richlayers: (Default)
richlayers ([personal profile] richlayers) wrote2010-02-18 12:46 pm

Pen Segregation

I work in the library computer lab four days a week. I have my "own" computer and table, shared with the other lab monitors. It has it's own computer with a sign reading, "Reserved for Lab Monitor," a bottle of Germ-X, a stapler, and a box of Kleenex.

The library director (my mom) bought about 50,000 purple pens that have the name of the library stamped on the side. They're very nice pens, and there's a mug of them sitting on my little table with the other supplies for students' use.

And every time I come in here, someone has taken out the highlighter, the pencil, and the one non-matching pen, and set them on the table next to the mug. This is just beyond my comprehension -- because what's wrong with keeping all the writing utensils together in a place where they can't roll onto the floor and get lost?

Yet it never, never fails -- as soon as I get here I gather them up and put them back with the rest of the matching pens. It's not a major annoyance so much as a constant slight peeve. And then I have to turn around and wonder -- am I driving someone else crazy? What is with my need to have the desk tidy? Why do I have to MIX THESE PENS TOGETHER??

So I ask you, unknown OCDer: Why must you segregate these pens???