Locked in the Bathroom

We've been having problems with our bathroom locks the past few weeks. We have two public bathrooms and a few weeks ago we had to remove one of the doors because the bathroom lock completely broke. So we had one bathroom left and a week or so ago one unfortunate man went to use it and locked himself in.

I was alerted by a staff member: "Someone's locked themselves in the bathroom." I at first thought it was a child but it was a grown man and upon inspection of the lock we found it was completely broken. We at first tried to pry it with a screwdriver then some pliers. Nothing worked. Then I tried to call the maintenance people for the library, no one answered. I went across the street to their facility and knocked on the door but no one was there. At this point the man had been in there for about twenty minutes. So helplessly we told the man: "Would you like a magazine?" It took several more minutes but finally the maintenance people showed up with a giant saw. They sliced off the lock with an earsplitting noise that filled the library. The man ended up being a prisoner in the bathroom for 20 more minutes.

Poor guy, he just wanted to use the restroom and he gets locked in there for 40 minutes. I hope he at least enjoyed his magazines.

Anime Art Contest

firstplaceanime
Originally uploaded by kearnslibrary

We had our second annual anime art contest a few months ago. I finally got around to taking down the pictures and scanning them all in the other week. We had 44 entries, up from 33 last year. I was running out of space on the wall to put the pictures! I was so impressed with the teen's artistic talent.

I've linked all the pictures onto "our library's teen art." This picture here is our first place winner.

Buttons, Buttons, Who's got the Buttons?

For my anime club activity a few weeks ago I had a button maker and I had the kids make their own buttons. I printed out numerous anime pictures they could choose from, some kids printed out their own pictures and others drew their own button designs. Then they cut out the circles handed them to me and I pressed them into the button maker. After the end of it I had blisters on my hands from all the buttons.

I must have made a 100 buttons for all the 20-30 kids that showed up. They all wanted several buttons. I found out after an hour into it that I was running out of the button backs, when I had only about 6-7 left I told the group that I could only make buttons for those who did not have any or only had one.

There was a girl (not the girl pictured) who was pressed next to me and had five buttons but insisted on more. She pleaded with me for more buttons and I explained to her that I could not make any more for her since I was running out and some people had not gotten any buttons. She continued whining. I explained again: "It's not fair for me to make you more buttons when some people don't have any buttons and you have five already." This did not seem to make logical sense to her and she pressed right up on me in my face and got aggressively whiny begging me for more. After 4-5 times of telling her "no" she walked off in a huff and got angry, completely forgetting all the 5 buttons I had made for her before. The week afterwards she gave me cold silence.

I understand that this is typical "me", self-gratifying adolescent behavior. But it still did not ease my annoyance. This girl is going to be disappointed in life when she discovers she doesn't get everything she wants.

Suicide Poem

This week I was a judge for a system-wide teen poetry contest. Almost all the teen poems were dark and "angsty" but one poem stood out from the rest, it was entitled "Suicide." The poem detailed the way this teen wanted to die and how much they wished to kill themselves.

I was disturbed by this poem and started contacting the other judges in the contest about it. To my surprise, they did not share the same reaction. One said she was not disturbed by the poem and another said that the teen was just "angsty" and being emotional. I insisted that this poem was a suicide threat and should be taken seriously but while I found agreement among my immediate coworkers the others who had judged the poem saw the situation differently.

I knew I could not just sit still and do nothing so I took the poem up to administration. They took the poem seriously and told me to contact the writer and provide them with the number of the employee counselor. I did this and also gave the writer the suicide hotline number. I have not heard back from this individual but I could not help from being unnerved from the whole incident. Have some of us as librarians become so jaded that we dismiss a teen's wish for death as "angst"? It is true that teens write depressing prose every day but it is also true that teens kill themselves every day.

Monsters Under the Bed

I had a "monsters" storytime this week. After I read a story about a little monster who has humans under his bed I asked the kids "Do any of you have monsters under your bed?" I didn't expect a response but several hands shot up in the air, "I do, I do! Me, me!" They were so excited to have monsters under their beds. I guess their monsters weren't that scary.

I also read a book about 10 things to do with your monster. Among the activities to do with your scaled or slimy friend were living next to a pet store because monsters eat lots of food and never naming your monster Fluffy. (It suggested you name your monster Bob or Biff.) After the storytime we made monster faces with paper plates, tissue paper and other various odds and ends. I asked a child what he was going to name his monster and he said (in complete seriousness) "I'm not going to name him Fluffy!"

Sick Story

I've stayed home from work today. This is thanks to my wonderful husband who has been sick for a month yet refuses to go to a doctor. (Typical male.) I felt sick the other week but got over it but then it came back with a vengeance yesterday afternoon. My throat got sore, I started sneezing and my nose turned into a faucet. I would just be sitting there typing at the computer when drops of snot would roll out of my nose at indiscriminate times. Very nasty.

At one point in the afternoon a patron called me over to help her with the computer. I leaned over her shoulder to look at the computer and then suddenly a big droplet of snot fell out of my nose and dropped onto her pants leg. I held my breath in shock. What do I do? I was presented with two options: a. Apologize profusely for my bodily fluids falling on her or b. Pretend it never happened

I took the coward's way out. After a millisecond pause I pointed at the screen. "Click on that there to save it," I said and then walked away. I do not know if that woman noticed the snot on her leg. I pray she didn't but I'm not sure since that was the last time she asked for help from me.

Four Little Words

I am turning into my parents.

The other day there were a group of rowdy teens who needed to be shown the door. I approached them and told them to leave the library and welcomed them to come back the next day. Of course, teens want to know WHY they're being punished so they questioned me "Why are we being kicked out?" I answered the way my parents would always say "Because I said so."

The most infuriating four words a teen can hear is "Because I said so." This is because those words leave no room for argument. The adult's word is law and there will be no debate. Teens love to debate and if they can get you to explain why they're being disciplined they will try a weasel a way out of the punishment any way they can.

I heard those four little words frequently as a teen and they made me want to bash my head against a wall. Now here I am using them against others. I have truly joined the ranks of uncool adulthood.

Sushi!

Last week for my anime club I brought in a professional Japanese sushi chef to demonstrate to the teens how to make sushi. He made cucumber rolls, California rolls, hand rolls and there was something else that I can't pronounce or spell if you paid me. Sushi is not something everyone likes, it's kind of an acquired taste. However, these teens gobbled up roll after roll of it.

I'm glad they enjoyed the sushi. It's good to expose the teens to something other than cheeseburgers, Red Bull and those flaming hot Cheetos (where they come in and spread Cheeto dust everywhere.) It was also fascinating watching the chef roll the sushi in his special bamboo mat. Making sushi truly is an art. I just hope the teens don't expect me to feed them like this all the time. I already had a teen ask me the other week for a cheeseburger...