Tales of food, of opening the closet door and work

The food thing is a big ginormous pain to live and deal with.  I find things that are dairy free, things that are gluten free, but never both!  Gahh!!  However, I cant remember feeling this good in eons.  Its totally amazing to be on my feet for 5 hours straight, working hard enough to raise a sweat and still having the energy to cook supper and do the washing up afterward.  If I couldnt cook, I'd be in a world of hurt, no lie.  The Japanese breakfast is fantastic!  I have it down to only taking about 10 minutes for a meal that lasts me for hours.

Here is my morning soup recipe.
1 1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons mirin
1/2 inch wide slice of tofu, sliced in half lengthwise and then cut into squares
2 tablespoons leek or green onion
3 tablespoons veggies, usually 1/3 greens and 2/3 zucchini

Place water and sauce and mirin in pan, add tofu and leek/onion and bring to a boil, add veggies and cook until all is hot and tofu has softened/swelled.  This is great for using up bits of last nights veggies!

The meat is usually left over from the previous night, but I also have thin sliced pork in the freezer for those nights I dont have enough left overs for both lunch and breakfast.  Oh the green sheets is nori.

My lunch that I carry to work is usually 2/3's veggies and 1/3 meat.  If I'm out of japanese sweet potato which is baked and cubed and rolled in sesame seeds, then I make rice balls, dusted with Korean Hot Pepper mix.

Friday night I found some gluten free burger buns and some tater tots and ate like an American on Friday night!  Whoo- hoo!!!  But ya know?  I didnt feel as good as I do when I eat Asian.  Sigh.......

A week or so ago at work one of my coffee shop co-workers was talking about a guy in her church, who is usually ignored due to dressing like a woman.  She kept referring to her as male, so I started questioning her as to how she dressed, after hearing that she wears make-up and dresses, heels, etc I told her she needs to use the feminine pronouns when addressing her.  Libby was happy to hear this, and said, "I feel sorry for him  her I mean, and always smile and make sure I greet her warmly and with kindness."  And natural as all can be, I stuck my hand out and asked her to shake hands and said, "Hello, my name is ___ and I'm a guy who lives inside a girl.  I'm trans."  And she was very open to me and our relationship is unharmed.  Libby and I have gotten fairly close, she is a total sweetheart.

Because it felt right and not forced and the time seemed perfect, I wasnt nervous or worried about it.  And yeah I feel better being able to be an unedited version of me around her. 

The work front has gotten interesting, on several levels.  Two weeks ago I came into circulation to find that I was alone, it felt kinda odd to be there alone, but there was a boatload of materials to discharge ( library speak for checking items in) and got to it.  About an hour later one of the employees came in and worked the other discharge desk and then she was gone, to be replaced later by someone else.  The next day was a repeat of being alone for long stretches, I was ok, and any questioned items I just set off to the side until someone came in that could help me. 

A few days later they taught me how to DLA the book carts, which is a last minute checking to make sure everything actually was discharged.  Cool!  So, now when my bins are empty, a fairly uncommon event, I can go over and DLA the filled carts.  Friday I was shown how to pull books from the stacks (shelves) for holds people have requested, that was nerve wracking but after I get comfortable with the process I'm sure it will be enjoyable as well.  Having a moment to stop moving my "boss" came and in and asked me how things were going.  I told him super, and asked him why I'm in the back alone.  Turns out that I've proven myself to be a good worker and a self starter who doesnt need much supervision.  He also went on to tell me that I'm one of the few volunteers who can do more than one "job" in circulation!  SCORE!!!  He also asked if I could be a floater, meaning that if someone doesnt show up, would I come in?  I said sure! 

This is the discharge computer.  The materials are run over the metal plate my water is sitting in front of, from left to right, and the title of the book pops up on the screen telling you that its checked in.  If someone has requested the book at a branch library or a hold for this library, that wee machine that can barely be seen peeking out spits out a label telling what needs to be done.  The keyboard is for the items that wont check in for some reason, and one has to key the barcode in by hand.  The wall of fun behind the computer are things that have been found in the books.