Today At The Desk....

By Cephas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

Well, this week Summer Reading was in full swing, with several kids already completing their reading logs and we hosted a live animal program, which has always been the program that draws the biggest crowds. Since many people had been in earlier in the week to attend the program, today was a little on the quiet side for much of the day.

When I first took over at the desk, there was just one boy in the department who was already charming my co-worker. He was very cute and funny, but he was one of those little boys who knows that he's cute and funny, so you just have to mess with him a little. He was bragging about his cute fat cheeks that he got from his mom (his words) and I said "You know what fat cheeks are for, don't you?.......Pinching!" Then we started teasing him and telling him that's what the price was for computer time, 1 cheek pinch for every half hour of computer time.

After that I took advantage of the slow spell to try to get some shelving done, as we are still short a page. While I was shelving, "Junior" asked me to give him more time. I jokingly asked if he remembered what that was going to cost, and he said "What?", then resignedly said "oh, okay...". It was so funny, he reminded me of my son who will agree to do just about anything for computer time. So I pretended like I was going to pinch his cheeks, then gave him more time. His mother warned me that he might be a real charmer, but he was also a handful and not to be taken in by his charms, but he definitely was a bright spot in my day.

Towards the latter part of the shift it began getting pretty busy, with people getting library cards, turning in reading logs, needing help with checking out, or their accounts, and I had to scramble to get all the items pulled and processed for holds and transfers, but I got it all done in the nick of time.