Dare I Say It...HUZZAH!

Today was spent in Montco's somewhat disappointing library, a place relatively sad/frustrating when one is fresh from Pitt's fantastic Hillman Library (twice as many stories, twenty times as many books, easily). The online cat wasn't as good, I was surrounded by people either a) talking to their friends or b) muttering their notes aloud to themselves as they transcribe them onto a word document (i will cut a bitch), and Brendlinger simply doesn't have as much stuff. I typed 'decolonization' and 'Ghana' into the Webcat and got zero--ZERO results. Ouch. Had to sort of research my way around my paper topic, and (thanks to the LOC system) pull up a call number, venture into the stacks, and hope for the best.

But just before I got up to begin exploring the sad, sad library, I saw the coolest library feature OF MY LIFE. Up in the corner of the MC3 webcat page was a little text link--"im a librarian." INSTANT MESSAGE the librarian? HOW DO YOU MEAN? [in the words of the great mr. wambold] I was so excited. Of course, I didn't really have any questions aside from "where are the stacks?" You'd think it wouldn't be that hard in a library with 3 stories, each about the size of two classrooms pushed together, but hey. It was my first time. I didn't get to play with the instant messenger feature. Seriously, though. What a good idea.

So after I figured out the somewhat confusing system (the stacks are split between the first and third floors...what?) I checked out my sub-par findings (upon looking at the return slips in the back of the book I discovered that the book most recently checked out was last opened THIRTY YEARS AGO--I can't even talk about the copyright dates) and went over to the sweet little coffee shop in the new tech. ed building. Snazzy. I got my second 16 oz. latte of the day (bringing my espresso consumption up to 5 shots) and sat to read for some ridiculous amount of time before momma picked me up for middle eastern food. Pitas, hummus, and a nice salad with feta. Yum.

Wait. Does this sound familiar? It should to all of my govies--this day could've taken place in Oakland (minus the dissapointment) just as easily as in Blue Bell. Of course, the trip to the library might've been with Sara, the coffee might've been with Charna or Raaj or Kristen (or whomever I stumbled upon at the Caribou), Lunch might've been with Leah or the dress-up crew or ICONS buddies. Given the time to reflect (or, more appropriately, debrief), I was shocked. A gov-school-ish life? HERE in upper middle outer nowhere? Perhaps there is hope. Part of me thinks I should shed the academic shell that I seemed to grow at Gov School and get back to life as usual--perhaps darken my ungodly pale skin, sit on the back porch perusing The Most Evil Women in History, go on yet another biking adventure. But right now, this feels right. I mean, my life certainly wasn't perfect pre-gov. I think this is where I need to be, and the fact that I pooled my resources and made it possible here at home says something HUGE.

I think it says "Allow your inner nerd to shine through." If that's what my gut's saying, then by god, I'll brush the dust off my ironic t-shirt, turn up my Beethoven (Shastakovich if I'm feeling frisky), stick a pencil in my hair and let it be.