2 posts tagged “work”

I work in what amounts to be a big, glass fishbowl.  Glass walls on all four sides of my office.  Glass doors.  The analogy ends there for the physical description, as the floor is carpet and the ceiling is that typical white ceiling tile with the holes and the little squiggly indentations made in it.  But anywhere one would normally see a wall, there is glass.  This is normally not an issue.  I get a lot of light coming from outdoors and from the big room surrounding the other three glass walls, this area isn't open to the public and mine is the only office on the floor, and since I work alone and can play the radio with nobody complaining, I've pretty much got it good.

But then, there is Old Lady Day.  One day a month, several old ladies come up to my floor.  They eat pastries and fruit, and do something with books that aren't part of this library's collection.  I guess they could be readying them for a book sale or something, although it seems that the book titles don't change from year to year.  They do their mysterious thing with the books, and eat their food, and all is fine... except for the ladies who choose to stand around my fishbowl and stare at me.  Some of them frown and shake their head at me.  They are angry because it used to be the office of a woman named Sara, and they liked Sara.  But then the special collection got put on this floor, and Sara moved to a different area of the library, and I am here.  The old ladies do not like this change and fuss over it audibly, although it is at least two years since Sara was here.  They don't even try to like me, though I think some of them might be enjoyable company if they weren't so upset that I am not Sara.  They used to come in and tell me about how lovely it was when Sara worked up here, but I started locking the doors on Old Lady Day so that now all that they can do is stand outside of my office on three sides and glare at me.  And they do.

Today is Old Lady Day.