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Photo courtesy of Jean-Pierre Dalbéra via Flickr That is what I have today. It might be that I was “working” at the library and there was nothing to do but stare at the clock until it began to look like … Continue reading
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You know how some people go around seeing others as dollar signs? Well, after this afternoon, I now can say I see people as how much they owe in overdue fines.
After work this afternoon, I was walking to a restaurant when I passed a high school student on the street who I know owes about $30 in fines. I saw him, but he pretended not to see me as he started texting on his cellphone:
Im prtndng not 2 C dbag frm libary lol
That’s all right, punk. C U in jail, lol that biotch.
Then while I was at the restaurant who should sit at the table next to me but this woman who owes about the same amount, if not more by this time, in fines. She briefly made eye contact but then quickly broke away as she realized who I was. However, it’s not as if her boyfriend or husband, the dude who was with her, doesn’t know about her fines, because the last time he returned books for her, I reminded him that she had other books that were long overdue.
Somehow I resisted the temptation to whisper over to her:
So, Ms. X, have you returned those books that were overdue yet and paid your fines? This is your conscience speaking.
However, I think her conscience probably already was pricked enough just by my presence. Speaking would have been pushing it– just a little.
So has your job ever tainted the way you’ve seen someone in public? If so, how? Did you say anything or did you, like me, let it slide?
I work two part-time jobs as a librarian assistant and a correspondent at a newspaper, plus I volunteer at a senior center a couple of days a week and at a hospice as needed. In all four of those “positions,” to one degree or another, I am asked to keep certain things confidential. Over the last year, the pressure has been building until finally I have to give you:
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5. Senior citizens are planning to take over the world. They’ve discovered the Fountain of Youth in Florida, and it isn’t a pool in a retirement home either. Ponce de Leon, though, was right, and now we’re going to hear their critiques of how young women dress in public (“They’re just asking to be raped”) for the next 30 to 60 years until we also will be repeating the same critiques.
4. Elvis is dead. Don’t ask me how I know, but I do.
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3. The mayor of our town is into gay bondage, er, I mean, politically correct person that I am, just regular bondage, er, no, religious person that I am, I mean pornography state-sponsored pornography. Again, don’t ask me how I know, but let’s just say “Robert Mapplethorpe” and “interlibrary loan.”
2. The school board president is a Catholic, and is planning to take over the world and pump the music of Elvis through the p.a. systems at all the district schools. Surprisingly, though, there is no bondage (gay or otherwise) connection.
1. I already rule the world.
Image by Instant Vantage via Flickr
Posted in Music, The Library, Unfinished rambling
Tagged confidentiality clause, Contract, Elvis Presley, humor, Robert Mapplethorpe
Earlier this year, our circulation librarian, let’s call her Shirley, left the above note on the bulletin board near our main desk for all of us staff to see.
No, Shirley wasn’t having a bad day. That’s just the way she is, not only in notes, but in person, to both patrons and staff alike, and she’ll be the first to admit it, although in this case, Shirley told me and others who pointed out the note to her: “I honestly don’t remember writing that note.” — even though the handwriting was clearly hers.
For being a librarian, she’s not the most social person. In fact, Shirley hates people, another thing to which she readily admits. She probably agrees with the sentiment Roy expresses here (a sentiment I can’t say with which I totally disagree):
She especially hates children, and, for that reason, doesn’t work Wednesday mornings when Storytime and the summer reading program for children run. Shirley told me if she had her way, she’d have parents leave their children in a cage outside the library and then have the parents take a number so they could get their children back on the way out of the library. If she had her druthers, she’s told us, she wouldn’t let people in the library either with librarians handing out materials through a slot in the door to the patrons.
After having seen both children and adults in action in the library, both (the cage and the slot) are sentiments I can’t say with which I totally disagree.
For other posts I’ve done in the past about The Library where I work, click on this new category I’ve set up only yesterday called (this might come as a shock) The Library. I’ve also set up a new category for posts I’ve done about Facebook called (can’t get anything past you lot) Facebook.
Posted in The Library, Unfinished rambling
Tagged humor, librarians, libraries, library
Looking back on today was a pretty normal summer Friday at the library where I work: slow and boring.
However, now that I sit here and recollect my thoughts, one patron’s comment to me does stand out amongst the others. The patron, a man in his 70s, said to me about a female patron with long hair:
“She has nice long hair. Hair like that clogs drains.”
Hmmm. I mean, yes, that is true about long hair, but why did he feel compelled to share that with me?
Personally, yes, I know that from experience, because my wife has long hair, but would I comment about it to total strangers?
Oops. Never mind.
Posted via The Collective.
Posted in Music, The Library, The Wife, Unfinished rambling
