Visitation Rights

As I’m sure you can imagine, working in a library can get very, VERY dull.  Not that I don’t like it there, but sometimes I'll be in the non-fiction books shelf reading, and all of a sudden I'll realize it's been hours since I've seen another human being.  Truthfully, it’s kind of nice when that happens, because sometimes I get a non-stop deluge of people wanting to know where juvenile non-fiction or young adult novels are, or how to use a computer, or what have you, and it gets to the point where I’m ready to punch the next person to ask me anything.  But it does get dull and sometimes I start to space out a little bit and it can be kind of depressing.  Needless to say, I enjoy it when a friend comes in to visit me now and then.  It rarely happens though, and the only friend I see on a regular basis is a guy that I met from working there.  It can get tricky though, because technically I don’t think I’m not allowed to have visitors, but I know that if I stand around talking for an hour, I’m going to get in trouble.  Anyway, there are certain visits that I will always remember.  Like the time a good friend of mine came in to visit me.  We were standing there talking, but he didn’t want to get me in trouble, so he kept a lookout for anyone walking by.  No one did for a long time, and none of the librarians came back at all, but at one point a lady came past and he stopped mid-sentence and said “So yeah, Stephen King...yeah.”  And watched until she had gotten out of earshot and then kept talking.  It was hilarious. 

Then there was the time my best friend came in and actually helped me shift books for a long time so that we could talk and I would still be working.  I love her.

And then there was the time that my old neighbor came in and was looking at movies while I put them away.  He’s an aging hippie, a really cool guy, but sometimes he says things that make you wonder just how much pot he smoked over the years.  An old man who comes in almost every day came over to look at the movies I had on my cart while my neighbor was still standing there.  Now, at the time, I was dating a guy who was kind of a jerk.  I don’t need to go into details here.  But at that precise moment, with the nice old man standing right there, my neighbor decided it would be a good time to ask me “Hey, you’re not still fucking around with that douchebag are you?”

There's really no right response to that.  I looked at the old man and wondered if I should apologize, then decided to just laugh it off and walk away.  It's times like that when I wish for the dullness of being all alone in the back.  At least no one can embarrass me there.