Operation Dewey Decimal

Who knows why I do the things that I do. A person can spend his whole lifetime calling out for an answer for his own actions and he will be disappointed with his own response, which is always, "Well, it sounded like a neat thing to do."
Yes, some friends of mine and I decided to spend the night in the library the other night. Logically, there is no fundamental reason for such a venture. But when the idea formed in our devious brains, it was something that we must do. My accomplices were an excellent bunch. They were as follows:
Josh A.K.A. Monkey Boy: raised in the jungles of Africa, he become notorious around campus for scaling walls, buildings, and trees just for the sheer sake of it.
The Irrepressible Scott: an actual RA throwing off his responsibilities for a night. Was known to hold the record for the most number of unintentional chapel skips.
Myself, or as they know me, "The Wanderer": knew hidden niches to hide in from our campus to Bangkok.
You could tell that our team had to build itself up with only the most elite. Our perilous operation could only be carried out by an allstar cast. To fail was not an option. We planned it carefully of how we should accomplish our project.
9:00pm- Enter open library with backpack. Have pillow stuffed inside. Walk to the Nursing and Nutrition section, where the huge volumes are, and no one is pleasure browsing. Quickly stuff pillow behind volumes. Then back outside to get sleeping bag the same way. Up the stairs again and find Josh at table studying Greek. His personals are already secure on same aisle. Go visit with the upstairs librarian, happens to be none other than the library girl you sort of dated 2 months ago. Great! This may just all backfire. Talk to her. Give her attention. Let her know that you are not avoiding her. Then with a "have-a-nice-finals-week" assure yourself of her lack of suspicion of tonight's operation. Get Josh and move into operation zone, that is one of the large study rooms with table, and then wait for Scott and for closing time.
10:15pm- Two girls arrive who know of our plan they laugh, then Scott finally shows up. It's showtime. Grab chair and pull back against wall climb up on chair and push back the ceiling panel. Then grab wall and hoist yourself up into the ceiling. Josh hands you the backpacks. The girls giggle. Then in quick movement Josh is up in the ceiling with you. Just then staff member walks by and motioning that it's closing time, the girls and Scott fly out of there. We put back the panel thinking that our 3rd member wasn't going to make it. Just then Scott's head peaks where the panel was, and I help him get up. His legs barely swing up past the ceiling when the door below swings open and the library girl walks in. Scott and I both freeze having not put back the panel. She collects the books left on the table and moves our climbing chair placing it appriopriately under table. We stare at the top of her pretty head. If she had only looked up she would have seen us looking down at her grinning. She walks out oblivious. The lights are now dim. Scott moves to grab book on panel and move the panel back in place when panel and book go crashing down into the room. Oh no! We both freeze again. Surely library girl heard that, and will see the panel and book lying on the floor. For seconds which seemed like hours Scott and I whisper what to do. He's frozen. So, i guess that nominates me to go back down and hide panel and book. So I drop down. And take a quick peak outside and realize that we are now alone.
10:40pm- The first half of our operation is successful. We are in and the Brackett Library is closed. Many lights are still on throughout the library though the whole place is vacant. We move to get our pillows behind some of the books. I jump into my aqua-blue pajama suit. Like I've always thought, if you're gonna do something crazy, you might as well do it with style. I also brought some Slim Jims; no camping excursion is complete without them. Occassionally a wall would creak or the air conditioning would make a sound and we would take to the aisles thinking that it was security coming to get us. The next couple of hours are spent doing unmentionable stunts which i won't bother the reader explaining. Though we sneak eventually downstairs to see if the rumor was true that there are surveilliance cameras downstairs. We find evidence of one camera, though we seriously doubt its on. We check our email on the online computers in the library. ( I even thought about writing half this blog from there.)
2:30am- We eventually fall asleep in one of the study rooms.
5:30am- Lights beam from the main section of the library. We dart up out of sleep. It's the early morning custodian crew. Then one by one we creep back up through the paneling in the ceiling with no more than a hushed whisper. Then up in this dusky attic we lay our sleeping bags back out on the sheetrock to commence sleep. Josh and I explore around in the attic and I find a ladder that leads up to the roof. We emerge from the roof just as the sun his emerging from the horizon. I watch the sunrise for awhile. Then go back down and try to sleep some more.
6:45am- I can't sleep while the other guys are snoring softly. Hungry, bored, and full of energy, I wonder how hard it would be to sneak out past the custodians. So I drop down the newly found ladder and out of this utility closet and there sneak around the bookshelves. I am almost spotted by an old codger who happened to be looking down instead of up. I wait for this old lady staff worker to walk back into the offices downstairs then, I creep downstairs and go to the front door, unlock it and then, I'm free. And I'm still in my aqua-blue pajama suit and now with this very wild bed hair. I end up going to Burger King and getting a sausage biscuit. I wait for the library to open.
7:45am- Library opens. I walk inside and back up the stairs. This time that old man is right beside the same utility closet tinkering a constructable bookshelf. I grab a book off a shelf and go back to our original operation zone. I close the door to the study room and sit down to read. I then stand up in my chair and move the panel back to tell the guys the difficult situation of how quiet they're gonna half to be coming down. That old man is right above them. Just then, an old lady walks by the door peeking in the window and then opens the door very quickly. I drop from standing position to sitting position. She asks what am I doing. I assure her that I was just moving the panel back that someone had moved. She knew better. Great! Now, I'm under suspicion and she will be watching me. Mind you, i'm still in my aqua blue pajama suit and wild unkempt hair.
8:15am- I leave that room as quickly as I can and go to the next adjoining study room. Move the chair back against wall, and slide panel over, so well that it's gotten to be an art form. And up in the ceiling explaining the situation to the guys. How the floor below is swarming with adult staff. We search around the attic looking for an alternative spot for retreat. All we come up with is to just come down the same place we went up, but do it as quietly and as quickly as we possibly could. I shimmer down first and run over to the door and shut it once more. They drop the backpacks. Then they drop down. We dust the sheet rock dust off of us and emerge from the library as if nothing but intense studying had happened. We left our sleeping bags up there. You can't just go waltzing out of library holding a sleeping bag. I, later that day, climb back up using the ladder, grabbing the sleeping bags, and then up to the roof with them, I cast them over the side. And then hurry down the ladder and out of the library and pick up the sleeping bags off the ground and throw them into my trunk.
8:45- We walk out of library, having accomplished our mission. We walk towards the Benson Auditorium just in time for chapel, all of us feeling satisfactory, and I still in my aqua-blue pajamas and my wild unruly, tousled-about hair.