My phantom phone flasher

The other day I was working at the library, when I noticed way over at the entrance a tiny light.  I looked closer and an older woman was standing there with her phone held up excitedly to another person, and the other person (who looked like her daughter) walked away like, "Yes, I already saw."

A few minutes later a woman walked up to me at the desk and said, "Do you want to see something absolutely heart-warming?"

"Of course!" I said.  (I like to play along when people are crazy).

"Well... can you get YouTube on that computer?"

Me: "Um... no."  (Small lie.  We can watch the videos, but there is no sound).

"Okay, tell me your email address!"

Now, I don't give out my email address to patrons.  There's a personal-information bubble that we librarians live in to protect ourselves sometimes.  But this lady was super sweet and I could tell that she was legit.  So I gave her my email address and she whipped out her phone and started doing all sorts of fancy stuff, and I realized that she was the phantom phone flasher I had seen earlier.  She beeped and booped my email into her phone and with a sly grin said, "It's so amazing, you'll just cry!" before walking away.

So later that night when I got home I had this in my inbox:



Alright. Pretty sweet. And maybe I got misty-eyed when that little boy took his mom's hand. Maybe. Whatever.

I didn't mind the video.  I didn't mind the personal email breach.  I didn't even mind the super-sweet practically-the-fairy-of-Christmas-cheer attitude coming from the lady.

The only part that bugged me is that lady had a way cooler phone than me and totally knew how to use it. She was sending emails and watching videos and doing all sorts of cool stuff with it! Dang, lady! Plus five street cred!