Library

    I found this on my computer the other day. I'm pretty sure I wrote this sometime last summer.

I got a library card last week and I've been there three times since then. It's very easily becoming one of my favorite places in Lafayette. It has this sort of 1970s vibe to it...the architecture, the style, the windows, the chairs. The first time I went, I was looking for a GRE prep book. The guy from the circulation desk that was helping find the book asked me what I was going for. I told him anthropology. He said that he had received his masters from LSU in the same field. His thesis was on political cartoons pertaining to Native Americans and the casino industry. It didn't surprise me that he was an anthro major. We talked for awhile about anthropology and graduate school, our only shared piece of history. He was a pleasant fellow with a long black ponytail streaked with grey, although I left feeling slightly disheartened. He has a masters degree in cultural anthropology and is working at the circulation desk at the local library.
    Yesterday Joi and I rode our bikes down there again. Another reason I love the library, I get to ride through downtown to get there. She got her own copy of the Catcher in the Rye, then we proceeded to check out. While the lady was checking us out, I told her that I thought the library card keychains were a great idea. (When you sign up for a library card you get a normal library card and another one that goes on your key chain. It looks like one of those win-dixie money-saving keychain cards.) She looked up and after a long pause said "....okaaay." Really dragged it out too. It's like she really didn't know how to respond to me. It was as though she was thinking, "this is strictly a business transaction, no conversation necessary." Kind of fun to breakup someone's normal routine with human interaction.
    When we were leaving the old security who sits near the door said "I'm beginning to feel like I've known you two for a long time." For we had talked to him in that very same spot the day before. Laughter followed us out the door and we hopped on our blue bikes and rode home. The end.