A dream is a wish your heart makes

Hello my tens of readers! I have exciting news!

I think I got a new job. A nice lady from the King County Library System's human resources department called me and said they'd like me come work for them as a children's librarian. Can you believe it? Is this really happening? I told her I would love to have that job. Then I hung up and checked my caller ID to make sure it was really from KCLS. IT WAS. OMG.

So after eleven months (I'm often told by Jeff et. al., this is not really that long to wait, but it felt like a really long time) of applications, resumes, cover letters, phone interviews, skills assessments, and group interviews I've finally landed the job I wanted when I started library school. I'm so happy, I could spend the next several days (or years) bursting into song and smiling at strangers. In fact, I will soon be paid to do that at story times.

As soon as my 90-day probationary period is up, I'm going to start planning that librarian tattoo I've been talking about. 4 reals. The "shhh" tat is out, though, because not just one but TWO pop stars already have it.

Let's Hear It for the Libes

I think it's National Library Week this week. Or maybe it was last week. I'm not sure, because it's kind of ridiculous to have a National Library Week. I mean, I try to live every week like it's library week, right?

Anyway, I subscribe to some library blogs and they've been listing all these crazy facts about libraries in celebration of NLW. Some of them are kind of interesting; like, did you know there are more libraries in the United States than McDonald's restaurants? WOW!

But some of the facts must be randomly generated from some old-ass list, because here's one I saw today:

"If the cost of gas had risen as fast as the cost of academic library periodicals since 1990, it would cost $3.00 a gallon to put fuel in your car."

Yeah. I'm pretty sure the average price of gas around here is like $3.60. Not quite as strong an argument as your McDonald's fact. Get with the times, ALA.

A designated celebratory time period I can get behind is National Poetry Month, which is this month.

In honor of NPM, here's one of my favorite poems:

Psalm

In the small beauty of the forest
The wild deer bedding down --
That they are there!

    Their eyes
Effortless, the soft lips
Nuzzle and the alien small teeth
Tear at the grass

    The roots of it
Dangle from their mouths
Scattering earth in the strange woods.
They who are there.

    Their paths
Nibbled thru the fields, the leaves that shade them
Hang in the distances
Of sun

    The small nouns
Crying faith
In this in which the wild deer
Startle, and stare out.

--George Oppen (1965)

Have you seen a ninja walk by here? He was wearing all black.

This is why I volunteer at the public library: the fascinating reference questions.