So my post yesterday was about a real, live negotiation that I thought went rather poorly because I had a fifty year old woman screaming at me for 45 minutes. Apparently the universe wanted to help me put it in perspective, because today I got to witness a REAL difference of opinion. At the library, nonetheless.
Today is Day One of my Staycation.
(Long story short, I’ve only taken six days off this year and my stress level is through the roof, so I decided to take four days off to recharge my batteries. Alas, having bought, furnished and decorated a place over the last three months, I’m not exactly rolling in cash for a vacation, so I decided to keep it local and do my favorite things. All at once. Like I’m a one-man-vacation-band of sorts.)
One of my favorite things is the peruse the stacks at the library and leave with a backpack full of books. (Which I then sell for crack or profit on the streets of DC. OK, not really.) Anyway, as I was checking out, the nice guy assisting me was trying to keep his head down and ignore the commotion behind him.
By commotion, I mean: the large librarian who is generally super-helpful and the large new guy who apparently also works at the library (but I’ve never seen before) – both of whom are yelling at each other ten feet behind the checkout desk. Between them stands “Rita the Regulator” (who is approximately four feet tall and I’m pretty sure has Asperger’s Syndrome), mouth agape, watching silently as if it’s Wimbleton.
Among the highlights of the exchange:
“I swear: If you don’t stop disrespecting me, I will leave. This will be my last day of employment!”
“Save that drama for your mama.”
“You are ignorant.”
“NO, YOU are ignorant.”
“This is not YOUR library.”
“Well it sure as hell ain’t yours.”
I found it interesting that they were carrying on at a volume that would’ve caused a librarian to shush them. And I like that the guy checking out my books was doing his absolute best to ignore them, while Rita was clearly ready to breakout a video camera, whistle or pompons at any moment.
My takeaway from all this? The next time I’m engaged in a call that’s going no where, I’m going to just start responding to everything with, “You’re ignorant.” It seems like a pretty succinct way to shut someone down. That, or “whatever!”
Staycation Day One: I learned that even librarians break their own rules. Whatever.
pithypants 
I thought libraries were supposed to be quiet places for reading or study, but the Centreville branch near me apparently disagrees. I was there a couple days ago for the first time in a while, and walked in to modernistic jazz music being played at a decibel level which actually hurt my old, hard-of-hearing ears. Plus the music made my skin crawl and my nerves so jumpy I could hardly think. I stayed the 4 minutes it took to pull a new book and set of CDs and check out, and left thankfully. Fairfax County recently made a huge cut in library hours. I could only think that this was a new policy from the county to drive more customers away. I’m really grateful my most local branch hasn’t started this torment yet.