Category: Academia

In my current sleep-deprived state (finding a spider on the ceiling right before bedtime can make for a restless night), I could only muster up the energy for a list.

Things I have seen in Ithaca recently:

• Squirrels raiding my bird feeder using what looks like a tiny rope and pulley system. Clever little bastards.
• Big frikkin’ waterfall a block from my house.
• An old man out running with a Walkman. He waved each time we passed each other on the loop around the lake.
• A friendly dog leaping on a Frisbee outside the Veterinarian Fraternity.
• Hundreds of underdressed undergraduates returning to campus, getting very excited about things like decks of playing cards and free checking accounts.
• The empty aisles of the local Target store after three days of back-to-school frenzy. It looked like Vikings had raided the hardware section. All that was left were a few drop cloths and a toilet plunger.
• 1 big grouchy falcon
• 2 dead squirrels (Connection?)
• Hills. Calf-developing, 45-degree-angle, don’t-drop-that-bowling-ball-or-you’ll-kill-someone, Swiss Alp-style hills.
• Orioles, goldfinches, cardinals and other birds with irrefutable fashion sense.
• Students throwing stones across the library roof in order to make a nifty PLOINK! noise and incidentally contributing to the erosion of the roof drainage system. Never underestimate the power of a nifty PLOINK! noise. The big “Stone Throwing is Prohibited” sign on the roof seems only to have institutionalized this pastime. I often watch people walk by, see the sign, get this “oh yeah, I forgot about the stone thing” look on their face, and then toss a stone. Way to go with the totally intimidating sign. I think we as librarians have to accept the fact that we are not, in any way, sources of fear or respect among potential stone throwers, and our stern signs are really just sad attempts to influence a demographic that we can never truly reach or even understand.
• Beavers. Two. Swimming in the pond outside the Lab of Ornithology. Their tails are HUGE.
• A storm brewing that looks like it will hit just in time for my walk home, giving me the much needed shower that I missed this morning due to the no-sleep-spiders-will-eat-me incident mentioned earlier.