Library thoughts

I went to bed at 9, woke up around 2:15 as one who drinks tea near bedtime often does, and can't get back to sleep at the moment, so I thought maybe blogging would help.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent roughly 2 1/2 hours in the library working on various things- readings and homework for my night class, reading some Highlands of Scotland drama (seriously, it's like a giant, bloody soap opera!), and writing some ideas out for short stories. Anyway, I sat in a corner by the windows so I would have a nice little view if I wanted it, and the breeze flowing it from the open window at the very end row of windows. (Side note: How many times can I use the word 'window' in a sentence?)

Now, I don't consider myself ADD, but I'm easily irritated by noises if I'm trying to study. I'm a very 'zone' person - I get into a zone of studying or reading, and while background noise is fine, generally random noises bother me. Those 'random' noises happened to be a loud car out of the fifteen that went down the street, or ambulance and/or police sirens, and the sounds of big, diesel-using semis or eighteen-wheelers that cruise down the Main Street of Montevallo.

Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love Montevallo. I love that virtually everything is in walking distance. Tuscaloosa's nice for visiting, but I personally don't think I'd be happy there. Walking everywhere can sometimes be a chore, unless you leave incredibly early; that's fine for people who don't mind that, and all the more to them for not driving if they get their exercise that way, but I love the coziness that is the Montevallo campus. Think about it: the farthest building is just a street over (many buildings I know that belong to the UM campus are just a street over, not just Jeter).

But the constant stream of eighteen-wheelers making their way from plants down the road, or those annoying people that exist everywhere that have to have their mufflers amplified/taken off/think they're hot stuff because their car is noisy, tend to poke at my love for Montevallo as a town (because as a campus, we don't have much annoying traffic; it's not unheard of for a loud car to go barreling down the brick streets, but it's certainly not as annoying as the main street). Sitting by the window, I heard many a car that sounded like it was going to fall apart and eighteen-wheelers hissing, their diesel engines noisy as they are.

And I got to thinking: the library is a wonderful place. Yesterday was the first time I've ever just sat in there to do work, and it was a great feeling. I certainly plan to do more of it, especially on MWF, as that is when I have the largest block of time, and usually have work for Tuesday and Thursday (four classes in one day, so work's plentiful). But the constant sound of cars was something that didn't bode well for me.

Now, I'm not an anti-car snob; I realize that without cars, I wouldn't go to half the places I do, and would you? If you had to bike everywhere, or- heaven forbid- walk, then would you go to the Summit all the time? Would you go out to eat as much? (Unless you're one of those people who, oh I dunno, exercise, and do stuff like that.) We all take cars for granted, unless of course you don't have one. And sirens are a necessity for emergencies (is that redundant?). But sometimes- just sometimes- I wish cars would be silent, or disappear for a few hours, at least from my mind and ears.

This is kind of a silly example, but I got to thinking about Hogwarts: out in the middle of Scotland in the countryside, no cars (well, aside from a flying Ford Anglia that might pop up here or there), and no electricity, only relying on candles and maybe gas lamps (the latter is totally unsupported by text, but I wonder if they do...). Sounds like the perfect environment. Of course, there would still be outside noise: people yelling and/or talking, and...well, uh, people yelling and/or talking. No bad-boys with their loud mufflers and booming radios who feel the streets are their personal racetracks, no diesel trucks struggling just to go 30 mph, no police sirens and ambulance sirens and fire-engine sirens. It must be nice.

Anyway, I was able to get my work done, and like I said, the library was a positive enough experience for me to want to, and plan to, go many more times. But it would be nice if I could block out the sounds of cars. Unfortunately, I find a little bit of ADD kicks in then, and it's hard. Maybe next time I'll seek out a different corner (somewhere out of the way of people would be nice).


(Side note #2: The picture I'm including is a screencap from the movie Dangerous Beauty, the story of a real-life sixteenth-century Venetian courtesan - one of the cortigiana onesta, or 'the intellectual courtesan' according to Wikipedia. Margaret Rosenthal has written a book about her called The Honest Courtesan, which I've been in the process of reading for years now, as I keep getting sidetracked. This book is what the movie is based on, although of course, the movie is highly romanticized.

Veronica Franco, according to the movie, was always reading, but of course, it was unfitting of a lady to be so educated, and becoming a courtesan opened the intellectual world to her. One of my favorite lines from the movie is "One of a woman's greatest and most hard-won asset is an education," a line you'll see in my Facebook profile in that little box beneath my profile picture. The picture I'm including is of her upon entering the library that is now open to her. Well, I thought it fitting, although, as you may have guessed, I'm not a courtesan, much less a sixteenth-century Venetian one. However, my name in French class, Véronique, was one she inspired.)