Day 5 - March 12, 2007

MONDAY -- I had to miss last Saturday's schedule. I was having my routine backpain that comes and goes every three or 4 months. My doctor could not find what is wrong with me, having prodded me, done x-rays and ultra-sounds, alas without any correct diagnosis...I just learn to live with it, rest when it gets too painful...Saturday was such a day.

I'll skip my parking story because I got that bit down pat already. I got to the library and it was Halla, Arpine and Cecil manning the desk. Halla went to do some administrative tasks in the back room so I got to sit with Arpine and Cecil at the desk. It was a busy night with the tutoring session going on and a lot of kids doing homework on their own or awaiting their turns with available tutors.

My task today, other than to help out with the usual, was to clean books. I was to wipe away the collected grime off the covers using baby wipes. At first I was a bit horrified...I am one who is "icky" about touching things that are viable to collect dirt, bacteria, germs, cooties. I carry with me a bottle of Purell in my purse and I have a big bottle of Purell in my room and on my desk at the law firm. With this chore, I had to cast off that "Icky-wicky" feeling I get when I think I touched something yucky...by yucky I mean using payphones, holding on to poles/posts inside the bus, door handles, shaking hands with gross people, etc. I am by no means OC - Jack Nicholson - As Good As It Gets - type of obsessive compulsive I am just wary of germs because I am one to catch a cold, flu, pink eye, bronchitis easily. My immune system is a bit weak -- I am the first to catch whatever cootie a family member brings home and I am the last one to catch it again...after it goes around 7 others in the household thus completing a cycle and then starting it all over again :o(

Anyway, this task of cleaning the books grossed me out because as I was wiping and scrubbing with all my might, I could see the years of grime turn the white baby wipe into black. I really had to tamp down the impulse to find and wear gloves or wash my hands or Purell it out. I realized that the secret to success in cleaning was to not think about what might be the green glob stuck on the cover or the red stain on the spine. I try to think of other things like: "should I eat a banana when I get home?" or "I wonder if they ate all the rice at home...I can eat rice with Ochazuke or rice with soy-sauce." Yeah, those kinds of happy thoughts! I am not complaining about the dirty books, well maybe I am but I know that it is part of children's librarianship and basically just working in a public library. This is good for me because I think that for someone who grew up in a third world country...hey, I even dug out worms when I was young and even walked in flooded streets with trash floating around you...I had grown too complacent in such neat surroundings in the U.S. that I had become such a germophobe. If my stint in the children's library does not rid me of my germophobia...I don't know what will.