On Their Poor Substitute for a Public Library

The place where i work and live right now is called a City. Even though i can walk all around it in a couple of hours. There is one excuse for a grocery store in which everything costs twice as much as it does everywhere else, which, what with rising gas prices and all that, is quite substantial. The main street consists almost entirely of t-shirt print shops and fudge shops, which i tried to browse once, but the t-shirt people stalk you and the fudge people don't have to. I can't resist. I begin to realize that however peaceful rural life sounds in theory, i have been too spoiled by suburbia. But worst of all is the Library. This is not the one where i work - that is the state park library and archives. This is the Public library. It is a ways out of town - 20 minute walk. A small, brown, tin building, with a few narrow slits for windows. The organization is inconsistent and inconvenient. There is no computer catalogue at all, and the card catalogue is stuck in a corner with the few public computers available, so that it is almost impossible to utilize. However, since a good portion of the books aren't catalogued at all anyway, it doesn't really matter. A good third of the book selection consists of Romance novels. Not that i have anything against Romance novels per say - i am rather fond of Georgette Heyer (although i don't think her novels ought to be in the Romance section, anyway; or, i think they ought to be, and that most of the books now in the Romance section ought to be put under Sex/Lust/Bad Grammar, but that's another story)... where was i? umm... and i like light reading as much as anyone, but their selection of fantasy, science fiction, and mystery is abysmal. They have a few classics, but only the most famed, or the books are so old and in such poor condition they're practically impossible to read anyway. My family's library is much more comprehensive, better organized, and in better condition. Their selection of movies is worse - very few classics, and of course nothing too popular or i suppose it would get stolen... this is a big tourist area, and it it would never get returned. So i do understand that. Libraries are all about the books, anyway. And there they have fallen short. Oh, and the way they divide books between young adult and adult? Also completely nonsensical - worse than usual. Why can't they do everything my way??? AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When i do manage to find a book, which sometimes happen (they do have a decent collection of Dickens - which really ought to be catalogued! - and i've just discovered the Septimus Heap series, which is interesting but mainly i like it because of Septimus Harding), i turn down the road towards the water. I walk past the few feet of "woods," the little yellow house with the little white dog with the little loud bark, the nice gray house with the wrap around porch, and the large tree in the middle of a small gravel parking lot. Summer cottages are on either side of me, but there are few trees which means there are fewer bugs (it has been a really wet season here, and they are everywhere, but bugspray makes me break out if i use it a lot, so i just get bitten. my brothers swear by their own unique remedy of swallowing two match heads, but i think they're just trying to tease me.) A bench swing sits in a small plot of sand, just in front of a rather large rock - evidently a memorial of some kind. It is a gorgeous view of the water, with the Bridge on my right, and the sun setting on my left. One tall lone conifer is all that is between me and the sun, and sometimes i feel that if i could climb to the top i would be able to reach out and touch the last rays. Soon the light is gone and the bugs come out in full force. Back to the compound.

GSR-ing

So. I have a couple of posts in the works but right now i am just going to ramble, okay? Because this is all about me, anyway. The internship is unpaid, but they do provide a part-time job so that i can eat. And housing. Nice, right? I'm claustrophobic (which i never realized until i was lost in a hay maze for over an hour - not a good way to find out). After that, i hate talking to People (as opposed to Persons - there is a difference), and Money. This job - Guest Services Representative - is both of the latter. When i say hate, don't imagine impassioned and angry. Agonizing terror would perhaps be better. I have very little control over this, in part because i am afraid of losing control. Does that make sense? No, i didn't think so. I get butterflies, i feel faint, my hands shake, and i lose all power of logical thought processes (not that i ever had much to began with, as my brothers will gladly tell you). My parents say, "It's good experience for you. Growing." I think it sucks. Okay, okay. This is my second weekend (for some reason, the paperwork wasn't prepared for me at first). I have a spiel pretty much down, i know where the bathrooms are (the number one question), i know most of the prices, and have managed to make conversation with all of my co-workers. I had zero training and no previous experience, but people seem to be pretty generous of my mistakes. Today i was only 16 cents over, and they allowed me to come in a couple of hours late so i could attend church. I work primarily in one bookstore, under a bridge. However, sometimes i cover lunches at a gift shop down the way. While there, two children, their mother, and aunt came in. The aunt is a very ... shall we say, forthright? forceful? personality. She takes her time shopping. I was holding a compass behind the counter for the boy. They were bored, and started asking questions about how the date stamp worked, and the clicker, etc. So i told them. And we must have chatted for half an hour. I mean, it was so random. About Pennsylvania, and lighthouses, and sibling relationships, and dogs, and compasses, and i don't even remember. Anyway, on their way out, they asked my name, and i told them. And then they came and greeted me in the other store later, around closing time - just the kids, you know - and played with the clickers there, and we chatted some more... and i think if i had been working in the store the next day, they would have tried to come and visit me again. I don't even know their names. I mean, it was weird. But cool. Anyway. I still strongly dislike it, and often get flustered. I much prefer the library. But i can do this. My battery is getting pretty low. So, like, i should probably go. But i really, really missed you!!

HI!!!!!!

Oh, blog, how i've missed you! My neglect has been entirely involuntary, i promise you. I managed to obtain an collections/research internship in the archives of a state park. Unfortunately, access to internet is pretty much limited to Burger King, and a public library which closes half an hour after i get off work. So. Yay! I hope to be more regular, but until school in September, my access will be limited.