Weekend in Vegas

I met up with friends because there was a 50th birthday to celebrate. I rented a car. I've done it before, even used the same company many times, in many different cities. I've never had a problem until now. I used express rental car return, because I had a flight to catch and there were only two people checking-in cars. This was Tuesday. I received the final bill via email this morning. I was billed $34 for refueling. Um, I re-filled the tank myself before returning it to the airport. The return time said 4:00pm. My flight left at 2:55pm, so I returned the car before 11:30am. I telephoned customer service and got the $34 refunded. I was told that I would have to call the LAS office to have the return time corrected. I will sit in the car until someone arrives to check-in the car from now on.

A program was scheduled

It was supposed to be a creative writing workshop for children. Yeah, well that's not what happened. My manager passed away suddendly last month. The public memorial was at the beginning of this month. The creative writing workshop was scheduled to begin October 11th. On October 10th, my staff found out by happen stance that a totally different program was planned. Since it was supposed to be a children's program, I had the Children's Libraian contact the performer. Her explaination, " I was going to stop in at 1:00p.m. on Friday and explain the program to you." Really, she had invited public officials, my manager's family, there was a reporter from the neighboring community's newspaper. The woman asked to speak to me and I explained that everything she had planned needed to go through the library's public relations department and upper management. She said, "Oh, I don't want to get anyone in trouble." I told her that it's not about anyone getting in trouble, but she had planned a program totally different from what she presented to the Children's Librarian.

So you know me...........Really?

Last month, I was helping a patron obtain a new library card. While processing the application, the patron looked out the window, saw his friend and went to speak with him. When the patron returned, he had his friend with him. I didn't look up from the computer terminal until I heard his friend say, " Oh, I know her already!" I immediately frowned and said while looking up, "You know me? From where?" As soon as where rolled off my tonge, I recognized the guy. So I said, "Yeah, WHY DON'T YOU TELL THAT STORY!" Dude closed his mouth immediately. Way back when I first begain working as a non-assistance food stamp eligibility worker, he was one of my first clients. He sweated me from day one. I was constantly telling him that I wasn't interested. 4 years after I began that job, I left for graduate school. I was gone 1 1/2 years. When I returned, I received a brand new caseload. Low and behold, once again old boy was my client. At that time, when he began to sweat me, I told him that I didn't date clients. He immediately let his case close and then called me. We went out once and I was not impressed. Another 3 years go by and I have since quit my old job and began working as a librarian. I had a home that needed painting and he was painting houses. We made a verbal contract and he painted my home. He failed to return and do the finishing touches on the paint job. I had paid him in full and as collateral, he left all of his ladders. 6 months later, I decided to sell that house. Dude had returned once, to say that he would finish the touch-ups and collect his ladders. By the time I was in escrow, I had no valid contact information for dude. I gave the ladders to the guy who was fixing up my new home for me.

My Summer Recap

I went to New York for the Harlem Book Fair. The was book fair is wonderful. I learned what kind of person someone I had considered a friend for 13 years truly is. I spent my born day in NYC with me, myself, & I. The saying, "When people show you who they are, believe them" took on a whole new meaning for me during that trip. I really didn't want to write about this because the person reads my blog and has friends who don't know me from a can of paint that read my blog. It still bothers me because I truly thought the person was my friend. Initially, I kept in contact with 3 people I met in graduate school. The number is now down to 1. My library branch has been open 6 months and we are still waiting on parts to repair items that have been broken since opening day. Things seem to be breaking down everyday. How about a grown a** man urinated all over the men's bathroom 1 1/2 weeks ago. I'm talking about all over the floor, the walls, the sink, and the urinal. ( I left work for a medical appointment. I returned to an out of order sign on the men's restroom.) Our lovely custodial department decided that was not an important job and didn't send someone to clean it until after opening the next day.

The broken brick on the outside of the brand new library

It took two months, 3 engineers and 1 tile setter to replace the broken brick on the outside of the library. Our YT patrons who are relatively new to the neighborhood felt that it was their responsibility to remind the staff that the brick still hadn't been replaced each week. Now that it has been replaced, we haven't heard anything from them.

Speechless

I helped a teen last week and her born name is Fantasy!! I just hope that her parents were very young. I can't imagine naming my daughter Fantasy.

Serving a suspension

Monday, I asked a student to leave the library. I was called about 5 different types of bitches before he finally left. Tuesday, when I arrived to work, I began writing the incident report that would lead to the suspension of the student. Unfortunately, the penalty for verbal abuse of a staff member is 7 days for the first offense. The student suspened himself and didn't come to the library afterschool Tuesday. This afternoon, the student walked in and immediately went the long way around the branch. I said, " I really don't feel like serving him the suspension today." I asked the children's librarian to call security. I wanted to know irf one of the officers could drive out to serve the suspension. I went to the restroom. When I returned, to my surprise, one of the beat cops was standing near the reference desk. I asked him to serve the suspension paper for me. 5 minutes later, the other 10 students walked out. As they walked by the reference desk, they said, " You kick one of us out, we all leave." If only we had known that's all it would take to get rid of them!

Catching a thief

Friday afternoon as I returned from the staff area, the Teen Librarian approached me saying she thought the guy that I had been making leave the library everyday was in the DVD area (he gave up books and began stealing DVDs.) I smelled the guy before I reached him (he reeked of alcohol.) I got next to the guy and said, “I need you to sit over there. I had indicated the large round table in the adult area." It was open and could be seen from different angles in the library. The guy asked, "So you gon call the police on me?" I told him, "No, but I do need to speak to you." I asked him why he thought taking materials from our branch was a good idea. He told me that he gave away what he took. I then asked, “How do you give away library material?" He replied, “I take the barcode and the label off first. I DON'T SELL THE STUFF! He then asked me," Why are you worried about what I take? It belongs to the white man." I told him, "I manage this branch and you taking items from here makes the branch look bad." He said, "I can understand that." I then asked, “Do you even have a library card? (We didn't know his name and in order to process the paper work for suspension, I needed his name.) He said, “No, can I get one? I asked him if he would use the card if he had it, and he said yes. I then asked if he had valid picture identification. To my surprise, he got his wallet and showed me his identification. It actually looked brand new. The guy then told me that I was in his way because I kept standing there talking to him. He said, "You know I'm going get busy doing what I do when you leave?" I replied, "Yes, I do. That's why I'm not moving." I asked if he would fill out a library card application. He said that he would, if I helped him while he completed it. This is the point where the conversation turned. He said, "That's some nice polish you have on your toes." I thanked him and kept trying to get him to complete the application. He then asked, “Can I touch your toes?" I laughed, and said no. He asked, "Well, can I touch just one of them?" I laughed again and told him no, while moving out of his reach. Finally, he completed the application. I took him to the circulation counter so that his library card application could be processed. While they were processing his application, I went to get the suspension paperwork so that I could complete it. By this time, the Teen Librarian had called security and the police. Once the guy received his library card, he told me very loudly. I told him that he could check out 1 item and return it in 3 weeks. He asked, "Can I check you out and return you in 3 weeks?" I told him no, and that he could check out one of the library materials and return it in 3 weeks. He went in search of a DVD, came back to the desk and checked it out. He then came to tell me that he couldn't find any western movies. He reflected on it and then said, “I probably stole all of them." I said you probably didn’t, and handed him the suspension paperwork. He read it. He then and asked, "Did I do that much?” The suspension is for 90 days. By this time, library security has arrived and one of the beat cops. The cop said, "I'm just checking in, to see how it's going in here and here you are. Are you causing them trouble?" The library security officer and I both said, “It's taken care of now.”

Adults versus Pre-teens and Teenagers

The title of this post has been my ongoing problems for this month. A group of 10-20 pre-teens and teens have discovered my branch library. They are supposed to attend the local Y afterschool program, but according to them that Y is too ghetto. Instead, they prefer to yell, run, chase each other, and hit each other at the library. It can get so loud, it sounds as if you are outside. When they start misbehaving, one of us (the 3 librarians,) issues a warning. Of course they pay no attention to our warnings. Each evening almost always ends up with their group being asked to leave the library. The first time that I got fed up with them, I gave them the option of sitting at a table and reading a book, or they could leave the library. The whole group chose to leave the library. They returned immediately, and accused me of kicking them out. I repeated that they were given a choice and they chose to leave. They then wanted to argue with me. I kept repeating to them that arguing with me wasn't going to change the options that I had given them. This past Thursday, I kicked them out. They decided to block the foyer of the library. This action caused a disturbance with one of the crazy patrons. He chased them cursing. I had to reprimand him and then speak with the teens. I called the library security. The one officer that is assigned to the 27 branches was all the way on the other side of town. I also sent the local police station captain an email, requesting that the library be added to their beat. Next week, we will only have been open 3 months

It's the contractor's fault!

This past Monday, there was an email awaiting me at work. It was from one of the other librarians. I had advised here to contact the district manager in charge of the branch reconstruction regarding our sewage problems. So, it turns out the plumbing contractor did use a camera to find out the cause of the sewage back-ups. They found a rock inside the pipes. The rock was the cause of the back-ups. Did any of them email the branch staff to let us know? No, they didn't. Did anyone call us to let us know? Once again, no they didn't. They were so quick to accuse the branch staff for the sewage back-ups. It was crickets once the real culprit was discovered. As a matter of fact, they cancelled the meeting that they were supposed to have in the branch last week.

Hennesey, really? I mean really?

Wednesday evening six children and their mom came to visit the library. I had never seen this family. I kept hearing the Mom yell, "Hennesey." I finally looked in the children's area. A little girl who appeared to be about 3 years of age was the one answering to Hennessey. Why y'alll? No, they are not black. The only work of english spoken was Hennesey. I said to my staff, "Well at least we aren't the only ones who do that to our children."

New Construction doesn't always work out too good

After being open a little over 30 days, we have had sewage back-ups in all restrooms and the custodial closet on 4 different occasions in 3 weeks. Each time, the pipes have been snaked. Obviously this isn't solving the problem. Each and every sewage back-up has been blamed on the staff. They keep saying the back-up originated in the staff restroom. Funny, the staff restroom or any other restroom didn't back-up prior to the branch opening to the public. The staff worked in the branch and used all restrooms from 1 month prior to the branch opening. My claims of there being a bigger issue were not acknowledged until the fourth time there was a sewage back-up. We even had two in one week. They set up a date for the plumbing contractor to use a camera in the plumbing system and no one showed up. I think the plumbing contractor is trying to get out of his liability for the issues that keep occurring.

First Week in a Brand New Library

I noticed a regular patron at another branch sitting at one of our express terminals. It's a YT man, so I really wanted to know how and why he had come to the south eastern neck of the city. I called the branch that he normally frequents to tell them that he was at my branch. What do I discover? Homey had received a 7 day suspension from them the week before. The suspension was still in place. I approached the patron and asked his name to be sure I had the correct individual. He told me his name and I informed him that he was inviolation of his suspension. The man had the nerve to ask me how I knew what happened at the other branch. It had only been two weeks since I stopped working at that branch, so I'm still on their email distribution list. I received a copy of the incident report regarding the patron. I didn't think anything of it at the time, because the staff at that location constantly submits incident reports. In essence, I didn't read it at the time of receipt. I explain once again that he must exit the library because he is in violation of the suspension guidelines. He tells me that the suspension is just for that branch. I told him that a suspension is for all branches in our library system. The man called me the devil and told me that I needed to repent for my sins. I told him that he still had to leave the library. This back and forth went on for about 2-3 minutes. I finally walked away from the patron and he began packing up his belongings. He said something to a pair of teen girls who were staring at him and they told him that he's suspended, so he needs to leave them alone and leave the library. This is how the last day of my first week in our brand new library ended.

Just a few thing to say

The day is finally near, my branch library reopens this Saturday. I can't wait! I'm tired of the emails, meetings, shelf plans, tours. I have lived in this home for 10 years as of November 15, 2012. I never expected to be here this long. I thought that I would make the needed repairs and move on. The house had different plans. There was more wrong than indicated in the inspection. I knew there was dryrot, once one layer was revealed, even more was found. There was a leak that took a few thousand dollars and many visits by the plumber to uncover because that was in layers also. What seemed to be one leak was many leaks from different areas. Once a leak was stopped nothing, then two weeks later it would return. My stairs had holes, walls had holes, all in search of the hidden leak. The major leak turned out to come from the downstairs kitchen sink. I have the same microwave that I received as a house warming gift for my first apartment 23 years ago. My Mom is on her 3rd microwave in 10 years.

I have learned

The new folks that I manage have been babied by managers past. What I think they have learned from this week is that I'm not about that life. Thankfully, I will only be with them until they get a permanent manager,or my branch opens. My branch finally is scheduled to open at the end of February. I cannot wait. I am so tired of being shuffled around. I feel as if it needs to read next to my name in the staff directory, "Branch Manager, will travel to whatever location needs management."

My first week at a new temporary location

Once again, I have been given the assignment of being the interim manager at a unwanted branch. No one chose to reassign to that branch, so it must go to the list of eligibles. Most likely, someone from outside will interview for the job. Those who work in our library system are well aware of the patron problems at this branch. What I have learned this week is that there are staff issues also. On Wednesday, I informed a patron that his "cart of belongings" was too large to be inside the library. I gave him a copy of the library guidelines and highlighted the sentence that addressed this particular problem. The patron's response was that we never have a problem with the strollers. I told the patron that the strollers were used to transport humans and there is a difference. The patron had the nerve to tell me that his cart and a baby stroller were the same. The same patron was back on Thursday with his cart. I stopped and spoke with the patron. I asked him why he had brought the cart once again. I expained that he was still in violation of the library's guidelines for patron use. The guy had the nerve to ask me why I had a problem. He said that he comes to this branch all of the time and no one else had a problem with his cart. I walked away and went into my office. Not 10 minutes later, library security arrived. One of the officers came into my office. I asked him if they has spoken to the patron about his cart. The officer said they had. I then told the officer that I had spoken to the patron the day before. The officer said, " Oh you did? We'll take care of it!" The patron was escorted out of the library and he was suspended for 1 day, per library guidelines. That same day, I had an issue with one of the pages. When I returned from the staff room, he was in my office with the door closed(& locked) and on the computer. There were so many things wrong with that picture. I first stepped away, went to the restroom and returned. I told him,"First impressions last! I am going to the store and when I return, I expect you to be out of here." The fool had the nerve to yell at me. I closed the door in his face while he was talking and left the libary. He sent his district manager an email about the incident. He thought that he was tellling my boss on me. Two things. 1. She is not my boss. 2. He was oh so in the wrong. The district manager called me, asked for my version of the story. She was extremely surprised to learn that the employee in question was on the manager's computer with the door closed and locked.