The public library is an interesting melting pot of people. Even prior to becoming a librarian, as a book fiend, I frequented whatever public libraries were in my vicinity. Public libraries vary quite widely by level of funding available as well as setting: urban, rural, suburban. The libraries in Syracuse and Silver Spring, Maryland are both of the urban type. Urban libraries tend to have a large number of branches that are small in terms of size and funding and are specialized to the local clientèle. In particular, they often provide much needed services for job seekers and non-English speakers since these populations tend to be higher in cities.
According to my experience, all libraries tend to attract people from six groups: families with young children, elderly/retired individuals, library devotees, immigrants, homeless people, and finally, crazy people. Now these categories are not mutually exclusive, any one person can easily belong to several of these groups. Crazy people in public libraries run the gamut from the completely harmless but abnormal to creepy stalker types who sometimes have to be removed by law enforcement. Libraries in urban environments tend to lean heavily towards the last three groups of people in terms of overall percentages.
Having worked in a public library, you learn to quickly identify the crazy people in advance in order to brace yourself for any incidents. Not to be overly broad in categorization, but this is easiest to do with crazy people who happen to be white Americans. I'm not sure why this is but they tend to have strikingly similar characteristics of physical appearance and demeanor. However, advanced warning of impending craziness can be much more difficult with other categories of crazy people, which led to my surprise in the strange turn that took place in what at first appeared to a seemingly innocuous request for information. It is rapidly growing late here, so if anyone who reads this blog was intrigued by the title of this post, I am afraid you will have to wait until tomorrow for the full story of the conversation behind the name.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Hmmm... where to begin....
Well, obviously my good intentions of the last post were not carried through. It has however not been an entire year since my last writing, so I will count that as a minor victory. What has happened since last September? Well for starters my husband and I have both officially graduated from our respective master's programs, and there was much rejoicing. We have moved back below the Mason-Dixon line to the land flowing with sweet tea and Chick-Fil-A, and there was much rejoicing... although contrary to my heritage I am not a sweet tea aficionado. I know I can probably be barred from many circles for this confession, but there it is. However, Maryland is a marginal Southern state at best, primarily claiming the title only by virtue of geographic location rather than any cultural norms, so I should be safe enough from pillorying here, but more on that later.
We have moved out of our spacious two bedroom apartment into a studio apartment roughly the size of our kitchen and bathroom combined. However, it is only blocks from the Metro line meaning we can take public transportation at our pleasure rather than fighting DC traffic, and there was much rejoicing. A sad note in the move is the loss of our almost our entire group of crazy, inside joke quoting, pitch playing, wonderful friends who are back in Syracuse as well as scattered across the country. All is not over, though, since in the near future there is to be looked forward to a much heralded celebration complete with extra merriment in the wedding of one of our friends in July. My husband who is much more of an extrovert and people person than I am began going through friend withdrawals almost immediately and is trying to think of creative ways to locate new people in the area. In contrast, my personal style of dealing with a lonely new place is to hole up in our apartment looking at old pictures and dreading talking to strangers.
In apartment news, there has been an exciting development. Despite the extremely diminutive size of our new place we have new furniture! None of which came from Walmart! Well, with the exception of the table and chairs we brought with us from Syracuse... Those of you who visited our place at the Green Monster should recognize the significance of this. We are now the proud owners of several items of real non-college student furniture including.... da da daa... a real honest-to- goodness couch. Not even a fancy futon pretending to be a couch, or an older sofa passed down by a relative or found on the street. A real, brand new, scented of sawdust and packing tape piece of furniture caught fresh at our local Ikea. I am perhaps a little too excited about this development, but silly though it may be, it marks a significant milestone in our progression from financially strained students towards being solvent, self supporting professionals. Albeit, not so solvent at the moment, since paychecks will not be rolling in for some time due to government pay schedules and processing times. Nevertheless, thanks to the awesome budgetary powers of Congress in the form of the misguided stimulus rebate checks, solvent enough to purchase slightly more trendy pieces "assemble it yourself" furniture along with the aforementioned couch.
More updates later on the move and my job hunt as it progresses. I am still trying to think of where I would really like to work but am keeping my eyes and ears open. For the time being though, I am enjoying having no obligations. Graduate school has many advantages, one of the greatest of which is the flexibility of control over your schedule. However, the trade off of this is that any free time you choose to take is never really free. There is always some project, paper, or test you should be studying for or starting on and the best thing about taking a break from work and school is losing that last little bit of guilt for just relaxing every once and a while.
We have moved out of our spacious two bedroom apartment into a studio apartment roughly the size of our kitchen and bathroom combined. However, it is only blocks from the Metro line meaning we can take public transportation at our pleasure rather than fighting DC traffic, and there was much rejoicing. A sad note in the move is the loss of our almost our entire group of crazy, inside joke quoting, pitch playing, wonderful friends who are back in Syracuse as well as scattered across the country. All is not over, though, since in the near future there is to be looked forward to a much heralded celebration complete with extra merriment in the wedding of one of our friends in July. My husband who is much more of an extrovert and people person than I am began going through friend withdrawals almost immediately and is trying to think of creative ways to locate new people in the area. In contrast, my personal style of dealing with a lonely new place is to hole up in our apartment looking at old pictures and dreading talking to strangers.
In apartment news, there has been an exciting development. Despite the extremely diminutive size of our new place we have new furniture! None of which came from Walmart! Well, with the exception of the table and chairs we brought with us from Syracuse... Those of you who visited our place at the Green Monster should recognize the significance of this. We are now the proud owners of several items of real non-college student furniture including.... da da daa... a real honest-to- goodness couch. Not even a fancy futon pretending to be a couch, or an older sofa passed down by a relative or found on the street. A real, brand new, scented of sawdust and packing tape piece of furniture caught fresh at our local Ikea. I am perhaps a little too excited about this development, but silly though it may be, it marks a significant milestone in our progression from financially strained students towards being solvent, self supporting professionals. Albeit, not so solvent at the moment, since paychecks will not be rolling in for some time due to government pay schedules and processing times. Nevertheless, thanks to the awesome budgetary powers of Congress in the form of the misguided stimulus rebate checks, solvent enough to purchase slightly more trendy pieces "assemble it yourself" furniture along with the aforementioned couch.
More updates later on the move and my job hunt as it progresses. I am still trying to think of where I would really like to work but am keeping my eyes and ears open. For the time being though, I am enjoying having no obligations. Graduate school has many advantages, one of the greatest of which is the flexibility of control over your schedule. However, the trade off of this is that any free time you choose to take is never really free. There is always some project, paper, or test you should be studying for or starting on and the best thing about taking a break from work and school is losing that last little bit of guilt for just relaxing every once and a while.
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