The Susanne

Well let me just start off by saying that I have found my calling. My vocation. I’m going to be a librarian. I just love my job! It’s as simple as that. Now I do realise that it has very much to do with my co-workers. But I really enjoy the work as well. I can’t believe it hasn’t occurred to me until a year ago that this would be a perfect job for me! I, who have been a bookworm since before I could walk. Who used to recite poetry from my favourite book as soon as I could talk (I ‘read’ to friends and family. I held the book the right way up, on the right page, and ‘read’ the poems, which I had memorised because I loved them so much). Here’s the library where I’ve worked three out of the five days I’ve worked this week and where I’ll be working most days from now on as well:

I’ve been made ‘Facebook editor’ at the library because I was the only one who knew how to use it - now I’m not going to be working there all summer so I’ve started teaching the others how to do it. But today I expanded into making ‘pages’ so that instead of simply having a profile for the library we will now have two ‘libraries’ that people can become fans of. And I’m adding books to the library on each page, one by one. I have spent most of today on it, in between lending books. So far I’ve added just over 100 books to each library. I think I might even spend some time doing it when I’m not working, just because I enjoy it and I want the pages I’m making to be the best possible!

This is the first time I’ve had a job that I feel like I could do for the rest of my life. I think I would be incredibly happy as a librarian. Now, I’m not going to go to librarian school. I did consider it for a while. But it sounds so boring with all the cataloguing courses and all that. Plus I already had the cataloguing thing down after the first day on the job, it’s that simple! I’m going to finish my BA in English literature and then go for a masters in ‘litteraturformidling’ which translates to something like ‘literature mediation’ or ‘conveying literature’ or something like that. I’ve discovered that there’s not really any term for it in English which is  really right.

I know that more and more libraries are focusing more on getting people interested in literature and that I’m almost certain to get a job with that masters degree. And that way I can still go to university instead of the college crap which is librarian school with compulsory attendance eight hours a day, like high school. Oh no, I’m over that. I like the university system of lectures and seminars and responsibility for own learning. Yep.

Mum’s going away to Lofoten for a week, and I’m pretty happy about it. Not because I want her gone, but because when she’s gone I’ll be able to cook again. Yey! I’ll probably be pretty tired from work most days, but still. I can finally decide for myself what to eat again. And I can make it too. And…ohh! The excitement would be too much to contain if I wasn’t extremely tired. I’m definitely not used to working full days and full weeks! At least I’ll have Sunday off which is good as I want to tidy my room. My old room, where I grew up, and it shows the signs very clearly. All my clutter is still all over the place, so my plan for Sunday (except for cooking) is to go through all my stuff and chuck out the rubbish, donate old clothes and accessories to the Salvos and keep what’s left over tidy.

I’m excited about tomorrow as well. I’m working till two, then The Boyfriend’s family are stopping for coffee on their way to their cabin in Trysil, and then I’ve an airport-date with Maria. August is just too far away, I must get a Maria-fix now I have the chance.

Our Shakespeare tickets arrived this week and I stuck them on my mirror. We’re going to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe! Oh my goodness, I feel so privileged! I suppose it will be very touristy and all that, but frankly I don’t care. I’M GOING TO SEE  ONE OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS AT SHAKESPEARE’S OWN THEATRE!

My summer job started yesterday. I work at the local library and so far it is simply amazing, the best job I’ve ever had. My co-workers are great and very good at taking coffee breaks. I pretty much had the shakes all last night. Brilliant! The spring semester is over and done with and I got some pretty remarkable exam results, so I’m happy with that. Have ordered pretty much all of the autumn’s curriculum already and one of the books arrived yesterday. The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare.

Can’t wait to read it. Shakespeare is the course I’m looking forward to the most. I’ve already bought tickets to see The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe when Maria and I go on our adventure to London in August and I’m very excited! So in preparation I’m planning to read this whole book, cover to cover. I’m thinking it will officially make me a Shakespeare-nerd. But who cares, the book looks great and it’s on my curriculum for next semester. So I reckon I’ll accomplish two things by reading it now: one, I’ll be much, much better prepared for the Shakespeare course than I’ve ever been for anything in my life, and two, I’ll be in a position to bore Maria with a never-ending supply of Shakepearian tidbits and geeky facts. Yey me.

Ran into an old friend today also, well she came to the library. We were close at school then lost contact the last year of high school — around the time I broke up with my boyfriend and she started going out with him. No animosity, it was just that she was in the same group of friends as he whereas I was not. Especially after I broke up with him, as his friends were obliged to hate me. Obviously. It’s a matter of loyalty. So this girl and I had coffee, well I had coffee, she doesn’t drink poison. But it was cool talking again after all these years. Sharing uni anecdotes and boyfriend stories. Yeah she’s still with the same guy. One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure, isn’t that what they say?

So yeah, the job is working out great, I’m having loads of fun and even more coffee. Home life is… challenging. Going back to living with your parents after having lived on your own is incredibly hard. I suppose it must get harder with time because I don’t remember it being this difficult last year — but maybe that was just because I worked more and was always just exhausted and didn’t have the energy to notice my parents at all. I miss cooking a lot. I miss deciding what to make, i miss shopping for food, I miss making things I want and the way I want them. Now it’s more like this:

parent: ’Susanne, do you want to help with dinner?’

me: ‘Ok. I’d love to make some sauce.’

parent: ‘No, I don’t think we’re going to have sauce today. I’m going to make this, and that, and the other, and that’s it.’

me: ‘…’

I don’t blame them. But it’s hard dammit! The bunny, on the other hand, is still thriving. He jumped onto my lap the other night, I couldn’t believe it. Apparently that’s a rare level of tameness in a bunny.

Last weekend was a pretty cultural one by my standards. A blues festival on Saturday and the opera on Sunday. The band we went to see is called The Blackbirds and my mum’s friend’s rockstar son is in it. They’re really good! Both technically and creatively, I simply love some of their songs. Also the scene of the festival was so beautiful, right on the water at Nesoddtangen in the Oslo Fjord, the evening sun warming the audience and the sea breeze from the fjord bringing good cheer and stirring our appetites for music. Just lovely.

Our outing on Sunday was to see another of mum’s friends who is a ballet teacher at the Opera School of Ballet. There was a student showcase and she had choreographed the first part. The whole thing was beautiful but mum’s friend’s was the best by far. A little because we know her, more because it was the youngest students, but mostly because it was a beautiful performance, it had a clear story and beautiful music and the kids were really really good and looked like they all had fun. The second half was for the older students and there were some pretty ridiculous acts going on, especially one very ‘modern’ one featuring just one girl doing jerky, restricted movements to awful ‘music’ (if you can call it that). A couple of acts were great though, and all in all I thought it was brilliant. The students were all so good, and the choreography was, for the most part, lovely. And I heard several remarks that it was the best thing to show in the new Opera house since it opened. Apparently a pretty disappointing ballet had been on last week — this however, was as far from disappointing as it is possible to get.

Well — the library closes in 15 minutes. This has taken me all day to write, in between work and coffee. I’m off, ta ta!