Chillin' with Vanilla: Oscar Madu

I, a young ice bear, have been on an amazing adventure to learn more about the library, and so far, I've learned a lot! For those that don't know me, I am Vanilla Ice Bear, a member of the Children's team at the Main Library. I mostly help out with Story Time with my mom [Haylee Blystone] but these days I am fully committed to being an investigative journalist. This time, I sat down with Oscar Madu, one of the top dogs in security. Let's see if we can learn the rules of the library!

Sitting down with Oscar Madu

Vanilla: Hello, I'm Vanilla, it's so nice to meet you!

Oscar: Hey Vanilla, I've seen you around here and there. It's nice to finally get to meet you. 

V: Have you, have you read my blog? 

O: I haven't had a chance to. It's nice to know that you actually have a blog. I will start reading the blog. 

V: Okay, you should definitely read this one since you're gonna be in it.

O: Of course, I gotta read it because I'm in it. 

[Vanilla laughs]

V: Okay, so before we get too into it, let's have you introduce yourself to the people. 

O: All right. I'm Oscar. Last name Madu. I'm a security coordinator at Metro Public Libraries. I've been a coordinator for about, I think, two and a half years. And on the security side of it, I've been doing security for about, close to 20 years. 

V: 20 years? 

O: Yeah, 20 years now. 

V: Okay, that's, there's a lot that I want to get into with that. So, security coordinator, that's your job title? 

O: Yes, sir.

V: What does that mean? 

O: My responsibilities, I do our scheduling for the officers. If other branches need assistance, they usually call my phone and ask for that. When I'm in Main, anything that goes on from, like, maintenance work to, like, doing emergency evacuations, I'm in charge of that part. 

V: So the coordinating in your title, you really are coordinating. The coordination, that means something there. 

O: Yes, I do coordinate. I have responsibilities. Yes, I do. 

V: Wow. I knew you did security, but I didn't know you were, like, you're the one that sends them out to the branches.

[Oscar receives important security call]

O: Sorry, Vanilla. That's the life of being a security coordinator. You never know when you're gonna get called. 

V: Security never stops. 

O: No, it doesn't stop. 

V: Okay, so coordination, yes. What was my, I think you already kind of said what you do. You do lots of coordinating and security tasks. You're very busy, it seems like. How long have you worked here at NPL?

O: August. August the 20th of this month, four years. 

V: Okay, so you started a little bit after my mom did, because she’s also been here four years. So congratulations! 

O: Yeah. 

V: But you weren't in orientation together, I don't think. 

O: Nah, me and Eva [Main Adult Associate], we always associated ourselves together because we started at the same time.

V: Nice! I like Eva. Four years, okay, so I really thought, like, you feel like you've been here longer because you just know so much. 

O: It’s feels like I could have been here five, at least. 

V: All right, are you going to stay here forever? 

O: That's my goal, but life changes. 

V: That's true, because you've only been here four years. 

O: That's my goal, though. 

V: And you mentioned that you did security before, so have you just, is that your career, is security? 

O: Yes. 

V: Okay. 

O: I haven't made no other plans in the world. 

V: What made you decide to come here? What makes this place different from some of the other security jobs? 

O: Well, Vanilla, it wasn't, like, no intervention or nothing like that. It was just, I put in an application, and I forgot that I even put the application in. It was months later, I get a phone call. I came down in August. It was hot outside. I remember that day was so hot. I was nervous. Courtney and Mark and Jeremy interviewed me. 

V: Courtney?

O: Yeah, she interviewed me. 

V: Wait, Buggs? 

O: Yep. 

V: Like, Special Collections. 

O: Yeah, she was on the interview board that day. 

V: What? That's so random!

O: So, yeah, those three interviewed me, and I didn't think nothing else of it. I get a call saying I'm hired. 

V: Just like that? You didn't have to do, like, a second round or anything? 

O: Nah, nope. 

V: They must have known. They felt like, this is a security guard right here. 

O: I worked at Ally. They kind of interchanged in the beginning, because Ally had, like, subcontractors, officers that work at some of the branches, and I had worked over at Bellevue for a while. 

V: What is Ally?

O: It's another company that's under us, basically. 

V: Under Metro? 

O: They do, like, subcontract officers that work on other areas of Nashville. Like, you have them, you have both other people. Like, it's not a Metro job, but if we needed extra people to work somewhere else, Metro would pay that company to put somebody there. 

V: Oh, is that how we have, like, temps at some of the branches? 

O: Yeah. 

V: Okay, so you just moved, kind of. 

O: Yeah, basically. You can look at it that way. 

V: Okay, and did you work anywhere before that, or just there and then here? Ally or just other branches. Like, what's your career history? Where have you been? 

O: When I was younger, I thought I could get warehouse jobs, and then you gotta come there and be able to work. You ain't gonna come there and play around. 

V: That's true. I like warehouse jobs!

O: So, when I did it when I was young, I had a lot of energy, because doing it at 40, I wouldn't be able to do it. That's a demanding job. I started doing warehouse, then I started around 24 doing security. Then I did corrections for 11 years. 

V: Corrections? That does not sound fun. 

[Oscar laughs]

O: So, when you see me talking to certain people, like, who are mentally ill, and I can kind of remain calm and stuff. I had worked in an environment for 11 years, having to deal with people who had the kind of issues when they were inmates. So, that's two things. You gotta worry about them being mentally ill and being an inmate. 

V: So, yeah, you were pretty much equipped, like, well-made to be here at the library with that kind of career history. 

O: I thank God. That's really a gift to be able to, like, just talk to people. I can relate with folks, and I don't get nervous about talking to people when they start making a difference. 

V: I have heard lots of compliments about how you handle some of our more rambunctious patrons. 

O: Yeah, you can't go with somebody being negative. You can't talk to them negative. It's not gonna result in nothing. This is both y'all going back and forth already, man. 

V: Yeah. 

O: So, I tried to get an opportunity to calm them down, but at the same time, if they don't calm down, then they do have to leave because we do have children and other patrons who are trying to use the resources. 

V: Got lots of kids in here. You don't want to see kids seeing that stuff! 

[Oscar laughs]

V: Look at you, protecting the library. A hero! I mean, I have a lot of respect for security. It's not a job that I would want to do. I get sweaty just when someone disagrees with me at the desk. I wouldn't be able to escort them off of the premises. 

O: You gotta have it in your head that that's the rule. That's what I'm gonna do. It's not, you can't back down from it. It's just saying something and being firm with it. You gotta be firm and consistent with what they teach us. 

V: You guys gotta be by the book, right? Like, very, very by the book. 

O: No, we don't. It just varies. We have a policy where you can't fall asleep, but if you're, we sit here and see that you're trying to stay awake, I ask that person, are they okay? That's the first thing I want to make sure. Are they alive? Are they okay? Are they feeling well? Is there a medical condition that we need to know about? Stuff like that. I try to give you the reason, the doubt. Then if you keep doing it over and over and over, then I have to change it. 

V: So it's situation-based a lot of the time? 

O: It can be situation-based unless it's somebody fighting. We can't, somebody coming to assault somebody, we can't say, oh, I understand how you feel. You were mad, so you punched him. 

V: You're not going to see his side on that one? 

O: I'm sorry, Vanilla, we can't have nobody assault nobody in the building. 

V: You know, we see toddlers rough each other up in here. Would you make them leave? 

O: I'll give them a year, Vanilla. The rule is the rule, Vanilla. 

[Both laugh]

O: Nah I’m just playin’. It’s just when they get to where like the middle school and the high school children. They come in here to assault each other, that's something different. You have the kind of skills and those, you can't punch somebody. But the kid in here who's two years old. You don't know better. That kid, he's messing up my world right now. You need to move. Give me that toy. So they don't understand that part just yet. 

V: Dude, that reminds me of a Story Time. I don't know if it was last week or the week before that, but we literally had these kids full on just like push each other on the ground. My mom was just trying not to laugh because she was reading her book, but these kids were full on brawling right in front of everybody. 

O: The parents were just watching?

V: Yeah. We just keep going. We just keep story time moving. It was hilarious. 

O: Just sitting there like it's normal. 

V: Yeah. And none of the other kids reacted. It's like your own little wrestling show and a book. Entertainment in many forms.

O: I probably would have had to stop for a second and get my composure watching two kids.

V: It was a little shoving match. It was hard not to just like burst out laughing. 

O: I bet. 

V: Would you ever do what we do? Would you ever leave security to be a librarian? 

O: I love what I do. I'd like to be able to cross train one day and see what y'all do. Not hearing children. I see the stuff y'all do. Y'all are busy with the children coming. There's a lot of yelling, jumping, running. In my brain, y'all done this. I'd probably come here for an hour and cross train.

V: You gotta do it for the whole day when it's just busy. How can you fully train in here if you don't train when it's madness?

O: I'd do the madness part for an hour. That's all I can take. 

V: Same. We're usually only on the desk for one or two hours at a time because it does get to be a lot sometimes. 

O: I see you. I'm walking in and I'm like, oh, okay. 

V: They're just excited. 

O: I know.

V: So if you had to pick your ideal department, adult, teen, special collections, we know it's not children's. 

[Oscar laughs]

O: Probably not, but that's a hard one. Maybe teens. 

V: Teen’s is fun!

O: Yeah, maybe teens. 

V: And they're kind of isolated, at least here. I don't know about at the branches, but I would work in Teen’s here. It's really fun. 

O: Here, I think Green Hills, but it's better isolated here. I think this is the best building where they keep that isolated from other areas of the building. Teens actually go in there and they actually stay and they have studio-type stuff for them to do in there for them not to move, really.

V: They got a lot of cool stuff. 

O: They do. 

V: I wish they'd make some of the other teen areas just a little bit bigger and more stuff to do. 

O: That's been my issue with some of the branches. Teens need more to do except for this one activity in there. 

V: We need money. Give the library funding so we can let the teens have activities! So push for funding, right? Or if you think of fun ideas, maybe you could share them with the associates.

O: Yeah, we had an officer who thought of some. She was wondering, why can't we have more people who are more relatable to the teens come in and talk to them at times? I don't know how much that would cost to do stuff like that. 

V: That's the thing. Everything costs money. No one wants to do anything for free. So if there are any volunteers out there who want to come speak to the teens, let us know!

[Both laugh]

V: Okay, so now let's get a little personal. Are you from Tennessee? 

O: I've been here over 30 years. My hometown is West Virginia. 

V: So no? 

O: I always say yes because I've been here 30 years. 

V: Uh-uh, where were you born? 

O: I was born in Washington, D.C. as a baby, but I don't remember that at all. 

V: It counts. You're not a native. As someone born here, I can say that.

O: I’ve been here through the whole transition of Nashville. I watched downtown become just a little smaller area with no businesses to how it is now. 

V: Yeah, it's pretty gross what it is now. Okay, 30 years. I guess that's about as old as my mom, so we can let it slide. But don't tell people you're a native!

O: I'm a native. I'm always going to say that. 

V: It's false information!

[Oscar laughs]

V: So I guess that answers my next question. You're from D.C. technically, but you've lived here a majority. So we will claim you. You can't claim us, but we'll claim you. 

[Oscar laughs]

V: Have you ever lived anywhere else? 

O: Yes, a couple places. West Virginia, Kentucky. 

V: So just the south? 

O: Yes, I never wanted to go up north. When I was younger, I did at first live in Virginia. I went to college in certain areas. My mom always told me if you live in Virginia, you can travel to the eastern states. It's easier to do it that way. So I wanted to live in Virginia because it's kind of in the south. You still have the choice to go. 

V: And the mountains are there!

O: That's west Virginia. Yeah, towards west. Not Virginia. 

V: Well, then what's in Virginia? 

O: That's the beach. Virginia Beach.

V: Sand!? 

O: I don't like the sand either, but I like to go to the beach here and there to see something different. 

V: Yeah, but how do you get to the water? What's between you and the water? Sand. I haven't been to Virginia, but when I went to Florida, the sand was annoying. 

O: It was very annoying. I had to get in my car, get off my flip-flops. It gets everywhere. I hate the beach. Yeah, I was in a rush to get off the beach when I went. It was cool. People are always relaxing. I didn't find it relaxing. It was fun. I went there in Florida, and I've seen folks all in swimming pools. I'm like, why aren't they at the beach? 

V: Probably because of the sand. 

O: Then I got there. I know why they're in the beach now. The sand is hot. I've been in Florida. It's even hotter. 

V: What's the temperature like in Virginia? Where the beach is. Is it hot? Does the sand get hot? 

O: In West Virginia, it gets hot in the summer. It has a lot of humidity. 

V: Well, we get that here. 

Mamba mentality is about demanding more of yourself than anyone else could possibly demand of you

O: Yeah. So West Virginia gets super-hot there too. The difference is in the winter, not winter, but like in the fall when we get tornadoes and spring and stuff, they don't get them there across the mountains. They do flood. 

V: Oh, that's nice. Flooding is not nice, but no tornadoes is nice. We get more tornadoes than I would like over here. 

O: Me too. I got PTSD from it. I got stuck at one in my job. 

V: You got stuck in a tornado!? 

O: Hit like a building down the street and we couldn't leave our job. Now I was a supervisor there too. So I'm in charge of the inmates. I'm in charge of the staff. 

V: What?!

O: It was real scary. 

V: Did you choose to stay and like protect everyone or did they not let you leave? 

O: No, they didn't let me leave. If I had a choice, I would have left. 

V: Yeah. Well, isn't it worse to leave when there is a tornado? Like aren't you supposed to stay?

O: I was already in my shift. So I was there. The crazy thing about it. It was, I had just went outside. It was calm. And then I went back in, boom, power went out. It was that fast it happened. 

V: That's so scary. I don't mess with tornadoes. My Aunt is super scared of tornadoes. Like as a kid was super, super afraid of tornadoes. And that fear like kind of swept into all of us. And so even now we’re like, oh, crap, a tornado. Get everybody and everything into the bathroom. 

O: It's a helpless feeling. Yeah. 

V: Like my Grandpa Jim has driven through one. He didn't seem to really care about that, though.

O: I have. I cared. It was stuff flying around here. I had to pull over. We're going to McDonald's. I was in Memphis. They had like a severe thunderstorm warning. I was talking about it. If you've ever seen Twister, the first one, where there's like debris flying across the road. I had kids in the back yelling. I'm trying to like not panic and get nervous. 

V: Were they your kids? 

[Oscar chuckles]

O: Yeah, they were my kids. 

V: Okay. Well, I'm just asking. I don't know if you're helping with someone else's kids.

O: My wife was on vacation. We stopped in Memphis to see family and stuff. 

V: I bet that was so scary. 

O: Oh, it was real scary. Very. 

V: How many kids do you have? 

O: I have two. We have a blended family. My wife has four and I have two. 

V: So you got six. That's a lot of kids!

O: And my daughter, she's 19 now. I taught her how to drive. She got her license recently. So I'm kind of proud of that. That was a huge accomplishment. 

V: Is your oldest kid 19? 

O: Yes. It feels kind of old. 

V: How old are you? 

O: Vanilla. You don't need to know.

V: I’ll tell you how old I am. I’m 2!

O: In bear years, that's old.

[Vanilla laughs]

V: I was just curious. Because. Wow. You got a lot of kids. How do you keep up with all those kids? 

O: Easy. It's like anything else. Just habit. They're there. 

V: See, that's a good answer. Most parents are like, I don't know. 

O: It happens. It can be tough, but you do what you do. 

V: All right. I like that. Okay. Let's move to library stuff. Do you have a favorite book? 

O: Yes, I do. I had to think about it at first. I had two. My favorite one is the Autobiography of Malcolm X and the one his daughter wrote about him. I like that because it was from a different perspective and she just talked about how she saw life with her father. And when he passed and all that stuff. It was a pretty good book. Both of them were two good books. 

V: I don't know a lot about Malcolm X. I hear a lot. I mean, you learn about him in school. 

O: Very smart to go through what he went through. Back in them days, it wasn't thought of a Black person to have intelligence and all that stuff. 

V: I should. I just feel like he's too smart. I feel like any of his stuff would just go right over my head. 

O: Yeah, I think he was a pimp slash criminal. And stuff he talked about was articulate. But at the same time, if a person like him can change his life and be able to read books and reach millions of people. I think anybody can learn what he went through. He made a remark that the king was a great guy too. 

V: That's a good message. I like that! 

[Oscar chuckles]

V: Okay. Do you have any recommendations for a young polar bear? What should I read? Malcolm X? 

O: No, I'd be a little bit too advanced for you. Probably Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant was one of my favorites. He motivated me when I started working on this one job. He always talked about if you want to be the best at something, you got to sacrifice. You can't have it both ways. That's how he was. 

V: What was it called? I can google it. He probably doesn't have a lot of books. 

O: Oh, he got a lot. 

V: He has a lot of books? 

O: He does. He has wizardry books, all kinds of stuff. A lot of people don't know. I got them all too. 

V: Are you a big Kobe Bryant fan? 

O: I got a tattoo right here. [lifts shirt sleeve]

V: What? That’s so cool!

O: I got Mamba for life. I got the snake and everything going on. 

V: Oscar, I'm learning so much about you. You're so cool.

O: We Kobe died, man. I cried for a week. 

V: That was tragic. I wasn't a Kobe Bryant fan or even a basketball fan, but he was such a good dude. A real good one lost too soon.

O: Mamba mentality. 

V: And what is Mamba? 

O: That was a nickname he gave himself. Like when he was on the basketball court, like he was just fearless. He got to that zone. It wasn't going to stop his Kobe. 

V: Okay. 

O: They had an off the court too. Just if you want to achieve something, you work for it. There's no second place to it. You have to work and keep working. 

V: I'm not usually a fan of self-given nicknames, but that one sounds cool. And it seemed like everyone agreed, went with it. So that'd be the first case of a self-given nickname. That's great. 

O: It was a shame they had to wait till he passed to give him flowers. He was a good guy. I thought. 

V: That happens a lot. People don't see how great you are until you're gone. 

O: Yeah. 

V: This is kind of a sad interview. 

[Both laugh]

V: Let's change gears a little bit. Um, what would you tell kids that are visiting the library? Like, if you're walking through our department, would you say anything to the kids?

O: The teens that come in usually come from Hume-Fogg. As long as I catch summertime kids that come from other schools. So to be truthful. It's hard to catch them and talk to them. They have their minds set on where they're going. And usually they're going toward the Teen’s area. But if I could stop and talk to one, I'd direct them to go to the Civil Rights room. Women's Rights too. Check out certain stuff like that. There's a lot of history in there. 

V: You should. You know, toddlers are easier to catch. Their legs are so much smaller.

[Both laugh]

O: I had learned a skill that if you see a person walking to a building and you look and see what they're looking at. They're wandering here and there and it's their first time in the building. Always catch them and ask them where they're going and direct them to where they're going. 

V: Oh, that's nice. Dang, you guys wear many hats. Security and concierge. 

O: Yeah, customer service. But you have to be that way though. I want a good review of somebody that comes here. I want people to say security did a great job. They showed me where I was supposed to go. Not that security sucked. They didn't do nothing. Just put people out. All they do is harass us. 

V: Did you know that we get Yelp reviews sometimes? Do you ever read them? Have there ever been any good or bad ones about you? 

O: Maybe both. Nah, I haven't had none about me just yet. 

V: I haven't seen any I don't think that are about me. But hey, you never know. 

O: I don't think you know. Just be yourself and everybody's not gonna like you as long as you can go home at the end of the day and say that you did your best to help everybody out. 

V: That's true. Not everyone's gonna like you. 

O: A lot of people don't when you tell them the rules. 

V: Nope. Has there been any like funny... I know you guys do with a lot of serious stuff, but has there been any like funny things that you could tell? Like a funny story that's happened? 

O: Happened here?

V: It doesn't have to have happened here. Maybe the branches?

O: We haven't had any. It's been a lot of stuff going on lately. I can't even think now. I'm talking in my head. 

V: Too many serious things. There's no laughter in here. 

O: There's been some laughter. I used to go to Madison. I used to have a good rapport with the staff there. We have an employee named Miss Barbara. They always harass her and mess with her every day. Give her a hard time. So I used to break my day every time I see her. I used to mess with her. 

V: You mess with a lot of people. 

O: I was about to say, yeah.

V: I feel like there's a lot of people that don't know how funny you really are. 

O: Till we closed. Till we came back. Then you started getting more of my harassment. 

V: Where were you at when we were closed? 

O: Everywhere.

V: All 21 locations? 

O: No, not that far. I went to North. I went to East. Bordeaux. Pruitt. I think I said Madison. Madison. 

V: That's a lot of them. 

O: I was sometimes back here. 

V: Oh, yeah! There had to be someone here to let the workers in. 

O: Yeah. If I had free time, I'd come down here and do my schedule. 

V: Did you ever come to be the coordinator?

O: I couldn't be the coordinator. I had to coordinate stuff still while we were closed. 

V: Was it harder to be the coordinator while you were closed?

O: No, it wasn't. It was less stress, to be honest. Because Main is a pretty big building. It's 300,000 square feet of this building. 

V: That's how big the library is?!

O: Yeah, 300,000 square feet. Two basements. Three floors. So that's pretty big. 

V: That's pretty big. I feel like they probably said that during orientation. I just didn't listen. 

O: You didn't. That's a big thing to miss. 

V: They just throw so much information at you. 

O: We've been a building since 2001. 

V: So. I knew that. It used to be a mall. 

O: Yeah, I knew that. 

V: There's this really cool time lapse video. Someone in circulation showed it to me and you can see a time lapse of the demolition of the mall, and then the building of the library. 

O: Church Street Centre. That's what it was called. 

V: I don't know. You probably know better than me. 

O: You’re supposed to be here. I thought you were from here man. 

V: I'm young. Young! I was born after the building was already built. They had already tourn it down when I got here. My mom was five. 

O: She should remember that. I remember myself when I was five. 

V: Oh, okay. Some of us are just different!

O: Everybody's different. 

[Both laugh]

V: August is “Don't Be a Bully Month”. Do you ever encounter bullies at the library? 

O: Yes, we do at times. And we make sure we get out of the building so fast it hits me. 

V: What do you say to them? 

O: Um... That's a good question. I try to be professional when I approach people at all times. I introduce myself. Ask them if they need any kind of like mental health attention and stuff like that. If they say no to all that, then I explain the rules and stuff like that. Tell them to be disruptive because they are disruptive if they're bothering somebody. That's number eight on our rules. 

V: Do you have them memorized? Is that a requirement?

O: Nah, but I just remember them. 

V: It's a choice. 

O: Yeah. I just remember them. Number eight is being caught disruption. 17 is like harassing a patron and staff. 

V: Patron conduct. Or is it Patron Code of Conduct? 

O: Yes. Patron Code of Conduct number eight. You're breaking it. 

V: And they can see what that it is?

O: Oh, sorry. When you come into the building, we have it right there posted up. 

V: Where? 

O: If you walk into the lobby, it's on your right-hand side. It also states that you can't have a suitcase in the building at all and two bags.

V: That's crazy. But back to the bullying part!

O: They'll be violating 8 and 17 and we just basically would just pin how bad the bullying is. They may get 30 days. They don't leave. Then it goes up from there. 

V: So you're not like, get out of here! Leave! 

O: No, I always try to come respectful, and then it goes up. We have a use of force continuum. That's the first one is approaching somebody, officer presence. 

V: That's so professional. That's a little boring. You know, we used to have security guards around here that would be popping off and stuff. 

O: No, I just, if you approach somebody with some crazy stuff, they're going to come back with you with some crazy stuff. I know I always try to come polite and tell who I am and what rules I violate. 

V: But that makes for good, funny stories. 

O: It does, but it also leads to more stuff that I don't want to have to do, you know. I'm trying to be peaceful.

V: You've cleaned this team up too much. You guys are too professional now. 

O: I appreciate it. Thank you. 

V: I guess that was a compliment. 

[Oscar laughs]

O: Been a lot of work, though. 

V: Yeah, you guys do good work. Okay. Another August question! Did you know that August is National Eye Exam Month? 

O: No, I didn't. I wear glasses. I do.

V: Yeah, I saw that you wear glasses. 

O: And contacts.

V: How long have you worn glasses? 

O: Ever since my doctor said he called me three-dimensionally challenged. 

[Both laugh]

V: Now that doesn't feel professional.

O: It wasn’t.

V: Wait so you can only see flat things?

O: I mean I can see, but he was being a jerk. Excuse me, Vanilla. He was being rude.

[Vanilla laughs]

V: I’ve never heard that. That’s crazy!

O: When I grew up, there wasn’t no such thing of wearing like thin bifocals. It was the big ones. My grandma said you better wear them to school. I aint wearing these to school.

V: Oh the coke bottles is what they used to call them.

O: Yeah.

V: Oh yeah! [laughs]

O: Put them on, you better keep them on your face. All right, grandma. I guess I put them in my pocket, I can't see nothing. 

V: That's so funny! Is there anything you'd like to say to non-glasses wearers?

O: Don't put prescription glasses on. Don't fake like you can't see and put glasses on, because once you get them on your face, you're stuck with them. 

V: Yes, thank you. It's not a choice. It's not a style. 

O: No, it's not. We wear them because we have to. It's not a flex. 

V: And my most annoying thing is like when people who don't wear glasses, when they lick their finger and they touch your glasses. Ugh! Has that ever happened to you? 

O: No, if I did, I'd probably freak out. Like why are you licking any part of your body, putting it on my glasses. I'd have to clean the whole thing. Like it's done, my day is ruined. I'd have to wash the whole thing, because it's on my face.

V: Yes, so don't do that.

O: I got one thing about glasses, where if they, you see in the glasses down here [points to nose], you do want to kind of just push them up. 

[Vanilla laughs]

O: I see that you got yours on perfectly. 

V: I got a big nose. These glasses aint going nowhere!

[Oscar laughs]

V: Okay, my last question, is there anything exciting coming up you'd like to share with the people? 

O: My birthday. It's August 26th. 

V: August 26th?

O: It's on a Wednesday. 

V: Okay, this will definitely be posted before then, so let me know if people don't tell you happy birthday. That means they didn't read the blog. Oh! I'll have to remember to get you a present. 

[Oscar chuckles]

V: Okay, so what's your sign? Do you know your sign? 

O: Virgo. 

V: Virgo. Okay, that makes sense. I get along with Virgos. 

O: Yeah, I do, too. 

V: You are one. 

O: My daughter, she's a Virgo, so we get along real good. My daughter will be a senior, too. I'm proud of that. 

V: Shout out. Congrats on graduating! 

O: See that tattoo? [lifts shirt sleeve] That's her. 

V: She's so cute! I assume she's older now. 

O: Yeah, she'll be 18 this year. 

V: Dang, you got adult. How does that make you feel? 

O: Older. Well, wiser. I don't say older. Wiser. 

V: Well, do you have anything work-related that is exciting to share with the people? I don't know what you guys do. Do you promote anything? 

O: We don't have anything exciting. I'm trying to think. It's been a busy month for us this month. Just being able to hire more people. I always look forward to training people, so I'm excited about doing that. Just showing somebody the new stuff that we do because a lot of people think that security just sit around, just look, but we do way more than that here. 

V: I don't know what you guys do on the other floors, but I can say if you come through Children’s, you ain't sitting around. You guys are working. 

O: Yeah. It's more mentally than physically, but it's true. 

V: Well, I don't really have anything exciting to share, so let's wrap it up!

O: All right. 

V: Thanks for being interviewed. 

O: All right. Thank you. You too. Look forward to talking to you more in the future.