library story #OMGFBIWTF

true story, as can only happen to me. this happened yesterday.

the liberry downtown (or Big Library as we always called it as kids) is closed this week due to come roof water leaks. this is terrible. it’s terrible on many counts the least of which is now our liberry is the Go To ‘brary.

we were slammed yesterday. i’m not sure how many new cards we did, but it was a lot, and the public computers were full ALL DAY long. in fact, i’m surprised no fights broke out, but hey, God is good.

i’m telling you all of this so that you’ll know that we were run ragged for many, many hours. and that is the excuse that i’m using for what happened. i was tired, you guys. i wasn’t thinking straight.

so this little boy and his grandma come in to get new cards as they’ve never been here before. she wanted a book on Parkinson’s disease and the little boy wanted a book on fiddler crabs. i took them both to the proper shelves and both times the grandma had to dump on me what is going on in her life.

little known fact: library workers are not unlike bartenders in this respect.

anyway. she said that the little boy’s school was giving the kids in his class fiddler crabs for them to take home. it seemed bizarre to me, but i guess really, it’s not quite so weird. it’s a step up from gold fish, and how many people have you ever heard of that’s allergic to fiddler crabs? exactly.

so i leave them with the books to pick out which ones they wanted, and then i went back to the circ desk to checkout loads of books to loads of people. eventually, grandma and little boy come up with their choices. i check them out and the grandma has this “whoa is me” look and she seems to be dreading the fiddler crab debacle because you know it’s not going to end well. the thing will be dead by the end of the week, or? it will live forever. and really, which one is worse?

so as they walk away, they get nearly halfway to the door, i think to myself, “hey jaimie, say something uplifting! do your thing, you cheerful worker, you.” yeah, that’s what i’ll do! so i call out, “good luck with your crabs!”

i’ll pause here to let you catch your breath.

they turn around and say, “thank you!”

and i turn around to see my coworker with her head down trying not to laugh her head completely off. it then hits me what i’ve said and my face goes completely red.

and i think i laughed for the rest of the evening.

Tags: library, nerd