Day 47 - Library Card

I rode my bike to the public library today. I had Delilah and all kinds of books and notepads, in order to get to "work". I obtained a library card, and scanned the whole library for an electric outlet. This library is essentially four large rooms. The first is for children, the second houses their general collection, the third holds the audio visual materials and the fourth is a reference room. There were two power strips underneath a table in the third room. Everyone with a laptop was crowded around this table. That's one way to get to know the folks in your community. I staked out a spot, stretched out my power cord and got to work. I had grand plans of drafting emails, researching repositories and tweaking my resume, then I realized that I had committed to writing 3 articles for the DuSable museum by September 10th. The articles are supposed to provide background information on the some of the exhibits in the museum. As I was researching and writing, I realize that this is something that could be published! I will continue to work on them tomorrow and into next week. After a couple of hours to break up the monotony, I cracked open my Archivist Internship book that I bought at the conference. I went through the exercises that the authors proposed and came up with the description of my perfect position. This is valuable information to have as I approach potential mentors and employers.

Of course it starts to rain while I'm in the library. Once again my bicycle seat was soaked, but I had my sweater, wiped it down and went on about my business. My plans to go with Lauren to the jazz festival fell through so I spent the afternoon cleaning and watching college football. After a couple of hours I walked to the grocery store to get the ingredients for the recipe that I pulled 4 days ago. It was a tomato/pork chop stir fry over brown rice. I will be eating it tomorrow and the next day because I wound up meeting Rachna for sushi tonight. When we were talking, I happened to mention, in jest, that she was indecisive/picky about ordering, and she said that I had offended her. I felt a sickness in the pit of my stomach. I said that I didn't mean to make her feel that way. Then she compared it to the "shy" episode from last week, and I couldn't argue. She explained that she is trying to find her niche for vegetarian foods in our neighborhood, and it is important that the servers get it right.

She also said that perhaps because of my age, I may not be accepting of other people, I assume that she meant her choice to be a vegetarian. I wanted to argue and tell her about the diversity of my friends but I did not stoop to that cliche. In the paraphrased words of D.L. Hughley, if you can count how many Black people have been in your house, you might be a racist. I am up for self evaluation and constructive criticism, but this is just not true. I may not agree with people but I do not try to change them or degrade them because of their position. It wasn't worth continuing the argument but it is frustating when people get the wrong idea about who you are. Between me, Rachna and Lauren, our issues with ourselves and one another could fill the Space Needle. I don't remember having such a turbulent early friendship period with people that I have met in the past. Maybe because there is money (rent), new to the city concerns, burgeoning careers, and experienced women involved, it is harder to stay on the fun, superficial side of things. I thought that I had a good grasp on how to interact with Rachna, but I guess I need to keep scanning for landmines, and never lose touch with the ones who know me best.