OISE schmoise

So I'm sitting in the OISE library, frustrated because the program I need on my dear computer won't open. I'm left staring at a sign in front of me that reads:

CAUTION:
DO NOT LEAVE PURSES,
BAGS OR BRIEFCASES
UNATTENDED.

As I sit here, in this building built on its reputation as being the Mecca of all things educational, I have to wonder...did they need to make the list of things not to be left unattended so lengthy? Would a simple "valuables" not have sufficed? Or am I overlooking some kind of socio-economic status, racial, gender, ability bias hidden in the term "valuable"? Am I assuming people of a different make-up than me would even CONSIDER a briefcase valuable?

This makes me curious.

There's some crazy graffiti in the carrels here, too. It's all academic and shit, which makes me laugh. Conjugated French verb tenses and math that's way too complicated for me to even guess what category it falls into. You'll find swear words here, but they'll be written in their original Latin.

I love this building for what it stands for, but can't help feeling disappointed in its inability to be held up to my massive expectations of what this year was going to hold. Am I bearing responsibility on how things have transpired? Maybe not enough. Probably not enough.

Meh.

I'm off to watch a movie about a man who changed a bunch of kids' lives by giving them a chance. These are the moments I love this building.

Here's Part One

After being back in this city for, oh, almost 5 months now, I think I'm ready to write about what it's like. There has been more than one occasion that this Weakerthans lyric popped into my head:

"The city's still breathing
but barely, it's true
through buildings gone missing
like teeth..."

This is how it feels often, though I'm not sure any buildings are going missing, rather, more are going up. What I wanted to do with this blog was to create a pictoral journal of my life here during this time, in this place. I think it's fitting, then, that the first pictures I post are ones taken from my window. Without sounding overly dramatic and ridiculous, it often feels like most of the past 5 months have happened as if I'm looking out a window, watching this whole world happen around me, yet not to me.

Wow. That's pretty friggin' overly dramatic AND ridiculous.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, really... Anyway, this is going to be my space to talk about this mental city that fills me with such rage sometimes and such love at other times, and maybe it's an attempt to figure out where I fit here now, being a little older and maybe a little wiser than my first time around. We'll see, I guess.