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...