Isthmus Be My Lucky Day

Hey, I got a guest post from Golf Widow!

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Hi. I'm guest posting for The Diminutive Person Whose Name is a Strange-Looking Symbol and Who is Associated with the Color Purple, But Does Not Sing about Berets, Raspberry or Otherwise.

Well, you know what I mean. Purple Chai, not The Artist Currently Known as Prince, Formerly Known As the Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

Geez, his name's a mouthful. Rather, it's a handful, if you're typing.

Sorry. Saw something shiny.

Purple Chai is a Library Lady. I have a deeply rooted affection for Library Ladies, having been around them, literally, my whole life.

My mother, pre-college, worked at her town library and if I hadn't known that anyway, there was the fact that you could show her any book spine and she could tell you the Dewey Decimal number for it, often to at least one decimal place. Off the top of her head.

Even without that, there was that box of neatly-typed index cards, alphebetized by title, of song lyrics, including the recording artists and release dates.

And the fact that, after we kids started school, Mom started volunteering at our school's library. We had a librarian, who wasn't really all that smart, and we had Mom, who was the Library Lady. My friends learned how to use the card catalog to find what they needed because Mom showed them how, and they often came to me and said, "Your mom helps me pick out the best books." I was terribly proud of her.

I was four when I got my first library card. They told me I couldn't have one, because you have to be big enough to write your own name. Just because I couldn't see over the top of the desk didn't mean I couldn't write my name. I could. So they had to break down and give me one. It was blue. I carried it everywhere, in my shiny red pocketbook, just in case I needed to take out a book in an emergency.

My favorite library people were on the Bookmobile, when I was little. May was the Library Lady, who checked out your books; Lee was a Library MAN, who drove the Bookmobile and checked your old books back in when you got aboard.

Lee's last name was Reed, and I always thought that was, like, a perfect name for a Library Person.

I knew a lot of Library People over the years, and they got to know me, too. I was the one who preferred to hide somewhere and read the books IN the library to taking them out and reading them at home. They put up with this, because, having been raised in a Library Lady family, I was always quiet, I never brought in food, and I treated the books with the utmost respect.

When I was in high school, one of the Library Ladies took especial notice of me and recruited me for the High School Bowl team. We began having practices in the library, which was as much social as it was incredibly geeky and educational. Most of my fondest high school memories revolved around that back table in the library, near the biographies, and the smell of books, potato chips (Mrs. K, the Library Lady who mentored our team, did allow food as long as it was after school hours and we cleaned up after ourselves), and nerds with highlighters.

I think Purple Chai was the first Library Lady to make contact with me on the Web. She gravitated to my old Diaryland diary and I'm not sure what it was about me that attracted her, but she had me from "library", and we have been friends, ever since.

I haven't seen her in person in over a thousand days, and I know this because the last time I saw her was my thousandth day since quitting smoking, and as I write this, I'm at my two thousand and third day. (But who's counting?)

Last time Purple Chai and I saw each other, we ate Chinese food; next time, we'll probably have to have something more kind to her system. I hate that she's got Crohn's. I can't speak from experience, but I know enough people who have it to know that it's horrifically uncomfortable and difficult to live with. I wish I could take it away from her.

Until we can see each other in person again, I will have to content myself with visiting her here, but that's a lot easier than you would think, because Purple Chai has a way of describing her life that makes it easy to pretend you're right there with her.

I think it's the Library Lady in her.


WATCHING L/O :: ENTRY #1676