7:30 - 9:00 p.m.

What I'm doing between questions: Dewey updates. It's Board meeting night; I cover the Ref Desk so Librarian K--who is usually out here on Thursday nights--can attend the meeting. Tonight: architecture. Whee....

7:30

• And a Board member speeds by just as I sit down.
• Librarian K leaves me with the curse "It's been really quiet out here." Let the horror begin!
• More time online? [sure; I even remember the password!]
• [family member calls--why is it they call when I'm at Reference, not when I can chat?]
• [phone] Reserve Susannah's Garden for patron, and check to see where she is on the list for 12 Sharp
• Floppy won't read [I check in our computer here, and it's blank...erased...unformatted; patron is stumped, but he does have everything backed up at work. Thank goodness!]
• Scissors
• Local paper's classified ads
• [People are very friendly tonight: the disk dude thanked me and said goodnight as he left, and another computer user just made a big point of stopping to say goodnight to me!]

7:30

• [different family member calls--they have radar...it's the only answer!]
• Today's Wall Street Journal
• The scissors lady wishes me a "nice night"--wish people were always nice like this!
• Another friendly greeting, this time from someone coming in, someone who tends to stay way past her welcome, past closing, past our patience....great.
• Ads guy returns paper
• "You have to tell it to print twice" [to a woman waiting patiently by the public printer]
• Can I use the Internet on this computer [a semi-regular guy who simply has lost his reading skills--once I point to the icon he says, "Oh, the one that says 'Internet'?" and rolls his eyes at himself]
• "Can I tell, in Notepad, how many pages something is?" [no, but that second time you tell the computer to print also is an option to cancel; it tells you how many pages you've got]
• [The catacombs are checked for errant patrons]
• [Closing announcement--during which I have to correct myself after saying we're open until 10. NO!!]
• Wall St. Journal is returned
• I do The Walk Through--we're closed, people...GO HOME!