Young adults

The library that I work at, like most public libraries, has a Young Adult section. This is basically a collection of books theoretically intended for patrons ages 12 to 18, although the primary audience seems to be late elementary school and middle school students. To go along with the collection, we have a Young Adult Librarian, who seems to primarily work during the day, when said Young Adults are in school. But I digress.

I work on the same floor as the Young Adult Librarian, but I do not work in that section. Last night, I was at the Fiction and AV desk with Mandy, a librarian who is about a year older than me. Near closing time, two women approached us. One asked Mandy a legitimate book-related question. The other one asked me, "Are you guys the young adult librarians?"

Not realizing that this was the setup of an elaborate and oh-so-funny joke, I answered that, in fact, the Young Adult Librarian's desk was on the other side of the stairwell, but that she did not work evenings.

The patron, who was probably in her late 40s and dressed in a thrift-store-chic-by-way-of-J.-Jill kind of way, replied, "Well, you could be! You guys are so CUTE sitting there!" and laughed and laughed.

Our desk is at the top of the stairs. Momentarily paralyzed with rage, I contemplated pushing her down them. However, before I could get off my stool to either do it or to explain to her that, in fact, the Young Adult Librarian was an actual adult, and that the Children's Librarians were, in fact, not children, Mandy finished answering her friend's question and the two were on their merry way.