Tuesday was the twelfth anniversary of my hire date at my present library, which means I’ve been a professional librarian for fourteen years and a month.
That’s a third of my life.
No regrets yet, though if I’d been given the option of independent wealth, I might have been tempted.
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As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her.*
—Erma Bombeck
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It all started with an innocent (probably) question:
“Hey, honey?” asked my husband. “Have you ever visited Fontspace.com?”
Well, I have now, thanks . . .
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Libraries are absolutely at the center of my life. Since I couldn’t afford to go to college, I attended the library three or four days a week from the age of eighteen on, and graduated from the library when I was twenty-eight.
—Ray Bradbury
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Why didn’t anyone tell me The Big Bang Theory was so funny?
Was it the time suck? Because giving me a heads up right after the pilot would have meant losing 30 minutes a week, instead of the hours and hours I’m going to lose catching up on four and a half seasons.
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The first time I walked into a library, I got so excited I almost wet my pants.**
—Roy Blount Jr.
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Janie has decided she wants to learn how to play the cello for her school’s Lower School string ensemble.
Why not the flute? Or the violin? We’ve got a couple of those shoved in the back of the closet. Her hands are too small for the bassoon under the bed, but so are mine and we got along all right.
But she’s been experimenting in music class and she loves it. I blame all that Apocalyptica I’ve been playing on our commutes.
We’ve compromised on one semester—she has to practice at least fifteen minutes on piano and cello, and if she can’t keep up with her homework, too, then she’ll have to wait a bit.
My husband isn’t sure—and my MIL really isn’t sure—but the rental fees for the kid-sized instrument aren’t that much, we received a school fee rebate that will more than cover the cost of the lessons, and an ensemble might teach Jane more about working as a team.
Plus, when I asked her why she wanted to add an instrument, she said, “Because I like music. I’m just like you.”
Sniff. Good one, kiddo.
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Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
—Hazel Rochman
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*They did. All library books belong to their librarians, in loco parentis, heavy on the loco. We choose them, we care for them, we tape up their boo-boos, and we preside tearfully over their passing (and exact revenge, when necessary).
**Cool. So did Sunny.
Earful of Cider 
Oh, Janie. Could she be any sweeter? No, no she could not.
On librarians- How funny! I was going to e-mail you this quote, which amused me. This is from the book I’m currently reading, The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt:
“The Director, Professor Middleton, had been found dead in June, with a laudanum bottle and a glass at his side. He was known to have taken laudanum regularly since he had had “brain fever” as an undergraduate, and a verdict of death by misadventure was returned. But most people including Prosper, suspected that he had taken his life, in an excess of despair over battling scholars, soldiers and librarians.”
That made me laugh and I thought you’d appreciate it. Congratulations to my favorite librarian!
Well . . . sometimes she could . . . her new hobby is making her sister screech.
Thanks for the quote—battling librarians is a no-win situation. Wish more people knew that . . . 😀
I liked that you were right after soldiers. 🙂
Obviously an escalation of danger levels . . .
Thanks a lot Sarah. Do you know how long it’s going to take me to check out 15,376 fonts?
No, seriously, do you know? I’ve got a schedule to make 🙂
Six hours and forty-three minutes, factoring in one trip to the bathroom. Um . .. I mean, I’m sorry.
Time suckage—the gift that keeps on giving!
So, I came back to see your response. Unless you can get coffee out of a keyboard, you owe me a new one 🙂
They probably sell ’em on Amazon.UK . . . 😉
Before you, it was Spud Murphy, but you have out-ninja-ed her to become my favourite librarian.
Hoo-yah!! XD
Me too, Erma!
That’s one of my favorite quotes.
There was a grumpy-looking librarian in my childhood library—I remember thinking that this was because people kept taking her books.
According to my mother, on one visit, I took my favorite book off the shelf (probably a Curious George) and brought it to her and said I wouldn’t check it out so she could read it and smile. She gave me a big hug, put me in her lap, and read it to me. I always gave her a hug after that—she retired when I was in grade school. Wonder what happened to her?
Happy anniversary!
Maybe while you catch up on your Big Bang episodes, they will explain the physics behind expanding episode catch-up time-suck. Then you explain it to me using little words, ok?
Good luck with your young cellist. Are they one of those instruments that sound ok even when you’re learning and hitting a lot of wrong notes?
Or are you guys all investing in some ear plugs?
Thanks!
If there’s a Time Suck Paradox episode, I’ll take notes, but I proabbly won’t understand them at all.
Earplugs may be a good idea—she’s my first cellist, so it may be three months of blackboard scratches for all I know! But at least it isn’t a high pitched instrument—I’m a reformed bassoonist, myself so most off-key low tones bother me far less than screechings. I hope. 🙂