No Thank You, I'll Do It Myself

While I finished my breakfast and coffee this morning, I quickly scanned through my email. I noticed one that had come from my library. To my surprise, it was an overdue notice.

Now I was positive that I had returned our books. I remembered it so well in fact because I had counted the books twice before I left the house to make sure I had everything. I then drove to the library and threw all our books down the chute.

As it turns out, they received all the books but one. Which by the way was the audio selection my husband choose. Immediately I went into recovery mode. Maybe it had fallen out of the bag? Maybe it was under the car seat? Maybe the dog ate it?

With no luck I decided to head over to the library. And this is when it happened:

I approached the desk and kindly explained to the librarian my situation. I told her I had placed all the books in the bin at the same time, so I didn't understand how there was just one missing. And believe it or not, this is what came out of her mouth next:

"Well, did you look for it on the shelf?"

I was convinced at this point that the bun on her head had been pulled entirely too tight. All I could get out of my mouth was: "Really?"

Clearly she had witnessed me walk through the doors less than a minute ago. How she thought it was possible for me to have scanned the library for a book that was legitimately returned a week ago, but was now being held over my head with a $10 fine and a collection threat, was a mystery to me.

I was suddenly likening my library to one of those old abandoned buildings where some entrepreneur comes through in October and hires all the towns teenagers to dress the place up in cobwebs and black sheets then charge the public an unbelievable amount of money and convince them it's haunted.

My librarian was Head Ghoul.

Well in the spirit of all that is Halloween, I graciously went to search for my book. Since I realized said Head Ghoul's ass was stuck to said stool.

And guess what? That's right. I found it!

Luckily when I returned, Head Ghoul had vanished (Probably hanging upside down behind the book case). However, in her place was left a much kinder, gentler librarian who must have overheard my story.

She immediately scanned in the book and cleared off my card. And in the blink of an eye, I was no longer a Wanted Woman.

I try not to be of the mindset that "When you want the job done right, you have to do it yourself." I try to believe in people and their abilities, especially if they've been hired to do the job. However, when I was asked to go look for that book myself, I have to admit I was thrown for a loop.

I'm thinking next time I need to return some books; I'll just save everyone the trouble, and scan them in myself.