by I walk between the shelves, my fingers dragging intentionally over every bump of spine. My eyes sift through the bunch swiftly—I’ve known the order of the alphabet since I was a child. There’s a little celebration in my outstretched arm, a small satisfaction in adding it to my stack. I’m the bearer of these books. Ingram sends them here; the patron brings them home…and I am the passage from print to pleasure.
Week two at the library!! My final week of training. Next week, I am on my own, without Bonnie at my heel like a whimsical night’s shadow at the peak of a full moon 🙁
As usual (I say, as if this isn’t only my second time writing one of these), I will go day by day with a few notes that stuck with me and use my library lookbook as indicators of each day :p
Monday *.ೃ༄
The start of the week!!! We got our usual shipment in and so we got right to work.
Notes from the Day:
- Bonnie and I discovered that we both keep dead flowers and hang them. She thought she was “quite weird” for it and I was like “GIRL I DO THE SAME THING”. I’m planning on giving her a cute, dried bouquet this coming week as thanks for her wonderful training.
- I found out Miss Bonnie is a Scorpio…that’s why we get along so well. Us water signs are connected.
- I made the mistake of wearing a short sleeve for the first time on the ONE day that the furnace was down and I was so chilly chilly.
- A board member came in and she was struggling on how to find the groupchat with all of the other board members. I think it was mostly due to her font being the absolute biggest size imaginable to where one thread of text messages took up her entire screen. I searched by one of the members name, found the messages, typed a reply for her, and then pinned it at the top so that she didn’t lose it again. I love older people. She was like, “Thank you so much. I was about to ask my neighbor because she is young too and you are all so tech savvy.”
Tuesday ˚❀ .
Another shipment was awaiting us!!! And this time…NEW BOOKS TO CHOOSE FROM.
- We got to sift through the new books. When they send us special collections like this, each library goes down the line and claims five that they want to showcase. These were JPs (junior pictures) so it was even more exciting because Bonnie, Mackenzie, and I all like to call dibs on what we will take home for our kids/(Bonnie’s)grandkids. The directors have final say, but it was so amazing to be asked our opinion and help weed down to the final five. We were also second on the list, so we got a great assortment to choose from.
- Story time with the kiddos was fun! Next week they are doing Mardis Gras crafts and I might do face paint on them hehe.
Wednesday ₊˚⊹☆
This is always a fun day because we have a full house. Mackenzie comes in for social media. Both directors are there and Phyllis is doing the bookkeeping. With Bonnie training me, it made for every staff member to be there. We were so chatty.
Notes from the Day
- I got there right at open time because it was snowy that morning and it was so chaotic because our system wasn’t up yet and then it glitched and we nearly had to do it by hand because for once we had patrons right at open lol just my luck but it all worked out!
- I had to call our IT guy because for some reason none of our ethernet was working and he kinda sounded cute…LMAO. Work crush! (mostly because I can’t see him so he might as well be a fictional character).
- I got access to the tik tok and made our first post!!! Hopefully it brings some people in.
Thursday: CLOSED
We are closed this day buttt I was still doing some business moves. I had an interview with a potential client who is 37 weeks and looking for a doula and I got hired!!!! I am so excited.
I also decided to do some investigating and check out the library of the town over, and it was so cute and big I loved it (but I told the ladies ours was better, of course).
Friday ☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
This was my last day of training with Miss Bonnie. It was actually sooo busy. We got shipments and two new orders of books. We had to add some donated books into the system and fix a few of Ingram’s labels. We had a steady amount of patrons and people came to purchase our cheesecake raffle because we would be drawing that day!
- I told Miss Linda (the seasoned director) that my daughter LOVED the Cornbread and Poppy series and that we should really consider getting them and she told me to write it down and then ordered ALL of them. A proud recommendation moment and I can’t wait to check them out for my girl. It’s great to work at a place where your ideas are appreciated!
- I returned the 12 children’s books I checked out last week and checked out 5 new ones (enough to hold us over the weekend) ((hopefully)).
- The last board member I had yet to meet came in and introduced herself and said “Oh, you must be Rhyonn! I’ve heard great things about you” and then Bonnie leaned to me and whispered, “It’s a really good sign if the board members are hearing good things about you” and then I did a backflip to celebrate (ok that last part’s a lie).
- Linda, Bonnie, and I all enjoyed about an hour lunch—opening up and chatting. It was the perfect way to end the shift and work week!!
and that’s a week wrap!
This next week I don’t work Monday because it’s President’s Day and we are closed , but I am picking up Saturdays from now on so it’ll balance!!
I have been SO busy this past week with uni, the new job at the library, my beans starting daycare, running social media for a few businesses on the side, writing for this, going to the gym, connecting with a new doula client, making art, writing for a newspaper, mothering, planning my Mom’s 50th bday party, and being the head of a household making sure our space is a sanctuary!!! It’s been so chaotic but honestly, I love it.
I hope all of your weeks were great! Well wishes to you all, my dears.
– r.