float_on_alright

I still think of myself as working for Scholastic Book Fairs which probably sounds bizarre, but I guess four years and a couple of months of thinking one way doesn’t change easily. I’ve had an amazing few days off, thank goodness. I needed it the break like nobody’s business. I’d been on social and work and activity overload. I slept like crazy on Thursday night and pretty heavily on Friday night. Last night was more in the moderate normal range. I might have slept more but I wanted to finish my book, “Not Your Villain,” which was wonderful. I loved and I can’t wait for the next one.

I’ve also started going through the stuff that I’d brought home from my cubicle at Scholastic which has been a little weird. Like I mentioned, I still sort of feel like I work there. Well, I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. I think it actually feels like I’m unemployed. How that can be when I’ve had 10 days at the library, I can’t begin to imagine, but there ya go. It could be that it doesn’t feel like work yet? I mean, sure I have to get up, fight traffic, and stay 8.5 - 9 hours depending on my lunch break, but… yeah. I mean there’s a lot I’m still trying to understand and deal with and a lot that I haven’t had to do yet (at least not on my own) so I guess maybe that’s part of it. But I’ve been to orientation, been there for two weeks, put up my very first display, ordered restocks for FAFSA forms, and have been through a ton of different training sessions.

And yet, I still don’t feel like I work at the library.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been dreaming about working at the library for so many years. That’s my best guess. That the reason I don’t feel like I work at the library is because I still can’t believe I got the job.

I think that might be it. I still can’t believe I got the job.

I’m guessing that only continuing to work there and getting more immersed in the projects and minutiae are going to change that feeling. Tomorrow may help too. Tomorrow is “Staff Training Day” — a system wide shut down of the library branches and a day spent all together in sessions, etc. From what I understand there’s something like 400+ staff members which if you think about staffing 20 (well, 19 since one is under renovation) branches with Circulation staff, reference staff, teen staff, and children’s staff as well as a branch manager… well that’s a lot of people. There are a lot of part time staff members, especially, I think, in circulation. But then you’ve also got all the administrative people. This system is one of the few that has a Director AND a CEO. Most libraries, at least so far as I’m aware, only have a Director. They also have in-house marketing people and I don’t know if that’s normal either. So yeah, I can see how if you’ve got 19 branches that are open 7 days a week most of the year how you would end up with a ton of staff members.

I’ll be curious to see just how many people it is. I’m super curious to see how it compares to going to SKO at Scholastic as far as the number of people. Well, also in the “drink the kool-aid” comparison. It’s only one day instead of the marathon event SKO is over the course of four days, but I’m betting that I will see a few comparisons.

Well, that was a tangent. I meant to delve into my emotions about “Magnus Chase and The Ship of the Dead” and “Not Your Villain” as well as more examination of my “this is not real” feelings on the job transition, but those will have to wait because I’ll need to be up early and I imagine that training, no matter where you work, is tiring.

New Job