embracing the good parts of a day

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
embracing the good parts of a day
Wow I've been forcing myself to do a lot of this lately. Bad days seem to string together for me in the late-fall and early-winter, mostly because I HATE being cold. I hate it with every inch of my being. My toes go numb, my fingers go numb, I have constant goosebumps and all I can think about every day is coming home, sitting near the heating ducts in my house in my warm fuzzy bathrobe.
Last year's winter didn't seem so bad- mostly I think because I was "falling in love" with the boyfriend, which warmed my heart enough to ignore my freezing appendages. This winter, I'm still in love, but being cold is more evident. I also spent the last few days thinking, "What other differences were there between this year and last?"
I was only working part time at a different library.
I was finishing up grad school.
My best friends still lived here.
I mass-sending-out-resumes for jobs.
I was running- working out like a crazy person, because I was only working part time.

Since then, I've
Bought an entire collection of teen books.
Bought a lot of other books (adult, children's, etc.).
Processed them.
Moved them.
Shelved them.
Made a space look pretty.
Opened a library.
Helped run a library.
Went to my first conference.
Learned more stuff than I thought I would in a job, ever.

So all of those things are good. Definitely forward movement. I need to focus on these things. I'm moving in the right direction, and the above lists only a few things that have happened in the last year or so. So I'm going places.

But on days when we're slammed, and I'm the only one on desk, and I wore the wrong shoes and my back hurts and my feet hurt and I leave work when it's dark out- I need funny moments, I need happy moments, I need moments (usually patron interactions) to get me through the day.

And yesterday I had a few of those moments. And two of my regular teens came in, and one of them read to me some of the things she's been writing. And I just want to force her to sit down with a pen and paper and never stop writing. She's so incredibly talented, and I know that she barely thinks her writing is interesting, but needs reassurance that's it's good.

So I listen to her read things to me in brief moments at the desk. And I tell her to keep going. Keep going! It's so good! I want to know what's going to happen next!

And she looks at me like I'm a crazy person.

I hope those kids know how much their arrival at 4:00pm makes my day.