A new library sight, and a new library happening.

The other week when I was working at the library I saw:

1) Books shelved in backwards, where someone must just have had a couple of books, and then put them spine-in into whatever empty slot was nearby.

2) A tall thin book wedged up high on the top shelf of the pre-shelving area...  I went to go get it, and it seemed stuck for no reason, even though there was nothing above it, and then I saw that the very back part of the book was just high enough to get caught underneath this bar that ran across the top part of the otherwise open shelving, towards the back part of the shelf.

A high school friend's mom may have had cancer.

The other week I had called up my parents and was chit-chatting with them, and my mom mentioned that she had been through a store and seen from a distance the mom of one woman who I went to high school with.

"She was busy talking with someone and I would have stopped and talked," my mom was like, "But she looked busy."

Then, she was like, "She looked real good, full of energy and she had makeup on and everything, but her hair was all shaved off and was only like there an inch...  Have you heard if she had cancer?".

Then, she added, "She must have had cancer, it's not a stylish thing, I don't think?".

Odd book in the library the other day.

The other day, one book to the left of one that I was shelving had a call number that was unclear, so I went to go open it to the inside title page, to check the call number that's usually marked there in pencil.

When I opened the front cover, the inside was incredibly dirty from a treadmark, and it looked like the book had been open and run over by a car.

Teaching millennials.

The other day I was teaching writing to the freshpeople, and we were going through people's papers post-grading in order to talk about argument development and editing.

At one point, I asked them to read a (just over a page) paragraph from one paper, so that we could do some editing techniques on it.

"But it's so long!", someone sighed.

"It's just over a page," I was like, "C'mon.  Has Twitter rotted your brains that much?".

And then, I put on a millennial voice and was like, "Oh man, this is so long, it's more than one hundred and forty characters!".

A few people laughed, but most didn't.

Anyhow, for the guessing game to determine the order in which we discuss people's papers, I usually have them make a list of some category, and then they select which ones they think are my favorites (e.g. from a list of Harry Potter books or recent movies, etc.).

This time, they had picked Mexican food and made a list and then selected from it, and from that list my least favorite thing was fish tacoes.

So, when it came to the fish taco girl's turn, I was like, "Man, fish tacoes, I just don't like those."

But, she was like, "They're awesome, maybe you just haven't had the right one!".

At that, I was like, "Maybe, or maybe you're going to have me go around and try dish after dish after dish of something I really don't like."

At that, I mugged, "Millennials, they're so passive-aggressive..."

She laughed, but most people didn't..

It's funny how you can tell who's cool based on whether they get the jokes I make or not.

Pleasant dollar store interaction.

The other week I was at the dollar store in my neighborhood for more gummy bears and gummy coke bottles (what do the workers think of me!?), and I saw the one (young) (hispanic) guy who was dating an evangelical girl whose family wouldn't let him in the house with his dyed hair.

So, when I was checking out, I asked him how he was.

"Good," he was like.  "It's my birthday today.  I turn twenty-one."

"No way!", I was like.  "So what are you going to do to celebrate?".

"Oh, I'm probably going to go buy a forty and go home and drink it by myself," he was like.

"Doesn't your mom like to get fucked up off of loteria cards?", I was like.  "I remember that funny story you told me.  You should go get fucked up with her, I bet that'd be fun."

"Nah," he was.  "I'm a coder, I don't like to drink that much."

Pleasant local library interaction.

The other week, I checked my email, only to find an overdue notice from the city library, that it had been like 2 weeks since I had renewed 3 books and that fines were accruing and that if enough accrued I couldn't check anything out.

I kind of spazzed and was worried that I was owing like thirty or forty dollars, so the very next day on a day I was working from home I took twenty minutes and went over to the local library branch.

I explained the situation to the (later middle-aged) (male) (Chinese-American) at the front desk, and he was very pleasant and looked up the fine.

"Seven dollar," he was like.

"Oh, that's it?", I was like.

"No, not much," he was like, and then he began laughing.

"Think of it as a donation to the library."

I paid it, and I did.

"You know, it costs like four bucks for a used book from Amazon and I read so much, this is really less than two books, and I use it more," I was like.

At that, he laughed.

"Yes!", he was like, "Book is one cent, but the shipping is three ninety-nine!  I order a book last month, it was like that!".

A slight nightmare the other night:

The other night I dreamt ~

I'm in the airport, and the plane is delayed, so I wander around and lollygag by the next gate over to my gate.

Next thing I know, though, I look over, and the last person is disappearing down the ramp, and I suddenly realize that the plane had begun and somehow pretty much completed boarding while I was staring absently off into space in the other direction.

So, I rush over, and someone at the desk waves her arms at me as I pass.

Then, I get to the end of the ramp, just as it's separating from the plane, though the plane door is still open and I can see the people in there as the space between us grows.

"There's the passenger!", one person in the plane door is like, but they won't reconnect the plane for me and let me in, even though the distance is only like 10-12 feet at that point.

. . .