I have to get my prescriptions refilled, so that I can pick things up and manipulate simple tools etc. I've already been caught by a prescription running out unexpectedly and having to phone my doctor and the pharmacy and the rheumatologist's office in order to get more Naproxen. Maybe, I thought to myself, I was supposed to stop taking it and not renew the prescription? Why else would it end before my next appt?
I'm such a chronic illness n00b.
Things to fuss about: the plants being watered while I'm gone. That the peas and beans will all come in, and wither on the vine. The Transparent apples will come ripe and fall and rot instantly (Transparents are like that) and none of them will last to be dehydrated. Whether I'll get any writing done. I'm bringing the laptop, but experience suggests that I'll spend much of the day lying very quietly in the shade, hoping it will be cooler after the sun goes down. Still, we have electricity in the tent, so it will be possible to write and revise, if I can find a way to sit up and do it.
Things to be pleased about: missing some large chunk of the construction going on at the university, as they append a building that is not a library and contains no books (Centre for Learning, it's called, as if most buildings on campus had nothing to do with learning.
I shall miss the 'deconstruction of the exterior walls', referred to in several emails. I'm quite curious which philosopher will be brought in to deal with this. Presumably someone quite persuasive, or who has taught enough undergraduate courses to be familiar with speaking to brick walls.
But enough heavy-handed sarcasm. How about straightforward annoyance?
This quoted from the Library Gateway:
Name the McPherson Library Café Contest
UVic Libraries invites all UVic students, faculty and staff to participate in a contest to name the new café that will be opening on the main floor of the McPherson Library this fall as part of the Mearns Centre for Learning.
Please go to: http://gateway.uvic.ca/coffee between July 3rd and July 20th, 2007 to submit your suggestion(s). Participants may enter the contest as many times as they like.
The winning suggestion will be chosen by the University Librarian and a panel of judges.
The winner will receive a $50 HFCS card to spend at the new café and other Food Services locations on campus.
******************************************
Yes, that's correct, there will be a cafe attached to the library. The contest is being advertised in the library's elevators and stairwells, with posters in an early-60s scribbly pastel style. The graphics are a ponytailed girl sipping coffee over her laptop, and a steaming coffee cup balanced precariously on a stack of books.
Usually this poster is right across from the one that advises that there shall be no food or drink in the library and explains how spills and crumbs attract vermin and damage books.
About half my job is replacing damaged books (and lost/stolen books). The library already has a conveyer-belt book return that reliably damages heavier or fragile books. Now we're making it even easier for students to bring food and books into intimate relationship with each other.
Really, I have plenty to do for the next couple of years, just with what I have on hand. Really.
I suppose I can use it all as material when I get around to writing Bookwyrms. In the meantime perhaps I should suggest some names for the cafe.
Coffee Rings
Stained Pages
It Was Soaking Wet When I Signed It Out (yes, this has been given as an excuse)
Crumbs & Spills
But I said I was done with the heavy-handed sarcasm, didn't I? So I'll stop
2 comments:
OK, you made me laugh out loud *twice* in reading this. Deconstruction indeed.
I like "Coffee Rings" -- really -- it actually reminds me of the Ring Road, too. I think you should submit it before you go.
In theory we will still have the same rules about food and drink in the library; the cafe will be a separate area, accessible through the lobby but not from inside the library. In theory.
I'm far more willing to believe that we can keep food out of the library than I am to believe that we can keep books out of the cafe.
Sure, bookstores combine food with books, but what does Borders lose in stock each year through food damage? And they have the option (if they catch the person) of invoking china-shop privilege and making them buy it regardless. That one's not open to us.
Grump grump, wave cane threateningly.
I've submitted Coffee Rings as a suggestion. Also, Shush! because I'm so witty and original. If I win the coupon, I'll treat you to coffee/tea and a snack, okay?
-Barbara
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