Musings from the Library

Here I sit, in the basement of Waterfield (aka "the library") with my walkman and laptop trying to complete my take home exam for Legal Aspects of Safety and Health. In order to complete this exam, I am to use various government websites to answer questions about environmental legislation and OSHA reform. This is boring, so I think I'll analyze the various characters encountered in the library instead.

At the table to my southeast, I see three young men working on some sort of chart at a table completely covered in books, notes, and other various study materials. At first I thought "ah, pre-law" but after observing their level of uptightness and utter lack of humor, I immediately identified them as pre-med majors studying organic chemistry. I was actually pre-med for a semseter, but ditched that program in favor of curriculum in computer science where life didn't consist of a stream of "wash-out" classes and anal retentive would-be doctors. While I cannot accurately pass judgement on the pre-med majors at Murray State, my past experience at Carbondale leads me to believe that the ones here are probably as up-tight and un-funny as the ones up there...though I highly doubt the pre-med majors here dabble in recreational drugs as much as the ones in Carbondale.
Due east of me is a girl intently writing in a notebook. A math major? No, there's no open book in front of her and I see no calculator. Perhaps an education major working on a lesson plan to submit in tomorrow's class. Afterall, her notebook does appear to be turned at an odd angle.
To the south of the supposed ed-major is a girl in glasses and a yellow sweatshirt...she appears to be studying for something as opposed to actually doing homework. She looks studious-I think it's the glasses. I can tell, however, that she likely lives in one of the residential colleges (dorms) because she is wearing one of those yellow "Live Strong" bracelets and to the best of my knowledge, those can only be obtained in the res. colleges. Directly west of me are two fellows working at a table. One is working at a laptop and the other is assisting him in some way. I think they are probably putting together some sort of presentation. The view of the screen is obstructed by one of the fellows and I think it would be overly obvious if I were to try to look at what he is working on...I don't even know where to begin speculating on that one. However, I can plainly see that the fellow to my southwest is working on something biology-related. He has a book with a double-helix on the cover on his desk and a spiral-bound course book, which indicates he is enrolled in a laboratory course.

Next time I am down here studying, I need to sit in a more sparsely populated portion of the building. Even when I'm in an area where I can't people watch, I still find a way to distract myself using the others around me. Time to make assumptions about me...laptop (what's she working on), walkman (what's she listening to), Metroid tshirt (nerd!), anonymous black notebook...