This Afternoon

[rfmcdonald]

• I finished work at 12 o'clock. I, and my co-workers, were trained in the arcane art of transferring intra-library book loans (that is, book loans within the PEI library system) and for the rest of the time given nothing to do.


• As I was leaving work, at the corner of University Avenue and Kent Street I heard someone call my name. As it happened, it was Dr. Kurial, long-time acquaintance from debating and Dean of Arts, driving in his compact car and offering me a ride. I didn't go for a Chinese buffet lunch at Silver Streams at all, but rather rode down to the UPEI campus with Kurial. He gave me good advice, emphasizing that I should try very hard to bargain, especially now that "ask" has been transformed in meaning from a verb to a noun.


• I bought politically-correct goods from the Ten Thousand Villages display in the student centre. A non-controversial elegant candle holder for Mom; for me, a perfectly-shaped opal egg from Pakistan, a handmade paper journal from Bangladesh, a package of fennel tea. The tea should be interesting; the journal is something I might yet have cause to write in; the egg is esthetically pleasing. I wonder, though, if Ten Thousand Villages and its kind of Third World shopping aren't morally imperialistic in their own way, by demanding that they produce only "traditional" goods for export to the rich West.


• In keeping with my gym schedule, and although I missed my Wednesday workout, I limited my exercis eto an hour on the exercise bike (I burned 500 calories!). Towards the end of that period, after I exhausted my reading material, I borrowed Dr. Dowbiggin's copy of First Things and had a nice chat with him about my honours. Archconservative he might be, but he's an interesting guy.


• I'm really looking forward to the English Society gathering this evening. Ah, 42nd Street.