Human Library

On a whim while browsing the internets Thursday night I signed reserved a human at the library.  It was an event put on by CBC (we all know how much I love CBC) and the Edmonton Public Library – they found a variety of people with interesting life experiences and allowed people to reserve a 45 minute time slot with a “book”.  By the time I discovered this event there was only one space available so that left no time to ponder the potential for awkwardness and I decided to just go for it.  Besides, last week Mr. E at work commented on my bravery for usually being pretty willing to put myself into awkward situations.  What can I say, it’s a gift.

So, Saturday afternoon Nastuki (a couchsurfer staying with me with weekend) and I spent 3/4 of a hour chatting with Mark Connolly, news anchor for CBC Edmonton news and frequent correspondent for cycling and bobsleigh at the Olympics.  (Check out the other participants here).  We opted out of having it filmed.  He was a nice and engaging guy and we chatted about travel – the time he reserved equipment while covering the Olympics in Nagano only to return to find some confused girls who had just given it to another white guy who they thought was him.  We talked about heroes – I took Gretzky off the table but he was going to choose Clara Hughes anyway.  It was great to have someone, especially a man, single out a female athlete as a hero before any others.  We discussed switching jobs with anyone at the CBC for a day – he decided he would be take Peter Mansbridge’s place and host the National for the evening; I opted for Sook-Yin Lee’s job on Definitely Not the Opera.

He also graciously allowed a photo-op (blog time!) and introduced us to the producers from CBC that were milling about.  It was a great event with a great atmosphere.  I just wish they would offer it every week!