“Are you a mouse?”

I looked up from where I was silently thumbing through index cards in a card catalog drawer and pulling author/book cards. Florence was standing there addressing me, “You’re so quiet! Cough or something once in a while. Get up andmove around! Anything to let us know you’re there.” She paused and put her hand on my shoulder then asked, “ARE you there”

I answered quietly. “No.”

When I’m not acting loud and raucous, I do tend to be unobtrusive, especially in new situations. I’ve entered the house, made my way around, and eventually entered whatever room my hostess or floormate is in to have them jump in surprise when they look up to see me there. “Oh! I didn’t hear you!” I’ve started purposely making noise when I enter a room so that I won’t catch them off guard.

I also don’t have much to say… or not the inclination to say it. Out loud. My friend in Washington’s coworker told me my friend had “warned me you were laid back.” I may have smiled somewhat at that point.
But Florence was right. I wasn’t really there among the 3×5 cards. My internship so far has consisted of mindless work like this, but I enjoy it because I can let my mind roam while I’m doing it. I think I also like it because I love putting things in there place, organization, etc. Don’t ask me to apply any of this to my own life, but getting paid to do it for someone else? Heck yeah.

It might seem like the most boring work in the world. A typical day (although those seem few and far between) starts with me getting up around 8 andtaking a 15-20 minute drive to work. It’s actually Ken’s house that he’s added an enclosed and expanded garage to which houses his books, office, and studio. The organization I’m working for is called Mars Hill Audio. It puts out a bimonthly audio magazine (on tape) with 8-10 minute articles on cultural issues. Sort of like NPR. Ken does a lot of the interviews in the studio. He’s got probably more than 12,000 books and getting new ones all the time. My job so far is to put library of congress labels on all the new ones. Working backward, I’ve reached “P” according to author last name in the room full of books yet to be shelved. Then I get to try to make space among the books already there for the new arrivals. Most of them are ended up getting stacked on top of the pre-existing ones. When I’m not doing that, I’m entering data from the catalog cards (that I mentioned pulling earlier) into a computer database. Author name, Title, Place of Publication, Publisher, Date, Call Number, and Description. Since last week I’ve entered two stacks of cards about 3 inches high. I’ve got another batch about that big to do now, and that makes up two drawers of the 8-drawer card catalog filing cabinate. Then after I do the Author/Book cards, I get to do the reviews. Then the magazine articles. Then maybe the titles or the subject headings.

I don’t think I will complete this task this summer.

But there’s other things I do. Like make copies or type up address labels and find envelopes to mail things. Stuff like that. I proofread 200 odd pages of subject titles today.

On Tuesdays Ken and I drive from Powhatan,Virginia, where he lives, about 60 miles or so away to Charlottesville, where the Mars Hill office is. That’s where the two full time employees work along with the other intern and the volunteer, Florence. Florence is almost 70, but refuses to act her age. She’s also very outspoken. Which leads her to say things like, “Make more noise!”
I coughed later on in the day. She’d already left. A pity.