A compliment, I guess. Not

My last hour on the reference desk.

Two older black men walked past the desk. The short ugly one said to me ( I had helped them earlier,) " You seem to have a pretty smile, but you have a ugly look in your eyes."


My response," Thanks for sharing!"


An older black man who is here every day, all day approached me about 15 minutes before the last two.

He started with this little speech about leaving his reading glasses at home. Finally......he asked if he could check out a magnifying glass.

***We have had problems with the magnifying glasses that we lend out, they never seem to come back.******This problem also occurs with the reference items that are held behind each desk******We are losing books and supplies so much so, that management issues and updated mandatory required valid acceptable form of identification******

So, ol' dude produces this faded piece of hard plastic that looked as if it may have been some type of badge with a picture on it at one time or another. You can't even tell if the image could have possibly been him at one time.

I looked at it and told him, " NOPE!!!" He had the nerve to mumble as he was walking away, "bitch."

My first instinct was to get mad, but then I calmed down immediately. I told myself that he will be back tomorrow and he will neeed something again. We shall see if I even entertain his question.