Thought I might be slipping...

I was having a kvetch-free week.

I got to do some basic skills instruction this week--teaching a young lady how to fill out a money order. (one of the ones I've had to shhh! at before) She was cute about it..."I've never done this before...I'm sorry to bother you but I've never done this..." Really, it's no problem. We've all been up against something we've never done before, and I'm glad you asked for help. I wish her good fiscal sense, and I hope she does well.

Then I got another young lady who was really excited about our dictionary. This is the sort of thing that inspires really pleasant feelings in a librarian--excitement about a dictionary! "This is so cool! It's got everything I need in it! Where can I buy one just like it?" Wow! And she patiently listened to my somewhat garbled explanation of how the pronunciation key works. (I always had trouble with pronunciation keys--and it still shows.)

But, luckily for the blogosphere my streak of genuinely pleasant young people was broken tonight...by a young man shouting "yeah, we terrifyin' the library" at the top of his lungs after hopping around my area being loud and grabbing at and poking and distracting a bunch of other young people who were being reasonably good tonight. Then, when I went out to tell him to "keep his voice down please" he decided that the appropriate reply was "[Inscrutable Shout] So you gonna call security?" Followed by a 5 minute long chant of "Security, Security, Security" while I called the guards and waited for them to arrive. Then he decided it was time to shout "Oh, you just callin them because I'm black, Yeah, you kicking me out cause I'm black...[repeat several times]..." There were, by the way, at least seven people in the area that I had not kicked out, although they were black. In point of fact, I don't kick people out for being black. I don't kick people out for who they are, I kick them out for how they behave. And you, kid, are behaving like an idiot A**hole!

On the bright side, after A**hole kid left, another young man came up and asked me how to turn off the computer because he was done, and showed me this really cool drawing he did, so that tips the balance back towards fair to middlin'. I could grow to enjoy this....except I'm sure it will pass.