Life in Denim and Flip Flops

It's time. My personal and professional lives have finally starting to bump heads on this blog enough. I've got two conference presentations coming up in the next month and really need a place to put my presentation materials that isn't this blog. Not that I don't love this blog. I do. I just need a more professional place to put things. I love that I can be my crazy self on this blog. And ramble about books I love or things I loved about my week or bitch about the snow. You know...my not so professional side. :) So I've been working on setting it up. It's not done yet, but there's at least a little bit of content there so far. It's my first attempt at running my own website so it'll take some figuring out. Not sure I'm ready to link it here yet, but I'm sure you can figure out the URL if you digging. Once I've got more done with it I'll let you know. :)

Alternate title for this post: Becky finds another roadtrip book to fall in love with Disclaimer: Despite 2-week driving vacations every summer growing up, and driving to visit friends all over the midwest, Becky hasn't really ever been on something you could call a real roadtrip. She hopes to remedy that some day, but predicted gas prices this summer are making that seem less and less likely. About 6 weeks ago Amy suggested this book to me saying...it sounds like a Becky book. Girl + boy + roadtrip = Becky love. I put it on my list to read thinking it'd be a while before I got my hands on a copy as I'd already requested Dash and Lily and A Lover's Dictionary as purchases for the library (to feed my David Levithan obsession). I try to be good and not do lots of personal requesting. And I'd been trying to be good about buying books. So I really was expecting it to be a while. Then Wednesday night I open the library webpage for the 12th time during my evening...

I love being a part of online communities. I started with YouTube back in 2007, mostly because of the vlogbrothers . That opened the door to all sorts of other channels like FiveAwesomeGuys , MusicFromBlueSkies , RhettandLink , and wheezywaiter . Somewhere in late 2008 I was convinced to join Twitter by my friend Emily. I quickly found my favorite YouTube stars on Twitter and before Twitter changed things, you used to get everyone's @ replies even if you didn't follow that person. I used that to find a bunch of other people to follow. One of those people was vlogbrothers secret sister and young adult author Maureen Johnson . I'm always disappointed when people dismiss YouTube and Twitter as being purely narcissistic or mindless entertainment. I'm not trying to say that they can't be those things, but if you give them a chance they can be so much more. I have these forms of social media to thank for quite a few of my blog friends. I mean I never would have met my B...

...and lots of other British things. Now who doesn't love Colin Firth?? I just saw "The King's Speech," and loved it!! I was a little tickled by the fact that you had Darcy and Elizabeth, 2 of Voldemort's dark wizards, oh and a pirate thrown in for good measure. Sometimes it seems there are only so many British actors that they keep cycling through. But man do I adore them all. I also spent part of the morning listening to my fave Brit's music (Blue Skies). Before I left for the movie this evening I watched part of Wanted with my dear James McAvoy. And last night I decided I needed to restart series 5 of Doctor Who. The irony of watching the Churchill/WWII episode after seeing "The King's Speech" is not lost on me. :) (However can't watch any more tonight...the weeping angels are up next and there's no way I'll sleep after those episodes!) It's been quite the little British weekend for me so far. Maybe I'll have to keep th...

My mom taught me how to crochet when I was younger. We're talking like middle school age. I took it up and crocheted pretty consistently for a little while. Forgot about it for a few years, and then picked it back up in high school. My freshman year of college, I learned my roommate was also a crocheter. I made scarves for all my friends that year. I crocheted on and off for the rest of college and grad school. Then when I got to Dubuque I sort of put the hooks away. Then my coworker started up a knitting and crocheting club. I couldn't make meetings for a while, but I made a point of getting there the last 2 weeks. Using the yarn I had sitting around I made myself a scarf. I tend to wear a lot of scarves in the spring and my waredrobe is sorely lacking in non-pink scarves. This is the one I made to fix that. I am the queen of starting crocheting projects and then not finishing them. I think I currently have 4 projects I've started in the last 2 years. To be completely ho...

I had every intention of writing this blog post last night. I really did. And then the craziness that is the Wisconsin political crisis happened. So clearly I got distracted by that. So without further adieu, things I loved this week. the first signs of spring-- The snow is melting. I've worn skirts twice this week. The sun has shown. And some of the side streets are two lanes again. Surely these are all signs that spring will soon be on it's way. Not tomorrow. And not the day after maybe, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. (And yes, you can check back during Snow Storm Blaise and I'll be whining again, but for now I've got a smile on my face. So go with it!) listening to Katherines again-- I've listened to this book more than I should probably admit to. I love it. I'll listen to it when I'm stressed out, need to smile, keep my mind busy, or just when it's been too long that I can't quote it all. This week has been a combo of all 4 ...

It's been a long week. I've been super stressed and sick and sleep-deprived. I've felt a lot behind on life. Thanks to all my friends and coworkers for dealing with me this week. My friends especially for listening to me, calling me out on my craziness, and reminding me that I can totally do this. You know who you are. Thanks.

We had our annual Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Creativity Reception yesterday. My role in this event is as official library photographer. I take photos of the crowd, the publications, and the presentations, but my favorite part is shooting the food. The woman who caters the event is fabulous. While taking the pics this semester, we started joking I should just use these pics as my pieces for next year's reception. What do you think?

Ok, I've had some instruction sessions hanging over my head recently. I freely admit it usually takes me a while to develop and figure out what I'm going to do for a class. But sometimes it goes the other direction. I come with ideas or things I'd love to integrate, but can't figure out how to or can't find the right class. I realized it's time to let some of that brain crack out in the world. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say brain crack, you should watch Hank Green's video here . I would love to find a way to integrate Mad Libs in library instruction. I feel like it might be a good fit for keywords, but I just haven't found the right class. Like coming up with some sort of story or something and then having the students give you synonyms for terms and then reread the story to show how even changing one word changes the meaning (and the search results) you get. This one is really more Amy's idea, but it's been bouncin...

I haven't posted a Things I Love Thursday in ages. I think it's time to resurrect the practice. I miss bullet points. :) Kidding. I need a place to reflect on my week before it gets lost to the abyss. With all my topical posts I feel like sometimes I'm missing that personal touch. So let's get on with it! Twitter conversations : I joined sort of dragging my feet in the fall of 2008, not really getting the point. Now I can't live without it. I love the accessibility and approachability of people on Twitter. Where else am I going to interact with my favorite musician and young adult authors in a personal way? Or start a storm-naming system that people in Ohio and Vermont pick up?   RES104 sessions : I genuinely love this class. It's crazy and insane from the outside looking in, but for me it's the greatest chance to really get to a student. I get one full 50 minute session with them at the beginning of the semester. I blogged last week about what I di...

I slept in and then watched everyone post about the snow and shoveling out and the horrendous drifts before I even dared venture outside. The video below is what I found. I woke up this morning to find my car hadn't been ticketed or towed. (Thanks police and church proprietors!) It started right up. The city had managed to plow curb to curb on my street, thanks to my neighbors and I who all managed to find another place to put our vehicles for a while. And then when I got to work?? I found the sidewalks beautifully cleared and the parking lot looked better than it has since ... the first week of December? (Ok, probably New Year's when it all melted...but still.) Now I realize Madison is a much bigger city (and I only drove on main roads here), but seriously? When we got 14 inches over MLK day 3 years ago, no way did it look like this 24 hours afterwards. Well done Dubuque. Madison I miss your restaurants and downtown shopping, but Dubuque I'll take your snow removal any ...