Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Closing Time

(You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.)

Tonight I listened to the closing CD I made for Job #1 for the last time. I heard my voice announce fifteen minutes, ten minutes, and five minutes before closing, then the "we are now closed" message (all in English and Spanish), and then four songs: "Closing Time" by Semisonic, "I Get Out" by Lauryn Hill (surprise, surprise), "Goodbye" by the Spice Girls (not sure what I was thinking when I put that on), and "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy.

Job #1 has been such a big part of my life for the last three years, it's hard to imagine my life without it. It's the job that made me decide I want to be a librarian when I grow up, and surely no matter where I go I will always think of librarianship in terms of what I learned at Library #1. It will be strange not only to not work there anymore, but also to not look out my bedroom window and see Library #1 across the street. If you ever visit Library #1, watch where you tread; you just might step on a piece of me.

Today was also my last day at Job #2. I also feel sad about leaving #2, but in this case it's more a sense of missed opportunities that I would have had, had I stayed longer. And then, of course, there's the guilt of being like the fifth person in a row to stay three months and then leave. Library #2 has been better to me than I deserved.

Tomorrow we'll finish packing up, then Friday I'll leave for Seattle. I'm not sure I'll recognize my life when I get there.
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5 comments:

  1. Tolkien Boy9/07/2006 12:47 AM

    I think I speak for lots of non-librarians when I say you're my favorite librarian-type.

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  2. B.G. Christensen9/07/2006 8:05 AM

    PS I don't actually sing the songs on the closing CD, in case that wasn't clear.

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  3. skyeJ9/08/2006 5:06 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. skyeJ9/08/2006 5:08 AM

    Hey, Master FOB, are you a sexy librarian?? hee hee... Maybe I'll just ask FoxyJ.

    p.s. Called you simply "FOB" instead of "Master FOB" in the previous version of this comment. Profuse apologies.

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  5. Anonymous9/08/2006 1:17 PM

    A listserv I was on had an acronym for that--SLT, sexy librarian type. There were lots of librarians on the list. Also lots of WGWGs (white guys with glasses). Predictably, there was a lot of overlap between the two groups.

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