Monday, January 5, 2009

Aliens and Angel's Wings

Work, even when you love it, is sometimes just work. On days like that it's best to remember things that made you laugh.
We used to have a poster in the children's area with a cartoon UFO and alien on it. One day a gentleman came up to me at the circulation desk and complained, "Hey! The eyes aren't right on that alien! Go take a look!"
I have to confess, I looked, but I'm not really sure what an alien's eyes are supposed to look like. I still wonder how HE knew!
A local festival takes place in the city parking lot right outside the library doors every summer. There are all the usual rides and games, and a lot of the workers from the festival use the library. One morning during the festival, a ragged little boy came running up to me at the circulation desk: "Are carney kids allowed in here?" Yep. Carney kids are allowed. And aliens, too--see the picture?
It's a sad sign of the times that a surprising number of children filling out an application--these are children old enough to fill out the card themselves, mind you, not preschoolers--have to ask a parent or stepparent for their current address and phone number. No doubt this is due to blended families and an increasingly mobile society. But we had one middle aged man who didn't know his name. Now that was a problem. Come to think of it, this was the same fellow who thought the alien's eyes looked funny.
I am the shortest person on the staff and find shelving a challenge sometimes. One day I was grousing to a coworker as I struggled to place books on the higher shelves, "Shelving is going to be the death of me." Suddenly, a book fell from the top shelf and bounced off my head, as though cued by my words.
Oddly, it was The Book of Heaven (Zaleski & Zaleski). At least I know where I'm going.
Back when fax was new, a woman timidly asked if we could fax a document for her. We said yes and ran her paper through the fax machine. "What a miracle!" she exclaimed as the process was explained to her. She happily offered a prayer over the fax machine. I think that particular fax was not delivered via the telephone line, but by angel's wings.
And speaking of the biblical, a man came into the library and asked me if we had laminating service. I replied that we didn't and suggested a local print shop that did. He said, "Ah, ok. Do you know how much they charge for lamentations?"
Sometimes the work is just work. And other times...well, it flies on angel's wings.

8 comments:

  1. That is funny about the book falling on your head, thank heavens the landing on your head didn't send you there! LOL!

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  2. Dont you meet the most interesting people in the library! I was manager of a tiny branch in the 80's. My favorite part of the job was reading picture books to the elementary school kids, sad , but you know for some of them thats the only place they're ever going to hear a book read to them. Some of my foster kids even 12 year olds, looked forward to bedtime stories that they had never had as little kids.

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  3. Your post gave me a laugh. It's great when you see the humour in a situation (or work!)

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