The Library

Since today is Thursday, and Thursday is library day, I thought I'd better write something about the Ridgecrest Public Library.

Thursday is library day because it's also pre-school story hour day. At the moment, story hour is on some sort of hiatus, due to resume in a week or two, but we still go to the library on Thursdays. I find that the depression that has gripped me since moving here is somewhat held at bay by routine, especially regularly scheduled pleasurable things. My daily walks fall into this category and so does visiting the library.

Before we moved here, when I was trying to deal with the emotional crisis of giving up my house and my job and my chosen hometown and my friends and my garden and my mountains and all that, I googled the Ridgecrest library and memorized its location. It was one of the first things I wanted to drive by when we got here, but at first I couldn't find it. I went around the block again. That's the library??? It looked extremely un-prepossessing from the outside, and guess what, the inside is worse. The building is just way too small to be the only library for a town of >25,000 residents, many of whom have advanced degrees. It reminds me of a very crowded used bookstore. Someone gave a lot of thought to how to cram as much stuff as possible into that space.

But it's a library. With real honest to goodness librarians, some of whom are very friendly. And although the library's collection is scanty, patrons can request books from anywhere in the Kern County library system. I tried this last week. I requested 4 books and they came zooming into Ridgecrest from Bakersfield and elsewhere. All for free. Aren't libraries wonderful?

Going to any library with two toddlers is an adventure. Going to the tiny cramped Ridgecrest library with two toddlers is painful. Each week I wonder, was that worth it? We have a routine, which I am always tinkering with. I push the babies in their stroller. Soon I think we're going to skip the stroller, since it really doesn't fit in the library. But then the babies will run away from me. Six of one, half dozen of the other. We get my books first, because the babies are still cheerful at that point and are not yelling. Except for today, when Baby A began to yell immediately upon entering the library. I often come home with really odd things to read, because I had to choose them so quickly. After we grab 2 books for me, we go to the children's section. When we first started coming, Baby A would usually be asleep in the stroller, and Baby B and I could look at the board books that the librarians lay out on a little low bookcase. Nowadays Baby A is always awake and yelling, and Baby B runs away from me. Today Baby A wanted to sit on a little chair at a little table and I encouraged that. He actually sat there and looked at some books. Baby B ran away to pull videos off a cart, so I brought him back and encouraged him to sit on another chair and look at books. Then he fell off the chair, splat on his face. Impassioned screaming ensued. I picked him up and took him to the furthest corner of the library to comfort him, but since it is such a small library, everyone in the entire library could hear him screaming anyway. Meanwhile I figured Baby A would fall off HIS chair, but he didn't. He sat and waited for us. As soon as Baby B had calmed down, I put them both back in the stroller, grabbed 2 books for them, and we checked out and left.

Story hour is particularly exciting. I'm glad it is on hiatus. I wouldn't mind if it didn't come back until the boos are 3, which is the recommended age. Of course I could wait to take them until they turn 3, but what would I do with them in the meantime? Anyway, lots of other little ones go to story hour (much to the displeasure of the reader). The Boulder library had special programs for teeny tinies, but I guess I should be grateful Ridgecrest has ANY story hour. The babies enjoy story hour very much. At the end of each session I am worn out and glad to retreat back to our quiet rental house with all its cockroaches.