Cold

It is exactly zero degrees Fahrenheit outside.

When I got to the library for my midnight-to-two shift, I noticed that the inside of the bathroom window had a white coating around the edges. I poked it and left a fingerprint; it was frost. I'd never seen that before, and guessed the window must have been left open, and only been closed a few minutes before.

Later I went into the stacks to shelve. All the windows were frosted over - the condensation was freezing as it formed on the glass. The spot I'd melted in the bathroom window had frozen over again when I went to turn off the lights at closing.

I thought I was wearing my scarf today, but during lit I realized I'd actually picked up the piece of polartec fabric I'd bought to sew a bag out of. I can't find my real scarf. I grant that the polartec's warmer, but my throat's still too sore for me to breathe out there without something shielding my mouth, and polartec isn't exactly permeable. So I have been walking around all day in a partly-chopped-up polartec pseudo-scarf, with my hands over my mouth as though I am shocked and scandalized.

To round up the list of grievances, I've applied moisturizer four times in the past three hours, and have put some water boiling in my rice-cooker to act as a humidifier, because I can't breathe very well in here, either. I hope it doesn't break.

I Like My Women Like I Like My Coffee

Sodexho has generously given me a light pink plastic tumbler that turns darker pink when it gets cold, in an obvious and completely inappropriate reference to nipples. I wonder if they're going to email me telling me to deposit it in a box someplace on campus, because I am not on the meal plan anymore and am not therefore entitled to a plastic tumbler.

Printed on it in very small type is a schedule of what I assume someone considers to be the school's "feminist events" for the next three months. The schedule gives dates but no times, and is badly spaced and punctuated.

I mean, this isn't a disposable cup or anything. It must have been expensive to get these things custom-made. Isn't it kind of weird to give out a reusable item with your February-March-April 2007 schedule on it? Am I supposed to treasure it forever as a memento of "Love Your Body Day" (which is apparently on Valentines Day)? Is there going to be a whole series of collectible 2007 color-change cups?

Oh, wait, the year's not on there.

Actually, the schedule itself is even more bizarre than its presence on a cup. Here it is (formatting, punctuation, etc. all theirs):

Mind, Body, and Soul Spring Events...
February
14-Love Your Body Day
26-Mind, Body, & Soul Survival Guide
28-Let's Talk About It!
March
7-Vagina Monologues
8, 22, 29-Self Defense Workshop
19-30-"Human Breathing" Yoga
25-Speaker, Andrea Cooper,
"Kristin's Story"
26, 27-Lifetime Wellness Instructor,
Kitty Consolo
April
5 Take Back The Night
Events presented by the Women's Resource Center,
Women's Emphasis, The Lilly Program,
Delta, Delta, Delta, and Alpha Chi Omega

( commentary, or, This Plastic Tumbler Is A Story About Rape )

Edited deep in the night because my own formatting was somewhat sketchy.