A Realm Where Time Has No Meaning...

In the past two months I have worked at a second job and I've really enjoyed the library experience I've gained from it. Yesterday, I was volunteered to help organize the stacks of books upstairs by doing a little shelf-reading. For the uninitiated, shelf-reading is where you climb a ladder to stare at every single book and make sure that it is in its correction position according to the Library of Congress call number system. This is about as exciting as trying to move a mountain of sand with a pair of tweezers, but it is a necessary action that is vital to keeping a library functional.
At the start of my shift, my manager led me upstairs (after making sure that I had snagged my iPod) and left me to read my assigned section. I had jokingly asked my manager to send a rescue team if I failed to return in two hours, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be too long. I had done smaller shelf-reading assignments at my previous job, so I was prepared for the task ahead.
Here's what I wasn't counting on. Try to imagine my environment. The stacks were pretty much deserted, the temperature was comfortably warm, the light inside the stacks was a little on the shady side, and the only sound outside of my iPod was a regular humming from a nearby water fountain. I was no where near a window and I was encased in the womb of the library's religious (BV) section of the stacks. I had no watch to look at, my iPod kept a steady flow of music, and no one came by to interrupt my shelf-reading focus. I completely zoned out to become a shelf-reading machine.
I was three books away from finishing my entire section when my manager finally found me. I had spent three and a half hours lost in my own little world of music and dusty books. My manager had thought that I had had a watch and had gone off to teach a class somewhere outside of the library. Everyone else thought that I had gone home or was off doing other assignments. As for me, I thought that I had been making good time and that my two hours were almost up. Sheesh. I returned to the human world amazed at how much time had passed and that my shift was almost over. There had even been a thunder storm while I was in my cocoon!
Now I am know for my "dedication" to shelf-reading because I was too embarrassed to admit to my zombie-like trance. Good grief. Beware the realm where time has no meaning lest yea become the next Rip Van Butler!