Eight Random Things

A few days ago, Woeful from @ the Library tagged me with the "random things" meme. So, here are eight random things about me.

1) I am currently watching "Dirty Dancing." My mother wouldn't let me see it when it first came out because it was PG-13 and I was only 10. When I watch it, I always have a slight thrill like I'm somehow getting something over on my mother.

2) I think the world would be a better place if people occasionally broke into synchronized dance routines or musical numbers.

3) On our first date, the man who is now my husband kicked my ass at Scrabble.

4) My cat snores loudly enough to wake me up.

5) New Orleans is my favorite city, and I would live there if I could even though it's hot, corrupt, and could sink into the Gulf of Mexico at any time.

6) I watch "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" two or three times per week.

7) I have a recurring dream where I'm trying to find something in a maze.

8) I have a strange obsession with helper monkeys.

I don't really know any other bloggers well enough to officially tag them, so if you want to play, consider yourself tagged!

Bratty Girl

Some people are very angry.

Last night, one of my co-workers told a girl who does not have permission to use the Internet that she couldn't share a computer with her friend who does have that permission. The girl refused to leave, so I got the pleasure of talking to her. She was informed that she needed to leave the computer lab or she would be asked to leave for the day. Her response?

"Shut da fuck up, bitch. Get out of ma face."

This is, of course, not the first time I've been sworn at. It's not exactly a frequent occurrence, but probably one out of every ten or fifteen people who get told to leave the library decide to swear at and insult either me or the library on their way out. It's pretty rare, however, that people get to that point after a conversation of one sentence.

I always wonder about people like that, people who are so entirely rude to pretty much everyone they meet. Do they get results with that kind of language and attitude elsewhere in life? What benefit do they derive from it? What possible good can come out of being such a jerk?

As for this girl, I don't know if she honestly thought I was going to turn around and leave after her statement, but what actually happened is that she got escorted out of the library. As she continued to swear at, insult, and threaten me (she said she was going to "come back and meet me later" if I insisted on walking her out), she also got banned for six months.

Teenagers Are Great!

When I tell people what I do for a living, many of them reply with something like "Wow, teens. That must be really hard!" Others say something like "How can you work with teens? They're so disrespectful/loud/obnoxious/fill in your preferred derogatory term here."

I wish those people could have been at my library today. We closed the library for the day to have a 7-hour program dedicated only to serving teens. We had workshops on interesting topics such as film making, college preparation, jewelry making, and others, as well as a career festival, a presentation by a YA author, raffle prizes, and a band performance. We had students from 9 different high schools (half of the districts in our County). The reviews from the participants have been great; the students had a chance to experience something they probably wouldn't have gotten to do without their library.

Even more important than the good feelings from participants, this program was a showcase of the dedication and leadership of our Teen Advisory Board. TAB members planned this entire event. The planning process started over 6 months ago. Members of TAB created the budget, planned the workshop, contacted performers, dealt with all of the pre-event publicity, talked to schools to get their students to come, and took care of all of the myriad issues that need to be handled to pull off a major event.

Last night, TAB members came in after the library closed to help set up for the event (we had workshops in every meeting room and several public spaces). Today, they served as hosts and emcees, helped out in the workshops, served as guides to their fellow students, and generally made the event run. Everyone on TAB did a truly remarkable and amazing job. I was truly awe-inspired by the leadership ability and dedication showed by the members of our TAB.

I'll be back with the snark later. Right now, I just want to think about how amazing all of the teens I know are, and how thrilled and grateful I am to have the opportunity to help guide them to things like today.

Brief Update

For the past 6 months, I've been working on the biggest program of my career. The last two weeks have been awful. From performers suddenly backing out to the fear that I wouldn't have enough teens to attend, my days have been spent calling people, chewing my fingernails, scrambling to fill unexpected holes in the schedule, and having brief fantasies of public humiliation.

The program takes place on Wednesday. Wish me luck.