Life in Denim and Flip Flops

...and I just got home 10 minutes ago. I did not think I would stay at the festival that long. Nor did I think I'd be going out afterwards. And I really didn't think I'd hit a second bar. And that is how the 8 month streak of posting 3 times a week has ended. I'm late by 3 hours, but I think, just for tonight, I will give myself a reprieve. I've been up since 7am, which for those of you still counting is 20 hours straight. Coming off a heinously long week, 20 hours is a mountain. A mountain I survived and dare I say conquered. And with that, I should take my leave and head to bed.

Ok, so Mockingjay showed up today. It was sitting by my door when I got home. I was torn. I hadn't quite finished The Hunger Games on audio yet. I'd originally downloaded it when I thought my copy wouldn't show up til Aug 31, and I would have time to listen to it and read Catching Fire. However, now that I have Mockingjay in my posession I really want to read it. But I think I've decided to be good and follow through on the original plan. I finished Hunger Games tonight, and started Catching Fire. I know that I could probably just pick up Mockingjay and be ok, but I've only read the others once, and I'd forgotten quite a few details of Hunger Games. I think in the end I'll be glad I reread them both, but until then I may have to put Mockingjay back in the box and put it away until I can tear through the rest of Catching Fire! Because right now it is sitting on the arm of my couch staring at me. I never should have opened that box!!

I have spent approx 20 hours of the week so far in meetings. The week has dragged on and yet at the same time I look back and feel like I didn't accomplish as much as I hoped. But I'm getting there. faculty- I love the library staff, but sometimes I forget how much I can enjoy the faculty. After 2 years I'm finally feeling like I know a good majority of them well enough to walk up to them and have a conversation. The conversations, jokes, note passing, bakery samples, and playing 'problem child' made the 20 hours of meetings palatable. Also.. sometimes I forget how much fun they are. I spent quite a bit of Wednesday evening laughing during the faculty picnic. faculty meetings- I love faculty meetings. No, that's a lie. I love the results of faculty meetings. I love hanging w/ faculty peeps. And I love that this year the new format has been productive for us.  The librarians did some presentations and we've been rolling in the new class sessions since then...

Yay, Sarah is just a few minutes away from Dubuque. I haven't seen her in 2 years! I'm so excited she's coming to play for the weekend. Thus I won't be around here or twitter much til Monday :) Here's the last time I saw her at Katie's wedding. Here's a classic pic of the two of us hanging out at then-Congressman Leach's house.

If you haven't read them, go find parts one , two , three , and four before you read this :) When she first moved out to the city to join Jaime, she'd insisted they find a little park to call their own. Growing up, her backyard had backed up into a quiet neighborhood park. She had thought of it as her little place. Not like Terabithia or anything but just somewhere she could go to be herself. Her mom would pack picnics and Beth would tromp out to the biggest tree in the park and sit in the shade on her little blanket and play outside for hours. She read aloud to herself, told herself stories from all sorts of imagined worlds, but mostly she sat on the swings and sang to herself. Looking back she knew this was probably not normal. there was always some sort of narrative or soundtrack running through her head. She just had to let it out. Jaime had been the first person who wasn't a realative that she let into that little world. In high school they'd spent hours at ...

Wow. I haven't done a things I love Thursday post in almost a month. Time to revive that one. I've had lots of things to love this week. students coming back- I dread the first week of class because I am so behind and not ready to start my teaching/instruction sessions, but I love that the students are coming back. It's been a bit of a slow trickle so far this month, but this week a bigger rush of my "library buddies" are back. It's fun to see them each stop by the office to say hi, check in, and tell me about their summer. Yay for my office not feeling so quiet anymore! long email chains- I love email, but I'm usually much more of a chat person. This week however there are at least 7 email chains of 6 or more messages in my inbox, ranging from other faculty, coworkers, colleagues, grad school friends, and college buddies. Sometimes I forget how much fun email tag can be. I'm all for instant gratification, but sometimes the messages are worth the wa...

I've been hanging with the family this weekend. Manda and I came home to celebrate my parents' anniversary a month early. (I'll be babysitting my cousins' kids while they attend a wedding that weekend.) We decided to catalog and organize our parents' home library. So far we've gotten a good chunk of it done, about 400 books. We've got another 100 or so upstairs, and then the bookcase downstairs. It's been a lot of fun. Mom and I also rummage saled this morning. I found so many cute clothes. I'm convinced Janesville is the mecca of garage sales. I bought mostly clothes, but I did find a few other things...a series of books, a picture frame, and a Christmas tree. For dinner, we went to a new Japanese hibachi grill place. We love the one in Rockford so we were hoping this would be comparable. I was thrilled! The scallops I had just melted in my mouth. I don't think I've had scallops better than this before. So yummy! Everyone else's food...

I promise I'm not actually neglecting this blog. It's been a busy week of news, meetings, happenings, and infomerical skits. I've been a little distracted to say the least. Plus it has been super hot here. I don't know about you, but when it's hot enough to warrant a heat advisory overnight, I have very little motivation to do anything but lay motionless on the couch. :) So for all of you dealing with the oppressive heat this week, I thought I would share a little piece I wrote last week about a freezing ice-covered morning from the winter of 2008 in Madison. Enjoy. jitters getting ready. questioning the outfit, already vetted twice with her roommate the night before. a glance out the window confirms her worst fears. ice. no snow justice. she's a wisconsin girl with a damaged sense of winter driving. one incident in a ditch miles from home stays with her. she's secretly hoping the car won't start, but the promise to and of the boys eggs her on. they ...

If you haven't read them, go find parts one , two , and three before you read this :) "Ladies and gentlemen, on your left, we have the street corner where Queen Victoria's youngest son met his second wife." "Cole, he didn't have a second wife." "And on your left, the bridge destroyed in the filming for the fifth installment of the Harry Potter series." "It was that bridge, and that was CGI, you goof!" Beth started to realize she'd finally found a job that would put to use all those random facts she'd learned as a kid. She'd been a voracious reader as a kid and rarely forgot what she read. She wasn't a prodigy or anything. Though Jaime had loved to call her that when the three of them played trivia at the local bar. Jaime was good for all the science-y things as Beth called them. The med school had to be good for something Cole joked. Beth covered pop culture, history, and literature. Cole covered, well..., ...

I'm really glad I posted a lot early on this week. I'm currently sitting at Panera with a coffee using their wireless since I'm having internet issues at home again. Of course it's a different issue than I've seen before. The wireless router seems to be working fine, but the modem is only giving me one flashing light. I'll probably try and tackle it for real tomorrow afternoon. So in the mean time, I sort of cheated on my no fast food/Panera plan. :(  Just a coffee and a bagel. That's mostly the internet issue. Not knowing where other than here and my fave coffee shop have internet sort of limited my options. I figured since tomorrow's Sunday and it is part of my routine that 2 days in a row seemed a little odd, so I ended up here. Though it does feel a little like cheating on my indie coffee shop. ;) I figure I should also find some time to write today before I head out to the wedding reception. I'm not sure when I'll get home tonight, so writ...

inspired by my sunday morning coffee shop visit: she walked into the coffee shop, heels in one hand, a few dollar bills and a crumpled piece of paper in the other.short black dress, a-line with a tie to the back. medium brown curls half way down her back. she was new. not one of the regulars. she stood a moment at the counter waiting for the barista to return from the back room. at first she escaped the group's notice, but soon many of the rest of the coffee shop patrons were glancing her way. attemtping not to stare, but curious to figure out her story. from the back she looked about 19, maybe 20. the "young professional" behind the laptop thought she looked a little odd in the setting. she looked a bit like she was headed to a meeting though sunday seemed a little odd for that. maybe that's why she was carrying the shoes. the older couple awaiting their friends thought she might be headed to party. it was a nice afternoon for a gradation party they murmured ...

Or..what I've now decided I will shorten as 15MDA. Autumn sent me an email with a link to Laurie Halse Anderson's blog . Her post today outlines the idea of doing a different kind of writing challenge for August. Instead of blogging everyday, she's challenged her readers to write for 15 minutes a day. I really like this idea. For a month in college, I did a similar project. I was in an advance writing class that required us to write for a specific amount of time each day. We started out with 15 minutest to start, and by the end of the month, we were up to 3 hours a day. At the beginning of the month, I thought it would kill me, but the gradual increase helped a lot! I'm hoping that this project will prove just as easy to conquer. I probably won't post what I write every day, but every time I post, I'll update you on how long I wrote and when I wrote, and what I was working on. That's a promise. Now...I just need you to help me keep to it!!

You can find parts one and two here, or by clicking the short story link at the bottom of this post. Jaime had gone away to college at his dad's alma mater in state. Beth headed five hours west to a small private college in the middle of nowhere Iowa. They never once questioned that it was the right thing to do. And unlike every other pre-college couple she knew, they made it. No wavering, no fights, no awkward jealousies. Beth knew she was the anomaly; the one unlike the others. Everyone had expected there to be issues with Cole and Jaime, but Beth knew better. Jaime loved and trusted her and contrary to all the rumors, there was never anything between her and Cole. Though the way she acted when he left didn't do much to quell those rumors. They were inseparable by the end of freshman year, so when Cole decided to spend a semester abroad in London senior year, Beth was a bit heartbroken. She knew it was an amazing opportunity, and something he would remember forever, but a...