...or, you know, things that make my job less annoying, or just bearable on certain days.
1. Carrying a clipboard; it makes me feel approximately ten times smarter, for whatever reason. That is just the magic of clipboards.
2. I am given a list of books that are 60 days overdue and it is my job to check the shelves to see if they got put away without getting checked in. The chances of actually finding one on the shelf? Slim. So how do you think it makes me feel when I find one on the shelf? Awesome!
3. I have just reorganized/shifted/shelf-read an entire section. Now I get to stand there and admire my handiwork before it gets ruined.
4. Someone comes in looking for something and they looked kind of stressed out. "I need books on child support. Like legal guidance for child support." I love being able to say "Right over here!" and see the look of relief on their face. This happens even with less important things, like "Where are the Junie B. Jones books?" and they get crazy excited when I point them out.
5. Sometimes, all it takes is a baby making goo goo eyes at me and smiling. I realize this could happen anywhere, it doesn't have to be at the library, but getting those looks while I'm working makes them even better.
6. At the end of the day, shutting down the computers... It means I get to go home soon and there is something very satisfying about hitting ctrl-alt-delete over and over again. Who knows why. This also reminds me of Kris every single time I do it, which makes me sad but happy.
7. Sneaking in reading while I'm working. You have no idea how often I actually do this. Once, I even read the entire first chapter of Dracula that was deleted from the final copy of the book, but is in several collections of horror stories. I love Dracula, and I didn't know there was a deleted chapter until I saw it in one of those books as I was shelf reading, and I couldn't help myself! No one saw me and told me to stop, which made the whole thing even better.
8. Watching parents read to their kids. This is surprisingly rare. Even more rare is a parent reading to their kid, and the kid is paying attention. I've seen them give up partway through a book because the kid can't sit still and just wants to play the computer games (shudder...). So when I see a parent, sitting with their child, reading out loud, and the kid is interested, following along, laughing, etc, it's one of the best things in the world.
9. There is this one old lady who comes in frequently, and she compliments me on what a good job I'm doing, and always tells me to have a nice day. She's always pleasant. Always smiling. I wish there were more people like her out there.
10. Book smell. You know how new books have a good smell? I like that. I don't like the semi-old books that have that weird, old person, did-someone-pee-on-this kind of smell. I LOVE old old book smell. Those really old, musty books...sigh. There is one in particular in the library, printed sometime in the 20s, it's Florence Nightingale's notes or something like that, and it smells AMAZING. I guess it's kind of gross to sniff old books, but hey, I never said I was classy like that.
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