It’s hard to explain but try to picture this: there’s a reference desk and then a wall and then a bunch of other desks behind the wall where M. and J. sit along with a scanner and another empty desk and one of those machines that can read text aloud. You’re allowed to eat at the empty desk while on a desk shift. So I had my soup all heated up and was spooning away at it when a student from A.’s class came to the desk needing one book and one article on English women in the 17th century. I tried balancing my soup out to the reference desk so I could eat while walking her through a search or two, but the life of the reference desk keyboard passed before my eyes and I quickly walked my soup back behind the counter to wait until I was done in Historical Abstracts. Sometimes we have rules for reasons, you know.