Friday Night

Friday night. College student. 10 p.m.
Out partying, right?
Nope. Not me. I am listening to the raspy voice over a loudspeaker say, “The library is now closing, please check out all books at the front desk.” I sit astonished for a brief moment.

“The library is closing?,” I question my ears. “How could the library close at 10? It stays open until 12 every other night.”

And then it came to me. Even though I had not attended a chic bar for drinks and dancing that night does not mean the hip librarians did not want to go check out from a hard week of book keeping at one. It was either that or the book keepers pitied our souls and wanted us to have a life. Therefore, kicking all 5 of the scholars there out, 6 including me, was a grand option for them.

My response to them: Fun is not all lost on a Friday night in the library. Why? I left with a story, which is now conveniently typed for you below.

Upon arrival at the library, I chose a lovely desk outside the study rooms, because who is going to disturb you when there are only 5 other people in the library. At the time, I had no answer for that. Now, I do – the male student sitting in the study room to my right.

After a mere 5 minutes of intensely reading Systematic Theology, my ears were greeted with a happy tune. I looked up and after scanning the library realize it is coming from the whistling lips of the student in the study room. I figure he must not realize the rooms are not sound proof, but will stop soon. And he did, until about 10 minutes later when the whistling progressed into him belting out some muffled rock song with whistling in between. I look up from my book, over to him and my eyes met his squinted shut eyes, head nodding, mouth open singing, and his hands playing drums on the desk. All I could do to not laugh was – nothing. At first, I had been annoyed, but this was ridiculous. How could you not be amused? I then made it my mission to have it be known to him that the study room was not sound proof. My solution: to stare. And stare I did. It took him a full 3 minutes and 20 seconds of singing and finger tapping to realize I was staring, at which point, he kind of gasped for air, laughed and stared at his computer screen like nothing ever happened.

Two hours after that, I packed up my bags dismayed with the fact that the library closed at 10 p.m. And that was that. I had a story and many minutes of reading Systematic Theology. A colorful Friday night, if you ask me.