Florida Photo Montage

Sampling of some shots of my current place of employment - i.e., Canizaro Library. The last shot is of the furniture in the 24-hour reading room, which I had just rearranged to solve some practical problems caused by idiotic design (e.g., electrical outlets in completely inaccessible places). There's this big pseudo-philosophical argument about whether function should follow form or form follow function, and everyone's always bringing that up as the root cause of our (i.e., the librarians') dissatisfaction with this place, but as far as I'm concerned the buildings here are so ugly the whole debate is positively moot. Form indeed. Form of what, may I ask? A cannery? We sacrificed functionality in order to achieve the perfect form of a flipping cannery?

Oi.





Some nighttime pictures of the oratory, taken by the hubby. Please ignore the me that fouls up the second shot.





Not my best shots ever, to say the least, but I thought I'd put them up anyway. These are from a baby shower for a wife/baby of a graduate student (in Matthew's graduating class). Gives you some insight into the community of young mothers and very very young children that are make up my only social circle. I think, as of right now, I'm one of two graduate wives that *aren't* pregnant - and there are 30 some-odd grad students, most of them married. Yeah.

The woman in the last photo is really sweet - if I could find a way to spend more time with her it would be great, but unfortunately she lives in Fort Myers, having graduated from the masters program last December (her husband has a good job up in Fort Myers - there is really no reason for them to live here at Ave town, whatsover). She reminds me of what my mother was probably like as a young mom - realistic, but totally unfamiliar with babies and all things related to babies. She gives me this pathetic look of disgust when I point out things about her baby, Ollie, like, "Oh - he's focusing on things now. He's probably connecting to people a lot more now, isn't he?", "YES. Now, if I'd know that this was going to happen before, it would've made my life a heckuva lot easier. Why didn't someone tell me about it? WHY???" :) I am really, really, really, really thankful that I was the oldest child in a large(ish) family. It is going to save me from oodles of stress.

. . . However, on the flip side, I can't help but observe that in the meantime my experience seems to be adding oodles of stress. Meaning: I go to these graduate school parties, and am forced to watch all the 'young inexperienced mom' parenting skills, and then I twitch for days. Gosh, they're just kids, people. I mean, gee, sure, take your parenting seriously but for heaven's sake, you need a chill pill!! So, your Suzie inadvertently knocked over so-and-so's wobbley toddler - it's really not that big a deal. He's a toddler - chances are he's made of rubber.





Hubby and his bike. He loves to ride, and theoretically Florida would be a pleasant place to do so, being flatter than Western Kansas (no, I'm not even kidding - it's a swamp, so it is flat - if it were not flat, it would not be as much of a swamp, now, would it?) - - - however, the wind in Southwest Florida is so strong and so consistent (i.e., not gusty - long, hard, constant wind) that it's still a very challenging place to ride.

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Houseplants - - no, they're not the most interesting thing ever, but the hubby dotes over any and every living thing in his care. These are very well taken care of houseplants, and he is very proud of them.



The yellow angel fish I got for my husband on his birthday in February. It seems to be a lot more outgoing and intelligent fish than most of the other kinds we have in our 20 gallon tank, so it's been a lot of fun to watch him.



GREAT BIG MOTH - courtesy of southwest Florida. Boy oh boy.