Late Library Dates

If you asked me where I spent most of my time this week I'd have to answer

I live there. Apparently I signed myself up for two closing shifts at the library this semester, I have no idea how I was not aware that I did this, but anyway the point is that I am working at the library 9pm-12am Wednesday and Thursday every week. With 8am classes everyday. Like I said, no idea what I was thinking or why I ended up with these shifts.

Yesterday I spent 11 1/2 hours total at the library: 10-12:30pm studying, then I worked 3-7, waited two hours and then worked 9-12. Basically this place is my home.

< Picture of my library.

I really love the library, so I don't have a problem really, except for that I need sleep. Which I am not getting. Like, I got 4 1/2 - 5 hours of sleep last night. Not cool or healthy. So I'm trying to go to bed earlier on days I don't work but this becomes a problem because my roommates stay up past midnight usually. Funny, because when I come home from the library to my dorm after I close they are in bed with all the lights off. (Which is funny because my roommate just asked me to leave the light on for her if I go to bed before she does.) Interesting.

Yeah whatever. I can't wait till next year when I can pick my roommates (actually that's a really dramatic thing but I'm not going to talk about that right now). To be honest I don't mind that I'm at the library so much because a lot of my friends hang out there, and I get to see people come and go.

Random fact: my friends (especially guys) like to make jokes about me shushing people in the library. It's getting quite old, and in fact I would like to smack one of them the next time they shush me at my circulation desk.

Notes on the Last Day at the Office

I finished my schoolwork in late March this year. I was excited to be done, after all, it was the end of my high school days. I then began looking for work. (Mistake #1 - Don't wait until you are done with school before looking for a job) My art teacher had said that there was this Christian arts and music camp that was hiring for the summer. So I applied there first, kind of assuming I would get to work there since my teacher recommended me and said that I had the job. I didn't apply anywhere else and April came and was passing fast. I wasn't hearing back from the camp, so my mom told me to apply other places. Still pretty confident that I had the camp job landed, I applied to a local restaurant and Giant.

Well today ends my days working my office job. I just got back from a dentist appointment (those are fun), and thought I'd do a little post about my work experience while I have the time. I don't know how much time I'll have to blog while I'm at college, hopefully at least once a week.

I've learned a lot working at this office. I want to share the story of how I got this job, because I feel it marked an important checkpoint in my life about trusting God.


It was late April when I finally heard back from the camp. I wasn't hired due to a lack of space for more positions, they simply had filled everything with returning staff. This was a shock and a huge disappointment - I was really looking forward to working at the camp, and thought I had my summer planned out. But God had other plans for me.

Frantically I applied to around 20 other places, freaking out. I needed money for college, and the Penn State students would be taking all the jobs soon. I applied at Giant again, who I later called and they had apparently "lost" my application.

By the second week of May, I had given up. As a last hope, I applied to Giant again. They called me in less than 5 hours of me submitting my application and wanted to schedule an interview. I was so incredibly happy and thankful - I thought I was on Cloud 9. I got the job at Giant, and thought that my life was perfect (well nearly).
My mom then called me one day the next week after I started at Giant and said that a family friend had found a place for me at an office of a company that someone in our church owns. I was hesitant at first - I had the Giant job and I wanted to keep it. I then realized that I needed money - so I interviewed and got the internship position there. I really wanted to keep Giant, so I switched my availability with them to nights, hence why I have two jobs and work 12-15 hour days and nearly 60 hours a week.

But you see, I was so worried about finding a job when God was in control the whole time. He had a bigger picture in mind, while I only focused on the fact I wasn't working at the camp I wanted to. I was over-blessed. I wanted a job really bad - I needed a job really bad - and I got two. Too much job.

Retail Adventures

This week is my last week working both my jobs - I'm going to come back and work once every 28 days (to stay on the payroll) and breaks at Giant, however. Working retail has been an experience, and I'm glad I did it - I've learned a lot of life skills.

Last night I had some adventures. It was already a weird night - I had been doing miscellaneous stuff since I arrived for my shift. I was hired as a cashier, but when the one manager Damien is working, he has me do all kinds of stuff. Which I don't really mind - he's my favorite manager anyways - but it can be a lot of work. 

(Giant literally called me while I was writing this post and asked me to come in two hours early...)

Our closing register wasn't working correctly last night - which ended up being a pain in the neck since Damien had to nag the tech people for permission to open another register's till (You're not supposed to after 10:30, but he had no choice - the register wasn't taking any card payments correctly).

There's a girl my manager that I can't stand - she flirts with him and annoys me constantly. I don't show that I don't like her, I'm actually pretty nice - but she hates me because Damien talks to me more. (which is stupid since she's still sixteen and he's 20) She tells me to shut up, won't bag for me even though it's her job, etc. So she was there last night causing all sorts of problems by hitting the manager call button and laughing as my manager came over to see who needs help. 

The highlight of the night was the homeless guy who we got a cab for. Which cost me 20 bucks I really couldn't afford. I'll admit, a small part of me wanted to say no to helping him out. But hey, I'm doing this for a good cause, it's what Jesus would have done, and if I'm short money He will provide me with what I need - He always has. So I came to peace with it and was glad I was able to help since no one else had any money apparently.

Anyways, those were my adventures in retail. I know, not really all that exciting. But hey, I had nothing else to blog about today.

Discarded

Today was my library day, and my boss didn't leave me anything to do. So I asked another lady that works there if she had any jobs and she told me to discard these old books. This involved tearing out the pocket that the date card goes in and getting rid of the silver security sticker underneath. In most of the books I had to complete cut the page out in order to get rid of the pocket; otherwise it would tear the book. Even though I was really only doing this:

I felt like I was doing this:

It was a heartbreaking process. Some of the books had really cool nameplates in them, dated from like the 80's and occasionally the books were even older. I had to resist the urge to sniff them all. Well, I sniffed one. Or two.

Today I was especially annoyed by the people who come to the library just to "chat". Seriously.Just.Get out.

Any way this is my favorite place in the world.