Posts From...A...Long, Long Time Ago: Spring Break

Hello peoples!

Yessss...I know...it's way past spring break...(pfft, who am I kidding, it's past summer break, too...and winter break....BUT THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT HERE!)...I...procrastinated...and procrastinated...and...procrastinated....



So!  You know how people go on all kinds of exciting vacations and adventures over spring break? Yeah, that wasn't me.

My spring break lasted two weeks.  The first week I spent doing homework (read: I did the easy homework that required little to no brainpower to do, and procrastinated and did nothing after).

The second week of spring break, I did some work experience hours in the library.

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OKAY!  So...that's all I had on this post from...you know...way back in March...I'll....try my best to recall what happened before.....today.  But, hey!  Think of it this way...now you only get the most important parts!  Since only the most notable bits are the ones that I remember!  Isn't it great?!

Here goes!

So....I'm in this program at school called Work Experience...or...Career Preparation.  I chose a library to work at, and..."worked" five days there during spring break.

Ugh, maybe it's just me, but I feel like I sound horribly redundant right now.  Am I just tired?

Aaaanyways.

Hmm....I think I'll share the rest of what I remember in...bullet points.

• Thunder
• Meeting with Gilf
• Creepy guy

Oh!  OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOOOOOH!  I just remembered.  I had to do a journal write-up after I finished...so!  I'm just going to use that outline I made!  Looks like you'll be getting a whole lot of nonsense and unimportant stuff after all!  Let's begin!

Thursday March 17, 2016 (9-5)

• First day of "work" and it's so early...!  I can't believe I'm doing this to myself during spring break.  Emphasis on BREAK.

• When I first got there (15 minutes early, too!), I found that the door was locked, I stood outside for a few minutes....until I saw that there were people inside...after a few more MORE minutes, they noticed me, opened the door, and asked why I didn't just bang on the door.  Said that I should be braver.

• One of my supervisors (S1) asked why I couldn't come in the mornings for the other days, and I told her the truth: that I have trouble waking up in the morning, and afternoons would be better. She chastised me for this and said that if I wanted to work, I needed to accept these responsibilities. She also told one of my other supervisors (S2) this, and they laughed and tried to defend me by explaining that I was a teenager (read: I sleep super late at night), and this was supposed to be my break.

• The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, I did the basic stuff I usually did when I volunteered at my school library...only...on a bigger scale. 

Monday March 21, 2016 (12-8)

• There was thunder today.  I get terrified by things super easily, so, naturally, thunder (loud sounds) scared me.  A lot.  Fortunately, I did a pretty good job of staying calm and not squealing and running for the nearest blanket.  It just so happened that I was also on the phone with a librarian (S3) (teens) at that point.  Ugh.

• I shadowed ANOTHER supervisor (S4) while he set up and ran an event.  Chessmates.  He asked if I knew how to play chess, and I told him I didn't....sadly.  Also....ashamedly.  Ah wells.  I walked around and observed.  Something kinda....unfortunate that I noticed....not a lot of people showed up.  They made a few announcements...but no one came.  Maybe....20 minutes after standing around, a few people came.  FINALLY.  Still, it wasn't many...and also...there were an off number of people...they decided to open it up to adults then.  But no adults came.  How sad...and...awfully...mortifying.

• The last few hours of my shift, I shadowed a librarian (S5) that was...in...for another librarian.  I sat with her at the information desk, but it was a quiet night, so...we discussed stuffs instead.  Coincidentally, she went to the same high school as I did!  Cool!

Tuesday March 22, 2016 (9-5)

• I was supposed to go to a different library today, but plans changed, and I stayed instead.

• I shadowed ANOTHER librarian (S6) (children's) and watched as she led an event called...Fractured Fairytales.  I helped draw the welcome sign in big letters!  I was so exciting! Something to do instead of just watching!  Uuuuuunfortunately, the markers were all out of ink. Or...very, very close to running out of ink.  Oh wells.  More children showed up for this event, so...yay!

• The second last thing I did before ending my shift...a librarian (S3) came and asked me to follow her to the teen section of the library...and I did.  But then she realised that she forgot something, so she told me to wait two minutes while she went to go get it.  So I stood there and waited.  There was a guy...maybe thirty something(?) and he started....talking....to me! So...under normal circumstances, I would probably be okay.  But THIS, was no ordinary circumstance.  

• This guy told me about how he just came from his dad's funeral.  How his dad was murdered, stabbed repeatedly.  As soon as he started telling me about this, I realised he wasn't talking to me because he needed help (I needed help!) with something in the library...I started to feel uncomfortable.  He told me how he was determined to find these people who killed his father and take his revenge.  And then he continued to mutter about how he would have his revenge....quite determinedly and with conviction! He had this scarily wild look in his eyes, and he looked kinda angry.  I.  Was. TERRIFIED.  After what seemed like hours, the librarian FINALLY came back. Thankfully, the guy left after she came.

• A while later, I heard police sirens in the distance...and then...I saw policemen walking in the library....aaaaaah, PANIC!

Wednesday March 23, 2016 (12-8)

• So....today, my...supervisors gave me a giant paper package.  I had to hunt down fines in the library!  WHAT FUN!  You know how books always go missing?  Or...sometimes you find that you can't borrow a book because you have a book you haven't returned yet?  And you adamantly tell the front desk that you're sure you've already returned it?  Well, when there's absolutely nothing better to do, we hunt down those books that people say they've returned.  Of course, nine times out of ten, we don't find the book, but, hey, someone's gotta do a check once in a while...

• I happen to have a favourite "job" while I worked there.  The deliveries!  I mean, okay...I know it doesn't require much intelligence, but...I liked it?  I guess because it gave me something to do?  And I could be busy at it!  The deliveries are basically books people have put on hold.  When they come to the library, we unpack them, clean them, stack them in nice neat piles, and print out hold slips for them!  Then we go to the hold shelves and place them in order, alphabetically!  It's all great fun!  All this organising and...stuff.  I suppose it would get boring if this were my only job.....BUT, this was usually the highlight of my day!  So...now that I've explained that, on to what I really wanted to mention in this point...

• someone stole this job from me today!  This new girl (S7) I haven't seen before....she started doing them instead of saving them for me to do!  Waaaaah!

• I actually can't remember if this really happened today or not...but...oh wells. I'll tell it anyway, A librarian (S8) asked me to help her sort through the magazines.  I kinda do this in my school library, too...but this library has so much more!  Basically, I would look at all the magazines of each company(?) and take out any that were older than a year.  I quite liked it!  It was work! Kinda like the deliveries!  Put me to work, peoples!  I got so excited with this, I continued working on it after my break, and worked kinda quickly, too?  I had some silly competition going on in my head.  I was done within a few hours and alerted one of the librarians.  They were shocked. Apparently, it usually took her a few days to get this done! 

• the end of the day was pretty slow today, so some girl (S1) told me to make towers.  The library had these card stock poster thingies...and I had to fold along the lines so that the would be...um...3D?!  They ended up looking like...pyramids...kinda?  Wait, no....here....I'll describe what I did to them...picture a long sheet of rectangular paper, now fold it two times so that you have three equal spaces. Now tape the ends together!  And ta-da!  This...thing....I don't have a name for!  It got kinda tedious after I made fifty or more of them...so!  I started stacking them into towers!  I think I had six on the bottom, and stacked another six on top of that...and one more after that.  I tried to get higher, but it would end up falling, and I'd have nothing again, so!  Three layers it was!  Then, after a while of this, some librarian (S9) came and joined me. She helped me make towers!  And we talked about life!  I liked that librarian!

Thursday March 24, 2016 (9-5)

• I was at a different library today!  A library near my grandmother's house.  I used to go there all the time when I lived with her, but ever since I moved...out....I...I haven't been there in ages.

• I did something terrifying today!  I.  Bought.  Food.  My first task today was to go to the mall next door and purchase a dozen glazed doughnuts (YUM), and a bag of chocolate eggs (over 200). She gave me $20 to buy both.  Okay, so...for those of you who don't know already, I'm shy! And I don't buy things because I feel like all the cashiers look at me and think I'm still a kid...and I shouldn't be making purchases.  Anyways!  

• I went to this doughnut shop and asked the person for a dozen glazed doughnuts.  The girl told me they didn't have a dozen.  Only six...so she could give me six glazed and six long johns(?)...she also pointedly looked at their display. UGH, stupid me!  I should have looked first! Anyways....I panicked, and told her I'd think about it,  After a few minutes, I realised I didn't really have much of a choice, so I gave her the twenty dollar bill and asked for the glazed doughnuts and the long johns.  

• Then I went to Extra Foods to buy the chocolate eggs.  I searched the entire store, and I couldn't find a bag of 200 chocolate eggs!  I saw packs of 24 though...or 12...and they were all crazy expensive. I only had a few dollars left....where's a dollar store when you need one!?  I finally found a bag of 100 chocolates.  But the total would cost more than the money she gave me....so....THANK GOODNESS I had my wallet with me.  I used my own money...bought it...and went back to the library.  UGH.  They locked the door on me...I had to ring a bell.

• The rest of the time I was there, I mainly observed a coding event for kids.  They all had iPads and played coding games on them. Observing is boring once you've done it for more than two hours.mostly standing around and watching people.  I also felt like I was intruding.  They were all in groups and I was just watching their screens over their shoulders.  Not being creepy or anything. 

• At the end of the event, the librarian said she had two free tickets to Science World.  And she was going to give them away.  But it was only valid until Saturday.  They had this super cool body exhibit going on....the librarian asked me to hand everyone a piece of paper and pencil...scribble down their name...and put it in a basket.  She asked ME to draw a name. The first person I picked couldn't go.  The next person couldn't go either....or the next...or the next. So the librarian (S3) gave them to me!  I felt like I kinda failed.  But, hey, free tickets, I won't complain.  I wonder who I'd give the other ticket to...

• Side note: I wanted to go with GILF, kinda....REALLY BADLY....but he rejected me...and I felt sad...and went with my sister instead. My mom had even approved the meeting...and she rarely approves the meetings I want to have with him.

• Oh, another side note!  Gilf visited me during my break today!  We had fun.... 

• After the even ended, the librarian asked me to go to the teen section and gather ten of my favourite books.  I had a hard time trying to pick JUST ten, but I finally did. She told me that she would set up a display and put "Elizabeth's Picks"...but I told her I wanted to remain anonymous.

• Last thing I did today...was cut paper!  She gave me a box of papers and (hold slips) and told me to cut the ends off so that they could reuse the....reused paper!  This one actually...quite fun!  Well...considering that for the better part of the day...I was watching people play games. I made it a competition again.  And tried to cut as much paper as possible.  I almost cut my fingers off a few times...the scissors were kinda HUGE.  And I can see why RSI could be a problem for people who work in the library...I don't think I managed to cut through them ALL, but....I think I got through more than a few hundred.

Anyways!

You know what?  Looking at the size of this post...I'm going to save the cruise, summer school and work stuff...for another post.  If....I remember.....

(read: I need to procrastinate more before I can do any more work)

If you people can still remember...what did you do last spring break?  

Or...have you ever done work experience of any kind before?