The Interview

I just got back from the interview for the Library Page job and, you know, it's so terribly hard to judge these things from the inside, so I have no idea how it went. The thing I wanted to relate, though, was that, at one point I was talking about how familiar I am with that particular library, and I said, "My son and I were just here Sunday taking out a ton of books. We cleaned out your YA section; he took out about forty books." And, one of the two interviewers perked up and said, "Oh! That was YOU?"

Now, he could have just be kidding around the way you do, but I got the sense that... well, that maybe our reputation proceeds us, because Mason does this semi-regularly, too. We get all of the books back in time (for the most part) and we don't do it very often, but when we do, it's a BIG haul....

At any rate, I thought that part was awesome. The rest--I'll have to wait and see. I should hear in the next couple of weeks. The hours would be pretty perfect for me. Their average shifts are really quite short, 2 to 4 hours, which is super-duper ideal for me. Plus, it sounds like you have a chance to pre-schedule some shifts and take on others spontaneously.

Fingers crossed, as they say.

When Mason was wishing me luck this morning, he was trying to come up with an analog to the theatre superstition, "Break a leg," and so, out of the blue, he said, "Burn a book!" and I was like, "GAH! What are you saying?!!!" But, then we decided maybe a better one was, "Break the Dewey Decimal System!" Which, in retrospect, sounds like some kind of subversive battle cry: "Fight the system, man!"

Can you tell I'm still a little giddy from having an interview? It's been a lot of years since I've had an actual job interview. They're nerve-wracking. I don't know how you kids do this on a regular basis. But, you know, I'm trying to just relax and remind myself that it'll be what it will be. I feel like I've also put out the energy into the universe that says, "Hey, I'm up for this" which is good too, you know?

The other thing that was cool was that one of the interviewers looked me up. I'd said on my application that I'd been a writer for the past decade, so she checked and sure enough they have some of my titles in their holdings. I think she was surprised that I wasn't making that up. We ended up talking about libraries and how much I love them BECAUSE I'm a writer. Not only because they're a great source of research, but really more because they're a great place for readers... who then buy my books.

I used both the word "symbiotic" (to describe that relationship) and "squee" (when talking about my enthusiasm for Mason's school) in the interview. I wonder what that says about me?

Also? I was picking up books that Mason and I'd had interlibrary loaned, and so I was sitting there with a small pile of manga. I'd gotten ATTACK ON TITAN for myself and more TORIKO for Mason. I must have looked like a World-class otaku. I did notice one of the librarians checking out my reading material. And, I couldn't have pretended they were all for Mason because when I was waiting to go in, she found me reading them....

Well, at least she knows I'm honest about being a reader/library user.

So, that was my big excitement for the day. Now I think I'm going to go collapse in a corner for a while, maybe try to get some writing done.