Ah, another all-by-myself evening shift...

Manga is upstairs

The only mailbox in the immediate area was removed last year.

Information about gangs like the Bloods and the Crips and also the Mafia

A couple of chicks walk in wanting on the Internet. “Don’t they just give you a number?” No, you have to get a card if you live in the city. She wanders off saying, “I don’t live here, I just moved.....I’m visiting.” Yeah, she didn’t even stick around the desk to try it because obviously I wasn’t going to buy that.

Books on police officers.

Thank goodness for impatience – if he’d been willing to wait in the Internet line I’d have been helping him get into his e-mail for an hour. Well, I wouldn’t have, but he’d have been bugging me to.

One of my fave former storytime kids (who is now about to  start high school, erk!) comes in with her mom, who is sweet. The mom hasn’t seen me in a while and wants to know if I’ve had a baby, am having one, and am I still with my husband. Since I met him on the Internet, she wasn’t sure... I assure her that we've just had our 6-year anniversary, so we're doing okay. She’s rather a hoot. The girl was in a couple of weeks ago for book suggestions and wants more today. I try Dairy Queen and Tantalize, shockingly they’re both in. I hope she likes them.

Mafia guy has found some stuff online and needs help printing it.

A girl wants books from a local students’ choice book award, amazingly one is checked in that she wants.

Books about weather. Hail, specifically. Upon seeing that there are none (big shocker), the girl decides to tell her project-mates tomorrow that they’re doing blizzards instead.

A guy leaves and, in the lobby, suddenly starts swearing incredibly loudly. Glad he didn’t start that inside.

Yes, we have a new Office station printing procedure, it’s much better.

Purchase requests for Spoiled: stories by Caitlin Macy and What Was I Thinking?: 58 bad boyfriend stories by Barbara Davilman.

A guy that I can’t understand wants help e-mailing the government because some number on a form is wrong. I tell him I can’t. “Why not?” Because the Internet is self-serve. And we don’t fill out forms for people. But I tell him he’s welcome to use a computer, which satisfies him somewhat. As soon as I go over to help someone else with a password, he wants me to get him to the Revenue Canada site. Shockingly – he actually doesn’t ask me for any more help.

A flurry of confusion over which computers are free, which are for the internet, not being able to access a site (because you weren’t on an internet station) and logging in.

A young woman needs a children’s book about a single character that contains lots of stories about that character. I honestly can’t think of one nor does the catalogue help. Not one that has single, separate stories.

If we have any in, the David picture books will be under S for Shannon.

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch – you’re in luck, it’s just come back.

The girls who want the David books and the single-character stories must be preschool workers. They ask about Tom’s Rainbowwalk and The Stinky Cheese Man.

Help with the printer.

A very tiny baby just can’t stop crying and crying and crying.

A wise woman, she wants to get on the list for the last 2 Twilight books before she starts the second one. Given that there are 157 holds on Eclipse, it’s a good plan.

Little House on the Prairie DVDs and books.

Contact info for the city volunteering office.

The Internet prints the entire page/e-mail, it’s not our fault the airline sent you a bunch of extra info and made your ticket 12 pages. Thankfully he went back and just selected a couple.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid books all have holds, you’d have to put your name on the list. He’ll get it from his school library. I wish the damn things would come out in paperback so I could buy a bundle.

Joke books

I think so, but let’s double check – yes, Syracuse is in New York.

Ugh – a rather nasty old man with black fingernails comes up to the desk, coughing. I scootch my chair back from the desk. He keeps coughing. He wants me to look up a phone number and pushes a piece of paper from our scrap box (he is trying to be helpful, I know)  towards me. I really don’t want to touch, but he pushes it forward again and I don’t want to be rude. Hooray for Purell!

My colleague was putting out new books on the display shelf and discovered they'd come up in this order:

Wine Guide 2009
An addiction recovery guide
A poetry book about failure

I wonder if the universe was trying to send some kind of message that didn't quite get through?

Another wee one story. I was reading Little Rabbit's Snacktime - it's a lift-the-flap where you hunt for the rabbit's carrots. "Are they in the doghouse?" Lift the flap and it's dog eating a bone. "Are they in the apple tree?" No, it's a robin feeding her babies. I got to the page with "Are they in the pond?" and a little girl responds, "No - carrots can't swim!"

Once again, it's moments like that make my job worth it.