Back to work, and boy am I tired.
Working out in the sticks doesn't quite prepare one for working in a southern California library. It's busy. Very, very busy. People on computers, people checking out books, people asking reference questions - all day long. There are no breaks. Lulls are a thing from my past.
I got home last night and asked my boyfriend for 2 bottles of wine and a hot bath. I got the hot bath, but I was afraid if I started drinking I wouldn't stop.
That's not to say I don't like my new job. Certain aspects of it remind me of why I became a librarian. My favorite question so far came from a young Vietnamese woman who wanted a book on insects. She takes her kids to the park a lot and they're always asking her about the bugs they find. This kind of stuff tickles me.
But again - I'm in Southern California now, where there are more crazies per capita. Monday saw me dealing with a patron the staff refers to as The Mad Russian Scientist. How mad is he? He wanted the fax number for the President of Switzerland if that gives you any idea. He's also one of these fellows that thinks no information is too impossible to obtain because after all, we have Internet access! - so brushing him off or gently humoring him is not an option.
I'm almost homesick for the kinder, gentler crazies I used to see at my former place of employment.
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