A forty-eight hour getaway this past week to a yurt on cider house property in a section of wine country in New York made me think of work, but it wasn’t a bad thing. About a day into our stay we had visited a few wineries and a distillery and ended up at the cidery for our nightcap and meal. It’s what happened when I bellied up to the counter that made me smile.

There was a live band playing and because of their heavy traffic for food and spirits, they didn’t offer cider flights, just by the glass, so just like that I went from having four choices to only one. A lot of pressure, right? But not for the seasoned cider-tenders behind the counter. She didn’t skip a beat and started asking those basic questions about tastes and interests- I said one buzzword and she lit up, said “I’ve got the one for you I think you’ll love”, and turned to pour it. One sip and it was the perfect cider for me. It’s what I ended up drinking the rest of the night- a cider called Fruit of the Bloom with hibiscus and ginger. The flight would wait until the next day.

I realized I had been librarian-ed. Suddenly I wasn’t the one selling books to teens by conducting readers advisory, I was being sold a cider through a taste advisory. The vast experience and repertoire that comes from countless interactions like this meant that she 1) loved cider, 2) wanted me to love the cider too, and 3) had a full library’s worth of ciders to pick from to match me with one. But the fourth was the special ingredient, more than just the love of cider and wanting me to love it too, she had the passion that comes from the mix of those three elements to make someone else happy. I wanted to hug her for her excitement and realized I probably look like that to most people when I push books.