Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I Have a Nemesis!

Guess what, Vieve?! I have a nemesis. Well, calling her a nemesis may be stretching it a bit.

Anyway, since I am back on the Weight Watchers bandwagon, I have been trying to make sure and bring my lunch to work every day. I really enjoy taking whatever book I'm currently reading and heading up to our lovely breakroom for a little food and quiet time. My vision hasn't been very good lately (I'll save the reason for another post) and I have needed a lot of light to be able to read. So, I turn on the lights in the breakroom and sit by a window to read.

Now, when I enter the breakroom, the first thing I do is check to see if anyone else is in there. I know some people don't like having the lights on. If someone is already in there with the lights off, I will just sit next to a window and not turn on the lights. I figure that's being polite. Well, for the past few weeks, I will be sitting in the breakroom by myself with the lights on and one of the librarians walks in and automatically turns the lights off. She never asks first. She just does it. I thought it was my imagination but she has done it to me five times in a row. I have even tried eating lunch at different times to avoid this problem but she always seems to come up there when I am there. I don't know what to make of this.

I'm still pretty new to my job AND I'm shy AND I'm fairly non-confrontational. I can't bring myself to say, "Excuse me. Do you mind? I kind of need lights to read by." So, I sit there in the dark silently fuming. I mean, isn't it just common courtesy to ask first? I guess it would be pretty passive aggressive for me to get up and go over and turn them back on, huh? But it's really annoying!

And so, the battle of the breakroom lights continues...

3 comments:

Genevieve said...

A Nemesis! YAY! How exciting. I was explaining My Nemesis to a certain English boy and I was told "wow. you have a very vivid imagination." (I think that's a compliment?)

Anyway. Gosh, you're right, that is super annoying. I would say something - if she does it again, could you yelp out in surprise? go, "Ah! I guess you didn't see me here! I am reading!"

try that. that's pretty non confrontational.

Literary Feline said...

Genevieve has a great idea there! I'm much like you, Malady, in that I don't like confrontation and tend to be on the shy side. I think I could pull off her idea though. :-)

For awhile I was having trouble with a talker during my lunch hour. No matter when I went to lunch, she always seemed to follow and want to talk. I am too polite and would give up precious reading time to hear about her latest health problem (usually how she has such trouble gaining weight--do you really want to go there with someone who has the opposite problem? If she was my friend, it would be different, but I barely knew the woman!) Anyhow, I finally just moved to my car to read during my lunch hour. She's gone now, fortunately.

Amy M. said...

Thanks for the suggestion, guys. I'll try it today. We CANNOT have people interfering with our precious reading time!!! :)