Walk-O-Rama: COPS – Library Edition

On this day, May 21st, at approximately, 12pm, numerous risks were taken by library folk, who are not generally risk takers.  Innocent choices spiraled into outright lawlessness, ending in a crime unlike anyone in library world has seen for at least a day or so. Allow me to illustrate this chain of events.

We knew we were in shady territory when David Weiner arrived, all sleeveless and bragging about the AM hour in which he was able to get up and do his laundry, being that he is retired and all.  Here is a man who clearly makes his own rules.  The empty laundromat at this time of day proves that assertion. Being that he had come all this way, we felt obligated to go face the heat out-of-doors.  So ill-prepared were we for this actual walk that we had not thought of a destination.  In fact, one was not planned until we were mere feet away from arrival.  Celeste made the bold decision of where to walk today, and that was not the end to her risk taking.  No, chopsticks were soon to be used, and are now actually her weapon of choice (at least for the first strike). We were happy to be back at Ten 89 Noodle House, especially since they had AC. Sweet, sweet AC.

Has anyone seen this man? He is wanted by WOR for Pen-Gate scandal questioning. Read on.

John instructs Celeste on proper chopstick usage before discretely backing away to take cover

Chopstick success! Celeste earns a well deserved fork for her effort

As we were served, David took the opportunity to slip away, virtually unnoticed (obviously, since we were now entranced by our delicious looking meals).  Where he was for the next half hour or so no one can say. But we were met with chaos when we returned to the library. And all fingers pointed to David as the culprit!

First stop: the Music Library, where an uproar had been caused over an alleged pen incident.  Pen-Gate, as it shall now be known, drew instant attention from the Campus Police, and almost certainly the FBI as well, as they have been monitoring the goings on of the Music Library staff for years.  Apparently, or so I am imagining, a pen was coveted by some person unknown to us and soon after taken. Threats were made. Lies were told.   Fingers were snapped, which is apparently the way the musically inclined display their aggression.

West Campus Side Story, where a storm is brewing in the Music Library

All this craziness so absorbed the attention of the Campus Police that they disregarded entirely the crime that was committed in Kristen’s office.  According to sources, a takeout container had been insecurely fastened, leaving the helpless juices no choice but to leak all over. It was a horrific scene to behold, and such an injustice to food lovers everywhere. Food container sabotage, surely!  Was this pen confusion just an excuse not to respond, as Kristen believes? So the Central Reading Room is in a less classier part of the building. And yes, the heat there is rather stifling.  But there are some of us who believe that there were deeper biases to blame.  Perhaps because the egg in that container was brown and not white?  This is, after all, the reason why it was not eaten by Ken. Are we not above such primitive egg color prejudices? So the container remains where it was left, on the floor, waiting in vain for the authorities to come investigate it to prove once and for all that this container unlocking was just another in a long line of crimes committed by David, who, as we have noted, has no alibis from the time of 12:30-1pm.  Walk-O-Rama will have to look into this further.

Today’s brown egg hate crime will surely remain one of the great unsolved mysteries

But until then, we hope you will think long and hard about all the reasons you should join Walk-O-Rama next week.  There are many indeed. Hope to see you there!

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Walk-O-Rama: Leaderless Wanderers

On this weeks episode of Walk-O-Rama we ventured out for the first time without our fearless leader, Kristen. Without her reminders and suggestions for dates and/or places to go, it is a miracle that we were able to organize on our own. Well… at least a few of us were able to.

We ventured off in the general direction of the train. Surprisingly we were able to fight the temptation to jump on a train to JFK to travel to a faraway land, unlike some of our more lucky colleagues. Instead we walked over the train tracks to the row of restaurants to ‘travel’ to another land via food.

The temptation of food outweighed the temptation of travel

Today’s ‘travel’ was to China. We dined once again at the lovely Noodle House. This ‘travel’ successfully filled our cravings and was much quicker and easier than the 13+ hour flight to Beijing. Leaving happily satisfied we slowly sauntered back to campus realizing that we really were not on vacation and that we still had half of the day left at work.

Proof of the happy customers

We ended the walk back at Kristen’s office to leave her a little welcome back ‘holiday surprise’. More on that on next weeks episode.

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Walk-O-Rama: a rose by any other name would still be just as lazy

Today seemed uncharacteristically difficult when it came time to assemble participants for our walk.  So many people seemed to have excuses already prepared, as if they had been formulating them and rehearsing their rejections to sound natural and convincing for days. Some stuttered in their replies upon initial questioning, but regained composure as they imagined the hot temperatures they would have to endure outside if they failed to seem genuine in their urgent need for refusal.  Suddenly four people were scheduled to be at the Reference Desk at one time, and they began to fight over the normally tedious task in order to claim the rights to the most official sounding justification for skipping out.  The losers of the battle sulked away with heads hung low, pointing to some far-off direction and babbling incoherently in an attempt to make it look like they had other very important backup work to be rushing off to do instead.  Some “went to get their purse” and were never seen again – you know who you are! 😉 But those of us who had gathered at the horseshoe were up to the challenge of battling the heat in order to escape the midweek humdrum of our stuffy offices.

As we walked, we began to notice a peculiar site in an adjacent field.  A small group of summer camp children were apparently under siege by an enormous frog, who was consuming them two at a time and then spitting them back out.  It was a bit shocking at first, until we realized that the amphibious apparatus was merely an inflatable boot camp simulation platform cleverly shaped like a frog, clearly meant to prepare them for survival after the approaching apocalypse.  When our attention spans were no longer captivated by the idea of a real gigantic frog eating little people, we began to ponder other topics, such as our identity as a group.  Such moments of reflection are healthy for any group on which a title has been bestowed, and Walk-O-Rama is no exception.  We considered all of this as we were on our way to eat, which admittedly has become the sole function of our gatherings.  Some have jested that our team ought more appropriately be named Eat-O-Rama instead, and their argument is a valid one.  We do spend a lot of time sitting and eating.  But we must walk there first…

Children prepare themselves for the fun, obstacle strewn paths that lie before them in the real world

The real world. Shhh…don’t tell the children

We decided to take advantage of Kathy’s absence by stopping in to visit the good people at Ten 89 Noodle House, where Kathy and Steve had previously suffered 2nd degree burns while trying to consume some spicier than average food.  This was a valuable lesson learned, as we all now knew what not to order.  What we did order was fabulous, except to those who seem to have an innate fear of eggs, for reasons that were not really discussed.  The table was spread with bowls of egg drop soup and half a dozen vinegar eggs.  Delicious! Or scary, depending on your perception of eggs.

Ovaphobia affects approximately 2 in every 6,894,594,844 people, which means they were both with us today. That’s weird

This meant that Kristen was lucky enough to acquire a collection of multiple vinegar eggs from the plates of others, though not lucky enough to make it back to the office without the Styrofoam container melting itself and spilling out all of its contents (yes, the food is THAT spicy).
With each passing of the train tracks it is becoming more and more challenging not to board a train.  The odds of Walk-O-Rama: Lost in New York becoming a blog title in the near future are increasing exponentially.

Next week’s destination? Please Don’t Tell and maybe you can join us

 

 

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Walk-O-Rama: Kathy vs Menu Option C1 – the Fight of the Century, Only on Pay-Per-View

Trying new things can be pretty tough.  It’s natural for human beings to get set in their ways as time progresses.  To rebel against this notion, the Walk-O-Rama team decided to explore a new restaurant for lunch to see how it stacked up to the daily lunch options that we’ve become accustomed to as part of campus life.  There were two choices: the upscale French restaurant Yumi Snails or the new Chinese place a little further down the street.  We chose the latter option, as some of us had had our fill of snails for breakfast.

(Yummy indeed!)

(the hungry wanderers reach their destination)

Some members of our party were very good at sticking to their vegetarian diet, so they could stay trim enough to adequately man the library’s Roth Regatta raft this Spring.  Others (I’m looking at you, Steve) just wanted to look daring by ordering beef and spicy peppers, extra extra crazy spicy.  Steve did not care for this dish, as it turned out, but Kathy was up for the challenge and began the long, torturous ordeal of consuming as much of the large portion as her lunch hour would permit.  Tears were shed.  Beads of perspiration were noted on her brow.  Though he was sitting next to the fire extinguisher, John apparently did not think to use to it to extinguish the flames bursting from Kathy’s mouth, ears and nostrils.  No one utilized the practical device that was conveniently located table side, but we did take pictures of her to fondly remember her agony in days to come.

(Kathy, before she burst into flames)

(Steve seems satisfied with his trade)

Kathy won the contest for getting the magical black egg with her meal, but did not experience quite the same level of excitement that one might feel when discovering an Easter Egg in a video game or in a movie. On the contrary, she was mortified.  It took some time to determine what this “Century Egg” was, before Kristen boldly (or foolishly, my system has yet to determine which) began eating it.  The egg was very tasty, assuming it was in fact an egg at all.

(Lucky Black Egg of Fortune?)

Steve then decided to be either thoughtful and loving or deviously cruel as he asked for a bag to take the spicy hot entree for his companion Mette to try. A possible black eye tomorrow may be the final indicator of the outcome 😉

The trip back was all a blur as we raced to beat the fake clock tower chimes. We passed some muggles shamelessly playing a rowdy game of Quidditch on the Physics lawn, then scurried away before we all turned into a pumpkin, a bird, and four little white mice.

We hope to see you next week, possibly for some yummy snails?  Or maybe just a normal walk for once.

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