Library Vigilante

Libraries get a better business in poor economic times - it's free & it's an easy way to hang out with your friends. However, it's also a place to be thoroughly annoying. I got up from my table (I'm in the middle of an exam) to dump a cup of cold coffee. Three steps away, a 6' teenaged boy comes around the end of the shelves doing Mach 2. My yelp of "hey!" was a cross between the simple shock of nearly getting run over combined with the (now well practiced) maternal condemnation. He managed to avoid hitting me.

It is amazing how fast your brain works...

In about 1 second, my brain processed:

there's a kid running at me
get out of the way
if I leave my right leg where it is, he'll trip and fall on his face
great idea
step left, leave right leg out

unfortunately, he managed to stop before he got past me.

I was really surprised afterward that I considered and actually tried to trip the little snot. It's the sort of thing one thinks of in retrospect, like "I wish I had said ..." or "I wish I had done ..."

Personally, .... "I wish I'd contemplated hip checking him. It probably would have succeeded."