Did I Avoid A Disaster At The Library Just Now?

So I'm going to the gym, until I realized I haven't blogged here for the day.  Oh fuck, I have to go to the library across the street from the parking lot before working out.

But the computers are all packed.  That makes me feel good about the state of the library system here in Minnesota, that it's not being neglected, but I'm kind of in a time crunch and need to get on a computer and blog.

So I didn't know what to do.  Isn't there some sort of reservation station I need to get on so I can kick one of these guys off?  I didn't really do that; instead I just kind of stood there and hoped that one the computers would open up.  But then a woman behind me looked at this sea of totally occupied workstations and moseyed on over to the left ... where the reservation station was.  Oh, that's where it is.  Right over there.

So I felt just a tad humiliated, just a tad.  I kind of hoped no one else noticed, not even the woman who "cut" in front of me.  So I waited, even though I now had fears that she would immediately get on and the reservation station would tell me to wait, like, half an hour because I wasn't smart enough to reserve when I had the chance.

But I had a chance.  Although she put up her huge purse on the table, she had to move out of the way because apparently she couldn't find her library card.  But I could.  And I swooped in there, even though she immediately found the card and turned back to the reservation station.

Uh-oh.  Usually something like that escalates to a confrontation between strangers.  I didn't care; all I was going to do was get my reservation, and she could wait a half-hour for all I care.  But then my PIN didn't work.  After two times and feeling her wait behind me, I was now the one who had to move out of the way.  "Go ahead," I told her, and she got printed out her reservation.

And then I realized why I couldn't get my reservation through: I punched in the wrong PIN.  Well, it use the right PIN for my county, but I am in another county.  I could use my library card, which is issued for my county, in other counties now; I guess it's a new thing.  But when I registered this card in this county last week, I got a different PIN, which are the last four digits of my home phone number.

I realized this right after I gave up my spot to this lady.  Fortunately, I did not have to wait half an hour; apparently as soon as I reserved a spot the guy who was on the computer that now was mine left.  It seemed as few people took off as soon as we and the lady signed up.

I'm just glad I got a computer quickly -- and that we didn't get into a fight, which is entirely possible.