hickory dickory

Today I was at Borders looking at a book I needed for work. I was sitting on the floor, trying to concentrate, but I kept seeing something flitting around out of the corner of my eye. Not five feet from where I was sitting there was a mouse, darting in and out of a corner in the art section.

This mouse filled me with a mixture of emotion that I will outline for you:
-First I thought about how cute a series of children's books about a mouse who lives in a bookstore would be. The mouse would have some whimsical name like Cadbury or Tuck or Doolittle. He would have lots of adventures with the kids who came in to learn how to read and he would recommend books to people and maybe he'd chew the corners of the pages but only because he loved books so much.

-Second I was concerned about what level of participation was required on my part. Did I need to alert Borders to their mouse problem? Should I take matters into my own hands and get one of those big art coffee table books and kill the mouse?

-Third I was struck by the horrific thought of OH MY GOD WHY AM I STILL SITTING ON THE FLOOR WHEN THERE IS A MOUSE SO CLOSE? I stood up and tried to continue concentrating on the book but the mouse corner was so distracting, and the book, which was about how to build a house out of bags filled with dirt (I am not lying), kept using phrases like "hard-assing the butt-end of a tube" to describe filling the bags of dirt. I couldn't tell if they were using these phrases as humor or accidentally or what. Building a house out of dirt doesn't seem like something to joke about. I kind of had to give up on the book.

-Fourth, and this is the most lasting emotion, is concern that I could have caught some sort of mouse disease from sitting on the floor in such close proximity to the mouse. What if I have mashed up mouse droppings all over me and I don't even know?

So anyways, between discovering that my closest Borders has a mouse problem, and being too distracted by the mouse problem to continue reading the book I need for work, I would have to say that this was sort of a rough day.