White Out

The title is self-explanatory I guess. Today we have heavy heavy snows falling in the city, making everything lovely, and everyone slow. My commute was akin to trying to run on a sandy beach, with my incredibly heavy snow boots on, and the 3+ inches of snow to slog through. Amazingly enough, I managed to beat the bus on the mile walk to the el stop; the people of Chicago were more diligent in their sidewalk shoveling than the plows were in clearing the surface roads, so apparently I had an easier time than the motorists.
As a result of the city's slowdown, things are quiet in the library today, which plays a bit part in why I am blogging. With some hope, I may be able to catch up on my 'to do' list here if things remain calm - hopefully in writing this, I haven't managed to jinx myself.

As nerdy as it gets...

It's 7:30am, I've been up all night slogging through my final Cataloging and Classification I assignment on Dewey and LC, and I have the nerdiest mental comparison of what my struggle felt like to me. The imaginary conversation goes a little something like this:

Me: "You know that part in that LOTR movie where Gandalf fights that fire demon, you know... the Balrog?"

Nameless/Faceless Person: *Blank stare - clearly wondering where I'm going with this*

Me: "Well, anyway, I felt like my night-long battle with Dewey Decimal number building and Library of Congress classification numbers were analogous to Gandalf's struggle with the fiery entity in the dark pit deep in the Mines of Moria - Nobody knew that I was still awake and struggling with it, but in the end I triumphed and became a more powerful wizard... errr librarian..."

Nameless/Faceless Person: *No response except for generally shunning me for the embarassment I have become*

Hopefully my prof. doesn't write "You shall not pass!" on my assignment...


There we have it, blog friends; possibly the nerdiest thought to have ever crossed my mind, and that's saying a lot. Damn you, library school... damn you!!!

Austounding feats of animal strength and cunning

In the last 48 hours, my place of employment has gone from quiet library to amateur hour for Wild Kingdom; I guess that's not all that surprising, considering that one of my closest work friends blows up snakes (literally) and scrutinizes jars of pickled reptiles for genitalia for a living.

Yesterday it was The Great Escape, starring one very large and determined millipede from the entomology collections department. At about 1pm, during a lull, my boss noticed what she believed to be a fat pen cap begin to move of its own power on the floor of the library reading room; upon closer analysis, she determined that the possessed writing accessory was actually a medium-sized brown diplopod creeping its way across the burgundy carpet. The AWOL millipede was quickly scooped up, not by me, and taken back to his lair about three halls over. Three halls may not sound like a long way to anyone else, but in a massive building like The Field Museum, to a small critter, it's probably a full day's journey. That's a lot of determination shown on the part of one little bug; undoubtedly he was drawn to the library by the smell of my fear.

Today it is The Field Museum Library's adaptation of The Birds, featuring one very cunning sparrow that is currently hiding out in the main stacks. The threat of the intruder has been minimized, and pest control has been called, but it remains to be seen whether or not the bird will be camping out here over the Thanksgiving holiday break. While all of this initially struck me as being pretty funny, the novelty quickly wore off when the icy reality hit me that as the circulations grunt, the task would fall to me to clean all the bird shit off the books after all is said and done. God's speed, Sergio the pest guy.

Not much to report here lately in the city of Chicago. We've been experiencing some unseasonably warm weather the last couple of weeks yet, inexplicably, where I work within the museum is holding it down at an unbearable 50F. Needless to say, I've been shelving books while wearing two hoodies (both hoods up to cover my Dumbo ears) while in the main stacks, only to have to peel all those layers off when I head elsewhere in the building. You have to love the state-of-the-art climate control we have it; it was a million times worse when I worked in Anthropology storage, especially considering it was summer (shorts and flipflops) and the temps would sometimes fluctuate between the 50's and the 70's in different areas - you never knew what you were going to get, so you couldn't dress for the weather in there.
So, here I am, now sitting at the reference desk in the main library, doing circulation statistics and drinking weak tea from an over-used teabag in order to fight off hypothermia (yes, I am too cheap to just go get another bag). Thankfully there is cake featuring prominently in the foreseeable future because it is one of my co-worker's birthdays. Bless her for feeding my sugar cravings; perhaps that rush of chemically-induced energy that I'm about to get will cause me to feel somewhat above arctic in terms of body temperature for the rest of the day.
If you're reading this, happy birthday M., and thanks in advance for the cake!