Rapid Eye Movement

The past few days have been a blur of activity around the household. Starting with the return from the family reunion in Okoboji, and discovering to my dismay that my mother broke her leg. Or rather, her fibula at the base of where it connects to the ankle. For those of you medics out there, that's right, the hip bone is connected to the leg bone and the leg bone is no longer connected to the ankle bone for mom (at least until November) I feel so bad for her :( For such an active person to be inactive will be tough. My first joke though was that because she's immobile, she's easy to get by mobile. She's been on the cell quite a bit. Luckily my mother is a fantastic woman, and has many many friends here in IC that have been out to visit her and bring her food, and at the same time my friend Cassi has been staying with the Winklers, and she's been great at pitching in with the family chores. I love that girl...not just for her attitude but her wonderous ability to have so much energy when it comes to household duties that aren't even hers. She's a guest for goodness sake, and yet, she's washing dishes and clearing the table just like me. She's my bestest twin sister ever. :)
In related news, I was hesitant to go due to mom's injury, but leaving her in capable hands (and feet of others) I did head up to Ames to help with the move in process for the Astrophysicist in training. It was a very smooth gig and his folks and sis were very nice, (they even got me a cake, gift and dinner for my birthday! How very very very thoughtful of them! THANK YOU!)
The rest of the birthday festivities commenced in IC this weekend, which included a wonderful birthday cake designed by Maggie for Laura, Elissa and myself. Thank you!!! Special thanks to Laura for sharing her nighttime activities with me. Such fun.
Thanks to everyone who called, emailed, facebooked (and yah, that's gonna be in Webster's in a few years) and well-wished in person. You all make my time here on Earth that much more enjoyable. (Sounds sappy I know...but it's true)
This next week will consist of working, and helping mom and then this weekend will be Madison for Beerfest. Should be an interesting time.

Vacation all I ever wanted, time to get away

Returned from Okoboji on Tuesday night with an injured passenger :( but I think we had a good time overall. Tried some waterskiing, had a baby shower for a cousin once removed (but not quite removed from the womb yet) nutty bars, night boat rides, a little air hockey (one of the best comebacks in a long time!) swimming and sleep.
We also went to Pirates of Penzance on Friday night which was so much fun! It's a good funny musical/opera. We also joined some friends at the campground to hang out for a bit, which was also fun. The new bikini fit well, and the stomach rash has gone away. So the outlook is good at the moment. Still working on the full time job front (the CPL is only part time) ACT has apparently started interviewing for the Information Resource Specialist position, but they haven't called me yet...
Had a good swim in the North Liberty pool today also.
Allrighty, that is all.
Congrats to Trac on the job!

Dead and Gone Like Me

Actually this title comes from a t.v. show I just discovered via Sci-Fi, which I now want to go out and rent the entire first season to watch. It's totally the type of shows (movies) I like. Dark Comedies are the defence mechanisms of the mundane daily existence for the rest of us I guess. Dead Like Me is an interesting premise with a well written script and it is also well acted. I caught this last night while my father and I watched t.v. and mom and I played Scrabble ( i beat her 219 to 216. yes, that's right TOm, I BEAT someone at Scrabble, imagine after all these years playing with you online, I simply needed the board in front of me to win, though I don't count a 3 point differential "kicking ass" or anything.)
In other news the "gone" part. I will be gone to Okoboji Iowa this weekend, through Tuesday for my family reunion. Much rejoicing and such will occur (or so I hope) though this gal has to apparently stay out of the sun! WHAT!?!?! stay out of the sun on a LAKE? are you kidding me? Doctors are on crack btw. Or at least those I apparently wind up seeing. I've been on an antibiotic (which I'm posed to be on for the whole month which says on the bottle "avoid prolonged exposure to the sun) okay, well, fine, I heed bottle warnings. I was out for all of an hour on Monday, wearing a new bikini (which makes me self-conscious enough anyways right?) and low and behold about half an hour later, I start to itch on my stomach...well surprise....rash city! lovely right? so I'm thinking, okay, go see the doc. Tuesday morning, i see the doctor, and he's like, stop taking that antibiotic, this is a photo-sensitivity rash, and you can develop allergic reactions to drugs even after taking them for a week and a half. so, tah-dah, I stop taking it call the doc that prescribed it, and she says, "NO, keep taking it, it doesn't cause photo-sensitivity." - Except that it has to, b.c otherwise they wouldn't put a label on the bottle warning about it right? and besides the other doctor that saw me actually saw the rash and diagnosed it...so I go with his answer.
I seem to have rotten luck with health these days :( blah. otherwise everything else is going well...still looking for that full time job, so I can move out of the basement, and the ability to pay rent somewhere else (perhaps moving in w. laura or pete or cassi? who knows!)
anyways, the "gone" part also means I'll be in Naperville next weekend - going to see the King Tut exhibit with Erik and his folks...hooray. I am looking forward to that. and I promise I won't collapse in the museum ---been there and done that already.
Hope all is well with the rest of you out there.

Please Return to the Library

I started work officially at theCPL today. The staff was very helpful in answering all of my bumbling questions. It was funny, as the Assistant Director did say I was the first substitute librarian they've hired in the middle of the summer, or rather, the most busy time of the yaer. However, I think I have gotten comfortable enough in a library setting--corporate, academic, public--to know enough about automated systems and generally where things are located, that I had no major mistakes, and very few minor ones also.
It felt good to be back behind a Circulation Desk. For my friends out there not in the library profession, now is the time to go "Weirdo", and the rest of you in the career will smile I'm sure.
I think working at the CPL will lead me to a very long list of new authors and books to read. Bring it on! I love reading ;)
I'm still awaiting word on the other job prospects, but I am in a very good place after the first day with a six hour shift and no real "shadowing" hehe. Throw me into the fray I say.


In other news: Okoboji plans are firmed up. Sat July 22 through Tues July 25. HOORAY!

I'm helping to design the ARLIS-STUDENT BLOG...woot for professional development contributions while not actually in an art library environment. and yay for the other IU gals and their combined effort in making the student voice heard in the organization.

So that's the update in this gal's world. What's new in yours?

Some Random Odds and Evens

Well, this will be a short entry, but I do like to keep those of you out there informed, especially since it probably seems as if I've dropped off the face of the Earth. Rest assured my fine readers, I have not. Proving that the Earth is round is one thing, dropping off I"m sure is just as complicated. I am sorry to have been out of touch, but plan to be for the next 4 weeks or so anyways, as I am in the midst of writing THREE, yes, that's THREE graduate school papers...yelp! However, one of the papers is fairly intuitive, which means it will get done this weekend, another, more complicated, and the last and of course, most important is the MOST complicated and taxing on my brain capacity. But, I digress (of course) . this is all my life has consisted of, since getting back to B-town. So I miss the finer things. I am however, excited to sign my lease for my apartment for next year, to start my internship in Iowa city over the summer, to come back and visit the fine b-town friends still here, and orchestrate a number of weekend visits to other locales. I look forward to teaching myself vi. because i am a huge dork and as steve would say, I belong in the "pink ghetto" (or traditionally small group of women that find computer science programming languages interesting and fun) So next semester i will take information architecture for the web (a class i couldn't take this semester b.c of scheduling conflicts). I look forward to the family reunion at okoboji, and a 24th birthday sure to make me realize i have to grow up now and look for a real job soon - which i'm almost entirely ready for after this semester.
oh yes, I must mention, before I close this (ya, no seguway there) that my parents are awesome. They sent me a plant! yes, a truly live plant...haha, an azalia plant that is now sitting in my window, but i think it doesn't really like the sun allt hat much, as it looks more "awake" at night - and i was informed they are a night blooming plant. fun huh? it brightens up the room, and i think they knew I was stressed about things here, so wanted to make me feel a lill better about my chosen higher degree and that whole "where am i going, what am i doing with my life" discussion. so thanks folks!
okay, it's off to read about fund-raising in libraries and how that relates to their management for my 10 pager!
happy trails to all and good luck to those of you also finishing your semesters!

Listening to: MP3 Oldies List (which means great tunes from the 50's, 60's, 70's)

All registered for my classes for next semester. Yay. I'm a big dork, I'm excited for them. Well, mostly...maybe not so much for cataloging, but it's something I need to learn, and it's required, so here we go!

So there is a coffee commercial out right now, for Foldgers, that includes my theme song. I can't believe how awesome it was to hear the EVERLY BROTHERS live in concert with Simon and Garfunkel this summer. I still can't get over how stoaked I was, I felt like they were singing directly to me, even though that Qwest Center was probably sold out. I love how I went to a concert with my parents. How many people get to say that their parents have good taste in music and that you agree with those tastes? I had a really great exposure at an early age to the music of my parents' generation, though they tell me they were on the "tame" side, weren't protesting, didn't do woodstock, etc. They listened to folks like Peter, Paul and Mary and the Carpenters. All great stuff if you ask me. I remember many roadtrips to Okoboji, before Steve and I were old enough to drive up by ourselves, in which I would get to listen to the Beatles and numerous other one-hit wonders, and also the music from their childhoods, like early Motown, and stuff like "Leader of the Pack".
Nowadays, when I roadtrip my music tastes are so entirely vast it's hard to pinpoint WHAT I listen to, but I know what I like. Now that I've got the Ipod, and itunes, I can roll out with just about anything and mix it up constantly. Last night I was doing homework to the RANDOM setting, it was great fun. Going from stuff like Dave Mathews to Ice Cube to Sugar Shack to Ave Maria to Pour Some Sugar On Me. Granted, I have my lists too, if I'm feeling like a particular kind a music, say "jazz" then I can turn to Etta and Sinatra. Or power females I've got Alanis and Janis and Liz to keep me company. But sometimes it's fun to just mesh it all together. Especially when some things really fit one after the other. Anyways, you are probably asking what the point of this random mussing is...well there ISN"T really one in particular. So hah!

I'm excited for the opera tonight!