last day at work

Yesterday was my last day at the library before moving back to school. And oddly enough, it was probably the most interesting day I spent working there, if only for the variety of stuff I got to do.

Typically when I go in to work at the library, I steel myself in preparation for six hours of the same cycle of work: get a book from the cataloger, type up the label in the front of the book, affix the label with con-tac paper, check the label against the online catalog, fit it with "tattletape" so the sensor at the door beeps if someone tries to walk off with it, shelve the book. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Since the library is in the process of changing every book from Dewey Decimal System classification to Library of Congress, there is no dearth of labeling to deal with. Carts and carts of books on end, in fact.

Yesterday had its share of "processing" as it's called, but I also got to interact with patrons, something that doesn't happen a lot when all the students and most of the professors are gone from campus for the summer. I got to try various other things that librarians are responsible for, such as unlocking the conference room for a guy in PR to take pictures of the windowsill. Unlocking it again 20 minutes later because he took the "wrong" pictures of the windowsill. (We were baffled as to how you can take wrong pictures of a windowsill; we were both quite certain the remodelers who wanted the pictures would come look at the actual windowsill before building anything for it.) I supplied patrons with paper clips and hole punches, and took a trip to the business office to get my paycheck. And after lunch, I moved approximately ten times my weight in reference books.

And today, some coworkers and I are going out to eat a local Mexican restaurant as a "goodbye for now" to the job. It was a good job to have during the summer. I can't say I'll really miss it, but it was nice to have while I was here.

haircut, school and other unrelated musings

You'd think that with less than 48 hours remaining until I will be settling down for the night in my dorm for the fall semester, I'd be doing something productive. Checking my schedule to see when I start classes. Seeing if I have enough food to last the weekend since the dining hall doesn't open until Monday, and I'm moving in on Thursday. Packing, maybe. But no. As you can see, I'm on the computer. This has been a serious addiction lately. Youtube has become my central music fix. I surf blogs at random. I'm on Facebook like some people are on crack. But hey, while I'm here I might as well update my blog.

I got my hair cut last Friday. It is the first serious cut I've had in about three years, and the stylist said she cut a good 9-10 inches off in the back. It feels wonderful and is easy to take care of, despite being the first hairdo I've had that requires me to style it and actually use a blowdryer. I don't usually spend a lot of time on my hair, but the new style is easy and I love it. It looks somewhat like the picture below. (The picture, by the way, is not me. It is German actress Franka Potente. However, if you would like to pretend this is what I look like, I would not be offended in any way.)

As I mentioned, the start of the school year is fast approaching. I'm actually eagerly anticipating my classes, although they are scheduled so close together that I will have to miss lunch several days a week. My schedule, as it is set now, looks like this:

AMETH 160 Intro to American Ethics

MC 195 Information Gathering

JAPAN 191 Japanese I

ANTH 260 Intro to Archaeology

SOCIO 535 Population Dynamics

It's going to take some getting used to, as usual, when I move back in. But I'm looking forward to the semester. New classes, new job, new people to meet. Bring it on, I say.

sojourns in careerland

I think I'm finally going to do it - I think I'm going to change my major.

It's not that I don't want to be the globetrotting National Geographic reporter anymore. It's just that as I'm going through classes, I'm realising that my skills don't always necessarily match my aspirations. Which is part of the reason I've thrown around so many career ideas. There are a million possibilities I'm interested in, some that I'd be proficient at, but few I'd really be good at.

When I took my aptitude test my sophomore year of high school, two of the top ten careers that matched my aptitudes were pastry chef and mortician. Maybe I should have paid attention to those sooner - if one thing's for sure, people are never going to stop eating or dying. The job outlook for what I'm interested in now - social scientist - is a little less in demand, but I think it's something I could get excited about working on every day.

Anthropology is the area of social science I'd like to concentrate on, although I don't have a specific career in mind yet. I've already taken linguistic anthropology, and am starting my Japanese minor this semester, so the linguistic aspect is looking interesting right now. There are a few jobs outside the fieldwork/academic setting that I could go into, as well.

First there is Interpretor. Although I haven't started Japanese classes yet, I am very interested in mastering the language, and if I'm going to be taking it anyway, I might as well put it to use careerwise. Interpretors translate spoken words at conferences or interviews. You have to have a complete knowledge of the language and be able to translate it quickly. I'm not sure if this is the branch for me, but there are others. Especially not my area if the movie The Interpretor was any accurate depiction of the job. Apparently if you are able to translate an obscure language for the U.N., scary masked men will show up at your apartment, and then Sean Penn will have to stare into your window from across the street in order to "protect" you. Not sure which of those alternatives is creepier.

Then there is Translator. This is more my style - translators are often able to work from home, and there is less immediate pressure because you can take time to translate written words. In the case of Japanese, though, I would have to have a more thorough knowledge of the alphabet, and with 1945 kanji characters mandatory for proficiency in everyday reading, that is no small task.

There is also Linguistic Anthropologist. This could be closer to my original idea of traveling around, doing fieldwork, and writing reports. I'm interested in helping unravel the mysteries of the indiginous Ainu language in Japan.

Whatever option I choose could be an interesting career, I suppose. And there is some comfort in the following saying by Mother Gavrilia, an Orthodox nun: "What does God want me to do? Be here or go there? The answer was: God is not interested in where you are or what you do...He is interested only in the quality and quantity of the love you give. Nothing else. Nothing else." This, however, is a lifelong vocation. Anything else I do is just a job.

Right now I'm still in the mindset of "what I want to be when I grow up." But then again, I'll probably be in that mindset until one day I suddenly realise I'm old, and that last thing I was doing was the closest I came to an actual 'career.' "Ha," I'll say. "I used to want to teach English in Japan!" Maybe I'll laugh about it over a plate of pastries with my coworkers at the morgue.

on life in the library

My summer job, as it has been for the last three years, is to work in a small college library near my house. For me, it's the perfect part-time job, since I'm fairly organized, like to work by myself, and am interested in books of all kinds. But those aren't the only reasons working at the library is a pretty good job. I've decided that there are more perks to this job than you might first imagine, such as:

- First dibs on interesting books. If you see something you like that hasn't been put out on the shelf yet, it's yours for the taking (after it's been catalogued, labeled, proofed, and tattletaped so it beeps if someone tries to steal it, that is.) This is especially handy with books that look like fun, or even, in my case, the new Harry Potter book. While I have not read the first six volumes (these people do exist!), I'm tempted to read the last few pages just to see what happens. I figure that if I ever do decide to sit down and read the entire series, I'm going to know the ending long before I get there.

- You find humour in unexpected places. For example, the way Thomas Jefferson looks on the cover of a children's book with a barcode placed directly over his face. Or the barcode placed over a promoting comment on the cover of another book so that the previously praising statement now reads 'forgettable story! Brilliant!' Even the titles of some books are enough to crack me up. My latest favourite is At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig.

- There is time to daydream. It's amazing what kinds of story ideas, job opportunities and memories drift through your head when you stand there for three hours wrapping books in contact paper.

- Free muscle toning. You thought the extent of librarians' exercise was lifting date due stamps and flipping pages? Hah! With all the lugging stacks of reference books, pushing persnickity shelving carts and rearranging furniture, it's practically the next best thing to a membership at the Y.

So the next time you're attempting a comedian position, coming up with a short story idea, or heading off to boot camp, maybe you should consider a stint at your local library as preparation. And then again there are the books...