out and tried to break in that way, to no avail. That was when our witness was passing by and noticed her suspicous activity.

 

Ta-da! Officer Jeremy and his faithful sidekick have solved the case. Who-hoo! I feel like we should both be given a commendation from the police force or keys to the city or something. All in all, it was a good kind of incident, one that ends well and doesn't stress us all out. Plus, it makes for an amusing anecdote, no?

Dixie currently feels:

 Neutral

 

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Ah, it's been a long time.

Blog, I have neglected you so.

 

 

So, the last time I blogged was exactly a week ago.

So what eventful has happened this past week?

 

- Well, I've completed Parappa The Rapper. I still need to get the 'cool' ranking on level 6 before I can unlock the bonus level. - Which is hard, because the music of level 6 is really hard to follow.

 

I don't know if it's my eyes - but my font looks weird today.

It doesn't look right...

 

 

Oh well, we'll cope. It's Arial red, it's supposed to be my font, anyway.

 

 

Through the week at school, it's only been revision, because the exams are starting this Friday with the first one.

My first one is in a week's time - and then I have three weeks of exams.

 

 

One thing though, I've got out of my depressional spiral.

I'm not harming every day like I was.

I'm not crying as much.

 

I seem to be crying more and more as I get older.

Maybe that's just the stress adding to things.

 

 

And I've made up my friendships with both Stephen and Claire - we were all sat together today in the library talking - poking pencils through a pear, before we lobbed it at Carl, and it shattered all over the place.

 

- And we got shouted at for that, too.

 

 

Then I started licking my hand, because it tasted nice, and Pips was filming me really close up on her phone - and it looks really pornographic and wrong.

She's threatened to put it on YouTube - but if she does, I'll kick her teeth in. :)

 

I walked home with Pips and Miraan - and I ate some leaves off the trees.

 

I wish I hadn't though, because I've got an upset stomach now.

I've had to use the bathroom twice, so far - but the first time, the spicy salaminis I ate last night sorta repeated on me. - How it burned, and how I whined.

 

The leaves were horrible - the green ones all got stuck in my teeth, and Miraan moaned at me because I kept spitting.

I wasn't spitting AT him though!

 

 

Adam stayed over on Saturday just passed.

 

I have this little water game I won in a 2p machine in Southend, and I took the plug off the back, and I went to flick it at him, but it never came out.

So he got it off me, cornered me in the gap between my bed and the wardrobe and poured it on my face.

I was sad.

 

 

Then he kept getting me with the water pistol I stupidly filled up.

 

 

Either way - I watched him get right to the final area on Resident Evil 3 - we decided to start again, seeing as how we knew where everything was this time.

 

He's left it here, in my PS1, and I wanna play it. but I'm scared. :)

 

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Today's song lyrics:

 

Only This Moment - Royksopp

 

 Forces within me, makes reason with lust...
But I try to accept it and not think it works...
Because I know I might lose you by taking the chance...
But love without pain isn't really romance...

Only this moment... (Holds us together)...
Close to perfection... (Nothing is out there)...
Always beside us... (Trusting my senses)...
Deep down inside... (I know I will survive)...

 

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Dixie currently feels:

 Depressed

 

(Well what else is new...?)

 

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Yesterday was a bank holiday Monday, so I spent the day at Adam's house.

 

We played a few songs on Guitar Hero III co-op, and got him a couple of groupie points.

Then he burnt me Parappa The Rapper, and I tried it out, did the first few levels, and got the "U Rappin' Cool!" rank on level 1.

 

When I got home though, I kept failing level 1.

Which was annoying...

Almost as annoying as the fact that memory card slot 1 is broken on my chipped Playstation, so I'll never be able to save PTR, because it will only save to slot 1.

 

Anyway though.

We sat around drinking Cherry Coke, eating Oreos and sweets - milk bottles and cherry cola bottles - then crisps and salted peanuts.

 

Adam then suggested he get out the old PS1 and we play Resident Evil 3.

Of course, he played it, I watched and offered my hints. :)

 

It was great fun actually.

 

The weird thing was though, every time I seemed to speak - something would happen.

And this happened like five times - every time I started talking, either zombies would jump out of cars, dogs would jump out of windows, or Nemesis would burst out of a door.

 

 

 

Today's been shit though.

 

It's weird though - I don't think I've done ANY schoolwork today.

 

- OMFG THERE'S A SPIDER ON THE WALL BEHIND MY MONITOR...

 

 

...But yes.

Umm...

 

Lesson 1 - IT, exam prep, I'm not doing the exam again, I had nothing to do, I went on FPC.com.

Lesson 2 - English, revision, I didn't do a lot, just listened and read.

Lesson 3 - Science, Cowley just talked us through our coursework.

Lesson 4 - Maths, Wilson wasn't even there, we were down in humanities 2, and Miraan, Amanda and I just played hangman for like the whole hour.

Lesson 5 - Media studies, down the CLC, Sam and I just sat there playing hangman on the PC, because we can't really do an awful lot on our project.

 

 

Though, I felt depressed all day.

Just listening to a certain set of people who used to be friends with me until they met each other - talking and laughing down the aisle next to me.

So I cut myself a little bit.

 

At dinnertime, I did my left, and I did my right after school.

 

Which was a bad time to do it, because as Mrs Mac was talking to me, she took me by the right wrist - as she often does when she talks to people - but she pressed her fingers right into the fresh cuts, and it KANED.

So I just stood there wincing, trying to keep silence, despite how much it hurt.

 

Tomorrow I have to go and see those people, and I'm not looking forward.

At least mother isn't coming.

 

Sigh...

Still am not able to read replies. Or get into my Yahoo email.

So .....

The Etna library is about 7 miles away. Even so I called before driving down to make sure they were open. I called around 10:00 this morning. There was a recording stating the library hours were 12 - 5 Monday thru Thursday. 12 - 4 Fridays.

So I leave here around 12:15 .... arrive at the library just to find they are closed. A sign on the door states how they will be closed on Wed. the 14th. This is Monday the 5th. I look around .... nobody. A newspaper stuck in the handle of the door.

I walk across the street to the local grocery store and grab a package of peanut M&M's. Chocolate is my soother when I'm depressed and today has been one of those days. Hopping back into the car I decide to drive around town for a few minutes and waste a bit of time ..... maybe then the library would be open. Lunchtime at the high school. Kids everywhere. I half ass look for any of the girls from the group home. Nope. Back around the block. To the library. Dark and closed. So I came home.

Will try again tomorrow. ;-)

Peace. J.