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Thursday, October 14, 2004

This week I’m working at Cleveland Public Library, downtown, scanning photos. Today was actually only my second day there. Yesterday was awkward because my internship supervisor was supposed to call ahead and let them know I was coming… but didn’t. So I had to explain my project, talk my way out of paying $10/photo and sign an agreement about how the photos would be used. It was tense on their part, and a little embarrassed on mine. ANYway, today I went back, and they were expecting me, and even pleasant. Not really nice, but at least not… grouchy. But then! The regular librarian left to go to lunch, and a nice, chatty librarian came in. And she wanted me to fill out a bunch of extra paperwork, but hey! Fine! She talked to me! And that led to my overuse of exclamation points! Ahem. So this relief librarian was nice, and I was trying to be pleasant. But in the back of my mind was regular librarian. She’s totally insane about the photos. Her rules:
*No jackets or bags allowed in the work room. Pick up a key and deposit all belongings in a locker before you may pick up photos. *No pens allowed in the work room, only pencils. Which you must pick up at the desk. Don’t try to bring some kind of renegade pencil in here. Serious work pencils only. *White cotton gloves, library issue only, must be worn at all times. DO NOT DEVIATE! I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE ONLY TYPING AND GLOVES MAKE THAT HARD! I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE ONLY WRITING IN YOUR OWN NOTEBOOK! THESE PHOTOS ARE SENSITIVE, DO YOU HEAR ME, SENSITIVE! THEY CAN FEEL YOUR NON-GLOVED HANDS FROM ROOMS AWAY! *You can request photos at the desk. The librarian will pull all photos for you, and let you look at them in groups of 20. Not more! Don’t ask for more! *When you return 20 photos, you may have 20 more, but only after she counts them and sees that there are 20. It does not matter that you choose the seat RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER DESK, nor does it matter that she sat there and watched you, without interruption THE ENTIRE TIME.
Clearly, you can see why I would be paranoid (a teeny bit) about possibly scanning a photo, entering my data, and then accidentally forgetting it on the scanner and not returning it to the folder. My God, can you imagine the chaos that might ensue? The whole world might collapse. So, here I am, with nice librarian, working away, and obsessively checking my scanner. And I notice her look over at me, and so I say, kind of laughing, “I’m really paranoid about forgetting a photo on the scanner and not returning it to the folder, so if you see me over here checking and re-checking this thing like I’m half crazy…" And then I paused. Because I realized I had nowhere to go with that. I AM half crazy. So I continued, “…it’s because I am.” So, she blinked. And looked at me. And then said, “Some days it doesn’t take much, does it?” Now. What am I supposed to think of that? And then I know I turned beet red. So I went back to work and tried not to think about how really awkward everything was going to be again. Only THEN, she says, “Honey, I don’t know where I was yesterday, much less 5 years ago.” * Uhm. Right. So hey, problem solved. *I know what you’re thinking. She was NOT on the phone. She was looking at me and smiling, as if we had just bonded over our sharing of crazy-ass-ed-ness. ** **Sometimes I make up my own words.
// posted by Emily @ 10/14/2004 06:32:00 PM   [ 0 Comments ]  Click here to add your 2 cents!
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