Today I had to do something that I dreaded.
I had to go into the Polytechnique where I take my Distance Education course through, and I had to tour their library.
I was so nervous.
(I really wish I could draw cute little drawings right here... Just saying.)
So. I packed up my 5 year old, and all the snackies I could lay hands on for him, and I packed up his sister's Nintendo DS, and we drove into the Big City. (Which is no small thing... It took me about 40 minutes to get there)
We got to the school, and I was already stressing out... I could feel my heart pounding a mile a minute, and my feet and hands were blocks of ice. (I had the van heater directed AT MY FEET and they were still completely cold in my shoes, that's how nervous I was!)
So. We get to the school, and I'm driving to the parkade (I hate parkades. Big anxiety thing for me). I park, and we start walking. (Because hellloooo.... Parkades make me stressed, so I park where there's lots of parking. Which is normally at the back corner furthest from the exit.) We walk and walk, and then we walk up the parkade stairs and emerge into the sunlight of the outdoors.
Now, I wish I could say that there was this magical sniffy thing that waved a magic wand and poofed my fears away but I'd be totally lying. And while it's my perogative to write whatever the heck I want on here, I'd like to stay as close to the truth as possible.
So. As I was saying. Walked up into the open.
And looked around.
I couldn't find the Library.
That was the ONLY PLACE I NEEDED TO GO on that god-forsaken campus. The LIBRARY. How freaking hard is it to lose the Library, for heaven's sake????
Walked around. Looked like a complete and utter dork, I'm sure.
Finally, found the library.
Maybe God WAS smiling on me, after all!
Walk around and try not to look like a local yokel as I stare amazed at what the library looks like.
Tour around - upstairs and downstairs and peruse the collection. (I've only ever used the online library before as I tend to do my schoolwork in my pajamas or at the very least, fluffy wool socks, yoga pants and a hideous sweatshirt I stole from my mother-in-law)
Go upstairs again, and sit down, and start doing some of my assignment. Get 5 year old son all situated with a video game, and start writing.
Realize that I have no idea how many staff work at this library.
Try to look it up on the computers, but guess what? Still nervous and forgot ALL my passwords for school. Argh.
Look over and voila! Like a beacon of goodness - a librarian is sitting at the Information Desk.
I think to myself , "The girls I work with are nice. I bet this lady is nice too! I bet I could ask her my question!".
Get son all packed up, and go over to the Information Desk.
I put on a nice smile, and ask, "Excuse me... Are the number of staff members that work here included on the website?"
That was my question. Pretty benign, no?
She looks at me and says all snarkily, "Well, shouldn't YOU have made an appointment to find out information like this???"
I stammer back that I'm a Distance Education student and I just have to tour around the library and that I had to come from out of town to do so.
She looks haughtily at me, "Well, I'm not sure you NEED that information...."
I ask again, "Is that kind of information on the website just so I can be extra anal?"
She ignores me and tries to kiss up to my 5 year old. 'Hi! Did you check out a book from the children's section downstairs?"
To which I say, "I'm not going to borrow a book from here... It's a pain in the rear to return it to here! Besides, we have tons of books from our local library at our house...."
She looked at me and said, "Just get them to return it by an InterLibrary Loan."
In my head, I am saying that there's no way in HELL that I'm going to make my local library incur the fees to send something back like that.
But outwardly, I smile, and say "Thank you for your time."
As I walk out of there with my 5 year old clutching onto my hand, I inwardly call her a bitch.
I wish I would have had the chutzpah to call her on her rudeness right to her face. I COULD have just done a virtual tour of the library, but I wanted to go "that extra mile" and do it in person even though it made me nervous to the extent that I was concerned I was going to have an anxiety attack again.
So thank you, Random Librarian Bitch. Thanks for ruining what could have been an awesome experience. You took a shitty time and made it shittier. I hope you get trampled by elephants with poo on their feet.
And I hope your coworkers give you Midol for Christmas, because you CERTAINLY need it!
And don't kiss up to a kid when you've just been a bitch to the mom. So not classy.
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