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Wednesday, June 12, 2019

divorce and do dishing... at the library

"How much does it cost to scan and fax?", she asked.

I was at the library on Monday printing off some materials for a tutee.  The library has a little work area for doing such things.  While I was there happily printing, this random woman around my age was walking around checking the place out and asked me about scanning and faxing.  Maybe she initially thought I worked there?

"Uhm", I replied intelligently, "the sign says 25¢ per page, but I've never used their scanner"

"Oh", as she seemed to realize then that I was not library staff, "How much is it to print?"

"It's 10¢ a page, and your first 10 pages are free".  That I could answer. 

She pondered this for a moment while watching my pages feed, then realized the cost could add up to quite a bit with a lot of pages.  I mentioned the FedEx copy place just down the street that printed for 8¢ a page, so depending on how big her job was, that might be the better option. 

"Welp", she continued, "there are a lot of documents involved in a divorce".

"Ah", my eloquent response.

Then she continued conversing with me about the niceness of the library. "I've never been here before", she said while taking in the digs. 

As I talked with her, I got the impression that she was happily turning over some new leaves - checking out the new library after a session at the gym for instance.  In our short conversation, I surmised that the divorce was good for her mentally and emotionally... if not financially.

And it is a nice library, but honestly, one of its drawbacks when I meet students there is that it's kind of... rowdy.  Some of the worst offenders I've seen have been library staff members.  And conversations like the one I had with divorce lady pop up often. 



I think I can honestly say that, random strangers are much more likely to strike up conversations with me at the library than any other not-particularly-social place I visit - the gym, post office, grocery store, DMV, etc. 

In fact, last week, I was there, again printing off some tutee materials.  A different woman - another tutor, I think - was also in the work area.  She told me she liked my hair, and then proceeded to ponder getting a similar hairstyle for herself.  She asked where I get my hair "done".

I told her the place and added, "I bring a picture, and they somehow make my hair look just like the picture".  Then I pulled up the current hair photo I had saved in Pinterest and offered it to the woman. 

"Okay, but y'know, I think I like your hair better.  Can I take a picture?"

Well, that was kinda weird, but okay.  She then walked around snapping pics of my head from various angles.  I covered my face for the frontal shot. 

I didn't mention that I'd spent the morning mowing the lawn, then rode my bike to the library while wearing a hairdo-wrecking helmet.  Apparently, that created a better touch than a Pinterest pic for this woman. 

Needing a break from the quiet?  Head to the library!



8 comments:

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

Wow, that is a lot of activity for the library.
But I think if you bought a printer it would save you from all of this as well as it paying for itself!
And yes, it was damn odd to take photos of you. I'd have hidden my face as well. Kind of creepy.

Abby said...

Peggy, yeah I thought it was weird to take pics of my hair, but she was actually pretty personable, so I said "okay".
I do have a desktop printer, but I sometimes have to print off practice tests that are 25 - 55 pages. Rather than overtax the gerbils in my printer, I print them at the library for ~$1.50 to $4.50 as I don't need to do it very often. I bake printing costs into my fee 😎

LL Cool Joe said...

Wow now I know where to go if I need to find a new partner. :D

Having someone take photos of your hair is plain weird. Not that your hair isn't lovely, but taking shots of it seems to be taking that appreciation a tad too far. :D

Abby said...

Joe, okay, so that makes 4 of us who thought it was weird, because the weird woman also acknowledged that it was a weird request. Then I felt it would be weird to say no. Maybe I'll just go further down the street to the FedEx place from now on. Nobody talks to me in there.

Chatty Crone said...

You had quite the experience there girl - it was weird - #5 - but you were nice and she needed that.

Abby said...

Chatty, I'm curious how her hair turned out

RO said...

I'm a hardcore reader, so the people in the library know me by name and face(lol) But I've noticed that when school is in session and kids are working on "projects" the volume increases substantially. I've often seen 3 kids piled at a computer either looking at the opposite sex and giggling or providing me with lewd comments(lol), or they're playing games. It sounds crazy, but very few kids seem to be working on "projects" like back in the day. What the heck, they could all be super smart, and don't need to do any research, and the project is already complete. What do I know?(lol) Happy Monday! RO

Abby said...

RO, yes, I'm sure those kids are super smart and all caught up on everything *she said with sarcasm*