Volunteering

Today I got to help 'volunteer' for a librarian at a middle school. They were planning for a book sale and most of the books and crap (and some of the stuff really was crap that had no educational value) were in cardboard boxes. The librarian showed me where it all was and said, "You can just set them on the tables with the tablecloths. I really don't care." I was tempted to say, "I really don't care either," since I'd planned on biking and lifting weights but somehow got roped into doing this instead. So I dutifully unloaded the boxes and glanced at some of the titles. I noticed that some of the titles were far below a middle school reading level. Then again, I had no idea what the average reading level for the school was.
So I worked my way from one table to the other while the librarian chatted on the phone until I'd finished my handiwork and stepped back to take a look at it in all of its stacked book glory. God it was hideous. My display would've sent Christopher Lowell into tears, yelling, "EEEEEEeeeee! And with all the decorating information out today! No excuse! No excuse!" As a matter of fact, when I told the librarian that I was done with the display, she walked into the room and took a step back, shielding her eyes from all the ugliness overwhelming her sight.

But what's a guy like me to do? Arrange books in alphabetical order? Arrange them by subject? Color-coordinate them? Actually those are pretty good ideas, but too bad I didn't think of those when I was actually bringing the books out of boxes.

Tomorrow I get to volunteer again, but this time it's something worthwhile that I'm actually good at doing. I'll be helping kids with their math practice problems and generally overseeing.