Belly rubs and needy patrons

Ah, my last few days here at the library before maternity leave. Let's take stock. In the last two days:

3 patrons put their hands on my belly (without asking permission, of course).

1 patron called to me for computer help from several yards away, "Excuse me! Pregnant lady!"

2 more patrons informed me that I am having a boy.

1 patron informed me that I am having a girl.

Then there is the problem of my providing good customer service, also known as being nice. I never thought this was a negative character trait, but the past couple months are making me think that this is exactly the case.

Yesterday a woman was using the computer to save a document (some sort of flyer on the healing power of meditation), and she asked for help. I immediately recognized her as one of our more annoying computer regulars. Her usual refrain is, "If you don't help me [insert Internet activity such as to access an electronic account without knowing her own password] I am gonna be homeless!" Nevertheless, I am here to serve, so I went with her to show her, slowly, how she could save her document to her floppy disk, as well as how to email the document to herself. She refused to allow me to show her how to attach the document to her email message, though, preferring that I help her "make the words go from here [pointing at Word doc] to here [pointing at email message]." I proceeded to show her how to copy and paste. Much like the I-know-what-I-am-doing patron of some posts ago, she exclaimed over the huge number of steps involved in accomplishing this. "How will I ever remember that tomorrow?" she wailed.

I knew that if I didn't do something, she would just ask someone again tomorrow, and seeing as I am interested in helping patrons to become self-sufficient on the computers, I told her I would write up the steps for her. I typed them up and she was all gratitude. Thank goodness she then left.

This afternoon, my coworker came to my desk in the back room where I was staffing the (extremely dead) phones. She said that a woman was asking for me (I assume "pregnant lady" was how I was described, seeing as she didn't know my name) to help her at the computer because yesterday I had "written her a note." I explained that I did write down the steps for her, but ew, "written her a note" sounds so personal, yuck!

My coworker saved me by letting her know that I was incredibly busy, but geez, why can't people just accept help from whomever is at the desk??? I must develop my mean and sarcastic side to ward off all of these creepy hangers-on.

It's hard being the librarian princess.