red pen, vampire, batman, etc.

ONE) RFID-OLOGY. Today I worked at one of the first library branches in our system to do RFID conversion. Everyone is switching over, but they’re rolling it out in increments - it’s not just for security but also to make things flow more easily. This is good because it’s so gangbusters busy all the dang time! GANGBUSTERS! Anyway, I’d never done any RFID tagging, but today I learned how. It’s stickers and scanning and laser goggles, so that’s cool. (okay, no laser goggles, but those would have been awesome.)

TWO) RED PEN MYSTERIES: This morning I was working on the circ desk and got to issue library cards, which is one of my favorite things to do. (“here’s your access to all this amazing stuff for FREE!”) I was having a patron sign the back of his application form and handed him the red pen in my hand, since that’s what I was using to mark up some stuff going to other branches. He was a nice, chatty dude who said he usually comes in with his kid who does have a library card, but figured it was time to get his own so he could use the internet. He also told me that he was from Mexico, and that there it was usually NOT DONE to write your name with a red pen. Bad luck, bad something. I scrambled around to find him a not-red pen, which he assured me was not necessary. I apologized and he laughed and said it was no big deal, but it did make him pause while writing. I made sure to find him a black pen to sign his card, though. Red pen! I had no idea.

THREE) SOME TEETH ARE JUST LIKE THAT: I was having a conversation with a chatty child at work the other day and at the end of it she pointed in her own mouth and told me I had vampire teeth. I was all “WHUT???” in my head, but smiley nodding to her because I couldn’t quite understand what she was talking about. (I say this with great affection, but kids are weird.) Anyway! it finally dawned on me that she was talking about my pointy canine teeth/incisors/whatever you want to call them. Some people's are pointy, some people’s aren’t - it’s just one of the glorious variables of humanity. But dude. The vampire mythos has gotten pretty damned watered down if a kid under five thinks that someone working in a LIBRARY in the DAYTIME has vampire teeth. Vampires roam the night killing people and being dramatic! they don’t scan books in a mild-mannered fashion and have whacked out Dr. Seuss surreal conversations with toddlers. And if they did, it wouldn’t be IN THE BROAD DAYLIGHT.

FOUR) I’M BATMAN: kids are weird, cont. - I checked out books to a 3 foot tall batman on sunday. He had a construction paper and elastic mask with some pretty rad gloves/gauntlets. In true mysterious superhero fashion he said nothing, but did swan and swoop around the desk a lot so we could all get a good look at him. He let his mom do the talking, which included “did you see his costume?” After which question he skulked by the desk again like a mini zoolander-batman hybrid.