Book Drive

This morning, Steven and I got up early, well, 8am is early for Saturday, and got ready to go to the book drive and help out. We got there at 9 and things were just getting set up. It seemed like total chaos when we got in there, but we got our instructions and figured it would make sense as we went along. It's amazing how many books are donated for these book drives. Thousands and thousands. It was a pretty chilly morning and there was a snow flurry as we started. Cars would drive up, and volunteers would unload the boxes and/or bags of books from the back. The boxes/bags would get put on the ramps with wheels so they could just be shoved down to the sorting tables. There were 6 of us sorting at first - the books would get sorted into paperbacks and hardbacks, children's books, oversized, etc. So I get into a rhythm, pile here, pile there, this here, that there, toss the bag or throw the box over to where the box cutting guys are. Bag after bag and box after box...I was really getting tired when I looked at my watch and it was only 10:30! Ack! Darn it, I'm not having fun and time is NOT flying! And just when I think I'm really making a dent in things, I turn around and, gasp, there must be at least 20-30 bags/boxes stacked up behind me! Where did they come from?! And I realize that the bags and boxes are piled up knee deep under tables, under the wheely ramp, beside the doors, stretched out behind the row of tables, and on and on and on. OMG. What in hell did I sign up for?! It reminds me of the "I Love Lucy" episode where she and Ethel work in the chocolate shop wrapping chocolates and the ramp carrying chocolates moves faster and faster and Lucy and Ethel panic and start shoving chocolates in their mouths and in their shirts. 

This must be what it's like to work in a post office, where the mail simply never stops coming in, and there is never an end in sight. Or a factory job where you're doing the same thing over and over. I completely appreciate that it takes a special person to be able to do that kind of thing day after day after day when you never truly feel like you have finished a job. Ah well, there's something for everybody in this world, I always say. And I'll go back and work some more for the book drive. After all, many hands make light work.