All Work and No Play Makes Kim a Dull Girl

I need to get myself on a normal schedule. I'm working three jobs now, and my shifts are all over the place. I'd like to pick a designated time to write each week, so I can stick to my goal, but that just isn't possible. Many days, I go from one job right to the next with no break in between. I know I'm over-working myself. I know I'm taking on too much, but I can't stand the idea of just earning a paycheck. I need to know that I'm doing something that makes me happy. If I have to take on a few jobs to make sure that at least one of them is something I love, then that's what I have to do. I desperately want something full-time, though. I can't tell you how badly I want to get to the dentist. It's things like that that you take advantage of when you have insurance. No one likes the dentist, but I also don't like not knowing what's going on with my teeth. I'm pretty sure I'm on the verge of a cavity. Do I wait until it gets unbearable and risk having to pay a ton to fix it, or do I go now and just pay full price for a cleaning and check-up? Something's got to give at some point. At some point, there has to be a job for me. There are some days when I'm incredibly optimistic about it, and then there are other days when I remember that I've been chasing this dream for ten years now, and I don't feel any closer than I was back then.

In any case, the new job at the library is hilarious, and terrifying, and fun, and ridiculous all at the same time. At first, I was pretty upset that I was going to be expected to work there alone sometimes. I haven't reached the point where any of us are comfortable with that yet, but I think I'll be okay when the time comes. It's pretty much the same people every time I work. There's the homeless guy who comes in and sits at a table reading the newspaper from open to close every day. I assume he just wants to get inside somewhere. He's a nice guy. Very friendly. Doesn't bother anybody. Except for the day when he fell asleep at that table and coughed and wheezed and spit the entire time. It went on for nearly an hour and my boss and I were concerned that he was dying. It really sounded like he was. While all this was going on, a line was forming at the bathrooms. This is strange because there are three bathrooms in the building and not that many patrons that this shouldn't be enough. While homeless guy was seemingly dying in the front room, another regular was sleeping in the bathroom. Yes, sleeping. We had previously told him that he couldn't sleep in one of the chairs we had set up in one of the other rooms, so he moved to the bathroom. He was in there for hours before any of us realized it, and it wasn't until another regular asked where he was that we began looking for him. After many attempts to get him out of the bathroom, my boss finally pounded on the door telling him that if he didn't come out, we'd have to call the cops. He reluctantly came out, and sat down with my boss and the guy who asked about him. My boss, who is clearly afraid of nothing, asked him flat out what he was on. He claimed he wasn't on anything (previous reports have stated that pills were found in the bathroom after he came out once). He also said that he had a place to stay, but that it wasn't working out. Which, I suppose explains the whole sleeping in the bathroom thing. My boss gave him some time to get himself together before he had to leave, and he took this time to, once again, fall asleep on the same chair we had previously kicked him off of. During this time, another employee, who had been emptying the trash cans told my boss, "there's a present for you in your office." It was a bottle of vodka, nearly empty, that was found in the bathroom dude had been sleeping in. He may not have been "on" anything, but he was clearly completely obliterated. We haven't seen him since.

After he left that day, supposedly getting a ride to the train station to go back to his family in New Jersey, homeless guy staggered to the bathroom before leaving. It was a completely insane night, and while I'm glad I wasn't alone, both men were pretty harmless. Just sad. Who would have thought that with all the books in a library, the most interesting characters would be the patrons.