It pays to be nice to the mean lady!

When we first moved here we discovered our
community library and used it faithfully
until we met the mean lady. My first meeting
with her was when I was trying to get to know
her by starting a conversation,
" Do you have any suggestions on good books to read?"
"Well, do you like Vampire books?" she asked.
"Aren't they pretty sexual?" I said
"Yeeessss!" she said in a weird way, blushing.
I think I blushed too and she gave me some other
suggestions that I dont think I heard and we left.

After that she was just not nice. Everyone knew
her as the mean lady that works at the library.
Even the other ladies that work at the library had
to step in and help when they saw she wasn't being nice.

One worker there, as she "stepped in" to help my daughter,
said, "Just come to me if you need any more help."

We started going to a different library but eventually
I just didn't want to drive that far to pick up my
books. So we started going back.

She was still mean, with dirty looks and a short temper.
We came home one day and decided we would
"kill her with kindness".

We always smiled at her even if she scowled. I
I complimented her a couple of times on her clothes
and new hair do's. And when she would help me and
get mad because of whatever, I would always go on
about how thankful I was for her time.

After a while she stopped giving us dirty looks and getting
after my little ones for moving step stools to help check out books
or to get a drink of water.

After a long time she started smiling at me when
I would walk in, and then after a while passed she called
me Miss Tibbetts. It's TiPPetts but I let it slide,
and just yesterday a miracle happened.

I had lost 2 CD's. One was a Natasha Bettingfield music
CD and the other was the 7th CD in a book on tape.

I asked her what it was going to cost me to replace them.
The Music CD was worth $16.42.

"Hold on just a minute." she said and she took the music
CD to a guy (who works there and has helped me and
my kids many times finding books and things,)
who was talking to a nice police officer and
they huddled a little, whispered a little, then they
all looked at me and laughed. I shrugged my
shoulders and the lady came back and said she got
permission to only charge me $5 for it.
"Oh my gosh, thank you so much." I said.

"Now this book on tape costs about $125.00"
My eyes just popped and she said,
"This is what we do with these. We only charge you
for the missing CD. It's going to be $12.oo."
So, she starts typing on her computer and then she says,
"You know what, I'm just going to wave $7.00 of it but you
still need to pay your over due fine which is $18."

I think many of you may appreciate that you are not the
only one with hefty library fines. $18.00 on that card
and 13.55 on the other card. It's a hard thing to
admit, but I'm getting better at getting books back on time
and just to make myself feel better I just say to myself,
"You have 7 cards you have to check all the time, you are doing
pretty dang good!"

So, I only need to pay $10 to replace both CD's instead of
$141.42.

I couldn't thank her enough! She was so kind to
help me like that. When I left, the mean lady said,

"Have a nice evening Kelly!"
"Thanks again!" I said.

I think we may be friends now. I need
to find out her name and then it will
be legitimate!