Library

I didn't discover libraries until this year.

It's really bad, I know. Truthfully, I always had kind of a mindset against libraries, because I am the type of person who thinks one thing for some reason and then won't unthink it until the world ends or I reach a revelation.

I even worked in a library for a year without once taking advantage of it.

Eventually, though, my revelation was that the library is more than a place to get books to read. And the reason I went there was because I absolutely had to, for class, and I had a really bad attitude about it. But honestly, isn't it the coolest idea ever that there is a place where I can check out any book I want for any length of time? Also there are rolling bookshelves and laptops you can rent for free and incredibly snazzy armchairs and an Einstein Bros. There are international students who practically live here. Since I am currently in a state commonly known as "strapped for cash", I have almost completely gotten over my "I don't want to read it unless it's mine" mentality. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome to have a book that's unquestionably mine, and I can read it at any pace I want and however many times I want, and I can put it in my bookshelf with a sense of pride, but being able to borrow books for free opens up a whole new vista of possibility. The other day I checked out Watchmen, a book I would never buy but which is so far awesome and eye-opening (I don't have a lot of experience with graphic novels).

I came here today to work on a paper I have to write that was absolutely not getting done in my room. I can't really get homework done in my room because my own space is a productivity black hole. I can't work if the space is messy, and cleaning up leads to all sorts of other distractions, all of which are a futile attempt to escape the fact that I have imminent deadlines to meet. Today I was so intent on distracting myself that I cut my hair. It's all right though. It wasn't completely rash, I mean I'd been thinking about it for a while, so I have no immediate regrets. I came to the library to do my work, because the feeling of being just one panicked student in a building filled with panicked students somehow helps me focus.

The rolling bookshelves did kind of freak me out though.

NaNoWriMo and Movember: no-gos.

We went all of October without writing a single blog post.

Any this is supposed to the blogging season for us! I guess that's just a testament to all the other stuff we have going on in our lives these days. Being busy is lame sometimes. You know what's even lamer? Being so busy that I don't have time to think, eat, or sleep. That is what my Spring 2013 is looking like right now. I enrolled for classes yesterday and I'm already starting to freak out a little bit. I had to decide on the spot that I'm dropping my French minor because if I don't, I won't be able to graduate in 2014, and honestly I can't imagine many things more depressing than that. I am not even that much of a fan of French - at this point it is both boring me and stressing me out, and I don't want that. When I want is to be able to meet a language on my own terms, and since French is only serving to intensify my school-elated stress, I'm not very sad to see it go.

That said, I don't for one second intend to abandon it. But right now my priority is to graduate so I can get on with my life already.

Yesterday my roommate put up a Wallflower, and within an hour our room smelled like Christmas. After I made coffee this morning, it smelled like the inside of a Starbucks. I would bet real money that when I go to my French test tomorrow, the girl who sits next to me will say, "Now you even smell like a hipster" (though it could be argued that hipsters, depending on your definition, are more likely to smell of patchouli and body odor). The other day she proposed that we go to Westport and "do whatever you hipsters do." There was never a more telling testament to the atmosphere at UCM than that people here see me  as a hipster. I've since gotten over it. I should try discussing my obscure yet trendy music taste with anyone who will listen, and see what happens.

The next step is pairing garters with shorts. It's the final fashion frontier.



Suit jacket underneath overalls? Professional-meets-earthy-farmboy. Risky, yet with a dash of untouchable class.