Mondays on the Margins: Book Fair Edition

A couple of months ago, Katy the library tech at our school said the principal didn't really want us to have the Book Fair this year.

Uh........ say WHAT?

WHO DOESN'T WANT TO HAVE A BOOK FAIR?

Eventually she said we could have the Book Fair. A couple of weeks ago Katy said nobody had volunteered for the Book Fair. The newsletter is online now, which is great. People were always complaining about getting more than one newsletter if they had more than one kid at the school - having it online wastes much less paper. The only problem is that almost nobody reads it when it's online, so nobody knew we NEEDED volunteers.

So I said no problem. I'll just come every day.

As it turns out, we got more volunteers, which thank god because I love the Book Fair and I COULD go all day every day and today flew by and the library is my happy place, BUT my introvert energy tank is empty and I fed my kids leftover Chinese food and no vegetables for supper and I am brain. dead.

I sold erasers that look like lunch boxes, makeup compacts, video game controllers, moustaches, guitars and licorice.

I sold long sticks with a hand on the end that were meant for teachers to use as pointers for whiteboards but were being bought by children for the sole purpose of whacking each other.

I was paid fourteen dollars and ninety-five cents for two books - in nickels and dimes.

I said "okay, I can hold the Super Ear for you, but only until four o'clock."

I said "please don't bite the eraser, it's not made of actual food" more than once.

I said "no, nothing is free" more than once.

I almost hugged a little boy who came in, closed his eyes and said rapturously, "I can smell the books!

I experienced total brain-lock while trying to perform a fairly simple subtraction. I think actual smoke came out of my ears. We usually have calculators. Tomorrow I'm bringing a calculator.

I bought Eve this book and this book and a few other books. Then I let her buy a poster with puppies on it. I guess I was weak from all the math.

Eve came in for the hour we were open after school. She's better at math than I am, so she was helpful. We were looking at books and she picked one that Katy said was really good but had a few inappropriate words, and Eve said "that's okay. I'm an inappropriate child." Katy said that was understandable considering who her mother was. Before we left, Eve did a killer version of Walking on Sunshine with one of the stick-hand-pointer things, which had Katy and me practically on the floor, although that was maybe partly fatigue. And math.

I'm exhausted. I'm going to bed. With a book. I think that's fair. Ha.