Life in Denim and Flip Flops

Let me just preface this post with the fact that I'm crazy, but as someone recently told me.."as long as you own it, you're fine." So this is me owning my crazy. I dread shoveling snow. I don't enjoy walking through it to get to work. I avoid driving in it. This December we got 30+ inches. And then we spent the month of January with only 3 days above freezing. And boy has it been gloomy and dreary. I'm a bit fed up with it, so yesterday I posed the following on my facebook status: What # snowpacalypse are we on now this winter? Maybe we should start naming them like hurricanes so we can keep track better. *rolls eyes* I couldn't help but think that it couldn't hurt my attitude toward the weather to name the storm headed our way. You know the one threatening to dump more than a foot of snow. Besides didn't someone say the best way to defeat one's enemy is to know them? How can we know them until we name them? So with the help of...

Ahhh!! Autumn and I have purchased tickets (and good ones at that) to see "Next to Normal" in Des Moines in March. I'm so excited. I really don't have much more to say other than I'm gonna have the album on repeat for the next 6 weeks :) Yay!!

Bitch Magazine has just released a list of 100 YA books for the Feminist Reader. This is so me on so many levels. I love lists, YA books, and kick-ass female leads. Perusing the list I realize I haven't read as many as I might have thought. I'd like to think that I seek out these types of books, but apparently I've got a long way to go. The list is a PDF otherwise I'd copy/paste it here. So instead I'll point out the books I've read and the ones I've got on my to read list. (Books I own in italics. I tend not to buy/keep a lot of books. So owning them is kind of a big thing for me.) I was really impressed with the blend of fantasy and realistic fiction. I love fantasies, but with those I feel like the feminist ideas sometimes get watered out a little. It's easier to set up a female in a leadership or as a strong role when they have some sort of power. I like having female heroes like that, but sometimes I crave real-world girls dealing with real-world ...

I do some weird things in my library instruction. I do not think I would be incorrect in saying my information literacy sessions are slightly unorthodox. This semester is no different. One class this particularly true for is Introduction to Research Writing. In that class students see us 6 times during the semester. I'm in charge of (and teach 98% of) the first library day of the social science unit. We focus on introducing the geographic region and doable topics for social sciences, as well as the importance of a good research question. Each semester I create an activity for the students to do that engages them with the material in some way. This semester, thanks to Amy's great idea, and my wonderful friends, the students will be pairing topics with haiku written about it. I thought you all might enjoy seeing it. So without further adieu my prezi of haiku :) Mississippi River Watershed Haikus on Prezi EDIT: I realize now that this is sort of an incomplete look. This...

I was discussing a friend of mine with Natalie Standiford , a YA author on twitter, and she commented that it sounded like an "epic" friendship. I had never really thought of it that way, but once I had the thought, I couldn't really unthink it. Being the word geek I am, I looked epic up in the dictionary. I found the following definitions: epic. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged . Retrieved January 22, 2011,  from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epic Of unusually great size or majestic and impressively great? Yeah, I've been blessed with a few friendships that I would call epic. Growing up I had one of those idyllic sort of childhoods. I went to school with the same 19 kids for 9 years. I still can't go back to church with my parents without running into a grandparent of one of my former classmates. One would think that this would have led to one of those friendships you find in books and movies. The best friend you...

I know that I've blogged about my love of sports a lot in the past . But it's been a while and clearly it's time for one again. Oh, and it's timely, because I'll be spending tomorrow night at the UW-Indiana basketball game. (8 pm CT on ESPN/ESPN3) I love watching the game however I can, but there is just something about experiencing a game live. And there is nothing better than being part of the Badger student section, The Grateful Red . (For football they're Bucky's Bleacher Creatures.) The culture of the games and particularly the student section is special. The band is right in the student section and unlike some other arenas (MSU's Breslin Center...I'm talking to you) they don't pipe in music. The band provides it all. Sing-alongs and songs you damn well better know the dance moves to. In the student section (at least the lower 2 tiers) you stand the entire game. If you sit at all, it's during timeouts. And usually then you're danc...

Today my little sister turns 24. And boy do I feel old. But in a good way. A favorite author of mine once said that "I think today for a lot of people siblinghood is a relationship that occurs primarily in childhood, and then when you're adults you still talk but you mostly talk about your parents or your other siblings or familial matters of some kind...and you're stuck with the same image of your siblings that you had when you were little. [...] I think it's an increasingly rare pleasure to know your siblings as adults." ( John Green, Dec. 28: John's Last Brotherhood 2.0 Video ) I am incredibly lucky to be able to say I know my sister as an adult. And I love the adult that she's grown up to be. She's the bestest little sister a girl could have. So sorry I couldn't be there to celebrate with you today in person! Now I recognize that most of you might not agree that 24 and almost 27 make us adults, but to that I'd remind you the last time w...