Life in Denim and Flip Flops

It's that time again. Time when everything comes together to make me happy :) Tomorrow I get to see an author talk, Friday is Halloween, a student musical production, and a Halloween party, Saturday is a Badger basketball game streamed online and part one of a two part theatre show at Loras. Gosh I love the fall. Theatre, fall weather and basketball. Does it get any better??

It's a convergence of some of my favorite things: tennis and fabulous music. Now if we added ice cream and nerdfighting, it might just be the perfect day!

So the Homecoming Parade and Pep Rally were fun. I haven't dressed up like that in a long time. I miss it. It also made me realize, I really need to find some more blue and white attire. This is what happens when you don't have any previous schools with those colors :) Here are two of my photos from the evening. It was fun. Now we'll just have to see what the students who were there and saw us in all our lit-up glow stick and Spartan pride glory thought of it! From Homecoming 2008 From Homecoming 2008

A wordle of my sociology blog at work:

My copy of Paper Towns is here!! I got the blue cover. If you have no idea what I'm talking about see nerdfighters.com or brotherhood2.com Secondly: Enough said. I'm facebook friends with my favorite author ever.

Has anyone else noticed that SNL only seems palatable during the political bits where they bring in the heavy hitters like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Queen Latifah? But when they get it right...they get it right!!

Well that's one exciting way to end the season. I wouldn't have minded at all if they clinched a playoff berth like 2 weeks ago instead of making me have to sit through that. It definitely made up for a horrible sports weekend otherwise. I won't even get into that heartbreak. Ugh. I can't wait for fall to actually get here. Not that I don't appreciate the 80 degree weather, but I like the fall. I like sweatshirt/sweater and jeans weather. I like going to the apple orchard and carving pumpkins and watching the leaves turn colors. Bring it on. :) It's one of the reasons I will never be able to live in the south. I need distinct seasons. You might have to remind me of that once the winter rolls around, but at least 10 months out of the year I appreciate the seasons. (Mostly its January and February that kill me.) I think I've finally kicked my cold. I'm not completely rid of my sexy sick voice, but hopefully by Wednesday when I'm teaching classes again,...

The last two weeks at work have been a twee bit crazy. I came home pretty exhausted every night, but I did really love it. This week was a totally different game. I'd been working with upperclassmen mostly in the first few weeks. These kids, although they might not use the library a lot, they have at least been introduced to it and have an idea of what we have there. The freshman, however, are a whole different lot. Some of them may never have set food in a library. Some said they didn't even have a high school library. How do we get to them? I think everyone graduating from library school understands the stereotypes many people have of librarians. I feel like I've got the "librarians are old, cranky ladies" image beat. Seriously, after watching me bounce around the classroom, barely older than the traditional age students, how can you believe that? The biggest challenge for me is getting them to realize that it's ok to ask questions and that libraries are a p...

I realize I've been crazy busy and not really filled in too well on my weekend fun. So I've decided to dedicate this post to my recent weekend happenings. :) Early in August I spent a weekend in Ames. Amy and I spent most of the weekend chilling, hanging out with her friends, and wandering around Iowa State campus. We ended up spending about an hour and half walking around campus taking pictures of different buildings and cool architectural pieces, per the examples.  I never knew there were so many awesome public art pieces on campus and around the city. I don't have too many pics of them. I caught quite a few on campus, but I didn't bring my camera with me when I was downtown. Downtown Ames is cute, especially when you play the "how many hairdresser places can you put on a 3-block street" game. I found the cutest magenta bag at this adorable store for $7. Love it.  I also got to spend time playing Nertz. Well, first I had to learn how to play (correctly...lon...

So being the liaison to the core curriculum, I'm the librarian the directors of the core curriculum work with the most. One of those people also happens to be the chair of one of my liaison departments. This is clearly someone I want to have a good impression of me. One way to not accomplish this is being unable to locate the movie she and her colleague were showing in class 20 mins later when it was supposed to be on reserve, but wasn't, and then was supposed to be on the shelf, but wasn't. Thankfully the circ student (love her) and I managed to find it without panicking too much (mostly on my end.) I was also able to refrain from saying "well if you'd grabbed it more than 20 mins before class started...we might not have had to be so frantic."* Although I thought the experience was rather awkward and embarrassing, both professors seemed rather thankful we were able to find it, and appreciative in general of "all that I do." Whew. And now back to ...

I love my job. I love my job.  I really do. Sometimes I just wish that everyone else understood how busy we are. They (meaning most other faculty members) just don't seem to grasp that we do things in the library. We teach, we staff the reference desk, we lesson plan, we select books for the collection, and troubleshoot lots of techology/assignment issues for faculty. But apparently, according to one of my colleagues, we in the library have more time on our hands. And maybe at some point in the semester that is true, but certainly not in the next 2 weeks. Tomorrow I'll be pulling a 12 hour day and Friday will be 10 hours at work (I might find 2 hours to go home and crash if a departmental meeting gets moved.) But because don't have a course-load apparently I have enough time on my hands to write up the second draft of a proposalf for this committee I'm on.  I sort of feel like we're on-call. The library and librarians are expected to always be available, but we all ...

School is now in session! I've taught about 12 class sessions since last week. And I love it. Being in front of the class is a total rush. I honestly thought I would be a lot more nervous than I am. I honestly think that all those years of getting up in front of church and singing and directing a choir the last year totally helped. Acutally thinking back, I sort of treat the kids in my classes like I did the kids in my choir, or my newspaper staff in college, or my committee for senate. It's that relaxed, "everyone should be involved in the conversation" type style. Plus, I like to think that I'm kind of an entertaining person. You may disagree, but the students seem to like me. Or maybe it's that candy I keep on my desk. Hm...yeah, maybe that's it. Damn. If nothing else, at least they know where to ask for help. And I'm starting to see the same students coming back to my office and the desk. And I managed to keep the potentially rowdy guys in line.  O...

Ugh...I really want to be able to keep up with this blog. However, I have to admit, if I can't keep up with it during the summer, the school year might be tough. But we'll see...I'll just have to keep trying it. Since I last posted, I've pretty much spent most of my time watching the Olympics. I've decided that I enjoy watching water polo. Yeah, I know. Awkward. But I sort of feel like it might be a gateway sport to soccer and hockey (two sports I never really got into.) Besides I'll admit, it's pretty hard to find more athletic people. I mean, they have to be able to swim, throw around a ball, and tread water (and keep like half their body out of water to play goalie), all the while trying not to drown when their competitors try to drag them under water. Easy right? Right. Now that the Olympics are done, I'll be spending my time watching the U.S. Open when I'm home. Gotta love 2 week tennis tournaments. Granted a lot of the matches are played durin...

I don't know how many of you have been witness to my Olympic obsession (partially because I'm not sure who 'you' are). For those of you who are unaware, I'm crazy about the Olympics. My passion is really the Winter Games, but the Summer Games still absolutely capture my attention. I love gymnastics, diving, track and field, swimming, tennis, basketball...you know the biggies. But I'll find myself watching rowing, water polo and shooting like it's my job. I just get sucked in. And the human interest stories always get me. Always. If I could figure out how to not sleep for 2 weeks, I'd be watching coverage all day. I'm sad that live tennis is at 2am. Sadly I have to be at work at 7:30 so 2am is a little early/late to be awake watching tennis. Thankfully like 4 other people at work are about as obsessed as I am. So there's a rule...no results at work or someone is likely to throw you off the roof. And we'll all have something running on the ...

My weekend in Ames, with my Ames was fabulous. I got to hang out with her wonderful friends, play Nertz (just another card game to love), and wander around Iowa State campus for an hour and a half. Sounds a little odd, but that's us...a little odd. Hickory Park was way fun. Amy was right; it's like a Cracker Barrel on steriods. More about the weekend later. Now I've got to hit the sack so I can stay awake at work tomorrow :)

Monday through Friday has been work, work and more work, but weekends have been nothing but fun lately :) I'm really glad that I get to do so much of the prep work for the classes, but I had forgotten how frustrating summer can be. Every vendor is updating software, which is problematic, especially when it happens without my knowledge in the middle of a project. Nothing is irreparable, but now it takes like twice as long. Also, I may have learned to bend Microsoft Access to my whim, but Word 2007 still kicks my ass. Mostly the problem was the ridiculous template for the labels. A headache and a half, but will totally be worth it in the end. The fun things you can do with mailing labels, a hole punch, index cards, and metal rings. It'll be a unique library scavenger hunt. The weekends have been a blast. I spend 36 hours in Madison hanging with Manda, being the Cornell expert that I am, and seeing Brandon and Anne at church. Hanging at the terrace with some of the kids from St. P...

I truly hate living in Iowa when it comes to sports coverage. Apparently Iowa residents are only Cubs fans. Or White Sox fans. Therefore I only get to watch those games. I made the mistake of getting excited about watching a Brewers game when it was on ESPN. However, ESPN also hates me. Apparently, I'm in the blackout area for nationally televised games. I'm close enough to Wisconsin to be blacked-out but not close enough to actually be able to watch the games. So either way I'm screwed. The only times I get to watch the games are when they play the Cubbies. Ugh. So I'm hesitantly excited about getting to watch the game. However, lately when I've gotten to see the games at home, they've lost. So I'm torn; do I watch the games because it's my only chance to see them and jinx them, or not watch for the good of the Brewers nation?? Maybe I'll just quit believing in superstitions! :)

Sorry. It's been a while. I have time for a few quick notes before I go to bed. It's going to be a sad, sad day when my UW ID quits working. I do love having access to so many journals. I never thought I'd be using book reviews from the Journal of Pop Culture for collection development...but I am. Just last week, I got a rejection letter from a school I applied to the same day I did for the job I currently have. But even better was getting the letter today that said a school I applied to and was called for an interview by was sorry to inform me I was no longer being considered. Is it really necessary to say they're sorry, when I cancelled the phone interview because I'd accepted another position? The best yet was reading today that the school re-posted the same opening. It's sad how they think they'll get a different, and by different I mean better, pool of applicants. I also enjoyed seeing a classmate of mine posting on an info lit list-serv today as a ...

The bulleted lists are back. Well, at least for today. Professors are people too, and are bound to show up at a wedding if they've had both the bride or groom for over 4 years in their class or hired them to direct the steel drum band. Thus I should be prepared for that. Some neighborhoods in Urbana don't believe in street lights making the trip to a place you've never been before interesting, especially when you realize reading street signs at 25 MPH is awfully difficult. Free, serve-your-own Killian's beer on tap was the best idea ever . I can drink beer all night and not wake up with a hangover. Being dipped while dancing drunk is difficult, but funny. Having a Walgreen's in the same parking lot as the hotel is ingenious. (You never know when you'll need it.) There's a Target in Champaign that has the same wrapping paper as the Target in Dubuque, so when you (i.e. Gretchen) forgets the wrapping paper you can replace it. Getting caught with the deck at the...

I found this in my RSS feed this morning and thought it was a nice way to start the day. It is a list created by the National Endowment for the Arts, and a blogger writes that they claim most American adults have read only six of these hundred books. I've read 23, but about half have been for school; however, some of those I chose to read for a class assignment. :) Here’s what you do: 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicize those you intend to read. 3) Underline the books you LOVE. (Or in my case turn them green.) 4) Reprint this list on your own blog. 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6 The Bible (um, how many people have actually sat down to read the Bible? Like, straight through? I'm counting it because I read at least a chapter every night.) 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (I own it, but haven't read ...

Sorry. This week has been busy. Work has kept me busy, and dinner at my great aunt and uncle's while doing laundry ate up one evening, and grocery shopping/errand running stole another. Monday was a day of long, long meetings. Tuesday was more digestible, with a one-on-one w/ Meris and another planning meeting. I feel like I'm learning so much every day. Like how to decorate a room for a luau. I'll fill you in later, but let's just say, the library is known for throwing a good party. Manda came to visit this weekend. Sometimes you don't realize what you're missing until someone is there to remind you. Living alone, I don't go out to dinner by myself, and I haven't seen a movie in the theaters since Amy and I saw Prince Caspian the day after graduation. It was nice to be able to go out and do that this weekend. I saw 2 movies and only ate meals in the apt today. And it was so nice just to hang w/ Manda. Now the problem is, I really need to be productive. ...

So church Sunday morning was really nice. The service was nice and I really liked the music. I think I'll probably end up going there most of the summer. Once the student population returns to Dubuque I might end up back at the church across the street as it's closer to Loras, but I think the one I went to this weekend is closer to UD. We'll see. Sunday was nice to see my extended family again. The little kids were so much fun. If I had a quarter of their energy I'd be set. I really like the staff at the library and I feel comfortable there, but it's just a totally different environment with my family. And family dinners for get togethers are always comforting. They, in themselves, are my comfort food. Today we did staff bonding (no...not staff bondage!) We did an exercise that helped us to define ourselves in 3 words from a deck of cards. I ended up with challenging (as in I question ideas/ play devil's advocated), simultaneous (as in I can juggle more than on...

The apartment is finally starting to feel like home. There are pictures on the wall, curtains on the bedroom windows, and now I actually have cable and internet in my apartment. I'm still not quite sure what I'm going to put in the hallway or what is going on the wall in my bedroom. I don't have anything from my previous life that is blue and brown. That's really made it fun to decorate that room, because it's meant buying some stuff and piecing together some stuff from my childhood bedroom. Slowly but surely I'm unpacking. Now I'm just looking for some furniture for the guest bedroom. :) Work has been going well. I'm going to fit into the staff real well. I snapped photos of the library early Friday morning so hopefully soon I'll get them uploaded somewhere and e-mailed out, or maybe posted here. While on my photo tour of the library I realized that there are 2 pianos in the library and what looks like a harpsichord. I have no idea why this is true...

It's official. I'm the Reference and Instruction Librarian. :) So far it's been all orientation, but I really like it. The staff has all been really wonderful. NOt that I thought they were faking their enthusiasm during the interview, but they all actually seem like they like each other. The work environment is really cool, and totally my style. I'm a little overwhelmed with names, but that's mostly the student workers and the random faculty walking through. I'm pretty good with the permanent library staff members. Granted with only like 11 of them, it's a little easier here than other places. Speaking of being easier here than other places. Never before have I been more grateful to live on a hill/bluff. It seems like at this time, I'm in one of the only major cities in IA not to be dealing with major, major flooding issues. I know the Mississippi is high too, but it has yet to cause the major problems for the DBQ area that they're experiencing in I...

So a few more observations. One of these days I'll actually talk about something significant, but for today I'm just going to post the thoughts; the analysis can come later. DBQ is not very pedestrian friendly. Ok, well not the part near me. I haven't yet found a route to walk to work (15 mins by foot...maybe) that doesn't involve a 5-way stop sign or 2 awkward intersections that involve 3 directions of traffic and no stop signs or crosswalks. Thankfully Madison has made me a much bolder pedestrian than DBQ is used to. It's hard to decorate your walls alone, especially when you're not very good with eyeballing what is level. My hands are really out of shape when it comes to playing piano. I'm not a fan of sitting in my bathtub during severe weather, but if push comes to shove, I can make it quite comfortable. Living in Dubuque is kinda like living halfway between my college life and my grad school life. It's not really big enough to have it's own new...

I'm here. Not quite all unpacked. But definitely getting settled. Thanks to a random unsecured wireless connection I've got internet access until the cable company can get here next Saturday to hook me up. Here are some observations so far: Everyone in Dbq has been really friendly so far. I mean it's not like I expected them to be mean or something, but the lady at city hall, the banker, and even the cashier at Target were really nice. Color matching is way easier when you buy everything from Target. Want curtains in the same shade of teal as your bedspread? Just four aisles down. :) I'm super not-observant when I'm tired. My landlord had left a ladder in my bedroom when I got here Friday. I moved all my crap in and then decided to make an errand and grocery run. I spend a bulk of the rest of the night in my bedroom accomplishing stuff. It was only when my dad asked a few hours later that I even noticed the ladder was gone. Yup. I'm that good when tired. Ceilin...

The wedding was really nice this weekend. It was totally chill and relaxed. A nice change when it comes to weddings. Now I get to transition back into packing world. Right now two of my parents' vehicles and my uncle's truck that we borrowed are packed pretty full to take down to Dubuque tomorrow. I'll be back in Janesville tomorrow night to do some more cleaning and packing/searching for things that I thought existed at my parents house, but now I'm not sure existed at all :) It was a really nice weekend and only slightly stressful. I hope I can get through tomorrow without it getting way too crazy :)

anticipation never disappointing it gets me through the week simple fellowship and a few stolen moments never more than that, but its enough for now "without music, it takes more faith." -Fr. Victor

Ok, so when I posted last, I had a 15 page paper left to write, 2 weeks of work, a lesson to write, and a job interview. And somehow last Sunday I managed to graduate with a job in hand. It's crazy. I applied for the job the last weekend in March and accepted the job May 16. I know that sounds like a long time, but for a position in academia, that's crazy. I still haven't heard from some of the places I applied to in February, much less have had 2 rounds of interviews. Yikes. From the time I sent in my application to the day I start is 10 weeks. :) Somehow I transitioned directly from OMG everything is due in like 3 days and I graduate and life is crazy to OMG I start a job June 11 and have to find a place to live in Dubuque before then. I'm spending tomorrow there looking at apartments, then I get to head back to Madison to finish packing up my life and cleaning the apartment. I'm really excited, but I'm so sick of packing already and I'm no where near done...

So we're hanging out tonight to pose for photo for a video project. And starting to drink. It's fun. My fave quote so far is: B: "The Librarian 2...in your pants!" E: "Hopefully our future husbands will own a copy of that movie." A: "Do I look like the sex tape type to you?" Somehow we also devolved into singing bad versions of both Hairspray and Les Mis at the same time. :) If you really want to know, I'll explain, but right now, I've got to take a picture!

Seriously lacking time here right now. I'm stoked about the Dave Barnes concert tomorrow night, and about finally kicking back on the terrace Wednesday night with the girls, but until a good portion of this freaking homework is done, I shouldn't even be on this blog. So, I'm signing off now to finish paper number 1, so I can work on pointless journal number 3. So much to talk about soon, but first I've got to survive long enough to get there. :)

So I want to sit in class and write blog posts in my notebook during class. Not cool I know. That's the small college experience for you. You're supposed to pay attention when there are only 20 people in class. Especially when it's a guest speaker. But it's dull. However, at least it looks like I'm paying attention and taking notes. A classmate is knitting in the front row. That really bothers me. You're obviously not paying attention, and now the clickety clack of your knitting needles would be keeping me from paying attention, if I were actually trying to. Also, it's presentations like this that make me feel confident about my own presentation skills. Also a friend today told me I have a good phone voice. I wonder what she means by that. I don't have an overly annoying voice? Makes me think back to voice lessons and my prof really wanting me to alter my speaking voice because I was 'damaging' my vocal cords. I'm glad I refused at th...

Ugh, I totally wanted to keep this more up to date. I might have to force myself to update on certain days or it just might not get done. The excuse these past 2 weeks has been homework and more homework. Ok, well that and getting a phone interview and attending a conference. :) Exciting, no? I'm totally on cloud nine about the job interview. It feels so good to finally get a callback and feel loved again. As much as I love my friends for telling me that this would come, it was getting really hard to keep believing in myself. Honestly, I don't think I'd ever been so down on myself before. Like E said, I'm a totally different person now. It's sad but true. Even if I don't get this job, just konwing that I made it past that first round makes me feel that much better about myself. It's totally what I needed to hear. I've still got major prepping to do before it happens, but now I've got a significant assignment out of my way, I feel a better about doin...

If only I'd known that I would create a monster. A. now insists that she's winning at the blogging game. Although totally true, I have a good reason for currently losing. I'm been trying (read, not succeeding) at using blogging as my reward for being productive. Yeah, sadly I'm like a 5-year old child when I'm tired; I really only function well in a reward-rich environment. However, I've been failing with this lately. I managed not to blog, but I just couldn't keep myself on track. I was up late finishing a really frustrating project, but I had no one but myself to blame. That doesn't mean I didn't try and blame other people, like my professor. :) Ugh, anyway, on to less frustrating topics. I realized today what a weird situation I was in. I'm a regular viewer of a few vlogs on youtube. Nothing odd there, but today was one of the kids' birthday. So I wished him happy birthday in the comments. Now I wish people I'm not really great friends...

I haven't blogged seriously since probably 2005-ish. I'd forgotten how much I missed it. It was totally a coping mechanism, and to be honest I'm not sure what I've substituted for it since then. I'm not really sure what this blog is going to be yet. Probably boring musings and comments on life and job searching and books I'm reading. Just a place to throw my thoughts for future amusement. Because seriously, what is more amusing that looking back on 3 years ago and laughing at what seems significant and unbearable? I really wish I could go back to those "problems." Now my problems are slightly more real...like not having a job once I graduate. Or not having a place to live. I'm gonna go with that slightly outweighs not having the 4th floor of the library to myself to study. Ugh, just thinking about college and class makes me realize how badly I miss history and lit courses. What I wouldn't give to be back at Cornell in a medieval history course...