Aren't You Happy? It's Library Story Thursday!

Ok, so none of these events happened today, but I still feel that they should be shared.

Library Story 1:
The library is broken down into 3 main parts. There is the triangle part which really is the library, there is the rectangle side piece on the west side that's administration and then there's the crescent wall that is for reading rooms and commercial stores. In the Urban room, which is the space between the triangle and crescent wall, we have several tables for people to sit and eat at when they buy anything from the cafe or coffee store.

Well, at one of the tables this last week a woman came into the library and sat at one of these tables. She then takes out her gallon of ice cream and sets it on the table, at which point she started licking and and eating the ice cream with her hands. Yes, that's right, she did not have a spoon or any sort of utensil. It was just gross.

Library Story 2:
This is more just a random occurrence, but interesting no less. One day a man came in with a snake draped across his neck and arms. It was not fake, it was a real boa constrictor. The next day another man came in with a different snake about him. How weird is that? I mean there is absolutely no way that it was in any shape or form a service animal, so I just don't get it.

Library Story 3:
One of the regular patrons comes in and sits in the chair across from the Welcome Desk. It kind of looks like he's off his meds or something because he's swaying in a crazy fashion, side to side and back to front. While he's swaying he has one of the library's magazines that he's trying to read, ineffectually I assume. He's swaying so badly that he ends up ripping out pages of the magazine. At this time it was also noted that his zipper was down. So, we called security come down and deal with this. It took them a few moments to respond (they were trying to catch the person who dropped the glass bottle off of the roof).

When they finally got there the man was no longer in his seat, but walking around the browsing library. Left on his seat however, there was some sort of liquid. Security asks him about it and he says that he had some leg surgery and that liquid was drainage from the shunt in his leg. Regardless of what bodily liquid it was, it was still gross. The next day the man comes in and the chair was moved. I don't know whether this bothered him or not, but he did come up and ask if we'd cleaned the chair up or not.

This story, albeit funny and odd, frustrates me a little. If any "normal" patron (and I use the term "normal" quite loosely) came in swaying he'd be kicked out of the library. If some other patron had ripped up a magazine, in the library no less, he'd be kicked out of the library and likely have his library card revoked. Thirdly, if he'd wet a chair with any bodily fluid he would be escorted out by security or an ambulance. This man did all three and wasn't escorted out nor his card revoked. It's a little bit of a double standard if you ask me.