Where would we be without traditions?

There are some important--nay sacred--traditions at deskslave central. Last month, we observed an important Halloween tradition whereby people show up on Halloween expecting there to be scary movies on the shelf. Some get upset, some seem to harbor suspicions that we are hiding them for ourselves, but all are disappointed. 

Today we had the traditional Thanksgiving Eve pageant. Well, it's actually less of a pageant and more of a collision of two things:

1. People come to the library on Thanksgiving Eve looking for an armload of movies for the upcoming long weekend or to spend some quality time on the Intarweb before their one day computer fast;
2. The library closes two hours earlier than usual.

It really doesn't matter that the early closure is on the library's calendar. It doesn't matter that signs at eye level have been on the doors since Halloween. The early close always comes as a shock. When the announcement that we are indeed closed came over the intercom, it lead to agitated turbo typing by die hard Internet habitués and some particularly frantic power selecting among the motion picture enthusiasts. 

Tonight, I managed to herd the last of the movie-seekers toward the self check machines and turned to try to shoo the remaining netizen. 

"OK! Just a second!" she carped after I told her that we had closed five minutes before. 

I told her I was heading to the management station to terminate her session. 

"I'll be done in a second!"  

Her time estimation skills were not good. After about a minute, I clicked the button and her computer shut down. 

She wished me a Happy Thanksgiving on her way out, but her tone suggested that she didn't really mean it. 

I Almost Made it Through 2012

without somebody asking me if I was a volunteer. My luck ran out and I had the usual conversation about being at an actual job with actual responsibilities.

One of these days, when somebody expresses incredulity that someone could possibly get paid to do something as easy as being a librarian, I may just say, "OK, you have $250 this month to buy items for the 900s collection. That's biographies and history to you, champ. What are you going to buy and where are you planning to get it? Defend your decision. While you try to figure this out, some dipshit walks up to you and asks if you're a volunteer. What do you say?"