Day 13 - March 26, 2007

I did not work at the Children's Room last Saturday because I had an appointment with my tax guy and it turns out I am not getting much back from Uncle Sam and to top it off, I owe the Governator. After seeing Tax Dude, I went to the Teeth guy, my dentist, who put in a permanent crown on one of my molars. Then I got ambushed with "We're doing your root canal!" "WHAT?!!?? Nobody said anything about a root canal when they booked my at appointment!" As it turned out, I have an infected front tooth and that they felt that if I chose to get another appointment, they know that I'll try all delaying tactics. I had my first root canal and two days later, I can still hear the drilling in my sleep.

MONDAY -- The library was not too busy when I got there. As soon as I got settled at the desk, Cecile told me that Argish (Moses the big bully's little brother) was kicked out of the library and that he's not allowed in the Children's Room tonight. Well, it looks like if it isn't Moses, it's Argish...two peas in a pod.

I spent half the night sitting at the desk repairing ripped pages and covers of old books. I also helped Halla with a cutting lion shapes for bookmarks and attaching yarn tails. While I was sitting there I got a few reference questions that I was able to answer. Tonight, I also realized that the money and time I spent in college did not go to waste. I was able to help a kid needing reference materials on Alice Paul. While the other librarians were looking her up, and not finding books on her, I blurted out that I believe she's a suffragette and I was right! I was also able to help a parent find resources her child could use for a paper on painters. I got excited because having majored in Art History, questions like this gives me the jollies. They were looking for books on Marc Chagall and I pointed out the books to them knowing that Chagall's period in art is Modernism. It is at times like this that I don't regret owing beaucoup bucks on student loans.

While sitting there giving myself a pat on the back, this little kid came to the desk asking, "Can I dye here?" You can just imagine hearing that yourself right? I started panicking wondering why the kid wanted to DIE in the library...I called out to..."HALLA, can you please answer his question?" Halla was obviously flustered by the question because she paused for a second and looked at me and said, "what did he say?" The kid repeated his question and it dawned on us, finally, that he meant dye...to color! Halla and I said "NO!" at the same time. This is the little boy who come in with his father, brother and sister every night. They ask for the supplies and the same books every night...pencils, erasers, rulers, coloring sheets, crayons...Elmo, Bernstain Bears, Gingerbread Man...I have this urge to just hold these books behind the desk for them to save me the trouble of looking for them each time. Tonight, I let Evelyn deal with them since she's more patient than I am and she's more experienced with children than I am. The boys are really adorable but there are nights when they ask the same questions over and over again. They say patience is a virtue and it's one virtue I do not possess...so here's another good thing I'm getting out of this experience...I am learning it.