...of charm and strange: the blog

I'm sitting here in Odegaard, the undergraduate library here at the University of Washington, and I'm thinking about how glad I am that it's open 24 hours, because no matter how stressed out I get over term papers or final exams, no matter what ungodly hour of the night, I can come here and find someone freaking out over something way worse. Sometimes I like to sit next to these people and stifle vindictive laughter for hours on end.

How many hours of my three college years have I spent here? I edited Guns of Religion here. I've researched and written papers on such topics as Scottish folklore, film noir, Sylvia Plath, German cinema, and demographic transition theory. These things always seem so unbearable at the time. I couldn't count upon how many instances I have wished I never had to pull another all-nighter.

But earlier today, I looked back on all that suffering, and I must admit to feeling more than a twinge of sadness that it was over.

Then I remembered that I have one more paper to write before I'm actually finished with this quarter. And as I walked back into the library tonight, I thought, This is some fucking bullshit right here.