JoelNothman.com

On Tuesday night I got to spend a romantic evening with my girlfriend, Naomi. We stayed up all night, side by side, until dawn broke… underneath the library, writing papers. Thankfully McGill is well-equipped for the procrastinator’s ultimate end: the all-nighter. The library itself—alas—closes its stacks at quarter-to-one each night. So, seeing as I still needed a few secondary sources for my then 45-page paper I spent the hour before closing ransacking the sixth floor bookshelves, aided by my syllabus and the library catalogue as I carried my computer around. The books stacked on the carrel, beside the one Naomi studied in, the library announced its closing and started playing an annoying (manual) bell. We gathered the books, made our way down to ground floor, put each of our cards in the self-loaning machines, and split the pile of books in two.

There were a few options from there: home was a possibility, but with my bag of books?; one other was the “fishbowl”, a maze of desks in the Redpath library building; or the computer lab, a little further down the walkway, more organised with straight rows of machines. We opted, though, for downstairs where the cafeteria was still open serving coffee, although there were plenty of vending machines beside. Either way, I had brought a pear, a muffin bar, and a few lollies, so we wouldn’t really be needing them. Next to the cafeteria are a collection of desks, some equipped with computers, and unlike in the fishbowl or computer lab, here we would be able to talk. A few more people stayed the night; others came and went.

And so it was, her on a public machine, me on my own, my piles of books sorted by subject between us; writing, editing, 50 pages becoming 60… Dawn and Naomi was completed. I still had some editing to go. I had thought to hand my paper in by 9, even though that meant going home to print it and then finding some shop to bind it for me. It also meant finishing it on time, which of course didn’t happen. So I got to the print and copy place (thankfully only 15m away from where I was working) by 11 instead, and there found it was quite simple, and quite cheap, to have them print and bind something for you. So I eventually ran the paper down and had a brief chat with the prof, exchanged holiday greetings, and wandered home; morning prayers in tribute to what was left of it; a nap through till lunchtime.

At least, then, the holidays had begun. Time to start thinking about how I was going to actually get to all the places I had planned to. Time to say goodbye to Jawina who was preparing to return to Amsterdam—no gift: poetry for farewell? limmericks? what rhymes with Jawina anyway? And goodbye to the others even though I’d see them soon. Time to watch the possessions of Rachel and Abby(in the end the only others leaving Hillel) being packed for an apartment on Durocher; box after box of Rachel’s mysteriously-accumulated books. Time to think over again my choices for classes at McGill for the coming semester.

Being the time for so many things, there wasn’t really the time. Barely organised (but mostly well-packed), I still found myself on the Greyhound to Boston the next afternoon…

PS: Sorry for the long break: people tend to dig themselves into holes during exam period here…