My Adventure to the Dallas Public Library

Today, I was asked by one of the associate attorneys to go down to the Dallas Public Library and look through some microfilms of the Fort Worth Star Telegram from 2003. I thought, no problem, should be easy and at least I can get out of the office for a little while. It was quite an adventure I must say!

Now, I think of myself as a pretty decent book nerd. I have gone to this library once while I was in teaching classes to pick up some books and to the local branch that was closer to my apartment. I also frequent the Valley Ranch branch of the Irving public library because it is nearby, small but safe, and I can request my books online and have them sent from any other branch over to the one by my apartment and just run in to pick them up. It works out quite nicely.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into today. The directions I wrote down were easy, and I found a metered parking spot right nearby which was amazing. Fed the meter, locked up my car, and headed towards the WRONG building. I got a little confused, and when I was nearly upon the Dallas City Hall building, I realized the library was on the other side of the street. Okay, no problem, cross the street and in I go. There was quite a gathering of homeless people outside the library, a row of suitcases and other bags lined up against the side of it. I looked straight forward and just walked in to the front door.

Then I headed for the elevator. Being that this is the central library for Dallas, it is quite large, and I needed to go the 7th floor. As I walked towards the elevator, I realized that two homeless men had decided to also come into the library and were waiting for the elevator as I approached. Apparently, that is the popular thing to do if you are homeless and trying to avoid the Texas heat: go into the Dallas Public Library and they won't say anything that you're there. I looked around trying to figure out what other way I could get to the 7th floor and actually contemplated taking the stairs just to avoid them, but decided that I wouldn't want to be trapped in the stairwell either. Luckily at that moment in my decision-making process, another guy in a business suit came to wait for the elevator as well so I figured it was safe. I'm not normally scared of homeless people, and I'm sure they are harmless, but something about being trapped inside a 6 foot by 6 foot space with two homeless men wasn't sounding so appealing especially since the security guards wouldn't have heard my yelling, my cell phone probably wouldn't have worked, and elevators are easily stopped mid-floor.

Luckily, as I said before, the suit guy got on too, the homeless guys pushed floors 3 and 4, suit-guy pushed 6, and I pushed 7. I would not have to ride at all alone with these other two guys. And it was a good thing because 1) they both smelled horribly of body odor and outdoors and 2) one of them spent his entire elevator ride staring at my legs, then moving his gaze up my body, then back to my legs. I could see him out of the corner of my eye, and I thought he wasn't going to get off on floor 4 because he was too busy staring at me but thankfully he did. I got up to the proper floor, got help from the reference desk person, and sat down at my microfilm to search away. Unfortunately, I never found what the attorney was looking for, but thankfully, he knew I had actually searched and said it was fine and that he would contact the company. I was there for over an hour searching through an entire month of newspapers. It was fun stuff! :)

The way to get out was thankfully less eventful. I put away my microfilms, got on the elevator with another gentleman that was on my floor, and after he got off on 5, got to ride the rest of the way down in peace. I exited and was walking back to my car when I saw the "starer" walking along the street. Apparently he didn't last forever in the cool of the library (not sure if he left on his own free will or got kicked out) and here he was walking towards me and in the path of where I had to go to get back to my car. I stopped for a moment thinking he had seen me and would turn to face me head-on. Luckily, he either didn't see me or had something else on his mind finally because he walked on and I was able to continue on my path towards my car. The meter hadn't run out thank goodness, and I was happy to jump in my car, lock the doors, and head back to work. It turned out to waste a little over an hour and a half of my day which I was grateful for, but next time I think I'll bring someone with me!!!! :)