I’m at work today.  All day, from 9 in the morning till 6 tonight.  This is much like doing a marathon, where a large part of a successful race is training to be on your feet for five or six hours.  Here at the tiny branch where I’m working there is no room for chairs, so I walk around.  All day.  Asprin is working, a trick I learned training for marathons.  But I am ready for the day to be over. 

To stay busy I’ve been shelving books, especially books that have arrived from other branches for people here.  They go on a special shelf and all day long I watch the faces of people as they come to get their books and movies and music, the ones they ordered and have been waiting for, the ones they are so eager to read, watch or listen to.  People are almost always excited, it’s almost like receiving a gift.  In a way, I guess getting a book or movie you’ve anticipated IS  a gift.  So as I shelve the books I think about the people that are waiting for them, and that makes me smile. 

I smile less as I straighten up the kids section…again and again.  But on the other hand, watching parents read to their kids, or play with them on the kiddy computers does make me smile, so it all evens out.

It’s just that my feet are telling me that I got whatever I’m going to get out of today’s experience about an hour ago… and it’s time to go home.  I wish.