What is it about you that I adore?

This afternoon I'm working from the CMU-Pittsburgh library, and it's tough to keep my mind on work. The room is full of seductive Old Book Smell, and on the way to the language theory section I walked through a philosophy and religion aisle, housing books with wonderfully obtuse names like Radical Cartesianism, and an 86-volume Collected Works of Erasmus and a brand-new book called Gay Religion with fabulous articles like "Gay Men's Spiritual Experience in the Leather Community." It took much willpower to keep walking and pick up books on Discourse Analysis instead!

I can't quite remember why I ever spent time OUTSIDE libraries when I lived here.

Every time I visit Pittsburgh this irony hits me: when I actually lived here I had very few friends, but now that I live in Qatar I have scads of friends in Pittsburgh -- both former coworkers who've moved back, and long-distance coworkers in the English department and the ICC. It's really quite wonderful. Tonight, for example, will find me (inshallah) baking a KETCHUP CAKE with two of my favoritest people ever. I'm so excited!

The yurt is a beautiful thing.