taking notes

When this library is full, I hate it and I love it. Why I hate it is students camping out in front of our office door and long, long lines and loud noises (despite everything) and tripping over laptop cords. Why I love it is along the lines of gawking and appreciating humanity and sheer entertainment value. I wrote a bunch of it down this week while rounding the stacks. Spilled coffee in stairwell B. The unflaggingly polite and helpful student assistant at the circulation desk. Hummus. Jimmy John's x 4. Chick-fil-A x 6. The periodical room reeking of stale male. The reference section oddly smelling of hay. Tom Hiddleston on public computers. An anachronistic boy studying in the stacks without a laptop, tablet, headphones, or a cell phone visible (gasp). A conversation about baked macaroni. Lots of neon pink. Laptops streaming Parks & Rec, Sons of Anarchy, and New Girl, just from what I recognized. A sun salutation. A stack of flash cards a foot high. 'Nope, she's not going home until Thanksgiving. She's really not doing well. She just stays in bed all day watching tv.' Bible guy relentlessly palming off little green New Testaments. A couple awkwardly spooning in a too-small couch. Second nicest cleaning lady losing her shit at a student ignoring 'this area being cleaned, please keep out' sign. Nicest cleaning lady dusting plants. Pizza. Three students at one table asleep, or in a posture of sleep. Earnest girl to earnest guy: 'I just really want to work with older adults with Alzheimer's.' A tube top and a thin scarf on a 50° day. Red shoes and pink pants. A study group rising in volume until one member says, 'as it says in the Bible, 'quiet, woman!'' The third floor smelling of everything bagels. 'It'll be totally worth it to pay $200 for the hotel room.'