Life in Denim and Flip Flops

I cannot believe it's almost April again. And if you've been around for a while, you know what that means. BEDA is back. That's right. Once again I'll be attempting to blog every day in April. Yes it's crazy. No, I probably won't actually make it. I'm not doing any sort of organization or running or coercing other people into doing it with me. Nicola, one of my original BEDA buddies, asked last minute on Twitter and I thought why not? I'm always up for a good challenge. So get ready, get set....here we go!!

Because every other time I point out I'm going to try and blog and do better about keeping this up I fail in some sort of epic fashion, this time I'm not making any promises. I'm currently working on a library instruction blog which means I'll be guilted into seeing how rarely I update this blog on a much more frequent basis. And we all know that I work on guilt/reward system so maybe it's just what I need to get myself motivated to post here more often. Probably not, but we'll see. To all of you still actively reading this blog, kudos to you. I owe you some chocolate or baking. Or both.

I'm going to try something a little different here. Let me first say this blog isn't going to turn into a book review blog. I am not nearly a fast enough (or dedicated enough) reader for that. And we all know you don't want to read my thoughts about every book I read. (Because if you did, you'd ask me for that. Right?) But there are a few things I've read recently that I just need to talk about. And it won't surprise anyone who knows me to find out that one of those things is Morgan Matson's latest Second Chance Summer. So let the review commence!! Second Chance Summer-- by Morgan Matson This book is everything Amy & Roger was not. While Amy & Roger (A&R) physically traverse the country, Second Chance Summer (SCS) spends 97% of its time at a summer lake house in Pennsylvania. In A&R, family members couldn't be further apart physically or mentally. SCS looks at grief when the family members are all in the same house, literally una...

Today marked the opening of our inaugural summer reading program at my library. We're calling it the YA Reading Round Robin. Last year some of the YA Book Club members wanted to meet over the summer, but logistically that was going to be a nightmare. So we just went on break over the summer and picked it up in the fall. This year, Diana and I decided to be ambitious. We wanted to run a program that people around campus for the summer could participate in that required very little day-to-day work on our part. Also, we were aiming for something that would be flexible around everyone's schedules. This fall/winter I was a part of a long-distance book club. We modeled our program after that experience. In that group, each of 5 women picked a book and annotated, doodled, commented, and responded to what they were reading along the way. Then they mailed that book to the next person. That person would do the same, replying to the first person's comments and makin...

Last week was the first week that I failed to watch a "new to me" movie this year. It was one of my resolutions this year. And I think it was the last one I broke. Mid-April's not too bad. But I promise to make up for it this week. You know why? This week is the inaugural Julien Dubuque International Film Festival. After Kyle got held up by family obligations (totally forgiven because I adore his grandmother), Gretchen came to the rescue to be my house guest and film date for the weekend. We bought the 10-pass pack (we'll split it for 5 films a piece). We went to town today tearing apart the schedule to figure out what films we wanted to see, and then if we could find a way to do that without double booking ourselves. We ended up with: Searching for Sonny Route 66: Ten Years Later The Forest Prince and the Pigman: Hitchhiking in America Thespians And a collection of shorts that includes Cab 57 The shorts we'll see Friday night when Gretchen gets here a...

I'm blogging from my phone tonight because I can. For those of you who have had to deal with me during this craziness, thank you. I really should have tried to fix it sooner but you know how I am. Plus I figured I was due for an upgrade soon. And I was the day after I get back from my conference. Thankfully the guy at the verizon store talked me into a new battery instead. So far it looks like it solves the problem. Doesn't mean I won't upgrade to an iphone in May. Just means I won't cost me 700 dollars to do it. I'm looking forward to having a phone that will talk with my computer. And I'm secretly hoping it will make me want an ipad less. But I'm not holding my breath on that one. Either way I got great service and advice at the Verizon store. I've never been less than happy with them....when I finally suck it up and show up to fix things or make them happen. Back to your regularly scheduled computer-based blogging tomorrow.

...I got a call from the director of the University of Dubuque library telling me she wanted to schedule a phone interview for their Reference and Instruction Librarian position. That moment sent my life down a path that for not one day since then have I ever questioned that this is where I was supposed to end up. I am grateful every day for that phone call. Every. Single. Day.