What you should know about the Snakelady

I recently reached the threshold of having 100 WordPress followers so I thought I’d re-introduce myself to the world at large with a post of Snakelady trivia.

What is the Snakelady’s profession?

• I am a real, live librarian. My duties focus around large-scale technology projects and assisting small and rural libraries. A perfect day for me would be spent working with library staff to create a better web presence. My most valuable skills are project management, technology training and customer service. They call me Glinda the good witch of the North for my sparkly personality. As I learned from my first employer, the infamous Zingerman’s Delicatessen, there is no 10% off sign for customers when I’m having a bad day. It’s all about attitude.

Why do they call you the Snakelady Librarian?

• I have a tattoo of an orobouros on my chest. That’s an image of a snake eating it’s own tail – a symbol of life consuming and renewing itself. And why yes, yes, that is the tattoo that Agent Scully got on the X-Files.

What is the Snakelady’s superpower?

• I learned lightening fast data entry skills as a research assistant in college and I can still work a keypad with the best of them. Unfortunately, I also learned to type as a child on a manual typewriter so I am very loud at it.

What does the Snakelady do for fun?

• I’m on a pub trivia team and every Wednesday night I play with my husband and our friend Dragon. We take it pretty seriously, studying world flags and nursery rhymes and the periodic table to better our chances. We generally do pretty well and we squander our winnings on rosemary cheese bread at the bar if we place on a given night. Hubby and I are also participating in a 30-part wine class with our friends G&J and we get together once a month or so to watch an hour long DVD about a particular country or region and sample wines. We’ve taken two vacations together that relied on winery tours for a large portion of our entertainment. I also belong to two book clubs.

What are Snakelady’s political views?

• I’m a mainstream Democrat. I didn’t even back Bernie Sanders. I love comedy shows with a leftist political bent. I watch bits and pieces of programs like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Daily Show most days because that’s how I like to keep up with the political landscape. I also pay attention to regular news outlets, particularly NPR, and I used to watch CNN in the evenings. Of late, however, I believe their treatment of Donald Trump as a reasonable alternative to Hillary Clinton is so dangerous that I’m steering away. I will be voting a straight democratic ticket this fall and I look forward to welcoming the Clintons back into the White House. I was quite the radical as a younger person but I’m settling into a more comfortable and easy-going middle age.

What is the Snakelady’s religion?

• Yeah, I’m a Muslim. I pray, I fast, the whole nine yards. I don’t cover my head. I converted 28 years ago because in searching for a religion to call my own I found that I simply believed the tenets of Islam. What are those? Among other things I believe in science, that there is only one God and none of His prophets, including Jesus, share in His power, that we have a duty to give of our wealth in charity, and that Muhammad was a prophet of God. I was raised by atheist parents and I believe strongly in the separation between church and state.

What is Snakelady’s favorite book?

• Oh, “favorite” is a tier. I have a favorite list of books and they include In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden, How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn,  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, the collected poetry of Katherine Phillips and Mama Day by Gloria Naylor. I like pop fiction too, especially John Sandford and Stephen King’s older stuff.

Does the Snakelady have pets?

• Our household consists of two human staff for a set of “his” and “hers” cats. Bethesda is my cat and she’s 15 1/5. I named her after a first century Roman concubine from the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor. She’s gotten crotchety in her old age and hisses at pretty much everyone who dares to come within a foot of her. Except me. She adores me. I think she’s brilliant. Candy is our sweet potato kitty. 9 and orange and friendly to everyone. She loves her daddy especially but really anyone will do when she wants to be petted.

What is the Snakelady’s given name?

• I was named after Dostoevsky’s Sonya from Crime and Punishment. My name has come in very handy. When I introduce myself I just say my name is Sonya and when folks ask if that’s pronounced with a short “o” or a long “o” I tell them my mother says it one way and my grandmother the other so I am equally happy to respond to both. When I’m dealing with someone who is being arrogant or high-handed, particularly in an academic setting, I work Dostoevsky into the conversation while making eye contact as a not-so-subtle way of demonstrating that my parents read a book or two as well. I have a couple of degrees and as my father is a professor and my mother worked for U of M until she retired I’ve spent a lot of time around snooty academics for whom name-dropping Dostoevsky works quite well to bring the conversation back to an equal footing.

Where is the Snakelady from?

• I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan but raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where my father teaches at James Madison University. I returned to Ann Arbor as a teen and attended Community High School then went on to Michigan State University to study English and Women’s Studies. About 10 years later I got a degree in Library and Information Science from Wayne State University.

Does the Snakelady like to travel?

• Not really.

Does the Snakelady have any health concerns?

• I’m bi-polar and it is well controlled with medication that I’ve taken since college. It was touch and go there for the first several years and I’ve really struggled but the modern psychiatric drugs are truly miraculous. Don’t tell that to my figure. I’ve gained over 250 pounds taking different psychiatric medications that, at each turn, were the best option at the time. I’ve lost over 100 of that but weight is a constant struggle.