Preschool Yoga & Wary Grandparents...

Here's something I haven't had for you in a while, a work story...

So yesterday I was sitting at the reference desk after one of our bigger programs ended and one of the regular grandmothers walks up to me. She starts asking me about various age appropriate programs that she and her husband (Who looks like the grandfather from Jurassic Park, so much so that I refer to him as John in the office) could bring their granddaughter to. I start rattling off programs and the last one I mentioned was yoga for preschoolers. Once the word "yoga" left my mouth she made a face and said that they were wary of yoga because of "All of the Middle Eastern stuff and that they are good Christians..."

As taken aback as I was, I just looked at her and said that since the class was targeted towards preschoolers that I was pretty sure that there was no actual "Middle Eastern stuff" and it was more like little kids in a circle on yoga mats stretching. I assured her that I'd check for her, so right now I'm waiting for the yoga class to end so I can tell the yoga instructor about the ridiculousness of the grandmother from yesterday, as well as report back to our good Christian grandparents.

Fear Of Elevators | Weird Library Patrons...

Surprisingly for some time now we haven't had an exceptionally noteworthy happenings with patrons, which is a good thing from a work standpoint but bad thing when you're a librarian-blogger who likes to share wonky work related stories on your blog. But the other day we had a little incident, if you could call it that, that I thought I should share because it was a little weird and something that none of us have ever dealt with before.

A patron walked up to the reference desk (I happened to be in our office, which is directly behind the reference desk, at my own desk doing something) and I hear her ask Nicole if she would be able to take her stroller downstairs for her. She proceeds to explain to Nicole, which I could not hear, that she is afraid of elevators and she didn't have anyone with her that could take her stroller down for her.

So Nicole walks into the office and asks me if she could bring the stroller downstairs for her. After a bit of confusion, because I thought she literally wanted Nicole to carry her stroller down the stairs for her, I tell Nicole (Even though I am really confused by the situation) she can ride in the elevator with the lady's stroller. 

Two minutes later Nicole comes back up and I ask her what the hell was that all about. She explains to me the part of the conversation she had with the lady that I didn't hear and noted that she knew her from one of her other jobs, which is the reason she rode down the elevator for her.

Still, even after hearing the explanation my Department Head (Who has never in her almost thirty as a librarian, had anyone ask her to do that before) and I were still confused. Why would you bring a stroller with you if you're afraid elevators? Why wouldn't you leave it downstairs or in your car? Why wouldn't you have like a BabyBjorn or some other baby carrying contraption?

So yeah, that happened the other day and we were/still are perplexed by the whole thing.

Teenagers With Bad Attitudes & Greasy Food...

Okay, so on Thursday when I wrote that post about internal library drama and possibly going back to school I was all by myself at work. "Julia" and "Amy" both called in sick, my Department Head and "Emily" were both off, "Lori" wasn't scheduled to work until 2:00pm and "Marie" wasn't due in until 6:00pm. So I was literately alone working the reference desk from 9:00am until 2:00pm. And to be honest with you, it was slightly annoying but I was okay with it because I kind of like to be left alone -- It's way better than being stuck working with only "Julia" for hours. So that's how that day started, like I said it was annoying but I was okay with it.
"Lori" comes in and we are doing fine. We have a bunch of patrons in the department but everything was cool. Around 5:00pm, right before I was about to leave for the day and head out to have dinner with Erin, I get a patron who claimed they returned a book and it wasn't checked in properly. It happened to be true and we found the book but the patron couldn't get her child away from our iPads. So I said to the little girl "I promise if you go with mommy that the iPad will be waiting for you when you get back..." This get the little girl up and out the door with her mom. I decided to wait the few minutes for them to come back and that is when chaos started.

"Mama Page" walks over to "Lori" and I to let us know that there are three teenage boys sitting on our outside computers eating greasy food -- Fried chicken and French fries to be exact. So we both walk over, give them the "You know you can't eat next to the computers, you didn't even sign up..." speech. To which we got a major attitude.

We ask them if they have library cards if they want to be on the computer, they got snarky and asked what those were. One of them (Who I've known for years and is a little son of a bitch) decides to say that he has his school id, so he walks over to the reference desk and throws it down. I refuse to pick it up and just kept repeating "Hi! May I please us the computer?" After the fifth or sixth time of me repeating that he says "Can't I just use the computer?!?!?!!!" in the nastiest tone. I just repeated "Hi! May I please us the computer?" Eventually he says it to the desk. I ask him to repeat that while making eye contact with me, and he does. I said "Yes you may use the computer..." he tries to snatch his id and I pick it up before him and fished with "If you're name is in my permission book..." I check to book, his name is not in it. So I grabbed a permission form and handed it to him with his id and told him that he can have his parent fill out the form and once he returns it he can use his id to get on to the computer. He immediately crumples it up and throws it out but then picks it back up and rips it up in front of "Lori's" face. He follows this up by grabbing his friends and leaving but not before seeing our suggestion box and writing a note of "Be nicer" which I pulled out of the box as he was walking away and said "I'll be nicer when you decide not to be rude to me..." They start mumbling curses and walk out.

I thought I was all done with it and am about to leave for the day when the intercom buzzes and one of the adult librarians is on the line informing me about three teenage boys that would like to do their homework. I tell the adult librarian what happened, so she denied them computer access. This apparently pissed them off and they start causing a scene downstairs. Our custodian was screaming at them and he ended up calling the cops. It was a big cluster.

While I was waiting for the cops to come to explain how it all happened (Not that I wanted to because I was already late for a dinner date I was supposed to have with Erin) I found out that the boys had snuck up to the third floor which is staff only and threw French fries all over the place, etc.

Eventually a cop came and since the boys were gone there was nothing the officer could do about it. So I wasted my time waiting for the office to show up and once he walked out of the library I followed and met up with Erin for dinner.

It was just so ridiculous. I'm wondering if the boys will go home, especially the one that threw his card down at me, and tell their parents. I hope I wont have to deal with this incident again but the one kid's parents are a piece of work too, so I'll just have to wait and see. If anything else happens, you know I'll update about it.

Call The Police...

Oh boy, I just had a frantic patron come up to me at the Youth Services Reference Desk asking me to call the police because she was just threatened by another patron downstairs in the Adult section of the library.

Apparently this lady was downstairs in the library's quiet study area and there was a person talking loudly on his phone, so she went to Adult Reference to complain because he was being rude to elderly patrons when they asked him to quiet down. Whoever was at Adult Reference didn't do anything about it and when she came back into the quiet study area the man proceeded to curse her out, calling her a snitch, threatening to shoot her, etc.

So she said she picked up her stuff and went back to Adult Reference extremely upset and she claims that again, whoever was down there was no real help but they made the man leave. As he did he threatened to have her jumped and killed.

Frustrated and scare she came up to Youth Services and asked me to call the police. I called our Director down and proceeded to call the police for her.

Our Director talked to her then went and checked to see if a man by the description given was anywhere near the building. He wasn't, so our Director talked the woman into going downstairs with him and waiting for the police officer to arrive.

After that I don't know what happened but I hope I don't have to deal with a psycho trying to shoot up the library.

I Need To Stay Away From The Public Restroom...

As you're all very much so aware of I work in a public building and with public buildings come public restrooms and for some reason this past week I've had odd things happen as I've walked past or walked into our public restroom -- I know, I know... I just shouldn't use the public restroom but it's closer than the staff restroom which is on a totally different floor.

Incident No. 1: When I was walking past the hallway where the restrooms are I see one of our normal (badish) teens outside the women's room talking with our security guard and the dude that works on our newsletter/website. Stupidly I asked what was wrong and then I had to listen to the teen tell me that the homeless woman (Who I know isn't actually homeless, just a bit off her rocker) was in the bathroom and she didn't want to go in there because she was in there and that she smelled, blah blah blah... Then the teen starts begging me to check to bathroom because she had to pee. I walked into the restroom, which was empty and tell her that there is no one in there anymore and that the automatic air freshener must had sprayed because it didn't smell bad in there. She was still antsy and didn't want to be in the bathroom by herself if the homeless lady came back in, so she begged me to stand watch outside the bathroom door until she was done.

Incident No. 2: I go into the restroom to wash my hands a different day and inside there is a lady who looked like she was in her mid forties. She says "Excuse me... You look like you're about my age, can I ask you a question?" Even though I was offended that she basically said I look like a forty-something when I'm really a twenty-something I said sure. She starts asking me about if you live and work in one place but have nothing there but failed relationship and you have family in another place but no job and would have to live with a family member for a while as you get back on your feet, where would you go and what would you do (If this sounds confusing, good because that's what whatever she said to me sounded like). I basically said if you're not attached then go for the new life. She asked me to explain, then she told me her whole life story, etc. By the end of everything (Which went on forever) she looks at me and goes, I guess you're actually a little bit younger than me and don't know exactly what I was talking about but thank you. I looked at her and just told her good luck with whatever she decides.

So yeah, I need to stop going into/near the public restroom.

Patrons, Programs & Problems...

Yesterday I had a craft program at work that only had seven children signed up for ahead of time. Because of a lack of attendance in all of our other craft programs in the past I only had a few extra crafts prepared thinking that no one was going to show up. Oh boy was I wrong.

Tons of mothers and their children showed up trying to get into the program, and their attitudes were in tow. Every mother that tried to get in was a complete bitch to me and when I did let the people on the waiting list in they caused problems.

I cannot tell you how frustrated I was. Because of all of these people I didn't get to do the program the way I would have liked to and I'm a craft perfectionist. I typically make sure everyone has what they need, I walk around to see who needs help and tell the kids what an awesome job they are doing, etc.

I was annoyed beyond belief by the time I cleaned everything up and was back in the office. It totally sucks having a four-year-old look at you all pouty asking which one is hers because her mother sucks and doesn't understand the concept of signing up ahead of time so we know how much to buy and how many people to set up for. Ugh!

How Did You Find That Book?!!?!...

I had to deal with the nastiest patron five minutes before closing the other day. This woman walks in literately five seconds after the five minute warning on the intercom asking where our easy readers are. I point her to the section and ask her what she is looking for. She barks at me that she is looking for a book with the call number ER OCO. I ask her what title she is looking for and she barks back The Teeny Tiny Woman (The one she saw was by Jane O'Connor). I go check the catalog to see if the book is really there and head over to the shelf she is at. I start looking and she gets pissy with me saying she already looked. I tell her the same thing I tell everyone else, sometimes you need another set of eyes because you don't always find it the first time. I continue to look and I don't find what she is looking for, I tell her that I don't see it either and she storms to our holiday section telling me it's probably there and tells me to go check for her. I look at her and told her I had already checked the computer and that the book should be where we were looking not in the holiday section. She doesn't want to hear what I have to say and she heads over there anyways.

Instead of letting her leave with nothing I go back to the catalog, find a copy of the book by another author from nonfiction and hand it to her. You think she'd be happy at this point, but no... She starts questioning where I got that book from and how I found it. I was so pissed I just looked at her and said "I'm a librarian. That is how I found it..." She just walked away.

I cannot tell you how much she pissed me off. I was in the office yelling about how I paid an arm and a leg to go to library school and that is how I found her book (There was a lot of expletives strung in with that). The response I get from "Mama Page" on what happened what that I shouldn't have given her the book and let her walk out empty handed. I should have but I'm too nice sometimes. Why do I have to deal with this crap?!

Shushing The Librarian...

So yesterday I was helping a group of patrons that were together find a bunch of books and after I had found them I stood in the picture book room talking to them because one of them was telling me how nice and helpful I was. After a while I start telling them about some of our programs and my story times being friendly and nice when an old man reading to I'd say an 8-year-old boy told me to be quiet.

I got shushed! I cannot believe that this guy shushed me! It wasn't like I was talking in a quiet area (To be honest there is not quiet areas in our Youth Services Department), I was in the picture book room where toddlers and babies scream! As much as I wanted to say something snarky I didn't. I told the other patrons to have a nice day and walked into the office all annoyed (To be honest I'm still annoyed thinking about it). I can't believe that I got shushed!

Life At The Library...

Some of you might be wondering why I haven't written anything about work lately, well it's simply because life has been extremely boring at work and nothing particularly exciting has happened. We haven't had any blog post worthy issues with patrons and "Julia" hasn't done anything really really stupid lately.

Here are some little incidents and random things that have happened...

♦ "Julia" is convinced that the legal drinking age is eighteen-years-old. I wasn't around for the incident but apparently she was talking to "Mini Page" and "Amy" about something where the legal drinking age came up and she kept trying to tell them it was eighteen and it used to be twenty-one when she was younger. "Mini Page" and "Amy" both told her it was twenty-one but she didn't believe them, even after they pulled it up on a website.

Um, the legal drinking age in New York hasn't been eighteen since before the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed on July, 17th 1984. And seeing as "Julia" is the same age my mother she was twenty-four in 1984 making her legal either way. So I don't know where she got any of her statement from. She is just bizarre.

♦ The other day we almost had a fight between two mother because one was telling the other how to take care of her child and the one being criticized wasn't taking it well.

♦ We got a new Assistant Director.

Nothing else has really happened. Boring, I know.

Since When Do The Freaks Come Out During The Day...

There isn't going to be a full moon until next Wednesday but it sure feels like there is gonna be one tonight. I've dealt with so much weird crap today it isn't funny. I wasn't even in for five minutes this morning when a mother rolled in with her five kids, one of them being a toddler who was wearing nothing but a t-shirt and a diaper. I flipped when I saw this little boy running around the department with no pants on. I immediately ran to a phone to call my Director to see if I had the right to say anything to this mother. Unfortunately he was dealing with a crazy patron who claimed she paid a fine for a book she lost from another library that we actually paid for. Because he was dealing with her I never got an answer from him (Apparently he had been dealing with her since 9:30am, I came into work at 11:00am), so I ended up have a pow wow with "Amy" and "Julia" to try to figure out what to do. We decided that we needed to ask her to leave so "Amy" walked into the picture book room and told her that her child needed to be wearing pants. The woman didn't even look at her. She came back into the office to tell us what happened and then she walked right back into the room and repeated herself. Again the woman didn't answer, but five minutes later she called the rest of her children over and told them they were leaving and they left. She came back fifteen minutes later with her kids and this time they were all wearing pants.

A couple of hours later we had a patron hand "Lori" a picture book and she told her that the book had booklice. I didn't see the book or bugs on it but "Lori" did say there was a little bug on it. I called my Director when she and "Emily" asked me what they should do with the book and he told me to withdraw and chuck it.

Maybe an hour later we had a man bathing himself in our mens room. According to a patron some dude was just in there without a shirt on just giving himself a good rub down. Thankfully it was around the time that our Security Guard was in because he dealt with that one.

"Emily" got crazy attitude from a babysitter after she told her the name of an author and told her to look under the letter of the authors last name. The babysitter peaked in the stacks, told "Emily" she didn't know where to look because she wasn't a librarian. This just caused "Emily" to go on a rant about her knowing that the girl learned in school how to look up books. It wasn't good.

Then everyone was spilling drinks all over the place. We don't even allow food and drinks in our department because the carpet is still relatively new, so these people were super wrong.

In addition to all of the stuff above, I just had a lot of patrons with problems today. They weren't necessarily library problems but I had to play therapist to several mommies throughout the course of the day.

On top of everything else "Marie" called in sick claiming that her daughter wasn't feeling well when she got back from camp. We all knew she called in sick because she lives about forty minutes away and there is supposed to be a crazy storm tonight. She didn't want to drive home in the storm. So now I was supposed to get off at 7:00pm and I am working an extra two hours to cover the reference desk while "Amy" does all of her Thursday night programs.

NOTE: Our Department Head is on vacation this week, so everyone in my Department is coming to me with questions.

Teen Sex In The Restroom...

I dealt with some bull tonight at work. I went to use the public restroom (Because it's closer than going to the staff restrooms) and I caught three teenage girls and three teenage boys in the women's restroom with the lights off doing God knows what. I went to scream for "Emily" to call the Security Guard and the six of them ran out of the library.

I knew who one of the girls was (She was the one whose father called me in December from my post More Good Parenting who begged me to call him if she does anything bad) so I called her father and left him a voicemail about what I caught her doing.

I cannot tell you how pissed off I was that I had to deal with all of this tonight. All I can say is I cannot wait for them to show their faces again and for me to inform them that they are no longer allowed in the library until we speak to their parents.

Reading Club Drama...

Holy bitchface Batman! I just had the nastiest patron ever. A woman just walked up to the reference desk with her son and asked to join the reading club that ends this Friday. I asked her politely if she was sure she wanted to sign him up because he only has three days left of this particular club and that we have another club starting up at the end of the month. She gives me the nastiest look and says very loudly "Are you suggesting that he not read anything between now and then?!?!!" I said of course not and went to go get the book to sign him up. While I was doing this her son asks a question and the mother says "She obviously doesn't want to be bothered..." I was so pissed I just came back and killed them with kindness. I signed him up with a smile and explained to him the club, prizes and what he needed to do by Friday. They thanked me and left.

What a bitch this woman was. I just suggested that they didn't join because I didn't know if he'd even be able to get anything read between now and Friday. We've had people that signed up the first week of the club that haven't brought in a single book slip, so why should I think that someone could do it in three days.

More Good Parenting...

I forgot to post about this yesterday, before I left the library I got a a surprising phone call from one of our trouble teen's parents. He called to make sure that his daughter was actually in the library, which she was. And he made a point of asking me how she behaved when she was in the library, he honestly wanted to know and wanted the truth. So, I told him that she can be a pain depending on who she was with, etc. and he was so grateful. He gave me his house and cell number to call in case she ever gets mouthy or rude with us again.

It was so refreshing to hear from a parent that actually cares what their teen is doing and who wants to discipline them for misbehaving because 90% of them done and let their teens run amok. I can't believe how great the parents were yesterday.

A Rarity... Good Parenting...

At my library we have a handful of Muslim women that come in wearing various forms of hijabs, jilbābs and abayas and just now a little girl walked over to where a woman in full Islamic clothing with her face covered was sitting, turned around and told her mother she was looking at a ghost when here mother asked her what she was doing. The little girl kept asking what the ghost was doing and I must say, the mother explained to her child beautifully that there was no ghost and that it was a lady wearing special clothing from another country. It was wonderful to see someone teach their child something and not laugh away something they said about something they didn't understand. I wish I saw more parents like this.

Late Storytime...

I'm kinda of irritated. I had a mother come fifteen minutes after storytime should have started and she asked me if I minded reading to her son even though they came late. Seeing as I'm a nice person, I said sure and lugged the storytime basket, crayons, etc into the program room for a one on one storytime. Her son did not want to listen or do the craft that we had planned for tonight. What was the point of doing that to me? Why did this woman drag her hungry, impatient child out in the rain to come late to my storytime? I don't understand...

Bloody Mystery...

"Leslie" just came upstairs to inform my Department Head (Whom is currently in charge of the building because our Director is on vacation) that a man vomited up blood on a book in the mystery section, put it back on the shelves, headed upstairs to the public restroom and vomited into the sinks in front of one of our male staff members and then he had the nerve to rinse his mouth out in our water fountain leaving a glob of blood in it.

This is beyond disgusting. I'm so glad that they knew who this guy was and that they are having him banned from the library until our Director comes back. Does this guy not get that what he did was a bio-hazard? That he could have been endangering the public? He could have tuberculosis or AIDS. I'm just so glad that it didn't happen in my department and that I didn't have to actually deal with it.