Huh-Hi

Sometimes, my friend Delium will stop by the library to pick up some goodies and say howdy. One day, he happened to be standing there as I was helping another patron. As the patron walked away, Delium commented "wow. Your work-voice is very pleasant. And you somehow have a work-voice that doesn't sound like a work-voice. It sounds like you just talk that way normally."

What? I have a work-voice? When I started to pay attention to it, I had to admit I do. It's different from my regular voice. Warmer, with more clarity. I'm not saying that I walk around in my personal life talking with a cold, hard slur. The difference is more subtle than that. But if you know me really well, you can tell the difference. And I guess I'm ok with that. But there is a line that must not be crossed.

The other day, someone from work called me at home. After I hung up with them, I turned around to see Nordic Boy looking at me.

Me: What?
Him: You just did the double goodbye.
Me: What is the double goodbye?
Him: You know, like flight attendants do. "Buh-bye."
Me: I did not.
Him: Oh yes. You did.

Listen, I'm not saying that there's anything inherently wrong with the double goodbye. All of you double goodbyers out there, don't be mad. Some of my best friends are buh-bye people. It fits on them. I, however, am not a double goodbyer. Or so I thought. But apparently, the Work Character that I have inhabited since I have started this librarian gig has evolved into someone who says buh-bye. How did this happen?

My brother would laugh if he heard about this. When we were growing up, we would take these epic trips back to the homeland that required up to thirty six hours on airplanes, all in a row. We would get on and off these planes ad nauseam, and one of the things we would do, as we got punchier and punchier, was, as we would de-plane, say "BUH-bye!" to the flight attendants. This, as a child, was hysterical to us. Now, look at me. I'm saying if for reals.

Also, there is the concept of Keeping It Fresh. This, despite what it sounds like, has nothing to do with Ziploc bags or Summer's Eve. It is an acting term. When you have to memorize lines and say them over and over, night after night, performance after performance, you have to work at Keeping It Fresh. You have to make sure that you sound like you are saying those words for the very first time, every time. It's hard. And it applies to librarians too.

Every night, we have to read a series of closing announcements over the loudspeaker thingamajig. At regular intervals for the last half hour before we close the doors, we have to let people know we're closing, so that they can prepare themselves for the shock of leaving the library. We have a little script that we read for this. It goes something like: "May I have your attention please. We're closing. Get out." Only, you know, nicer than that. That's why we need the script, or we may accidentally say something goofy like what I just said. Anyhoo. About two months into my job, I was doing the closing announcement. A patron walked by and saw me speaking in to the loudspeaker. When I was done, he said, all smiles, "Hey! That's crazy! I totally thought that was a recorded machine talking!" Yeah. So apparently my work-voice when I started this gig was akin to Rosie the Robot from the Jetsons. May. I. help. you. with. that. reference. question.

So I guess evolving to a place where at least my work-voice is pleasant is a step up. And that's all I have to say about that. Buh-bye.

Kiss the rings, I'm out.
Librarian Girl