When did I become a curmudgeon?

Mom got sick this morning, and so we haven't done too much today. At least she's sleeping now, and I hope that helps.

I don't have too much more to say. I went to the library to get my books for my research essays, and therefore ended up being That Comical Person In the Check-Out Line Who Is Carrying Too Many Books. I don't even know how many books I took out, yesterday. But I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the line-up who was there to actually check out books, and so I was there for a long time. All the staff members were taken up with difficult cases involving people's accounts (including senior members of the public trying to get accounts). At least I got to set down my books on the counter while I waited in line. And at least it wasn't as bad as the ten minutes I had to stand and listen to the staff member explain to the faculty member that no, he cannot look at that book right now, because someone else has taken it physically out of the library. Yes, people are allowed to do that with library books.

In related news:

I don't understand the students who frequent my library. Last week, when I went to photocopy some articles from the Reserve stacks, it was like every new undergrad decided to make that day his/her first day in the library ever. There are photocopiers in the main floor reserve area, so that if you don't want to check out reserve items, you can just copy them right there. (You can only check out two reserve items at a time, but if you copy them in that room, you don't have to check them out. That fact is quite handy when your prof makes all eight required articles for that week into separate reserve items.) I staked out a photocopier, grabbed my eight articles, and started copying. Suddenly, the reserve area was full of undergrads, hovering around to snag a copier, in order to photocopy: a.) class notes, b.) (non-reserve) library books, or c.) single reserve items (which they could easily check out of the reserve area and either take to the zillions of other copiers in the library, or take to the much cheaper copy centre in the Student Union Building).

These students lined up behind me. (And just behind me!) They complained about the line-up. They complained about "people" copying too much at one time. But I stubbornly kept on, refusing to give up my copier. Because the actual photocopying room is only one floor up, and is perpetually empty! (I checked the room just after that, and sure enough, there was no one using any of those copiers.) Should I have told them about the copy room and the cheaper copy centre? Was it bad of me to assume that they were just too lazy to climb one flight of stairs, and afraid of leaving the first floor and to enter any of those scary floors that contain real books?

After I finished copying all eight of those articles, I went upstairs to get another book (noting the empty photocopy room on the way up, glorying in the fact that I was right), and there was a girl laying down on the floor in front of the shelf! She was fully sprawled on the floor, reading a book!

Well, at least she was reading, and wasn't lined up behind a reserve-area photocopier.