Who knew

If you act a fool on the telephone, you get results.

Wednesday, I heard my co-woker tell a patron via telephone that she has fines and they need to be resolved before she can check out a book.
The patron had requested that a book be placed on hold. My co-worker explained to the patron that she'd had to override the block on her record. My co-worker then told the patron where she could pick-up the book. The patron was yelling and screaming so loud, she didn't even hear what was being said.

My co-worker hung up the telephone as the patron was in the middle of her rant.

The patron called back and she was transfered to our floor. My co-worker said, "I'm not speaking to her again!"

I picked up the call, and the caller was trying to play the innocent victim. "Yeah, you hung up the the telephone in my face without even telling me where I could pick up the book."

I said, "I didn't hang up on you, and she did tell you where the book would be."

Patron: "If you didn't speak to me, how do you know what I'm talking about?"

I told her that I was standing at the desk when she called. The patron then began another rant, "I want her name and I want to speak with the manager. If the manager isn't available, then I want to speak with whoever's in charge!"
I put the patron on hold, so that I could transfer the call. She hung up.

This happened two more times.

Thursday afternoon, we found out that she had complained to the Chief of the Main's office, and her fines disappeared in the process.

The Vapors Patron returns

Yesterday her issue was the library's windows. They don't open, we need ventilation, and fire exits. I told her that the windows don't open, but we do have a ventilation system. She then said, "Well the windows in city hall open!" I said, "City Hall is a much older building. This building opened in 1996." She then stated, "There are city regulations that say buildings must have windows that open and fire escapes."

I said, "Well you need to take that complaint to city hall." She then asked for one of the library's comment/complaint forms.

After completing the form, she said to me, "No make sure that you give that to the correct person."

To be appreciated

An elderly woman approached me at the reference desk and said, "I'm not too good with new technology". I asked her what she was looking for.
She told me that she only had 80% of her hearing. I asked, "What is it that you're looking for?". She put the books that she had in her hands on the counter and said, "I need you to make some copies for me."
I stopped her by saying, "Oh, no, I don't do that. You need to go over to the page desk, which is across from the copy room.". She learned onto the counter and said, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?". I wrote page desk on a piece of paper and pointed in the direction she needed to go. She then said, "OH, THAT'S NOT A PART OF YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION, EXCUSE ME FOR OFFENDING YOU!"

As she walked away, I thought, "You can't hear, but you knew exactly what I said."


An old man was after her. He told me I wasn't listening to him. I told him the search terms that he needed to use for an online catalog search. I let him finish rambling, and the same terms were needed for the search. I also told him that he wouldn't find the books he wanted on the 3rd floor. I showed him the titles and he wanted me to print out each one he was interested in. I finally explained to him that all of the books are shelved near each other upstairs.


I helped a woman who was looking for books with information about harems. I asked her if she had done a keyword or subject search. She told me that she had done every type of search and wasn't able to find anything.
I asked her what country did she want? She told me whichever one had results. I did two keyword searches and found quite a few books.
She said, "I need to learn your search skills."

Are evil thoughts okay?

This evening, I had to wake a patron who had fallen asleep while at one of the internet computers.
I knocked on the table near him, he didn't budge. I took a reference book from the index table and threw it down on the table near the patron. He still didn't budge. I walked toward the reference desk(I was going to call security,) and one of the observers yelled that the patron had finally awakened.
I returned to the patron's side and told him that he had slept through his internet session and needed to move.

Instead of believing me, the patron continued to sit in front of the computer. He was trying to log in and use the time that he slept through.

While trying to wake the patron, I thought, "Now if I kick him, he'll wake up and I'll be in the wrong!"

Our Library has vapors

That's what a patron told me yesterday. She proceeded to explain to my that she could see the vapors. She also said that in order for me to view them, I had to take pictures with the camera set on natural light exposure. This is when she pulled from her many backpacks, pictures of things like trees, the side of a house, and a toilet. All of the pictures had the glare of light.

I listened with grave difficulty. I was trying so hard not to laugh in that womans face. I just kept nodding and looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Thankyfully, she finally said, "OKAY, you have a good day now and walked away."

What I learned today

While in the Government Documents Department, a patron who frequents my floor had just left the reference desk when I arrived. The other librarians were saying how much humor they get out of their interactions with him. He has given one the name of Glorious Librarian, the other he gave a police badge sticker and she's a Sargent Librarian.

They asked me if I had any experience with him on my floor. I told them yes, and it's never as pleasant as theirs. I explained that whenever he approaches me at the reference desk, I can't understand what he's saying. I'm always asking him to explain slowly, what he is saying. He ends up grunting at me and walking away. He then rolls his eyes at the reference desk every time that he walks by afterward.

Well, the GIC Librarians told me that I must never try to figure out what he is saying. They said that I must just nod in agreement with everything that he is saying. When he is done, he will ask, "Do I have permission to leave?" I must tell him yes, and he will walk away quietly.

I failed to mention that he wears some type of foreign service uniform, topcoat and all daily.

Prior to yesterday, it had been quiet in the staff area

The LOUD mouth who sits in the cubicle one aisle over has been out. I believe it's been for a little over a week. All I noticed was the quiet, that is until another co-worker mentioned that the lady had been out sick.

I still didn't think anything was wrong. This woman has been working up to going out on disability leave for the past month. I thought she must have figured out how to get it approved.

No such luck. LOUD mouth returned to work yesterday, because she ran out of sick and vacation leave.

I have to give it to her, she played her part, coughing up a storm.

Today, she's not coughing, but she was on the telephone for the first 1 1/2 hour of work. Talking loudly about nothing as usual. Now, she missing, she just returned as I'm typing this.

I'll just wait and see how this plays out.

After posting about the weird people

You know, the ones with stalker tendencies.

Last Monday was the third day of my three day staycation. My Mom wanted me to take her to the big box store in town. I really wanted to go to the location one city over. I told her that I always see someone that I'm not trying to be bothered with there. Well..........she won out.

As soon as we walked in, who do I see, my work stalker.

I pointed him out to her and explained who he is. He would repeatedly walk past the reference desk and stare at me. This was at the community college. When I worked as a children's librarian in the hood, I would occasionally see the same car driving in circles while I walked home. Just before I transferred locations, the driver of the car rolled down the window one night. The driver was this same guy. He had the nerve to say, "Oh, hey!". I thought yea, like I'm going to answer you. I kept walking.


After I had been at my present location for a few weeks, the guy began appearing on this floor. He would do the same thing, walk past the reference desk and stare at me. The other thing he does, is stand at the library catalogs across from the reference desk and stare at me (I know this because every time that I look toward the elevators, he is staring at me.)

After seeing him last Monday, when I returned to work on Tuesday, I was upstairs in the GIC and dude came up there. Going through the usual motions of walking past the reference desk and staring at me.

Well he finally got his nerve up yesterday and approached me at the reference desk. He said, "Uh yea, I saw you last week at Co*tco. You never go there." I said, "No, I don't.". He then asked, "Well, what brought you there?". I answered, "My Mother."

I get the creeps whenever I see or talk about that guy. After I typed this post, I went upstairs to the GIC and guess who I saw? Yep, you guessed it. I guess he felt that me acknoledging him yesterday, meant that it would happen again. He kept walking past the reference desk and staring at me. I kept reading an article online.

One downside to a customer service occupation

My personal shopping choices are altered. A new grocery store opened closer to my home, I had been reluctant to try it. One Saturday, I just decided to go for it. I saw so many regulars at the library, I began to wonder what they were doing there. I now know one of the places they go, when they aren't at the library.

This past Friday, I decided to try another location of the same chain, that's a neighborhood away from the library. I hadn't even reached the entrance to the store, and I saw two library patrons. Thankfully, they didn't see me before I notice them.

The only solution has been to shop at least 30 minutes outside of the city. This also limits the amount of co-workers that I run into also.

Secure, but not really

There is a member of the library security who should've never been hired. Well, they did hire him and it's been so long that they're now afraid to fire/layoff/whateveryouwhattocallit him.

He is the first to volunteer to secure our floor at closing. Oh yay, us!! This means that we now have closing proceedures for our floor. We must walk the floor, reminding people that we are closing. We must remain on the floor until the final closing announcement has been given. Lastly, we have to point out to the above mentioned security personnel where the remaining patrons are.

Today, there was a group in the meeting room. I thought they must have been library staff, because no one had informed them of our closing time. I went in the back to check the schedule, and no, it was a community meeting. When they were informed that the library was closed, they said, "They security guard looked in the window and kept walking."

A little bit of this and that

I wanted to post something new yesterday, but my cell battery died at work. My charger doesn't work when plugged into the outlets in the staff area.


It's super quiet in the Government Document Center. The same folks who act a fool and yell, are even quiet when I see them up there. When they see me, they've been saying things like, "They've got you working everywhere!"

The shim who works my last nerves just kept staring and smiling.

Copyright, patent, and criminal law are the most popular questions so far.

Budget cuts and staffing

As a result of my library system's budget cuts and hiring freeze, they've developed the concept of cross-training. The line in the manager's minutes read, We will begin cross training in all departments.

What it should have read is, Librarian's from the 3rd floor will be training in all departments lacking sufficient staff. Yours truly is the victim of this scam. I was told that the Chief wanted me to cross-train in the Government Information Center. That isn't the case, my supervisor volunteered me. This is the department with the most vacancies. I'm told that the staff are treated as if they work in a factory.

My first day of training was today. Everyone was all smiles and played nice.

Someone wrote what a lot of us would love to SREAM

My Mom sent me this link the other day. I thought those of you who read my blog would enjoy this. I've also passed it on to a few librarian friends of mine.

http://librarianavengers.org/worship-2


The link isn't working, so here's the post. Over at the website, they have a great graffic includes with the post.


Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian
k, sure. We’ve all got our little preconceived notions about who librarians are and what they do.

Many people think of librarians as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about “Sssh-ing” people and stamping things. Well, think again buster.

Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you.

Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field and Stream magazines. They can find data for your term paper that you never knew existed. They may even point you toward new and appropriate subject headings.

People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise.

Public schools have only been out for 1 week

I'm ready for summer to be over already! There's a group of three boys ages 11-13 who have been pressing their luck. I had them escorted out of the library last Wednesday. They were arguing with me, trying to tell me what the library rules are. They did what they wanted, after I informed them of the rules on our floor. They were arguing with each other. I called security because of other patrons. The responding officer saw the three boys and decided to observe them. He then asked me what happened. After explaining that they refussed to follow rules, they were told to leave.

Thursday, two librarins spoke to two of the same boys on two different occassions. They had girls with them. They were teasing the girls and throwing books at them. All involved were told to separate. All they did was return an hour later, when the desk staff changed. My supervisor when to verify what they were told. They noticed him eyeing them and left the floor.

Early this afternoo, they were kicked out for identity theft( it was discovered that they were using multiple library card numbers to aCcess the internet.)

Time away

I made the decision last month, to begin taking one vacation day per month. Sometimes I feel as if I need a break from the patrons and my co-workers. I put my request in for 6 months of one day vacations, and it was approved.

It's very rare that I take a vacation day, and 1 week of vacation almost never happens. The biggest obstacle is my co-workers. They block up months in advance in the vacation calendar book.

Last Thursday, my co-worker(who talks LOUDLY and sits in the cubicle adjacent to mine,) came to my desk with the vacation book. She said, "If by any chance you decide not to take October 26th off, can you let me know because I plan to go on vacation that week. Before she finished her spiel, I said no. I then told her that I'm taking one day per month off.

This woman calls in sick three out of the four Tuesdays every month. Her work schedule is Tuesday - Saturday. As she was talking to me, I was thinking that she just needs to work the other three Tuesdays that month, so she can call in sick on the 26th. We already know that she won't be in to work that day.

Pet peeve

I'm sure this annoys anyone who deals with the public on any level. We close at 6:00pm on Mondays.

I watched the patron exit the elevator onto the floor at 5:45pm. He made a point to walk around the reference desk. At 5:55pm, just as the closing announcement was being broadcast, the patron approached the reference desk. He asked if I would help him find a book. I said, "You just had to wait until 5 minutes before closing?" He replied, "I thought I could find it on my own."

I look up the call number for the book, and it's a reference book. I informed the patron that he wouldn't be able to check that book out, but I told his where it was located. He then asked me to look up another book. That book was one that he could checkout. I took him to the shelf and handed him the book. I informed him that he needed to hurry up, if he intended to check the book out. He decided to browse the book. I then watched him return the book to the shelf at 5:59pm, and select another book.

He was looking for books on the occult. This happens to be the my order area. There is a high theft rate for books on that subject. The bulk of the books have been made reference because of this.

Finals month

It seems as if that's how long finals last. Sundays are classic for elementary/middle school/high school/college students to approach the reference desk. They request help in finding books related to their topic/assignment.

In actuality, they want us to find the books/articles, and point out the information needed. Some even want us to narrow their broad subject. When it is explained that we don't do that, we get blank stares. You hear all of us repeating the same thing over and over, "We can show you where the information is, but it isn't our job to find everything."

Using the computers, they always seem to need more that 1 hour because they can't complete everything during that time.

This past Sunday, a patron asked me how to save something in his email. I explained to him how to copy and paste. He gave me the classic BLANK STARE! Of course, when he approached me for help, he only had 5 minutes left on the computer. I copied the document and pasted into a new email. I told him to type an identifier in the subject line and save it as a draft. I pointed to the save as a draft tab. Two minutes later, the patron ran over to me and said, "I don't know what happened, it just disappeared."
I went over and it was gone, but the word document was still there. Time was running out, so I got a flash drive and tried to save it, but there wasn't enough time.
This man turned on me that quick and said, "I DON'T KNOW WHY THESE COMPUTERS CUT OFF AND ERASE INFORMATION. I GO TO THE ART INSTITUTE AND THE COMPUTERS STAY ON THERE."

I said, "My only advice to you is to come back tomorrow and ask for help earlier."
His response, "I'M NEVER COMING TO THIS LIBRARY AGAIN!"

At the same time this was going on, another patron was yelling at my co-worker because it takes money to retrieve a print job. She wanted to know why she couldn't pay with a debit or credit card. She also said the she should have been informed before she began using the computer, that she would have to pay for her print jobs with a copy card. My co-worker said, "We aren't mind readers!"

What a week

And it's not over yet.

It began last Thursday, May 6,2010

A local news reporter was touring my floor. Accompanying her were a camera man, the library's public liaison, and the social worker.
They found a man at one of the study tables along the wall. He just happened to be pleasuring himself. Security was called and everything from the confrontation to the man being escorted to the security office was filmed. I'm sure that the library will be exposed on television soon.

Sunday May 9, 2010
The staff toilets were working, but we couldn't use the sinks.
We were told to wash our hands in the kitchenette sink.

A patron was banging the computer mouse on the table and cursing the computer.
He was upset because he couldn't use the computer(it had been booked by someone else.)
I told him that he could use an express terminal(there was a line.)
He told me that if he felt like waiting, he would have reserved a computer.

He then went over to the express computers and jumped the line. Security was called.
When the officer arrived, the man didn't like what he was told. He sucker punched the officer. They began to tussle, and the officer put him in a choke hold.

Monday May 10,2010

We arrived to work and were told the only working restrooms were on the 1st and lower level. We couldn't run any water at all. We were told it would only last 30 minutes. An hour later, they sent an email saying everything had been repaired EXCEPT the 3rd floor. We had to wait until the afternoon. That afternoon,
the toilets were back working, but the sinks only had cold water.

As of today, May 19, 2010, the staff restroom sinks are still running just cold water. We were told that a replacement part was ordered for the sinks.

This is your reference question, really?

Caller: What day is cinco de mayo?

Me: May 5th, today!

Caller: It's always been May 5th?

Me: Yes

Caller: Always, even in the 70's

Me: Yes, even in the 70's

My Co-worker has jokes!

I had a staycation April 22- May 1st. As I approached my cubicle this morning, my co-worker asked me, "Are you HAPPY to be back at work?". I replied, "That was not nice."

Technology challenged

That's how he phrased it.

An eldery gentleman asked me to help him locate the call number for an author. I gave him the call number, and he set off to find the book. He returned to the desk, and told me that he wanted to copy one of the poems, but the book was too heavy.

I asked him what the title was, located a copy of the poem online, and printed it for him. He said, " I didn't know that thing could do that. You just type in what you want and then it appears?" I laughed, and told him something like that.

Eatin funny

Yesterday afternoon, for once it was quiet. To my right, I heard a noise. I looked, I saw 4 teen girls, hands quickly moving to get under the table, and mouths chewing. They looked up at me with expressions of surprise.

I said, "YES, I SAW YOU! EATING ISN'T ALLOWED IN THE LIBRARY!"

The ringleader rushed to put the candy in her tote bag. I kept peeking to see what they were up to, until they finally moved. They left their belongings in the care of their friend while they moved out of my sight.

About 10 minutes after that............

Another group of about 8 teens exited the elevator. They walked back and forth for a minute. They located the woman that they were looking for. The woman happened to be using a laptop. Well, they had the bright idea to turn the music up on the laptop and start dancing in the middle of one half of the floor.

So, you think LIBRARIAN means all knowing?

Last Thursday evening, a patron kept circling the reference desk, while trying to smile at me.
I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I kept my eyes glued to the computer screen.
Finally, he walked up to me and asked if I was busy? I asked him if he had a question, or needed help.
THIS FOOL had the nerve to say, "I WANT YOU TO SHOW ME HOW TO DO PERCENTAGES.". I told him to go to the 4th flr and get a math book.
Yesterday, a patron approached me at the reference desk and said, "What's the difference between a author and when it says edited by?"
Today, a patron called and asked my co-worker if we have a lot of books on WWII. He told him that we do. The patron then asked, "What's the best WWII book?". My co-worker told him that he would have to come into the library, look at the collection, and determine the answer for himself.". The patron then asked why he couldn't just tell him over the telephone. My co-worker told the patron that he couldn't determine the best source, because of the size of the collection. The patron then said, "Why don't you know, you're a librarian, aren't you?"

How does one forget a computer

Yesterday afternoon, a patron brought a Ma*Book with the charger attached to the reference desk. He said that it had been on top of one of the cabinets for quite a while. I told my co-worker to take it to security. I didn't want to be responsible for anything like that.
NO ONE came to the desk to ask about it.
How do you forget about a computer? A Ma*Book at that!

Yesterday, I did the Teen Librarian's job

She was working the Teen Reference desk. She was tidying up the paperback book racks. As I walked past the Teen Center, I noticed a couple on top of each other, and I let her know. She said, "OH NO, NOT AGAIN, THEY ARE AT IT EVERYDAY! I just said something to them yesterday, can you speak to them today?

I walked back over there and said, "IF YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO DO THAT AT HOME, THEN YOU CAN'T DO IT IN THE LIBRARY EITHER! You(the girl) need to get a chair and sit in it, by yourself." I turned to leave and noticed their friend laughing at them.

Teen Center news

There are signs on the tables and computer workstations in the Teen Center. The signs say that the area is designated for teens, adults are only allowed if they are accompanied by a teen. There have been many violations of this rule, so now the signs are in 3 languages.
One of my co-workers, is adamant about enforcing the rule. A few weeks ago, she approached World Traveler(she will sit and stare at the globe for hours.). When World Traveler saw her, she said, "I know the sign says that adults must be accompanied by a teen. I'm sitting here, hoping that one of my children will stop by."

When my co-worker told me what happened, I told her, "Well, there isn't anything you can say about that one.". World Traveler's response was classic, it was like she had her response memorized.

Even now, I think about what World Traveler said and laugh.

You can now use the library as a charging station

There are a few patrons that use the library to charge their wheelchairs. Cellular telephone charging has become the norm, but I still can't get used to seeing the random wheelchair.

Yesterday morning, I had gone to the first floor, to give security a identification card that had been left at the reference desk. As I exited the staff elevator, I saw a wheelchair against the wall, near the large print books. The wheelchair was plugged in. Sitting across from the chair, was it's owner, who had the nerve to give me the 'side-eye(yes, Jazzy, he did') Thrown to the side of the patron was a prosthetic leg.

Upon first glance, it seemed as if the leg didn't belong to the patron. After closer inspection, I saw that it did.

When I returned to my floor, I relayed this story to my co-worker. He said, "Was the leg being charged also?"

On to the good news

Thursday evening, just before I left work, as I was helping a patron, I noticed Radio Man blowing his nose ONTO THE CARPETED FLOOR. When he saw me, he popped up like nothing had happened.

Since it was time for me to leave for the day, my co-worker agreed to file the paperwork and deal with security.

Sunday, I found out that RADIO MAN IS BANNED FOR 90 DAYS!!!!!

Mine arrived this past Saturday

Since Friday is my scheduled day off, I received my pink slip along with Saturday's mail.

The effective date is May 8, 2010. Sunday, while at work, I learned that the union is working on a solution. Meetings were scheduled to explain what we are to do after receiving the pink slips. I didn't attend any, because they didn't fit my desk schedule. I thought that I'd wait until next week. It's a good thing also, because maybe we'll receive solid answers.

Pink Slips

That's been the topic around here since yesterday. It all started when the City Librarian forwarded a memo to the library staff that was written by the mayor.
Pink Slips will be issued to all city departments tomorrow. All classifications will be included in this mass layoff.
Supposedly, some of those laid off, will have the option of being re-hired part-time. The part-time hours aren't to exceed 37.5 hours.

Yesterday, the whinner came to my desk and asked me, "Are you worried?". I told her that there wasn't anything that I could do to prevent being laid-off, so I can't worry about that.
Later, one of the women who liked to call in sick on or after pay day, was in a tiff about the rankings list. I just let her talk. I chose not to explain that the rank is where you were on the eligibility list, when you were offered your current position.
Today, they've been standing around whining about the possible outcome tomorrow. I'm just tired of hearing them talk about the same stuff. It's 4pm and one of the main complainers just said,"Let me go get some work done."

I don't know if I've mentioned "Radio Man"

There's a man who likes to frequent the floor that I work on....Often I think, he likes to annoy the staff. I realize that's his way of gaining attention, being loud and abusive. Yesterday, I had to speak with him about his behavior, because he was disturbing the people around him. As I was walking away, he said something smart, I whipped my head around and gave him a look that said, "TRY ME!"

Today, he came strolling onto the floor around 2:30p.m. When I saw him, I told my co-worker that I really wasn't in the mood today. Radio Man decided that he would hang around the reference desk talking loudly. He was trying to work my nerves, because as he walked past the reference desk, he looked me dead in my face. I turned my head, and every time that I looked up, he was looking at me to see what my reaction was. I fixed him, because I told my co-worker, "I need to call security and tell them that they need to come and get their friend." He walked away from the reference desk when I said that.

His favorite ways to annoy us, are to play his DVDs loudly, listen to music on his radio(that he carries daily,) or play his bongos. His preference is to sit at a table where there are quite a few people on their laptops, or reading.

I have personally had security escort him out of the building on numerous occasions. Other times, I have told him, "You have two choices, leave now on your own, or I'll call for you to have a security escort." I usually end up calling security because he will start saying some slick mess to me.

On the way to the bus stop this morning

I was minding my own business, walking while listening to my ipod. Out of the corner of my right eye, I see a police van stop. I thought nothing of it, because they often cruise the other end of my street. Then.......the driver's side window opens slowly. As I got closer to the van, I saw that it was my former co-worker.

Mr. Officer: " I couldn't just drive past and not stop."

Me: "Hi, how are you? Are you still at the high school?" (There's a high school near my home)

Mr. Officer: " Yes. Do you still bake?"

Me: "I haven't in a while, but yes, I still bake."

Mr. Officer: "Do you think you could bake me a cake or pie?"

Me: "You're not right because you would sit in front of the school and eat it in front of the kids!"

****Here it comes*********He asked, "So, you're not married yet?" I respond, "No, WHY, do you ask me that everytime that you see me?"

Mr. Officer: "I ask because you're a good girl and you deserve to be married."

Me: "You need to tell your friend that." (He is friends with my ex.)

NOW FOR THE CLENCHER, WHAT HE HAS BEEN DYING TO ASK, ALMOST AS LONG AS WE'VE KNOW EACH OTHER. HE HAS ASKED AROUND THIS QUESTION IN THE PAST************************

Mr. Officer: "Do you still talk to Re and La?" (women we used to work with)

Me: "Not Re, but I email La sometimes."

Mr. Officer: "You pretty much keep to yourself"

Me: "Pretty much."

Mr. Officer: "Oh, so you can keep a secret?"

Me: "Mr. Officer, I'm not trying to mess with a married man!"

Mr. Officer: "WHAT!!! Why would you come at me like that?"

Me: "Because you said, you can keep a secret."

Mr. Officer is married, his 2nd marriage at that. When we worked together, he was married to his 1st wife. He messed around with Re for a minute. He quite that job to become a police officer. He then began messing with a supervisor at our old job. He then divorced his 1st wife, to marry the supervisor.

My co-worker tells me that it's because "they" like me

There is an African American woman in her 50's that has chosen to bother me. My co-workers have named her Tangentia, because, well, I'm sure you can guess.

I have told her many times, about her bad habit of asking 5 questions, while you're still in the process of locating the answer to her first question.

Today, she hovered around the reference desk until I finished helping another patron. By the time I had become frustrated with her, it turned out that she really didn't want anything anyway. I've already told her about asking me questions that she could find the answers to, just by using the 15 minute express computers. She had the nerve to tell me, "Oh, I don't know how to use a computer." My response surprised her, I said, " I saw you using one, and you know how to search quite well."

After she finished bugging me today, she said as she walked away, "I hope I didn't waste 50 million of the city's dollars with that question.

Yesterday's Blast From my past

It was busy at the reference desk. Answer 1 patron's question, and before they could walk away, there's another patron. So, like a machine, I answered a patron's question while finishing up a telephone reference question. As I was preparing the books that the telephone patron wanted placed on hold, this patron backtracks and asks, "Does your name happen to be Nexgrl?" I answered, "Yeah(like annnnnd what do you want.)". The patron then said, "My name is Mark, and I went to All Hallows(my elementary school) with you.". I looked up, and I was shocked. I had seen the man 8yrs ago at my niece's 21st b-day. It was a BIG difference. All I could say was, "Oh, hi."

Another gross library sighting

Yesterday afternoon, there were some roach sightings in the reference area on my floor.

My guess is that they are coming from the patrons who sit/lay in that area with all of their belongings. There is a bank of windows along that wall and patrons move chairs from other areas and camp out. I have gone through and moved all of the chairs, but they reappear the next day.

Economy fallout

In November, the residents of the city received post cards, saying that the local community college wouldn't be sending class schedules via snail mail anymore. We were advised to search the colleges online class schedule. Unfortunately for us, the general public didn't think that post card applied to the library.

In the past, the library system has received vast quantities of schedules for universities and community colleges in the area.

This year, we were told that the schedules would be printed on a as needed basis, and very little would be distributed. I made a special request for 150, because I felt we've received far too many in the past. Of course, we ran out long before the Spring Semester start date(last week.) Patrons have been calling and hanging up in our faces, when told that we don't have any. The patron who walk in, have been yelling, and taking it out on us. They aren't even trying to hear that the same information can be found on the schools website.

***When the number of class schedules got low, I set aside two copies for the reference desk*****Patrons get an attitude and don't want to look at those copies either.

Weirdo alert

I went to the reference desk Wednesday afternoon to relieve a co-worker. I was told that another Librarian who had already been relieved was waiting on security. For what you ask........

A female page had been trying to shelve books in the education section and she reported a male patron sitting in a cubicle near the windows. He had his hand down his pants while he watched her shelve. She felt uncomfortable and reported the incident.

The security supervisor finally arrived(a woman) and escorted the patron downstairs. We don't know what happened after that, because rarely do we get follow-up information.

Storm filled Sunday

Spent walking around and waking up people. They were sleeping in aisles, along the walls under the windows, and at tables, out in the open. What's funny is everyone always tries to play it off like they weren't sleeping.

One man was sleeping so hard, that my knocking on the table didn't even stir him. My supervisor then walked over with a large reference book and threw it down on the table twice.

The smells of the library on a rainy day aren't nice at all. Everything seems to be magnified when it's damp, or soaked.

This situation had me confussed for a while

For about a year, a flaming gentleman would always say "HEY BABY," whenever he saw me. I in turn, would always look at him as if he had lost his marbles. This man is rail thin and dyes his hair "Bozo The Clown" red.

The first time he said, "HEY BABY, HOW'RE YOU DOING TODAY?" to me I was at the reference desk with my supervisor. My supervisor turned to me and said, "Is there something that I've been missing here?"

Finally, two weeks ago, the guy approached me while I was helping a patron at the reference desk. He interrupted the conversation without excusing himself and said, "I NEED SOME HELP AT THE COMPUTER."

I said, "You will have to wait because I'm helping another patron right now."

He said, " Awww Aida, you gon do me like that after everything we've been through."

I said, "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

He said, "Aida(whispering)"

I said, "THAT IS NOT MY NAME!" That's the African American Librarian who works on
on the 4th floor. She is at least 10-15 years older than me.

He walked to the other side of the reference desk and asked the other librarian for help(he wasn't busy anyway.)

A regular asked...........

Does the library have books on personality disorders?

I said, I'm sure they do, would you like one?

Patron, "No, you just deal with so many people on a daily basis that have mental
problems. Do they offer classes for the staff, teaching you techniques,
that enable you to deal with the issues?"

Me, "No, not really, and I haven't taken what they do offer."

Patron, " Have you read any of the books?"

Me, "No."

Patron, "Well, you must have a strong faith or something, to help you deal with all
that happens here on a daily basis."

Me, "Yeah, you have to have something."

As of this week, the restrooms are closed

The Chief of the Library and the City Librarian made the decision to close the public bathrooms on the 3rd floor indefinitely. The last straw occurred 1 1/2 weeks ago. A patron was caught cooking heroin in the stall in the men's restroom.

I have worked on this floor for 3 years, and they chose that incident as the reason.
The paramedics had to be called because a patron overdosed in the men's
restroom.

A fight broke out between a group of men's in the restroom.

A father and son were robbed and the boy was punched in the face
in the men's restroom.

The toilet and or, one of the urinals are intentionally clogged at least
once a week.
You get the idea, a lot of bad things have happened in that restroom before, and they thought nothing of it.

This is my greatest fear while at work

http://www.khou.com/home/Houston-librarian-beaten-after-asking-patron-to-quiet-down-79675377.html

How are you feeling today

That was the question that a patron asked me Tuesday.

Me: "It doesn't matter, Do you have a question?"

Patron: "It does matter, how are you feeling today?"

Me: "Like I said, it doesn't matter. What is your question?"

We went back and fourth a few more times, until he finally realized that I wasn't going to answer his question.

He wanted a book, but he didn't know who the author is, and he didn't know the title either. All he could tell me was that it was about wealthly African Americans in California.

The back story to this individual and myself is that I had him removed from the branch where I used to work. I was the only librarian on duty one Saturday, and he entered the library cursing and talking about white people, christians, and saying how he was going to destroy things. I called the police and had him removed. Before he would leave, he insisted that he needed to check out a book.

About two weeks after that, he returned to the branch and told he that I had gotten the wrong impression of him. I told him that it didn't matter what I thought of him.

The buzz this week

For the past few months, there have been stabbings on our local transit system. The same individual has been identified each time. A first, there was only a police sketch. Last Friday, the mug shot of the suspect was released. This is where the buzz at work occurs. When I saw the picture flash across the screen, I immediately recognized the individual. He was a regular at the library and was always on the floor that I work on. He would insist on being helped by the male African American librarian. If he wasn't available, and I was on the desk, he would insist that I help him. If we were both on the reference desk together, he would wait for him to help him. The patron stunk so bad, I didn't mind that he refused my help.


http://www.ktvu.com/news/21925268/detail.html?taf=fran

Man!!!! It started before I even entered the building today

As I approached the entrance, I saw two of our security personnel with three individuals.

Security was rousing the men from laying on top of the grates in front of the building. One of the men was yelling at security, telling them, "I'M HUMAN, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TALK TO ME LIKE I'M A DOG!!! I'M GETTING UP, DON'T YELL AT ME, YOU AIN'T NOBODY, YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A REAL JOB!"

What our "patrons" laying across the grates outside has produced in the past, is foul odors throughout the building. Sometimes, it smells as if the staff area is on fire(because a lit cigarette or cigarettes have been thrown down the grate.) There are other times when it smells as if someone has urinated throughout the building, because you guessed it, they have urinated into one or all of the grates.

I have no one to blame, but myself

Monday November 30th, I volunteered to cook and serve food at a homeless shelter in my neighborhood.
When I arrived, I was told that sign-in wasn't until 9pm. The late time should have been my clue to just drop off the food and leave. I saw quite a few men who visit my floor in the library all day. Thankfully, if any of them recognized me, they didn't say anything.

You'd think that I worked on the third floor

A man approached the reference desk, after looking on both sides of the floor.

Patron: "Where's computer terminal #411?

Me: "On the 4th floor.

The patron once again looks on both sides of the reference desk.(All of the computers
have numbers in the 300's on a bright yellow sign with black numbers.)

Patron: "So, this isn't the 4th floor?

Me: No, it's one more floor up.

************************************************

A woman approached the reference desk and leaned in, as if to whisper.

Patron: " I was in the Art & Music Dept., where I found some books. I asked where
the restroom is, and I was told that it's on the 3rd floor. I now want
the stack of books that I left at the desk."

Me: (I had just arrived at the desk because of a shift change.) "The Art & Music
Dept., is on the 4th floor."

Patron: "Okay, but I still want the books that I left at the desk."

Me: "You were in the Art & Music Dept., where you found some books, and that is on
the 4th floor."

Patron: "Ooohhhh, I'm still on the 3rd floor, and I need to go back to the 4th
floor."

The patron then, turned and walked away.

*************************************

One of the pages who works on the 1st floor walked off the elevator with a truck load of books. He began walking toward the Teen Reference Desk, stopped, turned, looked at me, and said, "THIS IS THE 3rd floor?"Me: "You wanted it to be another floor?"

Page: "I was just on the 4th floor, so when I saw the Teen Desk, I wondered why it
was there."

He has worked here longer than me, so I don't know what was on his mind.

There were numerous patrons who approached me with a call number written on a piece of paper, looking confused. The book they were looking for, was located on the 4th floor. The bad thing was that it was noted on the slip of paper that the book could be found on the 4th floor.

There's an professional org. I bet you don't know about

A man called yesterday afternoon and asked me to get the telephone number for the American Cultur Association. He pronounced it cul-TUR.
Of course I found no such organization. I gave him the number for the Popular Culture/American Culture Association.
The fool called back and said, "I want the number for the Cultur Association. If you don't find it, just give me the number for Georg.ia State University, and they will know what I'm talking about."
I gave him the number for GSU and thought, "Yeah, good luck with that."

My two favorites right now

Last Monday, my coworker went to help a patron who complained about not being able to log onto an internet terminal.
My coworker returned to the desk and said, "The patron couldn't log onto the terminal because the ethernet cable had been unplugged. Another patron using a laptop had plugged the ethernet cable into it.". The laptop patron then asked my coworker what was the problem with him using the cable.

Today
A patron called and asked me to give him the toll free 1-800 number for the state of Washington board of tourism. I returned to the telephone, told the patron that I found the number. As I began, "1-800-544," the patron stopped me and asked, "Is this the toll free number?"

Examples of patrons questioning my knowledge

This past Sunday, 4:45pm, the 15 minutes until closing announcement had just occurred. The public computers had automatically logged off.

A patron approached me at the reference desk........

Patron: "The library closes at 5:00pm today?"

Me: "Yes it does."

Patron: "It always closes at 5pm?"

Me: "Every Sunday."

Patron: "Are you sure that it closes at 5pm every Sunday?"

Me: "Yes, it closes at 5pm every Sunday."

The patron pulled the library newsletter from the reference desk, points to something in the newsletter and says, "What does this S 10:00am to 6:00pm mean then?"

Me: "Let me see what you're referring to."

I reached for the newsletter and the patron pulled it closer to him, out of my reach and said, "Oh, that's for Saturdays from 10am until 6pm."

Me: "Yes, that's what it means."

Yesterday, a woman approached me at the reference desk and said, "The computers still freeze all of the time, something should be done about it! Does IT know about that problem?"

Me: "Yes, they are aware of the problem and this floor is keeping a log of how often it occurs and which terminals."

Patron: "What reason does IT give for the problem?"

Me: "They actually said it's much better than before."

Patron: "You know, every since that virus, the computers haven't been the same. That's when they began freezing all of the time."

Me: "Yes, we are aware of that, that's why we keep a log. We are constantly arguing with them over the problem and we use the log to prove our point.

Patron: "It's not just your floor, it's every floor."

Me: "Yes, I'm aware of that, but our floor is the only one constantly complaining about the problem and keeping a log."

She finally seemed satisfied with my answer and walked away.

Shocked is an understatement

This afternoon, I was walking with a patron over to the ESL section. It was his first visit to the library and he was a bit confused.

As we were passing the online catalogs in the International Center, a patron turns to me and yells, "DON'T BOTHER ME TODAY!!!" I turned to him and said, without missing a step, "OH, OKAY!!!" The patron then turns to me and yells, "I MEAN IT, DON'T YOU SAY A WORD TO ME!!!" To that I replied, "I WON'T!!!"

I had never seen that patron before.

Minding my own business

I strolled into work dreading the day ahead. Three of the security officers began telling me how my name was "all up in the incident report, as 1 of 3 witnesses.". I asked them if they were referring to the "angry black man" from this past Thursday.". They confirmed that it was the same individual.
The patron left my floor and went on to yell and scream on the 2nd and then the 1st floors. Mr. Man has been banned for 7 days, but not before he called PoPo and filled a complaint against all library employees involved in his banishment.

People always want to test you

My last 20 minutes on the reference desk.

A black man leans over and yells at two white men. He told them to be quiet. They kept talking, so the black man yelled at me. He said, "WILL YOU TELL THEM TO SHUT UP?"
I yelled in return, "YOU AREN'T HELPING THE SITUATION BY YELLING!"

At that point, another librarian who wasn't even working reference that hour, stepped to the patron and said, "When you have a complaint, you need to walk to the reference desk and tell the librarian what the problem is. Don't yell at the librarians."

The black man then walks over to the reference desk and asked me to call security. I called security and said, "Can you please send someone upstairs. A patron has requested that security handle this problem."

The security guard arrived and spoke with the black patron and told him that he was being loud and that he needed to sit down.

The patron then asked me to call a manager. I called my supervisor because the floor manager was gone.

My supervisor arrived and told the patron that he had the same problem yesterday. The patron got mad and asked to speak to the head of the library. Well, tonight, the acting chief of the main library is a black woman, and I had a feeling that the patron wouldn't be satisfied with that either.

Throughout all of the mess that the black patron was causing the two white male patron who had been sitting next to him, kept talking at the same low level. We couldn't even hear their conversation at the reference desk and they were sitting not more than 5 feet away.

Radom

I try to start each day new and fresh. Why is it that by the second hour on the reference desk, once again, I've begun to HATE LIBRARY PATRONS?


If I answer your question, DON'T respond by telling me that I'm wrong. I've been doing this for 10 years now, I think I know a little bit more than you about the subject at hand.

Examples:

1) Patron: "There aren't any King James versions of the bible on the shelves with the 200's. I've checked."

I walked with the man over to the section that is clearly marked BIBLE STUDY, and showed him the four copies of the King James version of the bible that were on the shelf.

Patron: "OH"

2) Patron: "There's no call number that starts with the letter B."

Me: That's what is used to identify the biographies. They are shelved in
aisles 8-12.

Patron: "I still don't see where this book is"

I walked with the patron over to the biography section and pulled the book off of the shelf.

No thank you, no nothing.


For those of you in customer service, have you ever had a GROWN A$$ WOMAN give you a sigh and roll of the eyes?

A patron asked my co-worker where the copy room is. My co-worker told her that it is on the other side of the floor and showed her where it is.

The woman looked at her, sighed and rolled her eyes before turning and walking away.

(My co-worker is a Teen Librarian) My co-worker turned to me and said, "Did she just roll her eyes?" I said, "I know you're used to the teenagers and the pre-teens doing that, but yes, she did."

A male patron decided to share his "afternoon delight" with those of us who work on the 3rd floor.(That's a Jeff Lewis Flipping Out reference.)

One of the library pages approached me at the reference desk and said, "There's a man over there looking at porn and masterbating. He has on a green shirt."

No, I didn't go over and investigate. I called security. They came right away. Lucky for us, there was an officer already on the floor. The page went to get her.

By this time, "Ol Boy" had noticed that we were on to him and stopped what he was doing.

The officers escorted the patron down to their office and asked the page to complete an incident report.

Companion pets

I've written about this before, but I have a differnt take on it this time.

I was helping a patron(who really didn't need to be using a computer,) when I walked away from him, a woman asked for my help. I stopped to help her and as I made an attempt to show her what she needed to do, her dog(HUGE MUTT)pushed me out of his way. I was blocking his vision, while trying to aid his owner.

You just never know what you might discover

Yesterday afternoon, a patron brought a library card that had been left at the print station to the reference desk.

My co-worker scanned the card to see if it was valid. She said, "That's differents."

I asked, "What's different?"

My co-worker, "The patron's name."

I looked at the screen...........the patron's first name is OBSESSION......I just had to check the birth year, and it's 1989.

I said aloud, "I wonder what her Momma's name is?"

Completely not work related

This past Friday, I was lounging on the couch watching tv. A telemarketer calls and says, "I'm not trying to sell you anything. This is research about grocery shopping." I say, "Um huh."

Telemarketer: "How many times have you shopped at Food For Less in the last 6
months?"

Me:"Excuse me, which store did say?"


Telemarketer: "Food For Less."


Me: "Oh......I don't shop there EVER!!!"


Telemarketer: "Okay, let me just make a note of that."

****The next thing I heard was a series of clicks. The telemarketer had hung up on
me. I looked at the receiver and thought, "Oh No He didn't just hang up!"

There's a trend with some of my co-workers

There are two individuals who come to mind. One is the resident "druggy," and the other is "Ms. Whiney." Their attendance is so bad, that they have to wait until payday, to see if they have enough vacation or sick pay, so that they can skip work the next day.

This past Thursday, it was Ms. Whiney, but she had company, two others decided to play hookey also. This meant long hours on the reference desk. A man attached himself to me, and everytime that he saw me at the refrence desk, he had to ask me a question. It didn't matter that I could only understand every third word that he was saying. He was so out of it, he would start a question, pause, start again, pause, and then say, "Oh nevermind!" He would then walk around the floor, come back, and start the process all over again. He would alternate between that and going to another floor, then coming back about 20 minutes later.

I just wanted the day to be over in the worst way.

Don't step to me with some mess

I'll start this by saying that a lot of black men, who think they look half-way decent will step to me with some mess at the reference desk. I don't care who you are, I'm going to give you the same amount of service as I give everyone else.

Why would you try to smooth talk a librarian into doing something for you anyway. The computers are free and we have plenty of them.

Tuesday, sometime after 5:00p.m., I happened to be alone at the reference desk. A older black man(60's,) approached me, leaned over the counter and said, "Uh Yeah, who can I get to purchase my airline ticket online for me."

I said, "We can show you how to book a computer, login, and access the website of whatever airline you're using."

He said, "I ain't trying to do all of that. Besides, I ain't talking about today, I can come back another day." I want to avoid the $25 that they charge you over the telephone."

Once again I said, "Any of us can show you how to book a computer. You can even book one up to two days in advance. We can then show you how to access the internet and the airline's website."

Old Dude, "So you saying there isn't anyone that will do that for me? I'm not trying to pay that $25."

I said, "It's extremely easy to book your flight online. The websites walk you through the process. If my Mom can do it, you can do it too."

He said, "Alright, I hear what you saying, but um I'mma come back."

Why me?

The library opens @9:00a.m. I got off the bus abot 11 minutes after 9 this morning. As I was speed walking to the library, one of the regulars on my floor yells, "HEY, YOU'RE LATE HUH!!!". I just nodded my head and said, "Yeah."

What do you mean, you can't eat in the library?

I returned to the reference desk, after helping a patron find a book. My co-worker said, " I told those guys over there to put away their food." I asked, "Over where?" He told me they were in the corner on the other side of the room. I looked over there, and they were still eating. They had food on one side of the table.
I asked, " Did you call security?" My co-worker said, "Why should I call security, they should have been doing their job and stopped them at the door. The guys had the bags of food in plain sight." I said, "Well, that will just make it harder to get the next person to stop eating in here."

The guys were on my side of the floor, so I walked over there. As I approached the table, I said, "PUT THE FOOD AWAY NOW, OR LEAVE!" They said, "MAN, SHE'S COMING OVER HERE LIKE SHE AIN'T PLAYING." I then said, "YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW?" They asked, "WHY?" I said, "MY CO-WORKER ALREADY TOLD YOU TO STOP EATING, SINCE YOU DIDN'T, YOU NEED TO LEAVE? This little knucklehead had the nerve to say, "OH, SO, YOU JUST GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT HE SAID???" As he licked his fingers and hand, he then took a large bite out of his chicken sandwich. At that moment, it occured to me that I didn't have to be bothered. I stopped talking and went in search of a telephone. I finally went to the International Reference Desk and told the other librarian to hand me the telephone and dial security's extension. The knuckleheads heard what I said, so they jumped up out of their seats, talking about, "WE'RE LEAVING NOW!" One took the stairs and the other took the elevator. They were still eating, so I told security to be on the lookout for them.

What is the use of a security guard

Mondays, we open @10:00a.m. I was on the desk @11:00a.m., a man yelled down the stairs to security from my floor, "SECURITY, STOP THAT MAN, HE JUST PUNCHED ME!!!!"

Tuesday, it was a fight on my 3rd floor, security was called and of course, they took their sweet time responding.

Wednesday, this old man got mad at me because I didn't understand what he was saying. He would ask me a question, and then start mumbling. I had to ask him more than once what he was talking about.

He said, " You know Stanford and T......S.....U...." I said, "What about Stanford and TSU?" He then said, "You know......pictures." I asked, "Pictures of what?" He said, "Stanford." I asked, "What kind of pictures of Stanford?" He began yelling and mumbling again, "You know, history and the picture of the school." I decided that I wanted to get him out of my face because he stunk, and he was yelling. I printed out the information for Stanford and TSU, stappled it, and gave it to him." I thought that would make him go away.....No, he continued to stand there. After 5 minutes, he said, "I'm waiting on you to give me the information for the other school." I told him that I had given him the information for both schools. He finally left.

Thursday, when I went to the reference desk in the afternoon, I saw a Shim who we've had problems with in the past. Propper clothing seems to be a problem. Security gave a warning before, because revealing booty shorts were the norm. After the warning, the Shim began wearing long jeans. Obviously attention was the desire was that day because the Shim was wearing jeans that had spits in the back up to the thigh. Then there was a tear that looked to be self made, along the butt crack.

I called security and asked them who allowed that in the building. The Shim was walking down the stairs. The Shim stopped at the landing between the 3rd and the 2nd floor. The Shim did a spin and then a booty shake, so that everyone on the first floor could see the tear in butt.

I was shocked........

Let me give you the back story. I used to work in the hood, hence the name of my blog because working at that branch, I needed an outlet. Different "characters" came into the library everyday. I saw the featured idividual everyday. I walked past where he lived every morning and evening. I thought he was extra creepy then and I now have validation of the way in which he made me feel.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=6948555

Just plain NASTY

I work with some NASTY people. I am not talking about the patrons. I am talking about the individuals who are paid to be here at least 5 days out of the week. This happened last Thursday evening, and it has taken me this long to decide if I was ready to share it with blog land.

I have a routine, so that I am not doing the "pee pee" dance when I approach my gate every evening. I use the restroom 30 minutes before I leave and then again 10 minutes before I leave. Well, last Thursday, I took my chances and didn't use the restroom.

I used the restroom at 5:30pm and everything seemed okay. At 6:30pm, I went to use the restroom, there was a sign on the women's restroom and it said, It needs cleaning and custodial has been called. I went to use the restroom again at 6:50pm, the sign was still on the women's restroom and the men's restroom was occupied.

I thought just maybe, the restroom was messy, you know, urine on the floor, and paper everywhere. No, that wasn't it. Someone had done #2, there was a trail leading to the door........WHAT THE..........Who doesn't even clean their own mess?

On another note

CRAZY AND ALCOHOL/RECREATIONAL DRUGS DON'T MIX!!!!!!!!I'm going to need everyone to shout that from a mountain top at least twice a month. My reciting it everytime I encounter a patron who mixes 2 or all three of those things isn't working. The other thing I announce at least once a day is, "I NOW UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE SHOULD JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS!"

So it seems that I spoke too soon!

Yesterday we were short staffed, almost everyone had to work an extra hour on the reference desk. Lucky me, my extra time was spent at the International Reference desk. I was at there at 2pm, and then again at 4pm.

Well, Mr. McCreepy spotted me at the reference desk. At first he walked past without saying anything, and I thought I was safe. Nope, I need to stop hoping and praying that he will leave me alone. My prayer every time I spot him on the floor is that he will decide to like someone else. Another creepy person staring at me is the last thing I need in LIFE.

So, he walked pass me twice. The third time he came my way, was to use the print station. I kept thinking that somehow I was spared. After he retrieved his print job, he stopped and just stared. I spotted him, I was conducting a search on the computer and never looked his way. So the fool walks pass me and says high. I gave the driest "Hi," I could muster up.

Sometimes, my patience doesn't exist

There's this one patron who annoys me. My boss teases me and says, "Oh, is that another member of the Nexgrl Fan Club?"
He will stand in line and wait until I'm available. The other thing he does, is stand near the pillar by the reference desk and stare at me. He tries to use one of internet computers that face the reference desk, so that he can stare at me. How do I know these things? Everytime I look up, he is staring at me. He will ask me the same questions over and over again.
My breaking point came about 3 weeks ago. He waited to ask me to help him with a computer that was on the opposite side of the room. It was the side that my co-worker was covering. I spoke to the guy sharply and said, "OH, YOU COULD'T JUST ASK MY CO-WORKER TO DO IT?". To my surprise, that was all it took. I didn't see him for about 1 1/2 wks. Last week, I saw him talking to one of the librarians on the internation side of the floor. The day after that, I saw him using a computer near the reference desk, but he left without bothering me. I am hoping that this lasts forever!

Hoodwinked

Yeah, I hate to admit, but she got me good. What she doesn't realize, is that I won't let it happen again.

Last Wednesday, I was at my desk talking on my cell, when one of the supervisors(not mine) approached me. I told my friend that I'd call her back.
So, MsAbsentMinded asks me if I would come to work an hour later Thursday and work until 8pm. My first answer was no, because I made a deal when I began working in this department. I work Sundays, so I never have to work a weeknight. Ms.A.M.(Absent Minded) said okay, but went on to whine, "But I don't know if NeverCome2Work will show up. She returns from LA in the morning.". The whole time, I'm looking at Ms.A.M.and thinking that isn't my problem.
Since I was looking at her with a strange look, she asked, "Do you have plans? If you say no, I'll just ask 1 of the pages to sit at the reference desk with me." After about 7 mintes, I finally agreed.
Thursday, NeverCome2Work was scheduled to arrive at 12:30pm. I decided that I would just tell her to work the last hour and go home early. About 1:20pm, I see NeverCome2Work walking up the stairs toward our floor. The only librarian on my floor who looks like me is going down the stairs. He stopped, said something to NeverCome2Work; she turned around and left.
I found out later that afternoon that MsA.M. told NeverCome2Work that she didn't have to show up.
My supervisor said,"You are so good, the favor will be returned to you.". My response, "Funny how MsA.M. waited until after you left for the day to talk about changing my schedule.

Nothing new just another odd interaction

Wednesday afternoon, I arrived at the reference desk and there was a man standing there. He said he was looking for pg. 502. Now you'd think, that question would have made me turn around, but no, I tried to figure out what he was talking about.

I asked the man what type of book the page was located in. He kept repeating the page number and telling me that he found it at the other library. After about 2 minutes, I finally got some useful information out of him. The problem was, in between the regular questions/statements, he would blurt out, "Breaker, Breaker, 19," or he would start mumbling about female serial killers.

In the end, what he wanted was the Chronicle Yearbook for the 20th Century. We had a copy, but he was upset because he couldn't find the latest edition of the book.

Thursday, I found out how female serial killers became an addition to the man from Wednesday's ramblings. There were two African American Women who were doing research on female serial killers. One of the women had returned and I told her that I hoped she didn't bring that man with her. She said, she and her film partner were in the education room, and he heard them talking about female serial killers.

Look what I found

Yesterday, a patron approached the desk, he complained that a man was eating near him and the chewing was irritating him. As I was walking the aisle, to see what/who the problem was, I found something similar to this

Everything was plugged in and it looked as if it had been used. I was so stunned, that when I returned to the reference desk, I told my co-worker, "I could explain it to you, but I wouldn't do it justice. You have to go see if for yourself." She walked over there and returned to inform me that she was going in the staff area to inform my boss. He came out and asked the guy(by that time the patron had returned) how he was able to bring the computer inside.

Ordering Areas

For the past three years, my selection area for the library has been 800's. This means poetry, plays, American literature, and foreign translated literature. Well, as of June 1st, my order area has changed. I now handle selections for education( 370-379,) and occult, self-help, astrology (100-199, basically the area where the books go missing.)

At first, I thought, my boss suggested this so that I could have a change of pace. This week, I began exploring my new order areas. There is an Education Center attached to whoever handles that call number section. Well, it has been taken over by some strange folks. To ensure that the center is all theirs, they intimidate whoever goes in there to actually do research. I've gone in there a total of three times this week to re-stock the pamphlets. The first two times, the men were giving me crazy looks and I returned the same crazy looks, all the while I kept doing my thing. Yesterday, a couple was in there arguing. Well the guy threatened that if he left, he wasn't coming back. Since he was getting ready to use his cellular telephone, I had to burst both of their bubbles. I told him, "If you going to use that, you can't do it in here. You have to go out to the elevator area to use your cell phone." They both looked at me as if I had just spoken out of the left side of my head.

My cubicle is now crowded with education materials. I told my boss that I couldn't have that. He told me to store everything in the storage closet. I went into the closet Wednesday and discovered that I would have to clean it out in order to use it. There were boxes and boxes of education documents from two years ago. The past selector, opted not to clean the closet and to store everything at her desk. I began tossing boxes of stuff into the recycle bin. I had to stop, put on a dust mask and plastic gloves because it was so dusty and dirty.

Yesterday, I told my boss that he gave me those order areas because he wanted me to clean them up. You see, three years ago, I cleaned up the 800's. Yesterday, I began to look at job openings in my field in other parts of the country. He asked me if I was considering moving. I told him that I have to do something.

Holiday in lieu pay

Well folks, once again the end of our physical year is nearing and I found myself having to scramble. I received notice at the end of April that I had 64 hours of Holiday In Lieu pay that must be used by 6/30/2009, or I will loose them.

I checked the vacation datebook, and there were no consecutive days available. Since I hate getting up for work on Monday(I don't know why, because it's my 2nd day of the work week,) I have scheduled 3 Mondays in June off. In addition, I have taken two Sundays off as well.

I must say, it feels real good to have a short work week.

Arguing over 15 minutes

Last Wednesday was a doozy. After two yelling and shoving incidents, we called security because it sounded like it was about to go down. They arrived, told one man to leave, he walked away no problem. The other guy, well, he refused to leave. They had to restrain him with those plastic handcuffs. He had the nerve to yell and scream as they were shoving him into the elevator.

As soon as the floor was clear and quiet, lo and behold the first guy resurfaced. We then found out that he was the trouble maker. Once again, there was shouting and shoving. We called security again and were told that they were still dealing with the other guy.
It seems that homey was walking around the 15-minute express terminals
exposing himself. As if that wasn't bad enough, he had crabs and they were
visable.

Splash Award

I was given this award a few months ago and I never got around to posting it. I actually forgot about it and I'm sure that she has been wondering what happened.

I was nominated by Doret also know as The Happy Nappy Bookseller. I am supposed to nominate 9 people, but I'm not going to do that.

Doret, I am appreciated the nomination. I am honored that you think of my blogs when it comes to things of this nature. Really and truly, I'm always surprised to find that more than my friends and brother read my blog.

***Doret, my links to you blog aren't showing. I have triple checked and from what I can see, I typed correctly. I don't know what happened.

That librarian over there was talking down to me

That's what a patron yelled when he walked away from me. And, my co-worker said, "You do talk down to people, we(meaning him) are surprised that you haven't gotten slapped." I said, "I don't think I talk down to patrons." My co-worker did admit that in this instance, I was not in the wrong.

The patron approached me at the desk and said, " I would like a bibliography of Johnny Appleseed." Now, somehow, I knew that he meant biography. I conducted a keyword search and found that we only had one adult biography in the system, it was unavailable, but there were plenty in the children's room.

I said to the patron, "The is one biography, but it isn't available, you'll have to place a hold on it. It was checked-in today, at a branch, and it is in the process of being returned here."

The patron then said, " I want something that I can check-out today."

I said, "Well, the adult biography is unavailable, but there are a lot in the children's room."

The patron walked away and returned with a call number for the book that I had just told him about, but he said, " I want a bibliography on Johnny Appleseed and here is the call number for what I'm looking for."

I said, "That is the call number for the book I just looked up, and it is a biography. That title is unavailable, but there are plenty in the children's room."

The patron repeated himself, so I repeated myself slowly, so that he would be able to hear every word that I was saying.

The patron repeated what I said and walked away. Once he got over to the online catalogs, he began yelling, "THAT LIBRARIAN OVER THERE IS TALKING DOWN TO ME!!!
WHY DO ALL OF THESE BOOKS ABOUT JOHNNY APPLESEED SAY jB. I CAN'T FIND THE AREA WHERE THE BOOKS ARE. HE WAS A REAL PERSON AND I WANT A BOOK THAT TALKS ABOUT HIS LIFE."
I just let him talk, because he obviously didn't want my help. My co-worker finally said, "Let me go over and help him because he isn't understanding what he is doing."

Reference desk stories

Sunday, a patron approached me at the reference desk and said, " I lost 5 minutes of my time, can I get extra time." I ignored that statement and asked her where the computer was that she was using. As we are walking toward the computer, she says again, " I was told that if I lost computer time, I could get extra time. Well, I lost 5 minutes, can I get extra time?" Once again, I ignored her and rebooted the terminal. Each time she told me about the 5 minutes, I was hoping that she realized how stupid that question was. I was not going to give and extra hour because she lost 5 minutes. I never found out if she realized how stupid she sounded, but she didn't ask me anymore.

My co-worker was reading a food blog that she likes and she asked me if I had ever made pizza dough. I told her no. She then went on to ask me if I thought she would have to make the dough 24 hours in advance. I told her to call her local/favorite pizza parlour and ask them. I also told her that we get those types of questions all day long, she should not feel odd about calling a pizza parlour and asking. She kept saying how she felt that was a stupid question to call about. Finally, I said, "Why don't you just look it up. You shouldn't feel bad, people call us all day long with questions about something that they could very easily look up, but they don't feel like it."

Negotiations

Our union is negotiating with the city and county to amend our contract. We are due our cost of living increase of 8%. They have proposed that we give up all paid holidays, and floating holidays, for two years. They will give us an 3.75% increase in pay, and 9 paid days off to be used over a two year period.

Our floor union representative(the one who forgot to come to work,) said that this is in lieu of layoffs.

I suggest that they encourage those who are close to retirement and don't do any work anyway to retire. I think they should also get rid of all of the others who don't do their job. The employees on each floor of the main and in each branch, should be able to submit names anonymously. If we are able to do this, the budget will definitely decrease for the library salaries. On my floor alone, we would eliminate 4 librarians and 1 clerk.

Laptops, Wi-fi, and patrons

Last Thursday, one of the regulars(who hears voices and acts out,) sat down at one of the laptop tables. He had what appeared to be a square T.oshiba cardboard box. My co-worker said, "He has a brand new laptop."

Me, being hopeful, said, "No, maybe it's just an empty box."

No ladies and gentlemen, he had a brand new laptop. He sat down, opened the box and removed the computer. He pulled out the instructions and began reading them. I thought that we were in for a long afternoon of his non-stop questions. He didn't ask us any questions.

After about 35 minutes of him trying to read and understand the instructions, and yelling in frustration, he called customer service. He spoke to them for a while. After about 1 1/2hr, he left the library. While waiting for the elevator, we heard him yell at himself and slap his hand(REALLY HARD.)

Today, a woman approached me at the reference desk, and asked, "Do you know how to work a Ma.cbook?" I told her no, and went about my duties(We have instructions, but they're only for Ethernet connections.) Two hours later, as she was packing up to go, I noticed that she had a brand new M.acbook Pro. As I was leaving the reference desk, I whispered to my co-worker, "How are you going to purchase one of the most expensive M.acbook's out there and not know how to use it?"

Cover-ups or just plain old erasing

Sundays, we have a bare minimum staff of librarians. Because of this, the floor manager and the supervisors rotate Sundays. This past Sunday, the scheduled supervisor did a no show, no call. My co-worker whom we can never depend on to show up, was there and trying her best to find excuses for the supervisor's behavior. I told her to chalk it up and we'd just have extra hours on the reference desk.

This wasn't going to work for her, because she didn't want to do any extra hours. Although, on the days when she decides to call in "sick," that is what we do. We work around the missing person. So, she called the person who was in charge of the whole building and informed him. He tried to call the supervisor. He told us that she had given the wrong number as her home contact number.

Monday arrives and I discovered that the official desk schedule hadn't been changed to reflect how we actually covered the two reference desks. My co-worker(librarian who looks like me) told me that I should change the original. I went in search of the altered copy, and it was no where to be found. The supervisor in question had entered the staff area from the direction of where the copy was filed. Instead of accusing, I simply made the changes from memory. As I'm doing this, the supervisor with the floor manager in tow, walks over to where I was, and said, "I forgot to come to work yesterday." I said, "WE KNOW!" I walked away. She then says in frustration, "I guess that I'll work today, and I'll take two of Nexgrl's hours. Is that okay." My response was, "Yea, okay." In addition to this, she changed Tuesdays schedule, so that I would only have one hour on the desk.

Catalog/reference headaches

A lot of times, after 1 hour on the reference desk, I need to talk a walk, go outside, something, just get away. The following interaction is an example of what I'm referring to.

Patron: Can you help me find out if the library has a book?

Me: Sure, do you know the title?

Patron: No.

Me: Do you know the author's name?

Patron: No.

Me: Do you know the any of the subjects, that the book might fall under?

Patron: No. Can you just show me how to find a book?

Me: Do you want me to show you how to locate a book on the floor, or in the library
catalog?
Patron: Can you show me how to find a book online?

Me: Do you want to know how to locate a book in our system, or on the computer itself?

Patron: Yes, can you show me how to find a book in your system?

Me: Is there any particular topic that you are interested in?

Patron: (She is with her husband) No, we just want to find a book.

This went back and forth for about 5 minutes, before I took them over to the online catalogs. I had the woman sit down, and showed them the basics. I then gave them a schedule of the free computer training classes offered by the library. I also pointed out to her that they need to take the Basic Online Catalog class.

Appearances can be deceiving

1:00pm, as I approached the reference desk, a hot pink mohawk caught my attention. The owner of the mohawk, a guy in his twenties sitting in front of a laptop, with buds in his ears. Nothing odd or unusual about anything I described, right....He was KNITTING a scarf.

This one had folks laughing this afternoon

This patron yelled, and motioned with his hands, "Hey Miss! Can you come here please? I need help." (I gave him a pass because he has OCD and some other type of disorder.) I walk over there and he says, "I want to go to you.tube and the computer isn't responding."

He had already typed the web address in the browser, so I simply pressed the enter key, and walked away. As I approached the reference desk, he yelled, "Hey, how did that happen, what did you do?" With my back turned, I said, "I pressed the enter key." The other librarian and the other patrons who were paying attention began laughing.

He was salty because my response wasn't timely

Midway into my shift, I usually get a mild stress headache. It always seems to lift once I return to my cubicle.

So this patron who was using a computer two tables away from the reference desk, yells, "Hey, um yeah. Hey. I'm not on the phone, I'm talking to you."

I looked at him, turned my head, paused for a minute, and then decided to get up. I go over to where he is and he's complaining about the government websites being too slow. Well the computer was frozen, and I decided to reboot it. The patron said, "Well, I was through using it anyway!"

Tuesday's biggest missed moment

I was told by my co-workers, that just before I came to the reference desk, a patron had punched another patron in the face. He was punched in the face because he refused to let the other man use his cell phone. The man decided that he wanted it anyway, grabbed the other man, reached for the phone and punched him in the face.

The victim chose not to report the incident to security, or file a police report. He felt that his attacker had mental issues.

I missed one of the best incidents this week

Two of my co-workers went off on each other, while sitting at the reference desk. They are both on medication, it's just that one takes much more than anyone I know.

The Heavily Medicated one told me about the incident two hours after the fact. She accused the other of being an embarrassment to not just her co-workers, but the profession. She also told her that she is tired of listening to her give patrons incorrect information, because she is too lazy to search(our jobs) for the answers. She told her that she cuts patrons off and doesn't listen to the reference questions.
Lastly, she told her that none of her co-workers want to sit at the reference desk because of her ineffectiveness.

Ms.Lazy's counter argument.

She told Heavily Medicated that she is never on time to cover the reference desk. She often misses work, without proper notification.

What I told heavily medicated is that she should have told Ms.Lazy that they were discussing her faults at the moment.

Heavily Medicated said that once she left the reference desk, she went to Ms.Lazy's supervisor and told her about the incident. All the supervisor said was, "I think she needs to hear about her faults from her peers, maybe she will listen."

This was Monday afternoon.

They are making an attempt to have some "Good Press"

One of the local reporters decided to film at our library and on my floor. We were informed the morning of the filming. They wanted to film at the encyclopedia table. When I read the email, I laughed out loud. I guess the PR person for the library isn't familiar with our floor.

The encyclopedia table is where those who hear voices and speak to them
like to sit. They get very upset when other people are sitting in what
they have designated as "their" area.

The filming was scheduled for 2:30 p.m. lucky for me, I just happened to be working at the reference desk. The PR rep. decided to film in the African American center because the area where the encyclopedia table is was too crowded.

When we realized where they were going, my co-worker said that he had just been there and a man had his shoes off. My co-worker said the whole area was funkdified. I have no idea when this news clip will air, and I didn't even stick around to see what the outcome would be.

When someone tries to project their issues onto you

Our floor is unique, there are two African American librarians in my department. I work on the 3rd floor. On the 4th and 5th floors, there is only one African American librarian. I get stares, double takes, and questions like,"Are you really a librarian?" This occurs while I'm sitting at the reference desk, under a sign that says it's the reference desk for my department.

My co-worker(the one who most looks like me,) had been complaining about this young guy bothering him. He told me that the guy had been telling him that he wasn't a real "brother man." He had also been yelling that since he couldn't give him any dap, he wasn't a real "black man."

I hadn't had any interaction with the patron until yesterday. The first time I acknowledged his presence, was to shake my head no at him. He was playing a guitar on the floor. When I shook my head, he motioned that he knew he should be quiet. The second incident came later in the afternoon.

A man was walking onto the floor singing loudly. I was shaking my head no at the man. Since "brother man" was walking behind the patron, he took that motion as me singling him out once more. What did he do? He walked up to me at the reference desk and asked me, "Did you vote for O.bama?" I refused to answer his question. I told him that my voting preferences were my personal business. He began to say that I wasn't a real black person and I probably voted for the other party. He then went over to his girlfriend(who is a becky and they have a baby,) and tell her that I was targeting him. I went over to him and corrected him. I told him that the last time, I had been referring to the gentleman walking in front of him. This guy went back to asking me who I voted for. He said that since I wouldn't tell him how I voted, I was denying my race. I shook my head at him because I couldn't tell him what I was thinking. He had also asked me where I was from. When I told him that I was a native of this city, he said, "That's what your problem is."

My co-worker was frightened by the whole incident and she called security. Security came, asked me who the patron was and spoke to him. They then told me that there wasn't anything they could do, except inform that patron that he couldn't harass the staff. I explained to the security officers that I knew there was nothing they could do, that's why I didn't call them. Old boy, knew there was nothing they could do either, that's why he was acting out.

When I told the other librarian(who looks like me)about this incident, he said the guy had done something similar to him earlier. What I believe has happened to this young man who has been talking all of what he considers pro-black rhetoric, is that he has been harassed for it. I think that he fears those who tease him and takes it out on people who aren't in a position to speak negative to him. I saw the couple outside of the library yesterday and dude didn't say anything to me then.

A virus infected the computers

It began slowly this past Tuesday, sometime after 5:00 p.m. More and more patrons began complaining of strange scrolling messages on their computer screen. I called IT and reported the problem. They asked me to send a requisition form and I did. They said that they were on the problems.

Wednesday morning, 9:00 a.m., more of the same. The only difference is that almost all of the patron computers in the whole building were infected. One of the staff computers at the reference desk even began to show signs of infection. What did IT do, they sent staff an e-mail, stating that they were working on the problem. They also advised us to warn patrons that use of the remaining computers was at their own risk.

Finally, that afternoon, IT began removing the public workstation hard drives. Thursday afternoon, the hard drives were still being cleaned. All day long, patrons were going to the monitors and clicking the mouse that wasn't attached to anything. One of my co-workers said, "It's like watching candid camera."

An apology

Sunday afternoon, the old man from the previous post approached me at the reference desk and said:

"I'm sorry for the other day. I got booked mixed up with available."

I looked at him sideways and said, "Un huh."

No internet connection

I turned on my computer, clicked the "e," and ......nothing. I called tech support, followed all of the mundane instructions and still nothing. I was told to keep my call back line free for 1 hour.

I wanted to tell you about yesterday. I had to get LOUD and act UGLY.
My 1st hour @the reference desk, a patron approached me complaing about a computer. He said that he reserved the computer and it wouldn't allow him access. I said, "Are you sure that you reserved this terminal?". He said, "Yes.". I suggested that we check. It turned out that his reservation was for terminal #308, instead of #309. We walked over to 308 and an old man was sitting there and refused to get up. He was trying to stall until the guy's reservation expired. He told me, "If the computer is reserved, it will tell me so, when I try to log on." I told him that the computer didn't let him log on, so he needed to move. He repeated his speach again. After his third attempt at logging on, I reached around him and shut the computer off. He then turned to me and said, "THAT'S JUST WRONG!". I replied, "NO, WHAT'S WRONG, IS THAT YOU REFUSED TO MOVE. YOU NOW NEED TO MOVE. YOU CAN USE 309, BUT YOU CANNOT USE THIS TERMINAL. MOVE NOW!!!"
All of the patrons were watching the whole thing. It was so quiet when I finished yelling. The next person that I told to stop eating, simply shook her head.

My smelly week recap

Monday

One of the pages was shelving and discovered that a patron had urinated at the end of one of the aisles.

A disgruntled ex-employee returned to the Library for the Blind with a hammer. He was prepared to attack the employee who placed a restraining order against him. Security had to be called because the guy hadn't been served the restraining order yet, because he had been evicted from his last known address.(I found this out Tuesday afternoon.)

Tuesday

Another of the pages came to the desk and complained that a patron with a really strong odor was blocking one of the aisles and he was unable to shelve books. We called security and of course, he couldn't smell anything. I walked the guard over to the aisle and he made the guy leave(the guy was laying on his side taking up half of the aisle, while reading a book.) As I was walking away from the area, I turned to the guard and said, "You still don't smell it?" He said, "No." Then, it hit him. He backed up and said, "Oh DAMN! It just hits you!" My co-worker said, "He has a cloud, just like pi.gpin. The only difference is instead of dirt, it's the smell of urine."

Wednesday

My co-worker was working on a laptop in one of the centers and a patron was watching foreign movies on a DVD player. He was yelling at the screen. When my co-worker told him that he would have to be quiet, the patron told my co-worker he didn't understand English. The patron then went on to point at my co-worker and say that he is stupid and crazy. Security was called and the patron continued to talk about my co-worker. The guard said, "Yeah, but you still have to leave." The patron was yelling and talking about my co-worker until he was out of sight.

Another rainy Sunday

Lucky me,all of the stinky people had reference question just for me.
The smells got so bad that when my co-woker relieved me,she said, "Don't walk to your right when leaving the desk.".

Technology can be a pain

Last Wednesday, IT finally upgraded the staff computers on my floor. Everyone has been complaining about lost favorites and saved programs. Up until today, I hadn't been affected.
I logged onto my computer this morning, I received a message saying that an error had occurred yesterday. All of my favorites were gone. All of my pictures were gone. I spent the bulk of this morning trying to recall blog addresses and save them to my favorites again.
I thought I had missed the computer upgrade malfunction, it was just delayed.

Rainy days are the worst

Tuesdays, I get a ride to work from my Mom. It's her day to volunteer at the hospital and my job is along the route. This past Tuesday, it was raining and cold.

My Mom had asked me to drive to my job, because she wanted to eat her breakfast. The whole drive to work, she was teasing me. "Oh, it's raining and cold, I bet it will be crowded today. I don't mind the crowds, and the crazies, but the SMELL!!" They just smell so bad.

My only response was, "Um huh." All while she was talking about this, I was dealing with people driving crazy and having to brake suddenly because they were speeding and not gently merging into traffic. She then said, "Oh, if I were on my way to a stressful job and the other drivers kept doing me, like they are doing you, I would be highly upset. You seem to be handling it pretty well."

I then said, "Yeah, the other drivers are acting up and you are teasing me about the atmosphere that I will be subjected to while at work. FUN!"

I fell for it again!

A patron appraoched the reference desk. I was relieving my co-worker and he said, "I'll let you handle THIS one.". That should have been my clue.

The patron said that he wanted Lantern Lane. I said, "What about Lantern Lane?" He then said, "I don't know what or where it is.". I conducted an internet search and found that it is a street in Kansas. I showed the patron what I found and he said, "Is that a book? Where can I find it?". I then said, "Oh, you want a book with that in the title?". He said, "Yeah, that's what you do here isn't it, find books."

I searched the catalog and showed him that we don't have a book with Lantern Lane in the title. I told him that there is a fiction book titled Lantern Wife. He said, "Oh, I want that.". I explained that the book is in storage and he would have to request it at the page desk. I also explained where the page desk is, gave him the print out and he went in the opposite direction.
A little later, I had to go to the page desk. I passed the patron mentioned above. He was staring at the bottom of the empty coffee cup that he had been reading from while at the reference desk.
Once again, I was fooled by a "Coocoo for cocoa puffs," trying to ask a sane reference question.

Still able

I went to work last Sunday, even though I felt awful. I knew we always have a tight desk rotation for the librarians. I sounded about as bad as I felt.
Our regular OED man called and said after I answered his question, "YOU SOUND BAD, You need to take care of that." Our resident don't come to work at all librarian even asked me why I came to work. She even asked me if I would be at work on Monday. I explained to her that the desk schedule would be just as tight on Monday. She then said, "I guess you need to not let that be your problem!"

I stayed home on Monday and Tuesday. I came to work on Wednesday and the first thing my supervisor said to me is, "You look and sound bad!". I was actually was feeling better than I had in a few days and told him so.
OED man called and told me, "You sound better, but I know you can sound a WHOLE LOT BETTER!". I said, "Wow thanks!"
This week, I feel better. I'm still congested and sound like it too. I keep hearing, "Oh, YOU SOUND BAD, but you do sound better than you did last week.