in a wonderland

Library Day in the Life Project

2012-01-31T09:10:00.006-06:00

Last week, I thought it would be fun to write down everything I was doing for a day at both of the public library's I work at and then blog it. I ended up sitting on it for a while and it's a good thing I did because Sunday, I became aware of the Library Day in the Life Project and round 8 started on Monday!
From the wiki: "The Library Day in the Life Project is a semi-annual event coordinated by Bobbi Newman of Librarian by Day. Twice a year librarians, library staff and library students from all over the globe share a day (or week) in their life through blog posts, photos, video and Twitter updates."

So, I tracked what I did yesterday, too and tweeted on it throughout the day. Here's a look at an average day for me as the young adult librarian at one library, and a clerk/typist in the marketing department of another library.

Job #1 - Young Adult Librarian
9 a.m. - Turned on laminator; checked interlibrary loan requests (one request for a book that was checked out - replied that we could not fill request); packaged and added postage to book that was borrowed by one of our patrons to send back to the lending library; discussed this week's schedule/events with children's librarian; checked e-mail.

9:30 a.m. - Laminated materials for children's librarian.

10 a.m. - Updated the teen blog to announce Hunger Games trivia contest starting next month; printed flyers and bookmarks and set these up around the library.

10:30 a.m. - Looked at YA books that had been donated to the library to determine if we should add them to our YA collection; made quick display of Hunger Games readalikes to go along with trivia contest.

10:50 a.m. - Mail arrives, check in ILL books returned, process book that came in that a patron from our library requested.

11 a.m. - Catch up on e-mails; work on monthly report for the director including information about how many books were added/weeded to the YA collection, how many teens attended each event this month and the plans for the Anti-Valentine's party, Hunger Games trivia and Summer Reading Program.

11:30 a.m. - Leave to go to next job; eat lunch in car; listen to audiobook on way to downtown.

Job #2 - Clerk/Typist II
12:00 p.m. - Checked and followed up on emails; logged into Twitter and determined what to tweet for the library; logged into online calendar of events management system for all branches - 44 events in online calendar to be edited and published - worked on those.

1:30 p.m. - Met with department co-workers and manager for weekly meeting to discuss tasks we're working on.

2:00 p.m. - Edited, formatted and verified event times for print calendar for a branch.

2:15 p.m. - Diet Dr Pepper break.

2:20 p.m. - Worked with marketing manager to discuss setting up Pinterest page for the library; created Pinterest; pinned items, created boards.

3:00 p.m. - Emailed librarians with questions regarding discrepancies in online vs. print calendar; continued working on online calendar events, Pinterest boards, Twitter account and checking emails

4:00 p.m. - Done for the day. Picked up hold at the circulation desk and went home.

Because I'm a library grad student, and a member for a round table group of the state's library association, my librarian-type duties did not end there. I worked on scheduling a meeting with catalogers for an interview assignment for class, sent a "save the date" for a workshop/meeting of the round table that will be held in April and read the online discussion board for my other class before tuning in to "The Bachelor."

in that big Beretta banquet in the sky

2012-01-15T12:22:00.001-06:00

In April 2001, a month before I graduated from high school, my dad brought home a blue 1996 Chevy Beretta to replace the worn-down 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera I had been driving up until then. His goal was that it would get me through college. But that car had other plans. That car lasted through multiple road trips, a move to Denver, a move back from Denver, and three good years back in Nebraska until this Friday - when it was discovered the repairs needed on it were worth much more than the car itself - equaling more than three car payments on a new car. And so, after much discussion and more tears than a normal person would probably shed on something like a car, it was decided that the Beretta's time in my life had finally come to an end.

This is not actually my car, but it is wonderfully dignified photo of a Beretta.
Source: edmunds.com

I thought I would be writing this kind of memorial blog post in 2007. On one of those countless trips from Denver to eastern Nebraska, my car was totaled in a hit-and-run in Lincoln that fortunately I was out of my car during but unfortunately was not covered by my insurance. At all. They wouldn't even send anyone out for any kind of estimate. After a few weeks, my dad (who is the nicest dad in the world, by the way) and his mechanic friend resurrected it. Built from some parts of a Pontiac Grand Am and a new door from a '97 Beretta (causing many mechanics to be confused when I'd bring it in after this since the door said it was a '97 though I told them it was a '96), the car had a second life and gave me four and a half more years of loyalty.

I realize it's kind of ridiculous to be so attached to a car. And, to be totally honest, a not very attractive car at that (please don't tell the Beretta I said that). But me and this car were buds. It didn't mind that I put ridiculous things like a Vanilla Ice pin in the visor to keep the strap from falling down or a worn-down gold chain of dice around the emergency brake because my sister had it in her old car. In return, I put up with its quirks like a super heavy door I'd usually have to push open with my leg and the seat cover that never stayed up on the driver's side meaning my scarf or coat would get stuck on the velcro.

I knew how to get it to work. I knew what button to push when the cassette player kept trying to turn over to the other side of the cassette tape adapter thereby stopping the music from my iPod. I knew that even though the "check engine light" remained on for years the engine didn't actually need checked (I figured this was my car's version of saying "Hi. How's it going?") and I knew that my stuffed Alf doll found at Goodwill would always be in his home in the trunk (except, of course, for that one time when my mom's friend kidnapped him).

My car even supported important causes with me by wearing rubber band bracelets on its gear shift. First, an orange one for juvenile diabetes when my cousin was diagnosed; then pink for breast cancer was added for my aunt, grandma, family friend and co-workers; then a white clear one I got at a workshop that supported youth literacy; and finally a light blue one I got at a library conference supporting libraries.

And so after 10 1/2 years, approximately 111,000 miles and trips through 15 states and 1 Canadian province, the Beretta is leaving me. Where it will go to we haven't yet determined but the search for a new car has begun. A new car that wasn't with me when I moved into the dorm rooms, wasn't with me when I moved to a new state, wasn't with me when I moved back to Nebraska, started grad school, got engaged and married. A new car that won't even know what the '90s were. I'm nervous. How can I trust something that doesn't even know about when Bob Dole ran for president?

Here's a look back and some of the good trips I had with that car:

Nebraska - Countless trips between West Point, Fremont, Lincoln and Omaha as well as countless trips driving across I-80 to get home from Denver. Also, one pretty awesome Nebraska attractions road trip my college friend John and I took for the Daily Nebraskan.

Missouri - Countless trips to see visit my sister in Kansas City when she lived here.

Winnipeg, Manitoba - My sister and I took a "sister's vacation" up to Canada the summer after my first year of college. Driving through South Dakota and North Dakota before we spent some time hanging out with people from the hostel and me drinking in a bar for the first time (since I was legal there at that point). This is the farthest north the car had gone.

Texas - Going through Kansas and Oklahoma before arriving in Austin with said college friend John for the Austin City Limits Music Festival. This is the farthest south the car had gone.

North Carolina - A trip I took before my senior year of college. I lived in NC for a month apartment-sitting a friend of a friend's place because I wanted to get away from Nebraska for a little while. It was a great trip that also had me going through Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. My parents joined me and we drove out to the Outer Banks. If my car could talk it was say it was the most beautiful and frightening place we had been. We drove through a terrible rainstorm on the way back home that resulted in a flat tire and locking the keys in the car. Luckily, a very nice man helped us out until AAA came. This is the farthest east the car had gone.

Colorado - I packed this car to the brim with my belongings as I headed West to Denver after graduating from college to start a job in a new state for some new adventures in my life. I took the car up to the mountains a few times (Georgetown, Breckenridge, Winter Park). This is the farthest west the car had gone. My regret is that I did not take it farther that way.

Minnesota/Wisconsin - In 2009, I took the car for a road trip to visit my friends in St. Paul and Green Bay for my Spring Break. A few months later, I took it back up to Minnesota to visit that same friend after she gave birth to twins. My dad made me a killer tape mix for the ride (that included "Eres Tu" as heard in "Tommy Boy" which had me laughing for hours). Little did I know that would be the last big road trip it would take.

So long, Beretta. Thanks for a decade of great memories. You've left my next car big tires(?) to fill!

2012 reading goals

2012-01-12T09:18:00.000-06:00

Back in 2008, I set out to read books based on monthly themes. I really liked this concept and would love to do it again. However, this year isn't really fitting for that. In 2010, I came up with a booklist of the top books I wanted to read at sometime in my life. I started keeping track on this Booklists page. However, as you can see from 2011's reading list rundown, I read only one book from the Booklist last year. Disappointing. So, in order to try to stay better on track with it, I'm creating a reading list goal for 2012. A lot of these are on the Booklist, but some of these I got over the year at the Friends of Omaha Public Library book sales so, really my Booklist has grown and I need to edit it - and I desperately need to edit the teen one as my priorities have changed there quite a bit. But, I'll get to that another time.

Here they are in no particular order:

First of all, I know, I know. I can't believe I haven't finished "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" yet either. And I call myself a former copy editor. Shame on me.

Four of these books are books I've started reading and really enjoyed but for some reason or another, I got distracted by a different book and I never went back around to them. So 2012 will be the year of finishing things! Sadly, this pile isn't the only pile of books that I own that I've started and not finished but ... baby steps.

In addition to this list, I'm currently working my way through "Why We Broke Up" by Daniel Handler with lovely illustrations by the fabulous Maira Kalman (who also provided lovely drawings for "The Elements of Style Illustrated.") I've also started "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak (author of the brilliant, beautiful "The Book Thief"), which the 8th grade book club I co-host is reading this month.

I don't know how I overlooked adding "Attachments" by Rainbow Rowell to this shot, but that's another one I'm working on finally reading this year (I even got the book signed and everything and somehow it went unread even though I absolutely loved the beginning of it).

Also on the list for 2012 is "Divergent," the hot new-ish YA book that was picked as the Favorite Book of 2011 in the Goodreads Choice Awards and "I Am A Man: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice," which is this year's One Book One Nebraska.

And then of course there's some books on my nook that I'd like to read. And "The Girl Who Played With Fire" which is making its way to me from Paperback Swap. And "The Hobbit" before the end of the year when the movie comes out .... Oh goodness. I need to stop myself somewhere to make room for some of those pesky new books that go and get written and look all exciting to read and everyone's talking about them so I just HAVE to read them right now, too!

Alright, here's the list for 2012 as it stands today:

Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
In The Woods, Tana French
The Maze Runner, James Dashner
The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
An Object of Beauty, Steve Martin
The History of Love, Nicole Krauss
Runaway, Alice Munro
Zeitoun, Dave Eggers
The Heart is A Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
Why We Broke Up, Daniel Handler
I Am The Messenger, Makus Zusak
Attachments, Rainbow Rowell
Divergent, Veronica Roth
I Am A Man: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice, Joe Starita
The Girl Who Played With Fire, Stieg Larsson
The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

Since my goal is to read 40 books this year and I've already got half of that listed here I should hopefully be in good shape. Wish me luck! I'll try my best to provide reviews along the way and would love to hear your thoughts on any of these or other books!

so this is the new year

2012-01-11T20:01:00.002-06:00

2011 highlights

marrying my best friend * going on an Alaskan cruise * buying a house * receiving a grant to buy teen books for the library * getting two promotions at work * getting elected to the Nebraska Library Association's Young Adult Round Table * accepting an appointment to sit on the YALSA blog advisory board * girls' weekend in Minneapolis * eating at Sher-E-Punjab and seeing "Bridesmaids" and "50/50" with Andrea * seeing "The Goonies" on the big screen * watching the championship CWS game for a second year in a row * watching the entire season of "The Bachelorette" with Chris * Star Wars night at the Storm Chasers * going to the Avoca, NE Quack Off with college friends (for the second time) * seeing Steven Soderbergh speak at a Film Streams benefit * meeting and getting books signed by four authors (Rainbow Rowell, Sarah Dessen, Neal Shusterman and Nancy Werlin) * finally reading "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" * getting a reply from Ingrid Michaelson on Twitter on Thanksgiving Day

2012 plans

finish grad school * take a trip to see family in Las Vegas and Phoenix * tweet more * write more book reviews * read more of the books that I own but haven't gotten around to reading yet * plan/decide on destination for a 30th birthday trip for me and Chris * finally say farewell to the '96 Beretta I've had since high school and buy a new (or new to me) car

I know the 2012 plans may look a little sparse but in order for me to stay focused on that first goal, they kind of have to be.

reading list rundown 2011

2012-01-01T21:39:00.001-06:00

Just like my reading list rundowns for 2010, 2009 and 2008, I present you with the books I read in 2011. I'm a little sad I to admit I've read less books this year than last, though I would like to think the fact that I got married in the middle of the year gives me a little bit of an excuse. Also, you'll see a preference to a few authors in there. One of which (Emily Giffin) seemed great for pre-wedding reading and the other two (Neal Shusterman and Nancy Werlin) were authors that visited the Omaha area so I wanted to get more familiar with their works. The asterisk indicates the book I read that was on my booklists. Clearly, that's something I need to get better about as well. Links are provided for reviews (hopefully more coming soon). Bolded books were my top 8 of the year.

January - Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain, Portia de Rossi
January - Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
January - Emotionally Engaged: A Bride's Guide to Surviving the "Happiest" Time of Her Life, Allison Moir-Smith
February - The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
February - Goodbye, Chunky Rice, Craig Thompson
February - Hector and the Search for Happiness, Francois Lelord
March - The Giver, Lois Lowry
March - Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
March - Lock and Key, Sarah Dessen
April - William & Kate: A Royal Love Story, James Clench
April - A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out Of Life, Bethenny Frankel
April - The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (while one of my absolute favorite books, I'm not bolding it since this is somewhere around the fourth or fifth time I've read this book)
April - The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
May - Something Borrowed, Emily Giffin
May - Something Blue, Emily Giffin
May - Love the One You're With, Emily Giffin
June - What Happened To Goodbye, Sarah Dessen
June - Bossypants, Tina Fey
June - The Secret Circle: Initiation and The Captive Part 1, L.J. Smith
June - Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell

July - The Secret Circle: The Captive Part 2 and The Power, L.J. Smith
July - The Help, Kathryn Stockett
August - One Day, David Nicholls
August - Beastly, Alex Flinn
September - Dread Locks, Neal Shusterman
September - Dirty Little Secrets, C.J. Omololu
September - Bruiser, Neal Shusterman
October - The Best Advice I Ever Got, Katie Couric
October - The Year We Left Home, Jean Thompson
October - Everlost, Neal Shusterman
November - A Visit from the Goon Squard, Jennifer Egan
November - The Killer's Cousin, Nancy Werlin

November - The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick
November - Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs
November - The Rules of Survival, Nancy Werlin
December - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Mindy Kaling
December - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson*

2011= 37 books read
2010 = 42 books read
2009 = 30 books read
2008 = 33 books read

catching up

2011-03-23T11:00:00.001-05:00

So ... I've totally not accomplished my goal to blog at least once a week. I was apparently overly ambitious when I wrote that goal before my class started this semester and before I really got into the work schedule of my two jobs and before a lot more wedding stuff needed to be decided on.

In any case, I do wish I was blogging more and hopefully will be doing so more frequently in the future. Blogging always creates this sort of mixture of calming me while I'm writing and then completely freaking me out when I publish and put it all out there. Usually the freaking out part causes me to not even start writing a blog post in the first place. But, considering one of my ultimate life goals is to write a book (or books) I need to really work on getting better about this.

Here's a few things that have been going on:

Work
I'm now working about 45 hours a week between the two jobs. Both are quite different in terms of duties and I'm definitely enjoying being able to experience a variety of aspects of the library world. I've also taken over the interlibrary loan at one of the libraries I work at.
Awhile ago I found out that I was awarded a BWI/YALSA grant that I applied for which means very awesome things for our YA collection. I'm busy getting recommendations and putting together book orders which is pretty much the most awesome part of my job - buying books for teens.
I'm also excited because next week I get to go to two library workshops - one about classic YA literature and one about mending books. Really excited about those opportunities.

School
I've got one month to go in this semester's Internet Research class and because I just love to put as much stress on myself as possible, I've decided to keep up with the original plan of study I put together a year ago in spite of getting married this summer. This means I'm enrolled in a class from mid-May through mid-June. Since the wedding isn't until mid-July I would think this should work out OK. I hope.

Wedding
We've got a lot done. The biggest thing left is the DJ (anyone have any recommendations?). Then there's stuff like tablecloths and other decorations, finding some kind aunts to make some cream cheese mints (a staple for weddings in my family), dress fittings, a trial run for the hair, making the invitations, figuring out how many kegs to buy, etc. I don't really want to write a lot about what our plans are because I want a lot of it to be special to the day and not something that people already knew would be coming.

Reading
Does anyone else have "cravings" for books? I don't really know how to describe them any other way. I see a book that I really want to read on the shelf at the library and can't get it out of my head until I just have to check it out. I'm obsessed with it. Right now, my obsession is with Sarah Dessen's books. It was recently announced she'll be coming to Omaha in May and I'm super excited to hear her talk. I think I'm also just really ready for warmer weather so summertime-y books are definitely wanted. I read "Along for the Ride" last summer and am making my way through "Lock and Key" now. "Keeping the Moon" is next on my list.

more wedding book reviews

2011-01-30T14:27:00.001-06:00

The other day at my one of two library jobs (long story behind how I went from 1 library job to 2 that perhaps I'll talk about later), a patron carrying a load of wedding planning books jokingly asked if I'd help her plan her daughter's wedding. I said no thanks, I was planning my own which of course led to multiple questions about where we were in the process, what our date was, etc.

The conversation made me realize that right now, I've gotten to the point where I am tired of wedding planning talk. I'm maxed out on all those wedding resources I was pouring over just a few months ago. Maybe it's because I've gotten to the part in the time line of having to make final decisions and I can't be bothered anymore to look at or read about ideas because it just hurts my brain too much to have too many options to think about or worry that I should have done something differently.

In any case, I did say awhile ago that I would review "One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding" and I still want to talk about it briefly because it wasn't as much about wedding planning as it was a commentary on today's wedding industry.

Author Rebecca Mead takes a sociological look at the different industries surrounding a wedding - dress (white didn't become the color of choice until after WWII), wedding destinations (Disneyworld, Aruba, Gaitlinburg, TN), the registry, ceremony readings (the commonly used "Apache Indian Prayer" appears to have no ties to American Indian culture, but was written for a wedding scene in the movie "Broken Arrow" with Jimmy Stewart) and more. It's a great read for anyone who's planning a wedding, has planned a wedding or is generally interested in weddings. On the wedding planning level, it's helpful to read this book and see that some things that you think are "traditional," in fact aren't and at least for me, it helped me to feel better about some of the choices we're making for our wedding that may not be typical, but instead are things that we like and feel most comfortable with.

Mead says in the opening pages, "What, after all, is a wedding for? This is a question that deserves consideration not just by individuals planning to wed, but by the rest of us as well, married or not. The American wedding - with its softball games, its matching linens and its $161 billion industrial infrastructure - is an expression of this culture's character and declaration from this culture's heart. The way we marry, for better or worse, is who we are; and if we were to reexamine our commitment to the American wedding as it currently exists, we might be surprised to find that our ultimate happiness does not depend on it."

On a similar level, I just finished "Emotionally Engaged: A Bride's Guide to Surviving the 'Happiest' Time of Her Life" by Allison Moir-Smith. While some of it was a little over-the-top for me and some of the dialogue in the examples of situations given seemed a bit juvenile, it was a good book to read when I needed a little bit of de-stressing time. It helped to know that it wasn't abnormal for me to be down and depressed some days even though I'm planning for one of the happiest days of my life. It encourages you not to dismiss those "'un-bridely' feelings of anxiety, fear and sadness" that may come up and talks about how to deal with saying "goodbye" to the roles you are giving up like your single life, or the fact that you're shifting your family identity to create a new family structure.

If you want to read more, you can find an excerpt from the first chapter here.

Pairing these books together creates a good look at the "things and stuff" of a wedding and the emotions of wedding.

reading list rundown 2010

2011-01-05T10:28:00.001-06:00

Just like my reading list rundowns for 2009 and 2008, I present you with the books I read in 2010. Since I feel behind this year on writing reviews for the majority of them (something I'm hoping to do more of this year!), if you have any questions or comments on any of the titles, please let me know and I'll tell you what I thought! (Asterisks indicate books I read that are on my booklists).

January - The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell

January - Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan

January - The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx

January - If I Stay, Gayle Foreman

February - Paper Towns, John Green

February - When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead

February - Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert

March - Invisible, Pete Hautman

March - Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney

April - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
April - Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Jeff Kinney
May - Pinocchio Vampire Slayer, Van Jensen and Dustin Higgins
May - Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin*
May - The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
May - Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
June - Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, Julie Powell
June - Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen*
June - Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery, Deborah and James Howe*
June - A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer*

July - The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin*

July - Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, James Patterson*
July - Fire, Kristin Cashore*
August - Persuasion, Jane Austin*
August -  Deep and Dark and Dangerous, Mary Downing Hahn*
August -  Looking for Alaska, John Green*
August -  Something, Maybe, Elizabeth Scott
August -  I Am A Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want To Be Your Class President, Josh Lieb
September - The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold*
September - Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer, Margot Morrell & Stephanie Capparell
September - Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
October - Altared: Bridezillas, bewilderment, big love, breakups and what women really think about contemporary weddings, Colleen Curran (editor)
October - The Grimm Legacy, Polly Shulman
October - Wait 'Til Helen Comes, Mary Downing Hahn
October - The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and For Our Leaders, Ira Chaleff
November - One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, Rebecca Mead
November - The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman*
December - Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married, Gary Chapman
December - The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore
December - Ghostopolis, Doug TenNapel

December - Lotta Jansdotter's Handmade Living: A Fresh Take on Scandinavian Style, Lotta Jansdotter
December - Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë*
December - Nerdy Thirty, Wendy Townley

2008 = 33 books read, 2009 = 30 books read, 2010 = 42 books read!

this will be our year

2011-01-02T22:38:00.002-06:00

2010 highlights

getting engaged * running my first 5k * attending my first CWS game * attending numerous Lancers and Royals games including the last Royals game at the Rosenblatt * visiting friends in Wisconsin * visiting friends in Minnesota * moving into a new apartment * planning and completing a Summer Reading Program for the library * seeing Ingrid Michaelson, Mates of State, She & Him, The Mynabirds, Bright Eyes and Tilly and the Wall perform * attending three library conferences * watching Jurassic Park outdoors * getting a nook * going ice skating * getting to see my sister and cousin multiple times * drinking from a boot for the first time at Huber Haus * attending my first roller derby match * winning a scary story contest at a friend's Halloween party * seeing Pauley Shore at the Funny Bone * testing my skills in the kitchen a few times by baking and making chili * getting to see a good high school friend at her wedding reception * enjoying numerous family gatherings and events with my and Chris's families

2011 plans

marry my best friend and have an awesome wedding and Alaskan honeymoon to celebrate * create and maintain a budget * start writing a book * blog at least once a week * continue reading through my booklists * run the Race for the Cure 5k again * try my hand at a few more crafty projects * take a trip to see Willa Cather's birthplace * take a trip to the Antiquarium in Brownville * enjoy many more fun times with friends and family

Find more artists like The Mynabirds at Myspace Music

wedding book reviews

2010-12-02T15:36:00.001-06:00

I'm the kind of person that, before I make any decisions, I make sure I pour over all the resources I can get my hands on in the amount of time I have before making said decisions. Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project referred to these people as "maximers" .... "they can't make a decision until after they've examined every option, so they can make the best possible choice."

And so, as with every major life event, I've been doing my research on wedding and marriage planning these past months since getting engaged.

It actually started about two years ago when I began reading Offbeat Bride religously as my sister's wedding started to near. And yes, her wedding would be considered pretty "offbeat." In the last couple of months I've added blogs like BridePOP, DIY Bride, Style Me Pretty, and the others over there on the right-hand side of my blog to my reading list. I love love love A Practical Wedding and 2,000 Dollar Budget Wedding. These two definitely keep me sane as I worry through the massive suggested "To Do" lists through sites like The Knot (more on that later).

To explain my researching needs ... our wedding will be a little "offbeat" from "traditional" weddings as well. For one, it will be held in a barn. More details forthcoming on this, though. I don't want to give away all the details and surprises of our wedding day ideas! We originally said we wanted to have a small wedding - 75 to 100 sounded very nice to us. Until we counted up our family alone and found we were already over 130. And so, the planning is underway with us trying to figure out how to have a slightly intimate event with as little stress and hoopla as possible but still make it incredibly fun for all who are there (which is part of why I love 2,000 Dollar Budget Wedding so much). We won't be able to do it at that low of cost, but we're hoping to be closer to that end of things than to today's average local price of $15 - 25,000 for a wedding.

The following items I have checked out at local libraries to help me through this process. Some helped me, some ... not so much.

Miss Manners' Guide to A Surprisingly Dignified Wedding by Judith Martin and Jacobina Martin
This book is trying a little too hard to be funny, in my opinion, when I was just hoping for something that really would tell me some rules of etiquette. As much as I like to do things my own way, I do like to obey some rules, too. The book does give you a few guidelines to follow but you have to get through some sarcastic riffs in order to get there almost every time.

Knack: Planning Your Wedding by Blair deLaubenfels, Christy Weber and Kim Bamberg
For something that has "Make It Easy"on the cover, it didn't quite seem to be quite so simple. Every time I opened this thing up and started taking a look I got so overwhelmed. Apparently "making it easy" involves detailed information about 20 different chapters of stuff that I will have to decide on - invitations, thank you notes, dress shapes, lighting and dance floors, hair, shoes and so on. I think after taking a look at this, I've learned I just need to focus on one thing at a time.

1,001 Ways to Save Money ... and Still Have a Dazzling Wedding by Sharon Naylor
This book began with telling me that hand-making engagement announcements would be cheaper than store-bought ones (mind you, this is something you apparently are supposed to send before save the dates). Then it told me some ways I could save money on the engagement party such as having a friend make the desserts, or limiting the number of drinks your guests can order at the fancy restaurant where you're treating them all to a meal. On page 15, this book told me that I should really consider hiring a wedding coordinator because they can help me save money. Apparently this book is for turning a $20,000 wedding into a $10-15,000. Not so much for someone hoping to spend way under any of those amounts.

Do it for less! Weddings: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank by Denise Vivaldo
The first part of this book has some common knowledge tips like - don't hire a wedding coordinator, have your event on off-days, have a smaller wedding, make your own save the dates.
It suggested buying your bridesmaid's board games like Twister, Pictionary and Dream Phone and having a girl's night for your bachelorette party ... do they even make Dream Phone anymore?
The larger portion of this book is dedicated to recipes for food, beverages, etc. you can make yourself to save money - including detailed grocery lists for each recipe. Had I needed this kind of info, it would have been helpful. Had I known this would largely be what the book is about, I wouldn't have picked it up.
It did have a nice drawing of how to set up the buffet (where to put the sides, entrees, etc.) and had charts on what size of tablecloths to get for what types and sizes of tables.
It also had a detailed list of what flowers are available in each season which was handy to have for someone like me who has no idea what to do when it comes to flowers.

Altared: Bridezillas, bewilderment, big love, breakups, and what women really think about contemporary weddings edited by Colleen Curran
This is a great collection of short stories by female authors who talk frankly about weddings. Vows, the dress, etiquette, what it's like to go to weddings as a single girl, dealing with family, etc. There's a great one by Julie Powell (of Julie & Julia fame) which I loved, most likely because I have a girl crush on her. I also loved this passage from Elizabeth Crane's story:

"This marriage makes me feel that it's OK to be me. Not that I ever had a choice, but God knows I tried, for the sake of many other relationships, to be any number of people who weren't me, always failing miserably. I was finally as close as I'd ever been to being me, and glad to be me, shortly before I met Ben (her husband) . . . This relationship has helped me come to understand that everything isn't about me, anymore, and that apparenty it never was anyway .... If anything I'm more me now, because of Ben."

I loved this book because it was a way to step away from the "wedding industrial complex" as 2,000 Dollar Wedding writes about so often and gave me a chance to just read plain old wedding stories without starting to hyperventilate about things on my list that I haven't done yet.

Speaking of things on a list ...

The Knot Book of Wedding Lists by Carley Roney and editors of The Knot

I know this whole "wedding to do list" thing is probably what I need to keep me from going crazy and thinking that we need to have everything done today or yesterday but the more I see these "To Do" lists the more freaked out I get. I've got one through the Real Simple Wedding magazine I bought the day after he proposed, there's one on The Knot's website (which is freaking huge), Bed Bath and Beyond has something when you register that you can use and I'm sure there's a billion others out there.
When it became obvious that our wedding wasn't going to be one in which I'd need to deal with at least half of the things these books talk about, I decided I'd use them just as guidelines, but manage most of my stuff on my own through Remember The Milk which means I and I alone set what things I think need to be done.

Coming soon, I'll talk about my favorite book on the subject so far - One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding which is full of great insights into many of the things considered "traditional" that really aren't.

But now, brides-to-be and wives, what resources helped you?

oh by gosh by golly

2010-11-29T12:51:00.001-06:00

It's time for mistletoe and holly! Or ... in my case ... my very first Christmas tree!

Thanks to my mother who provided the funds for this early Christmas present, I went out to Target a few weeks ago a bought a pre-lit 6 ft tree. Now that Thanksgiving is over, I will admit to the blogosphere that my tree is up (though it has been for the last two weeks!) With only three pieces plus the base this was by far the easiest tree I've ever put up.

The base. (Gracie was trying to help!)

The bottom branches.

Chris adjusts the lights. It is sooo easy and quick to decorate a tree that already has lights positioned on it. Whoever thought of that deserves an award. Or at least a Christmas cookie.

Now it's time for the ornaments!

There's a white dove that always goes on the tree at my parents' house. So I wanted to get a bird for this tree, too!

Instead of a $15-$20 star topper, I opted for a $3 gift bow. I felt like Young House Love would be proud of me for that.

The finished product with an assortment of blue and silver glass ornaments. All items purchased at Target for less than $90 (my how I love that store). Now, I just need to figure out what to do for a tree skirt ...

harry potter crafting

2010-11-07T10:32:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, myself and a fellow librarian hosted a Harry Potter costume party at our library. Of course, this called for some decorations.

First up, these very fun owls I found on the Made by Joel blog, which is full of fun craft ideas.

This craft definitely put my X-acto knife to the test.

We had some problems keeping them taped to the ceiling (especially the ones right by the vents) but overall, they looked pretty good!

And, because I wanted everyone to be able to walk away with a nice little treat, these witch's brooms from the Martha Stewart website seemed like a great fit. I filled them with wrapped candy and a flyer for next week's teen event.

We also made some Harry Potter cookies!

After work, I joined up with a friend who was hosting a Harry Potter movie marathon. I was able to take in the end of #4, as well as #5 and #6. Long day. But worth it! And I'm very ready for movie #7 part 1!

coffee + crafting

2010-11-03T14:11:00.002-05:00

There are two things I've recently found myself fascinated with. Perhaps I've been needing a break from all the wedding planning (an update on that can come later), but lately, I've found myself addicted to Young House Love and thinking of different crafts and updates I can do to the place (and dreaming of the house we'll hopefully someday be able to purchase). I've also found myself enjoying a certain beverage ....

A couple of weeks ago, in a moment of desperation, I drank some coffee. I was at a library conference out of town and had to wake up 2 1/2 hours earlier than my regular routine. With no Starbucks grande soy chais in sight (and having given up soda a month ago), I did what I had to do ... poured myself a class of free hotel coffee and loaded it with some caramel macchiato creamer. It was actually pretty good. This coming from a girl who for years has adamantly told her coffee-addicted parents and sister that she did not like coffee.

I'll spare you all the unnecessary details and fast forward to this weekend, where I found myself at Target, buying a French press. And then fast forward to today, when I made my first cup.

I heated some water and grabbed my coffee*!

Hello, Snowman!
*Apparently, I did not read the directions that the best coffee to use in a
French press is course ground coffee, not fine. While the fine ground seemed to work alright,
I'm guessing I'll soon be investing in a coffee grinder and some whole beans. Suggestions welcome!

Poured it in and stirred it up.

Added the water and let it brew for 4 minutes. Yeah, I can use the word brew now in everyday conversation!

The result? I found it to be pretty darn tasty, which was noticeable by the fact that when I drank it all up, I wondered why I didn't make 16 oz. instead of just 8.

Eventually, this handsome mug will have this cute cozy to adorn it, which it doesn't really need since it doesn't get hot, but it's cute and it was made by a Canadian librarian and I can use it when I go to Starbucks ... so there.

And speaking of cute crafts.... I have finally finished a felt squirrel that I started back in June. After visiting the quilt exhibit in an art museum, the crafting bug bit me and I decided I wanted to try my hand at some simple stitching so I picked up a squirrel and a raccoon keychain set (in the kid's section of the gallery's gift shop, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right?).

This was where I stopped in June:

And this is what he now looks like stuffed and pieced together!

See that background? That's my new cutting mat!
I own an X-acto knife, too. I'm moving up in the crafting world.

I'm now on to make his buddy, the raccoon. Hopefully I'll get him finished in less than 5 months!

cat nap

2010-10-19T15:39:00.000-05:00

My cat has taken a liking to napping under covers.

See?

She also snores.

C25K accomplished ... but not complete

2010-10-11T11:15:00.003-05:00

Last Sunday, I did something that just a few months ago I never, ever would have thought I'd find myself doing.

As I've talked about before, I got motivated to support breast cancer research back in July in a way more meaningful than just cutting a check. A family friend had recently been diagnosed. My aunt and grandmother both survived it. I decided to run a 5K for them.

I used the Couch To 5K program which, for the most part worked well. Confession: I didn't actually get up to running 3.1 miles non-stop like the program says you will. I took two speed walking breaks in between. My best time that I was able to get to on the treadmill was around 41 minutes.

A few days before the race, I created a playlist on my iPod and timed it out so that it would last me the whole race and so that I knew when I could take my walking breaks. I ran with it once on the treadmill before the race and it seemed to work well.

The day before the race, I decided to try running outside for the first time. Boy was this a bad idea. It was a little cold and windy and I didn't dress well for that. My throat began to hurt because I was breathing in air that was much colder than I was used to. I couldn't establish a good breathing pattern. I gave up, feeling defeated and beginning to psych myself out about the race the next day. I decided I'd try to be happy if I could finish the race in under 50 minutes.

Getting ready for my first 5K!

On Sunday, my fiance drove me downtown to the start of the race. I knew there'd be a lot of people there but I had no idea it'd be more than 19,000 people. When the shot gun went off, it took 5 minutes for me to actually get up to the starting line from where I was standing in the crowd. Having never run in a 5K before, I wasn't really sure how to get started ... do I just push past all the walkers? But as soon as we cleared that starting line, people behind me starting running past on the sidewalk so I followed.

Soon, I found a couple that were about my age that were running at a pace that seemed similar to the pace I wanted to go so I stuck behind them. I took a few walking breaks but whenever I did, I made sure to find them back in the crowd and catch up.

The first mile was actually a little rough, but by the second, I started getting into the groove a little more. Before I knew it, I passed the 3 mile sign on the side of the road and as I rounded the corner for the final stretch to the finish line, I heard some familiar voices, looked up and saw my fiance, mom and dad cheering me on. It was amazing that out of a crowd that big, I was actually able to see them and feel their support.

As I neared the finish line, I saw the clock switching over to 41:00. Which seemed right on par with my treadmill speed when I realized ... it was 5 minutes off! I just ran my first 5K in just a little over 36 minutes! I couldn't believe it. But the iPod proved it as well since I had 3 songs left on the playlist that I never got to.

This was actually the starting line, but my fiance wasn't able to get shot of me near the finish line since I was going to fast!

It felt so good to finish, and especially good to finish at a much better time than I thought I would. Even more than that, it was amazing to see so many people supporting and raising money for a cause that has affected so many people.

I'll definitely be doing it again next year and am also going to keep my eye out for more 5Ks next spring.

Also, there's still time to donate if you feel so inclined. The fundraising program for the race ends October 31. Thanks to everyone that donated ... I far exceeded my fundraising goal!

racing for the cure

2010-09-01T23:00:00.001-05:00

It's official! I've registered for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure race on Oct. 3. That means I've got just 4 more weeks to prepare. I considered registering for the Sleepwalker package which allows you to choose between Racing for the Cure or Sleeping for the Cure that day, but my good friend Jill made me realize that by having that option to back out, I might just do it. So I registered for the real deal ... here goes!

For more information about the race or to donate to the cause, check out my page.

my c25k update

2010-08-26T23:02:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I talked about my quest to get in shape for a 5k. Admittedly this was because along the way, I started to lose my motivation, make excuses for myself and fall behind a little.

I followed the C25K schedule as listed right up until Week 7 hit me with a "jog 25 minutes straight" direction that looked on paper like it was so simple but felt like a hurdle I wouldn't be able to overcome. 25 minutes straight with no walking breaks? Yikes.

I modified the schedule and and moved from getting two walking breaks in between jogging to just one walking break but then, I still couldn't quite get myself over the issue of not breaking at all. Then I got engaged. And broke out in two weird (non-contagious) heat rashes on my hands and arms.

What did these two things have to do with my running? Well, the first meant I wanted to do things like eat fatty foods and drink celebratory drinks and not deal with worrying about maintaining a good diet or working out. It also meant (at one point) being so stressed about early wedding planning that I couldn't even get my brain to focus on running so I just stopped ... in the middle of the routine. The second thing meant that I was on steroids for a few days which made me dizzy when I tried to work out.

Before these two things happened, I had started getting to a place where I thought to myself "I actually do kind of enjoy running" (and if there's something good on Bravo while I'm doing it, that's even better). But then, as I was trying to workout through these two things, my positivity toward running waned as well and I just started to feel like I didn't like it anymore and that maybe my body was trying to tell me that running is not something that it wants to do (since I've never really made it do this on a consistent basis before).

Now that I'm off the roids and am trying to teach myself to calm down about the wedding planning a bit, I'm back on track. And this week, finally ... I did it! I jogged for 25 minutes straight with NO BREAKS!

Granted, I'm still a shade under 2.5 miles in the 35 total minutes that I'm on the treadmill but ... progress is being made.

the story of boy meets girl

2010-08-11T09:29:00.002-05:00

I've known Chris since the summer of 1999. I met him at my cousin's house. She lived in a town about 30 minutes away from me but I hung out there a lot with her and her friends. The first night we met, we made bacon in something called a Bacon Wave that my cousin and I had found at Goodwill that day.

He asked me out a few weeks later, shortly after I returned from a family vacation in California (where my cousin had told me that she knew he liked me) and I said yes. Being 16 and having had only one previous boyfriend for a month the summer before, I was, of course, giddy and confused and excited and all sorts of emotions all at once.

We dated for about a month. Being quite new to the whole dating thing, I wasn't very good at it, or about communicating my feelings and so, after a month, I gave him the dreaded "let's just be friends" talk. I'm sure I threw an "it's not you, it's me" in there. Please, cut me some slack. I was 16.

Through our junior and senior years we would see each other here and there at events and gatherings and we both ended up at the same university. My cousin and her boyfriend at the time and Chris and I would hang out all the time together. We became BFFs to the point where I'm pretty sure my cousin would get a little jealous of how much time the two of us spent together. I'll spare you all of the tiny details from the next 9 years leading up to present and just say that there were some pivotal moments scattered throughout those years that could have lead to us dating again but for some reason or another, none of them did. Not until last summer, when he asked again and I (eventually) said yes.

It was a little odd for me in the beginning, that this was the same person who was my second boyfriend when I was 16. That time of my life felt so foreign to me and now here was this person from that time becoming an even bigger part of my life.

But it wasn’t foreign, because this was the person I stayed up with on countless late nights our freshman year of college trying to figure out what I should do with my life (which I still haven’t totally figured out but I’m at least a little more comfortable with that fact). This was the same person who I’d meet up with after a late night of working at the student newspaper and smoked with outside the steps of his dorm (Sidenote: We don't smoke anymore. Smoking is bad, kids. Don't do it!)

It was the same person who got (understandably) sad when I called him up as I was driving away to tell him I was moving to Colorado after graduating from college and it was the same person that a few months later, visited me in Colorado when I started to finally realize that I might be in love with my best friend. It’s the same person who told me he loved me freshman year of college and told me 9 years later that he’s never stopped loving me. The same person who told me he knew from the day he met me when we were 16 that there was something special. It’s the same person I decided to say “yes” to after a few days of deliberation of whether or not we should try dating again, 10 years after we first tried it.

But when we were getting close to our one-year anniversary of dating, I started to get a little scared because I had a good idea that the "big question" was going to come up soon. I did what I do with anything I have questions about. Googled it. And let me tell you, it's hard to find articles on girls who are hesitant to get married. After a few searches and reading a few articles about guys who weren't ready to pop the question, I gave up and was a bit frazzled.

And then finally, a few weeks ago, I figured it out.

Whether I was ready to marry him was not a decision about whether he was the right one (because he sooo was), but whether I was really ready to accept that I am who I am. And that I was ready to accept that someone would actually love me just the way I am and just the way I’ve always been without any need for change. Tears fill my eyes every time he tells me sincerely how much he loves me because, deep down, I never thought I’d hear those words from someone. And then when I did, I got scared. Because it meant I didn’t have to change a thing about myself. Which is what I thought I’ve needed to do for the last 11 years of my life.

And so this past weekend, when we went to Kansas City to celebrate our one-year dating anniversary and we went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum and sat down on a bench that we sat on when we started dating again last year ...

and when he got down on one knee after saying some incredibly sweet things to me, opened a ring box and asked me if I'd marry him ...

I said yes!

confessions of a swapaholic

2010-08-01T19:22:00.006-05:00

Months ago, my cousin told me about Paperbackswap.com, a site that allows you to post books you don't want anymore and in exchange, get books that you do want.

After looking at my bookcases that had a number of books on it that I've either read and don't really need to keep, half read and never had the interest to try again, or have had for years and never got around to reading and subsequently lost interest in it, I finally joined last week and I am having so much fun with it!

Here's how it works - you create a free account and if you post 10 books right away that you're willing to mail out, you get 2 free credits. 1 book = 1 credit. There are audiobooks on there, too which are 2 credits each to obtain. You can search around to see if any other users have any books you want and if so and if you have enough credits, you can request that they mail them to you.

If someone wants a book you've posted, you'll get a notice and the opportunity to send it out. If it's a small enough paperback, you can print out the postage (you'll pay a little extra money to do this which helps support the operation of the service) and to/from mailing label, wrap it up like a present and drop it in the mailbox.

For larger books or hardcover books, you will need to go to the post office, but for under $5, I can get rid of some books that I don't want anymore (knowing that they are going to go to someone that does want them) and can replace them with ones I do. Most of which are on my booklist.

So ... I had 2 free books coming my way just for signing up, and 4 people have requested books that I posted which means, 4 more books of my choosing will be coming. It's like my own personal interlibrary loan system. And really, nothing beats sending and receiving things in the mail.

I'm sure the excitement will die down a little after this initial period, when I still have a number of books posted that no one wants and don't have any more to add but ... for now it's fun.

If you join, find me as a friend (nickname: inawonderland). If you add other users as your friend, you're able to request books specifically from them (instead of the more random selection of saying you want a certain book and having no idea where it's coming from)

In the meantime, I'll be waiting for Bel Canto, Water for Elephants, Runaway and more to come my way!

adventures in the kitchen: brownies and strawberry pretzel dessert

2010-07-25T10:13:00.000-05:00

My dad's side of the family is having a reunion today so yesterday, I decided to go all out and try to transform myself into Betty Crocker and make two desserts. I'll be honest with you, I'm not known for my skills in the kitchen. That's my boyfriend's forte. I dabble in baking and cooking rather infrequently. This may or may not stem from childhood memories of trying to bake things with my sister that usually resulted in me not following the recipe correctly and her banishing me from the kitchen. But ... I digress. I decided on two different desserts since one required a little more skill than I'm used to attempting, so my fail safe would be a dessert from a box mix.

Turns out, even my fail safe ran into problems. First the easy caramel brownie. I came to a problem in discovering my vegetable oil was decidedly too old to feel comfortable using and I didn’t know if I could use EVOO in replacement. I called and texted a few folks but the texts didn’t come back quick enough (I’m impatient sometimes). A Google search gave me mixed results, some said it would be OK, others said it would taste really bad, and others suggested using butter as a substitute instead. Finally, Chris told me I could substitute it with EVOO, but when asking him if I should do butter instead he said “That will taste better.” Ok. That’s what I needed to know. Butter it is.

I got some sort of chocolate caramel swirl brownies and decided it would be fun/lame to make an "F" in the caramel (for my family name), but when that didn’t work, I made it into a Jackson Pollock painting instead.

It was apparently all for naught, because it came out looking like this and you can't even see all the caramel "swirls."

Oh well, I'm sure it will taste good enough. I hope.

Next, I worked on making a Strawberry Pretzel Dessert that I first had on the 4th of July when a friend brought it over to the party we were at. It was extremely tasty. But the three layer part of it intimidated me a bit.

First of all, let me say 2 cups of pretzels was not enough to fill the bottom of the pan. I kept needing to add more (along with more butter) and I still didn't have enough the second, third or fourth time. Ugh. Finally, after getting about 5 cups worth of pretzels crushed and mixed with melted butter, I think I got it.

While that was in the oven, I worked on the sugar, cool whip, cream cheese layer. I'm pretty sure the sound of mixing those three things together with a spatula may be the second best noise in the world. Next, of course, to the sound in Mrs. Doubtfire when he's scooping out whatever that is that he got delivered to their house after his failed attempt to make dinner. I can't find it on YouTube right now so you'll just have to trust me.

Now for the top layer. The last time I’ve dealt with gelatin was in college when we mixed up Knox and put it in our hair before synchronized swimming meets. Needless to say, I was a little nervous about dealing with it again. If you’ve ever had to get something the texture of rubber glue out of your whole head of hair, you’d know why.

But somehow, that step wasn't as painless as I thought. The most fun was dumping the strawberry/jello mixture on top of all the rest of the stuff.

Time will tell how both of these turns out. Until then, I get to tackle the big pile of dishes.

i am the sleepyhead

2010-07-15T09:03:00.006-05:00

I can tell how much I get out of a book by how many times I mark certain passages or phrases in that book with a small sticky note.

I'm still working on writing down all the passages I marked and then will work on formulating my own Happiness Project.

In the meantime, I decided to start by trying out the "Get more sleep" suggestion but also coinciding that with "Wake up earlier." Since I work from home I've come into the habit of pushing snooze right up until about 8:57 a.m. when I roll out of bed and head over to my computer (I worry about showering on my lunch hour, typically after doing the C25K that day).

Last night I went to bed just before midnight (early for me - I've been falling into a routine of reading in bed until about 1 - 1:30 a.m. before heading off to sleep). Today, I got up at 7:58 a.m. and did not go back to sleep. I had two weird dreams involving dancing at an Avril Lavigne concert and a neighbor from my hometown dressed up as a giant turkey for Halloween with her husband pulling her along on string ... I didn't really need to go back to that craziness.

In that extra hour this morning, I accomplished:

Putting away the dishes from the dishwasher, reloading said dishwasher and hand washing all the leftovers that aren't meant for the dishwasher.
Calling up the cable company and paying my bill that is due tomorrow.
Checking my Gmail, Facebook, and an online forum friends of mine from college post on.
Successfully balancing my checkbook that had been off by about $100 for a week. I worked at a bank for two years in high school. Having an unbalanced checkbook makes me feel frazzled. Finding and solving the error is so delightful.
Calling my auto insurance because my renewal period is approaching and last time they told me they would try to find me a better rate. Awaiting an e-mail from them now.
Discovering the Tiny Desk Concert by The Mynabirds, a band I recently heard of and am looking forward to see play in August.
Starting a load of laundry.

Time I got to my desk to start my work day: 9:01 a.m.

In what I accomplished in an hour, I would have spent all day trying to fill in slow times here and there during my work at home job. Or I would have had to wait to complete them when I got off at my library job at 9 p.m., which most often is the case. Which most often never gets done because I'm too tired by then.

I think it's clear this will have to continue to be one of my resolutions. (Plus it means I may actually have time in the morning every now and then to go grab a chai to start my day. Yum.)

Bravo, Happiness Project.

let's get physical

2010-07-10T12:37:00.002-05:00

One of those ultimate goals I set for myself was to take better care of myself. Along with this, really, is wanting to lose about 20 pounds (that I had previously lost in Colorado and then regained since moving back to Nebraska, which has resulted in some tears and being extremely disappointed in myself).

Back in April, since moving into an apartment with a fitness center, I had set a goal for myself to be able to jog a mile straight. By May, I had achieved this. I was alternating between treadmill work and Wii Fit activities (so fun!) Monday through Thursday during my lunch break for weeks. But, no weight lose occurred. Which was frustrating.

I decided I needed to step it up. While the weight loss still is a big part of the goal, I need to remind myself that the real goal is just to exercise more. Instead of just pushing myself to get to a mile and then teetering off, I needed to find something that would help me work out longer and make it more meaningful.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine mentioned on Facebook that she and her husband were starting a Couch to 5k program which claims it will get you off the couch and running 3 miles in 2 months of training. This sounded perfect for me.

I'm on Week 4 now (of the 9-week program), which is getting more intense (and making me sweat more than I'd care to). Instead of pushing myself to get under 14 minutes a mile (be kind. I'm a very new runner), and then walking for the next 10 or so minutes, I'm now at 2 miles in 29 minutes. According to the site, a beginner should expect to be able to do a 5k in about 24 minutes so that will be my goal.

About the same time I started this program, I found out a very good family friend discovered she had breast cancer which had spread quite far and she was going into surgery. The surgery went pretty well and she is now in recovery. My grandmother and aunt have also both been affected by breast cancer, have gone through surgery and are now survivors. I've been wanting to do something meaningful to support breast cancer education and research for a long time now and so it only seemed to make sense that if I was working toward being able to run a 5k that I should do a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

There's one here in Omaha on Oct. 3, which means I'd essentially have plenty of time to be ready for this if I can keep it going. Though, I haven't yet registered because the idea of me running an actual 5k by myself scares me quite a bit. While I feel like I could get pretty confident on the treadmill, I'm worried about what will happen when I no longer have a TV in front of me to focus on.

Do any runners out there have any advice for how to easily transition from indoor to outdoor running? Any advice on preparing yourself mentally for running a race? Any and all advice or words of encouragement are welcome!

summer goals

2010-07-02T08:30:00.001-05:00

I've started reading The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin and, only about 40 pages in, can already tell I'm going to love this book. It's just what I need right now. I've been pouty and whiny lately about how I never get any free time or if I do it has to be scheduled far in advance. I've only got a few weeks left before I start up with a grad school class again so ... being able to learn how someone made a series of small changes that allowed her to become happier is much needed.

One of the things that is apparently important for a Happiness Project is creating lists. Which is great because I love lists! I had even created a list of summer goals a few weeks ago that I've been working on in an attempt to make sure I still feel like it's summer even if I am cooped up in an apartment/office or library for most of my days.

On my list:

See an outdoor movie (preferably at a Drive-In theater).

Go to an Omaha Royals game every month this summer and attend the last game of the season (and the last game at the Rosenblatt Stadium, where games have been played since 1948 and the Royals have played since 1969)

Go to a CWS game - DONE!

Go to batting cages (have never been)- DONE!

Go to horse race tracks (have never been)

Go to Fun Plex (have never been)

Go to a bar in Omaha called the Library Pub

Indulge in a root beer float - DONE!

What are your summer goals?

a CWS night to remember

2010-06-30T22:24:00.003-05:00

Last night, I got to do something I thought would be impossible.

I've been wanting to go to a College World Series game for years. I would hear tales from my parents, relatives and friends and all the fun and excitement they had. They'd reminisce every year about the games they'd been to and the crazy things that happened during them. I wanted those memories, too.

This was the last year the series would be held at Rosenblatt Stadium, where it has been held for 61 years. Next year, the 'Blatt is being torn down and the CWS will be played a brand new stadium.

I'd been looking for tickets for at least a month to this year's games, but there was a little miscommunication with the bf and I wasn't quick enough to buy any reserved seats. Typically, CWS reserved seat tickets are not easy to find unless you've got connections. They are especially not easy to find if your last chance of getting them is the day of what could potentially be the last game of the series. But, with my crazy schedule, that was really the only night I was free to go.

We drove down to the stadium after I got off work at 5. As we were in the line of cars turning onto 13th Street we noticed some people selling tickets ... right in front of the traffic cops, so we figured they had to be legit, right? The policeman stopped the line of cars just in time for me to roll down the window, heart racing. Interaction with a stranger and buying tickets in front of a cop is all a little too risky for my usual stick-to-the-rules self. The seller first tried to offer us General Admission which Chris did not want to do. Then he said he did have some reserved seats available - and we were able to talk him down to what we had just decided would be our cutoff price. It was somehow that easy. We drove a few blocks down the street, found someone who was letting us park in their back alley for a reasonable price and we headed to the stadium.

We even had enough time for two beers at the beer garden, which also gave us time to worry about whether these tickets we bought would actually be legit. We figured we'd either be some of the luckiest or stupidest people of the night. We would soon find out.

When the scanner beeped our barcode and we were in, we high-fived each other for our great luck.

Once in, we realized just how great our seats were. Right behind home plate!

For the next four and a half hours we got to watch some great baseball being played while also getting to experience:

a) Two people running onto the field - like in "Fever Pitch" (one of my guilty pleasure movies) at different points during the game. One girl, one guy. She fully dressed. Him ... not so much.

b) The Wave. Something I had never seen done before was a regular ol' wave through the whole crowd, followed by a slow motion wave through the whole crowd, followed by a fast wave through the whole crowd. I like the wave. I'm a big fan of it. Seeing it in a way I've never seen it before was fantastic and added to the magic of the night.

c) Getting on the JumboTron. It was the older ladies sitting next to us that started the dancing during "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" that attracted the cameraman, but Chris and I decided to dance, too and we got up there!

d) Guilt-free food. I may have eaten two hot dogs, french fries and Dippin' Dots but I refused to let myself feel guilty for all those calories. It was just too good.

e) A National Championship game! Let's not forget the most important part. If the South Carolina Gamecocks didn't win, that would mean there'd have to be another game the next night. By the bottom of the 9th it was tied 1-1. Nearly every time someone was at bat, flashes from across the stadium would go off, with everyone trying to get a shot of the hit that would win the game. Two innings later, at the bottom of the 11th it came. The Gamecocks won! The streamers flew, fireworks went off, the trophy was presented the players ran over to high-five the GA fans and Gatorade was poured on the coach. It was amazing.

So many things could have spoiled the night - our tickets could have been bogus (not to mention we could have not gotten tickets at all), our seats could have sucked, South Carolina could have lost which would mean we wouldn't have gotten to see the championship game. But a night that could have gone many different ways, ended up working out perfectly. It's not often you get a night that goes every way you wanted it to so I'm definitely grateful that this will be my CWS memory.

hello again

2010-06-23T22:12:00.000-05:00

So, this blog has been sitting idle for a while though I’ve desperately been wanting to write on it. The problem is, I’ve come to a bit of an impasse about where I want to go with my blog yet again. This happened on the first blog I started documenting my first year in Colorado. And then again happened on the other blog in Colorado that had a more fun name than the first. And now. Here I am again.

The trouble now is that I’ve found myself in a quite serious relationship and therefore have been pondering all sorts of new things that make me want to be a better person that don’t involve only books and reading and librarianship and I want to start journaling about and archiving these things as well.

These "things" include (but are not limited to):

• Taking better care of myself - eating healthier, exercising more, and the like
• Being more crafty and creative - making attractive things with my own two hands
• Working on keeping a happy, healthy relationship with the bf
• Managing my finances more wisely and working on saving for the future
• Writing a book

I've finally decided I'm tired of moving from blog to blog so for now, I'm sticking with this one. Besides, more and more I feel like entering adulthood has some very "Wonderland"-esque attributes to it. It's curious, exciting and adventurous, at times frightening and sad, at other times completely non-sensical and fun. And I hope to document it all along the way.

P.S. Please be kind with me. Blogging after taking a break from it is kind of like riding a bike after not riding for years. Sure you remember the basics, but you still wobble around for a while before you really get going. So, please bear with me as I wobble. :)

important date

2010-03-04T10:14:00.009-06:00

It just wouldn't be right for me not to mention the new Alice in Wonderland movie coming out on Friday. I've already got my tickets for the 3-D Imax experience!

I've been prepping for the journey down the rabbit hole by following importantdate on Twitter, re-reading Lewis Carroll's book and reading Why Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is A Steampunk Masterpiece.

I'm just going to hope that the Los Angeles Times reviewer is wrong and that this movie is worth all the hype (and worth the re-working/extenstion of an amazing story).

Either way, I got some sweet free screensavers for my nook out of the deal!

the booklists

2010-02-15T08:57:00.006-06:00

Quite a long time ago, I was reading someone else's blog that talked about what to do when gathering an overwhelmingly long list of books that you want to read.
The solution: edit the list down to the Top 100 books and set a deadline for when you'd like to read them.

Maybe, just maybe, when I get around to accomplishing one of my many goals this year (organizing all of my bookmarks and starred Google Reader feeds), I'll be able to find that blog entry back and direct you to it. But for now, I'm going to take the suggestion and figure out my top 100. I think I'm going to give myself 7 years to get these all ready. That seems like a very long time, but I like to try to set realistic goals, and realistically with everything that's going on in my life, I think 7 years is a good time frame.

So, in no particular order, here are the 100 books I would like to try to read between now and 2017. (Wow, that year looks so ... future-y). Obviously I'll be reading many books between now and then that won't be on this list - new books are written every day folks! Especially in the young adult area, which is really the genre I must read these days. But this will be my core selection that I'll work on. I have no real criteria for these other than they are all books I've heard about and want to read, or they are books that I feel like I must read to be a more well-read person, or they are books that I've started reading and haven't finished.

1. Spoon River Anthology, Edgar Lee Masters
2. White Noise, Don Delillo
3. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
4. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
5. Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss
6. Persuasion, Jane Austen
7. The Heart Is A Lonley Hunter, Carson McCullers
8. The Overcoat, Nikolai Gogol
9. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
10. Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
11. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt
12. The Hours, Michael Cunningham
13. Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
14. Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, William Least Heat Moon
15. Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver
16. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
17. The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
18. Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
19. This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Main Street, Sinclair Lewis
21. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
22. Ulysses, James Joyce
23. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
24. The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
~~25. Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin~~ Read April 2010
26. The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson
27. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig
28. The Portable Dorothy Parker, Dorothy Parker
29. The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols
30. A Lantern in Her Hand, Bess Streeter Aldrich
31. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
32. The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
33. Freakanomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
34. The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman
35. The Winter of Our Discontent, John Steinbeck
36. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
37. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
38. Middlemarch, George Eliot
39. Moby Dick, Herman Melville
40. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
41. The Monkey Wrench Gang, Edward Abbey
42. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
43. Death Comes For the Archbishop, Willa Cather
44. The Republic, Plato
45. The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
46. The Iliad, Homer
47. The Odyssey, Homer
48. Daddy Long Legs, Jean Webster
49. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
50. Beloved, Toni Morrison
51. Runaway, Alice Munro
52. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
53. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
54. The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck
55. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
56. The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, Barry Glassner
57. The Alienist, Caleb Carr
58. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
59. Peter Pan, J.M Barrie
60. The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
61. Walden, Henry David Thoreau
62. The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
63. The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
64. Rabbit, Run, John Updike
65. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
66. A Child Called "It", Dave Pelzer
67. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away, Bill Bryson
68. Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
69. Black Boy, Richard Wright
70. What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, Dave Eggers
71. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
72. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair
73. Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell
74. My Misspent Youth: Essays, Meghan Daum
75. The Fish Can Sing, Halldor Laxness
76. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
77. The Case for Books: Past, Present and Future, Robert Darnton
78. Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, Ammon Shea
79. Language in Thought and Action, S. I. Hayakawa
80. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland
81. The Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
82. The Awakening, Kate Chopin
83. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain, Maryann Wolf
84. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
85. The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
86. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Barbara Kingsolver
87-96. The Little House series (again), Laura Ingalls Wilder
97. A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn
98. Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordecai Richler
99. The Rules of Attraction, Bret Easton Ellis
100. Hatchet, Gary Paulsen

So, now that I've got a 100 overall list I felt I also needed to put together a solely YA/children's list. This one I'm going to narrow down to 25 and hope I can get through this list in 2 years. Also listed in no particular order.

1. Little Brother, Cory Doctorow
2. Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
3. Looking for Alaska, John Green
4. The Pigman, Paul Zindel
5. The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier
6. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
7. A Northern Light, Jennifer Donnelly
8. The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke
9. Life As We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer
10. Marked, P.C. and Kristin Cast
11. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Steward
12. The Goose Girl, Shannon Hale
13. Maximum Ride, James Patterson
14. Green Glass Sea, Ellen Klages
15. ~~Bunnicula, Deborah and James Howe~~ Read June 2010
16. ~~Along for the Ride, Sarah Dessen~~ Read June 2010
17. The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan
18. Uglies, Scott Westerfeld
19. Blue Bloods, Melissa De La Cruz
20. Waiting for Normal, Leslie Connor
21. The Luxe, Anna Godbersen
22. Eighth Grade Bites, Heather Brewer
23. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, E. Lockhart
24. Suite Scarlett, Maureen Johnson
25. The Giver, Lois Lowry

the nook review

2010-01-26T09:02:00.001-06:00

Because he could tell I really wanted to try it out but would never spend the money buying one for myself, my boyfriend went and spoiled me this Christmas and bought me a Barnes and Noble nook.

The nook really started appealing to me around November. I had seen some friends' Kindles before and while I thought they were interesting, was never really sold on the idea of reading a book entirely on an electronic device. Sure, I've read about a thousand PDF articles by this point for classes (ok, maybe not THOUSANDS ...) but an entire book? That didn't really seem as much fun as being able to actual sit down, physical book in hand, flipping through the pages, seeing how far you've gotten and how much you have left, striking up a conversation with a random stranger who notices you reading it and has read it, too, adding that book on a shelf next to your entire collection of books, etc. etc. Not to mention that fact that I'm a librarian! We read books! We loan books! We love books!

But then, one day, it was a little slow at the library and I opened up Google Books and started reading the limited preview of Graceling, which was next on my list of YA books to read.

I was kind of impressed. It was fun to scroll down to the bottom of screen when you got to the end of a page. Maybe not quite as fun as turning a page in a book, but it was new and different and instantly accessible. Until, of course, I got to the pages that were excluded from the preview.

Anyway, it made me start to realize, I could possibly really like an eReader. And then, at Christmas, I got a lovely little handmade card with the words "P.S. I got you a nook!!!" inside it. Since there was a such a big demand for it, I wasn't going to receive it until this month.

This meant there was time for the worrywart in me to start to have some doubts and I wondered if maybe the Kindle would be the better choice. I researched Web sites and forums and made up a Rory Gilmore-approved Pro/Con list. The nook was just so cute and new and exciting. (I am such a girl). Plus, I love Barnes & Noble. The Kindle was more established and has a browser to get online (which you can't with the nook, unless you go all hacker on it and mess with its insides).
But then, the thing that really got me on the nook was its compatibility with OverDrive, the library eBook distributor, which apparently, doesn't work with the Kindle.

So, we stuck with the nook and I got it last Friday.

Having had a few weeks to prepare for its arrival, I started downloading free eBooks off Barnes and Nobles' site and anywhere else I could find good, free ones like ManyBooks.net (where I got Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother") and Project Gutenberg. I started looking up what titles would be available through my local library (Freakanomics, The Tipping Point, Julie & Julia, Gossip Girl!) I also bought myself a cute little case for it and a book light.

And then ... Friday came!

For a few days, I really wasn't able to provide a great review. I absolutely loved playing with it - pushing the buttons, going "shopping" and searching through available books and just sort of flipping through the pages of some of the free books I had already downloaded. But I didn't have time to really sit down with it and read on it.

When I finally got that time, I found, to my surprise, reading on it was just as fun as playing around on it.
Of course, this is not to say that I'm going totally electronic from here on out. I got six new books for Christmas that I'm going to read, not to mention that I'll still be checking out books at the library, buying books at bookstores (new and used), and so on. But the eReader format is definitely interesting and it will be exciting to see what the future brings.

One thing I particularly like about it is the quick link in the store to the Teens Top 100. Not only does this let me see some new titles but I can download free samples (usually the first 30 or so pages of a book) and I could check them out a little before I suggest we purchase them at the library. What's also great is that a lot of the teen books (not the newest releases but many of the other ones) are available for less than $8. So if you're a YA librarian, this thing is pretty fantastic.

I must admit a few complaints. It can be a tad annoying when you start reading a book to have to push the "next page" button again and again past the title page, dedication page, introduction, etc. to get to the first page of the book. While they do have a "Go To" option that lets you go right to the first chapter, I'd kind of like to be able to tell how long the introduction is to determine whether I want to read it. Same thing with chapters. I'm definitely a "See-how-much-longer-this-chapter-is-to-determine-whether-I-should-stop-here-or-just-keep-reading" kind of person. Pushing the next button multiple times isn't quite as fast as flipping through pages with your fingers. Also my battery seems to run out faster than it advertises, which, from what I read on some forums is not an uncommon thing.

Other than that, I'm a big fan. And so is my cat.

reading list rundown 2009

2010-01-11T20:19:00.003-06:00

In an effort to stay consistent with last year, I present the books I read in 2009. Unlike 2008, I did not have a theme for each month, which I missed, but I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to really read whatever I felt like. It also helped considering I was taking a summer course that required me to read a whole bunch of books that had little in common with one another.

January - Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, Vicki Myron & Bret Witter
March - Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
March - The Road, Cormac McCarthy
March - Blindness, Jose Saramago
March - Blankets, Craig Thompson
April - A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
May - Feed, M.T. Anderson
May - Impossible, Nancy Werlin
May - The Trap, John Smelcer
May - The Death of Jayson Porter, Jaime Adoff
May - The Lottery, Patricia Wood
June - Thirteen Reasons Why, Jay Asher
June - Inside Out: Portrait of an Eating Disorder , Nadia Shivack
June - I.D., Vicki Grant
June - Shooting the Moon, Frances O'Roark Dowell
June - The Tequila Worm, Viola Canales
June - Estrella's Quinceanera, Malin Alegria
June - Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, Benjamin Alire Saenz
June - La Linea, Ann Jaramillo
July - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
July - Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
July - The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
August - The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
September - The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
November - Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, David Weinberger
November - Unwind, Neal Shusterman
December - Matchless: A Christmas Story, Gregory Maquire
December - 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Maureen Johnson
December - Graceling, Kristin Cashore
December - Citizen Girl, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus

I'm currently working on my reading goals for this year and will be posting shortly!

let the wild rumpus start!

2010-01-06T19:26:00.008-06:00

To those of you out there I haven't lost from my months-long absenteeism --- HELLO!

Atop my list of goals for 2010 includes finally getting back to this blog. I've missed it incredibly.

Essentially a number of things led me away from being able to devote more time to this last year - I finished the young adult literature class, visited my sister in Chicago for her birthday, completed another summer class online, visited my friend in Panama (the country, not the Floridian city), got more more familiar with my library job, started dating one of my best friends of 10 years, attended my first library conference, helped organize and host a conference for my other job, completed two fall semester classes while working two jobs, visited my cousin in Vegas, and so on.
As all the events piled up and more and more time was spent away from writing, I found it was kind of scary trying to start up again. Now that the new year has already hit, I figured it's as good a time as any to get back to it.

So, what have I learned these last six months?

Reading teen books (like The Hunger Games, Unwind, and 13 Little Blue Envelopes) is a lot of fun.

Discussing those books with teens during monthly book clubs is even more fun.

Seeing children's books made into really good movies (Where the Wild Things Are and Fantastic Mr. Fox) makes me feel good inside.

Hearing about New Moon non-stop for about a month is not fun.

Being asked if I've seen New Moon yet (answer: no) is also not fun.

Getting to test my children's authors knowledge during a pub quiz one week was a little nerve-racking. Luckily, I only got one answer wrong because I couldn't for the life of me spell Antoine de Saint-Exupéry correctly.

Having to decide which R.L. Stine books stay and go in your library's collection is harder than you might think if the person deciding (i.e. me) feels a strong bond to Fear Street.

Having to decide whether to keep our Sweet Valley High or Sweet Valley University books was not quite so hard considering they had barely circulated, the boys on the covers were no longer attractive, and I don't know anyone that was interested in reading them when I was a teen ... 10 years ago.

So, what am I looking forward to this year?

I'm looking forward to slowing down on my course load (cutting back this semester to just one class) so that I have more time to devote to both of my jobs.

I'm looking forward to growing professionally by attending library conferences (like the one I'm going to next week on the best new YA books from last year!), participating in one of YALSA's online courses, trying my hand at submitting an article for publication, and trying to stay up-to-date with reading all the librarian blogs I subscribe to through Google Reader.

I'm looking forward to doing some much-needed organization of files, photos and Web site bookmarks as well as attempt to become more crafty by possibly taking up crocheting and knitting (that's what librarians do, right?)

And I'm looking forward to blogging more and hopefully making some connections through this blog with other teen librarians.

Here's to what has the potential to be a great year and the start of a great new decade!

may and june book pictures (reviews pending)

2009-06-15T23:32:00.000-05:00

In May I started a library materials for teens class and since then I've been busy reading all of these books in order to keep up with the assignments on them:

Feed - M.T. Anderson

Impossible - Nancy Werlin

The Trap - John Smelcer

The Death of Jayson Porter - Jaime Adoff

The Lottery - Patricia Wood

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Inside Out - Nadia Shivack

I.D. - Vicki Grant

Shooting the Moon - Francis O'Roark Dowell

Admittedly, it's been awhile since I've actually read books written specifically to a young adult audience and I have to say, I was incredibly impressed with the variety and quality of books that are out there now for youth.

Our last class is on Saturday, with final projects (a bibliography of materials on a subject of our choice appealing to young adults) due next week, so I'm still super busy, but I will at some point, will offer my thoughts on most, if not all of these books.

As if these 9 books weren't enough, I've also so far read two books pertaining to my bibliography subject area, which is Mexican American cultural identity (suggestions are welcome!) - The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales and Estrella's Quinceañera by Malín Alegría.

And, on top of that, I finally read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, which was one of those young adult books that I've been hearing about for years and had meant to read a long time ago.

So, for anyone wanting to keep count that's 12 books in a month on top of work and school and oh yeah, that exciting news I talked about last time? I got a part-time gig as a youth services assistant working with teens at an area library. Which means all this recent reading will come in quite handy!

I'm most excited about getting to see everyone else's bibliographies which range in subjects from teen pregnancy to football to zombies to shape shifters. I can't wait to gather them all up and then find out just how big the YA budget at my library is when I tell our director how many new books I want to order!

everything's up to date

2009-05-15T18:41:00.002-05:00

In a long overdue update, my first semester as a graduate student is over and I'm happy to say my report card looks great. Woo hoo!

The last few weeks of the semester were quite rough as both final projects took much longer to work on than I had anticipated. I'd guess I spent at least 40 hours combined working on the two of them. But I ended up being quite pleased with them and my professor is encouraging me to look into getting my paper on attracting the Millennial generation to libraries published! Considering how rocky that paper's start was, I'm proud of myself for sticking to it and ending up with a pretty good result.

My birthday was a few weeks ago and my parents and I all took the day off and drove down to Kansas City for some shopping and dining. I dragged them into the main library downtown first just because I wanted to check it out.
The building used to house a bank and a lot of the same structural features are still there. Beautiful marble floors and columns, and the downstairs vault has been turned into a small movie theater that they use for events and viewing parties, which I thought was pretty fantastic.

Another fantastic part is the library's parking garage, which displays 22 books suggested by Kansas City residents. Click here to read more about it and to see the list of which books were chosen.

My first of two summer classes starts tomorrow and I've just almost acquired all 9 young adult books that are on our reading list as I'm awaiting the arrival of three more in the mail. I forgot how exciting it is to get packages in the mail!

I've also got some pretty exciting news to announce, but I'm going to wait until it becomes officially official so, hold on to your seats. I know the suspense will be hard to handle, so in the meantime, feel free to entertain yourself with this drum kit. I really like spelling people's names to hear how they sound.

april book reviews

2009-05-06T23:45:00.004-05:00

As usual, I'm behind. And last month, I only made it through one book. And it was a collection of short stories at that. I will note that my excuses include being sick for a week, then celebrating a birthday, then working furiously on two final projects for class (which I hope to post about before my summer classes start).

I finally read Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." This book and I first crossed paths my second year of college. I enrolled in a creative writing class that had assigned this book, but then dropped the class after our first meeting when the instructor told us we couldn't write any stories where the main character dies. Apparently I didn't like that rule. I sold the book back to the bookstore and went on my merry little way. A few months later I read about or someone told me about how marvelous the book was and then I was left with a pain of guilt for the next six years.

OK, maybe not so much, but I knew I needed to read it at some point. So I did, and it was good. Dated, but good. It was a little uncomfortable reading through all the instances of the n-word, but once I tried to let that go, I started being able to appreciate the great descriptive voice O'Connor has.

The good vs. evil theme of these stories was brought out in a dark and usually shocking way, and I loved being able to read every one not knowing at all what to expect when I went into it. I really enjoyed how much the countryside and the sun played big roles in these stories. It made this girl who hates heat and humidity crave a summer in the South. I'm looking forward to reading it again at some point, so that, knowing what to expect, I'll be able to appreciate the writing style more than the plots. Here were my favorite sun descriptions:

"The trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled." - From A Good Man Is Hard to Find

"They emptied the plate at once and she picked it up and stood holding it, looking at the sun which was going down in front of them, almost on top of the tree line. It was swollen and flame-covered and hung in a net of ragged cloud as if it might burn through any second and fall into the woods." - From A Circle in the Fire

"She ignored the white afternoon sun which was creeping behind a ragged wall of cloud as if it pretended to be an intruder and cast her gaze down the red clay road that turned off from the highway." - From The Displaced Person

On tap for May's reading list: I'm hoping to complete "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" since I'll be going to see the musical at the end of the month. I've also got a summer class required reading list of 9 young adult books that I'll be working my way through this month and next.

odds and ends

2009-04-18T17:21:00.003-05:00

One of the reasons I'm so excited about being a librarian is because they have the opportunity to be community leaders through the unique services and programs they can offer to their patrons.

So, here's a few examples of what I'm talking about. And what better time to exploit these great services than National Library Week!

***
Our professor told us about this incredible movement called the Living Library. Through this service, libraries check out people.

Categorized into popular stereotypes such as Wiccan, Vegetarian, Gay Teen, Blonde Woman, Politician, and, maybe my favorite, Harley Davidson Owner, each "book" (a.k.a. person) can be checked out for a set length of time to have a conversation with the borrower. According to the Web site, the idea first began in Denmark, has widely spread across Europe and five U.S. libraries have begun to offer this service.

"The Living Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding." -- From the Web site

For a longer list of stereotypes included, click here, for a list of participating libraries, click here.

***
The end of the school year is fast upon us and with that comes the almighty prom. In Illinois, the Galesburg Library's YA librarian created a program to allow girls that couldn't afford prom dresses the opportunity to head to the library and pick out their very own gently used donated prom dress. Granted, this isn't something new, but I'd never heard of it being done at a library before.

***
Everyone knows that right now times are tough all around. So the Cuyahoga County library decided it would remove $1 worth of fines for every canned item patrons brought in to donate to the local food bank. In total, about $10,000 fines were waived.

***
Lastly, I wanted to mention that today is Record Store Day which means your local independently owned music shops will most likely be having sales and in-store performances and what not. If you haven't already supported your local store, go now before the day is over! Or I guess you could just go any other day of the year, too. Up to you. To find out where your closest participating store is, click here.

make tacos not war

2009-04-10T22:17:00.003-05:00

I have, I believe recovered from my earlier "roadblock." At least for the time being.

I took that weekend to try to collect my thoughts some more and have a clearer definition on where I wanted to go with my presentation. Basically, I just had to make up my mind.

So the next Monday, I went to my professor's office and sat down with her one-on-one to discuss. I laid out my new thoughts, read her my points and she said it sounded great! And a big sigh of relief was let out after that.

I'll be getting some more feedback next week on my revised draft and will go from there.

Also, today's entry title has nothing to do with the post except for the fact that my professor had a bumper sticker that said this on her door in her office. Which further indicates how cool she is.

march book reviews

2009-03-31T23:07:00.005-05:00

So I didn't do so well with finishing any books in February, but I tried to make up for it in March by reading four.

Winesburg, Ohio. I'd been meaning to read this book for a while and it's one that I'd owned for years and never got around to reading. I have to say, I didn't really like it. Part of the reason could be because I started reading it, was distracted with other things, came back to it weeks later and no longer really felt like what was going on in the book really mattered. The other part is that I couldn't feel any sort of connection to the characters. I feel bad about not liking it because supposedly it is one of the best novels of the 20th century. Maybe I'll give it another try in a few more years.

The Road. I bought this book a year ago. Tried to read it. Couldn't deal with the weird sentence structures and lack of quotation marks around conversations. Knew I'd come back to it again sometime. Then my friend Brittany read it. Said it was great. So I picked it up again. I read it in one night. This time the structure of the writing made sense. Couldn't put it down. I had to know how they would continue to survive and how McCarthy would end the book. I didn't really like the ending, but it's still a really good read.

Blindness. My friend Andrea strongly recommended this book so I followed one apocalyptic story with another. In this one, as the title suggests, everyone goes blind. Andrea warned me that only people who don't mind reading about poop should read this one, and I will second that warning as well. But, like The Road, I had to keep reading to find out what would happen and how these people would survive. This one followed even less punctuation rules than The Road (like sentences that never end but instead have a bajillion commas in them) so it's probably a good thing I was able to get past that barrier with the first book before reading this one.

I'll be interested in seeing the film versions of both The Road and Blindness to see how they compare. I'm guessing they won't.

Blankets. Tonight I read Blankets for the second time. The first time I read this was a few years ago back in college. I remember thinking it was something really profound and great back then. Tonight, I didn't have that same feeling as much. This could have something to do with the fact that I just got done reading two books about the end of the world (or close to it) and it's probably messing up my mood more than I'd like to admit. I still think it's a great coming-of-age story but I was reading it hoping to get the same feeling and connection I got the first time I read it and it just wasn't there. But again, it could just be my mood.

I'm moving into a little bit lighter fair for April (must stay away from end of the world thoughts for a while) and I'm continually adding to my ever growing list of titles I want to read this year. But then I read this blog which had a very good idea, which is to select 100 books you'd like to read in your lifetime and give yourself 5 years to read them. So, now I think I've got a new list to work on ... my 100. Suggestions are welcome.

roadblock

2009-03-26T13:56:00.002-05:00

I've hit one.

Big time.

I had been chugging along quite nicely in my classes. Getting assignments done. Staying motivated. Feeling worthwhile.

That changed last night.

We had an optional meeting to discuss our work on our final presentations for the Special Libraries class.

I thought my topic was on a good enough path to eventually turn into something. We went around the table and our professor brought up our topics one by one. Everyone before me was able to get to a more clear direction than they were at before with help from her and the others at the table.

Then it was my turn.

And ... nothing.

Neither she nor anyone else could figure out how to "stick out the chin" more on my idea and make it something someone would be interested to learn about. My struggle in coming up with a clearer definition of what direction I wanted to go in prompted a girl in my class to say "Do you work in a library?" When I answered no she followed with "Can you go hang out in one?"

Apparently I sounded so dumb last night that it wasn't even obvious that I'd ever been to a library in my entire life. Needless to say, there were some tears on my way home last night.

So now I've reached the point where this tiny part of me thinks if I just throw in the entire grad school towel right now it wouldn't be such a horrible thing. At least I won't have to suffer through any more nights like last night. But a bigger part of me knows that I just need to shape up, think longer, work harder and face the challenges. Though, it's a pretty tough thing to do when you're made to feel like you don't belong at all.

on projects, classes, and a job search

2009-03-15T23:53:00.007-05:00

Let's see how many updates I can provide in one post!

Special Libraries class - So far, we've made visits to the Early Childhood Training Center Library, the Omaha World-Herald Library, Klutznick Law Library and the McGoogan Medical Library. (The Durham Museum visit was canceled. Boo!) All were quite interesting, but being from the journalism background that I am, the most appealing to me was the Omaha World-Herald Library. It somehow never occurred to me that papers had librarians and someone whose job it is to essentially help reporters do research for both breaking news stories and special projects. However, it's a scary position to be in right now in this economy. With so many papers cutting back, librarians can get hit in that mix, too -- the Wall Street Journal even cut their whole library department.
But the trip opened my eyes to other types of media librarians that I never really paid much attention to before like, NPR librarians. How sweet would that job be? They do offer internships there. I will be keeping this in mind.

Next stop for this class is a trip tomorrow to the Nebraska Library Commission which has recently been under fire by Nebraska's State Auditor for *gasp* purchasing gaming equipment and then testing it out! How dare they! They also *gasp* tried out Web 2.0 features such as flickr, Second Life and Youtube. All on state time! Click here for the Library Journal article on the story with links to the auditor's report and the commission's response. Part of our assignment for each of these visits is coming up with questions to ask the librarians. You can bet I'll be asking about this hullabaloo. I think I should get extra bonus points if I refer to it as a hullabaloo in my question, too.

Finally, we had to come up with a rough draft of our final project which is a presentation complete with a thesis statement and supporting arguments. I'm doing mine essentially on the need for libraries to focus on offering updated technological tools so that they can market this to young adults, get young adults into the library and offer them the opportunity to become more information literate citizens in the process. As that sentence suggests, it's still a bit of a jumbled mess right now, but it's a work in progress.

Managing Collections class - This class seems like it's a little harder to keep up with, and maybe wasn't the best idea for someone with little library experience to take the first semester of grad school. It's making me think a lot about how to build a collection, how to use different resources (selection tools) to come up with a collection and what sort of things to take into consideration when needing to weed your collection. However, for someone who's never actually worked in a library and has no real world application to put all this information to, it's a bit hard to be motivated in the work. The project that we are building up to for this class is to provide the Henry Doorly Zoo (yes, I got in that group!) with a bibliography of suggested resources to put in their collection as they outreach to youth in the Omaha community about their Madagascar project which involves teaching the Malagasy people about nature conservation (and why it's important to save the lemurs!)

Along with that we've been contributing in online discussion on a number of subjects such as a) how to create a diverse library if your staff isn't very diverse, b) how to determine the best way to balance the shift from traditional formats to new digital formats for a lot of services (e-books, downloadable audio books, etc.) and c) why people read and how we can promote reading for pleasure among patrons. I actually want to post my response on this one on this blog, but I'm going to save that for a later time.

Next Semesters - I've also already registered for summer and fall classes. It's crazy that it's already that time. I feel like I just started and already I've got my first three semesters all planned out. This summer I'll be taking Library Materials for Teens (v. excited about this one) as well as a short, online only Foundations of Library course. I'm scaling back a little this summer because I'm trying to plan a trip to Panama to visit a very dear friend and I don't want classes to get in the way of this trip finally happening. In the fall, I've got two required courses scheduled so far - Reference Sources and Services and Intro to Information Technology. I'm still deciding whether I'll try to add a third class to that mix.

Job Search - I'm also officially starting the search for a little part-time (10 hours a week or less) side library gig. If anyone knows of anything in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Lincoln area, please let me know. If trying to find a job in the library world in this economy looks too grim, I'll start volunteering instead, but I'd like to try my luck at the employment thing first.

keep me out

2009-03-13T13:11:00.005-05:00

Thanks to a post on Library Stuff, I now have a way to keep myself from being distracted with Facebook (and any other frequently visited sites) so many times during the day.

By going to Keep Me Out you can register any number of Web sites that you go to too often, and create a new bookmark to use for each of them that will keep track of how long it's been since your last visit to the site. When you click that bookmark to go to the site multiple times within the time frame you've selected, you'll be met with this lovely reminder:

I mean, sure I could just tell myself to not go to the site, but that's not easily done because it's always right there. I'm hoping this will help keep me a little more focused on doing my homework.

Now, if only I hadn't taken the time to post this blog entry when I'm supposed to be finishing up an assignment due in three hours ....

yet another brief update

2009-03-12T18:50:00.004-05:00

I'm hoping soon I'll be able to post a little more frequently. I am however, currently up to my ears in work to get ready for class this weekend ... a draft outline of a final presentation, questions to prepare for a visit to the medical library, research on community analysis and selection tools, etc., etc.
But once I get through this week it's spring break time. Yay! I'll be heading up north to see some friends in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Looking forward to the road trip. And my first time in Wisconsin. Hoping my car makes it.
I will be back in full form soon-like, I promise.

when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose

2009-02-16T22:32:00.003-06:00

Had I gone in with higher expectations, the speed dating event on Valentine's Day would have been terrible. Lucky for me, I went in pretty much expecting nothing but a few free drinks and a couple of things to laugh about with my friend when it was over. And that's exactly what I got.

The event itself was what I assume a typical speed dating event would consist of - sit down at a table, talk to someone for five minutes, that person moves to the next seat and you write down on your paper whether you'd like them to contact you, move on to the next guy. If you each say you'd like the other person to contact you, the coordinator will hook you up with their contact info.

The organizers tried to add a literature theme to it by supplying a card of conversation starters like "Would you read like a Russian novel or a glossy magazine?" or "If you were a book, in what section would I find you in?" or "Are you a Grisham or an Austen?" I did on occasion, have to use some of these and you'd be surprised (or maybe not) at how many people did not know what Anna Karenina was after they asked me what I was currently reading.

My pool of potential suitors was greatly hindered by the fact that there were only about three males under the age of 30 there. I did however get to talk to a guy who said we should "keep things friendly" because he was "old enough to be my grandpa." Another guy said he liked going out to eat. When I asked him what the best restaurant in Omaha is and he said, "Taco John's ... And I work there!"

I have to say though, that the speed dating concept really is not a bad idea. And now that I've got one try under my belt I might give it another attempt albiet at a different kind of event that is set up specifically for people my age instead of the very vague 21+ that was placed on this one.

So ... no Doyle for this Paris just yet but that's certainly alright with me for now.

book love?

2009-02-14T10:20:00.001-06:00

I'm still not entirely sure how or even why, but I've convinced a friend to come with me tonight to go speed dating ... at a library.

The event's flyer says it's for people who love to read to find other people who love to read. It also says that there will be a cash bar, snacks and door prizes. I have no idea what the format of the event will be like (am I really going to have to go through a series of three-minute first "dates"?) but even if there is no one under 30, we could still, hopefully, have a good time at that cash bar.

It worked for Paris on that one episode of Gilmore Girls (kind of). And if she's not ashamed to speed date, then neither am I.

Photo courtesy of Kate Spade's Behind the Curtain

an update, in brief

2009-02-12T17:00:00.005-06:00

Just a quick note to let you know, I am still here. My sister is in town visiting this week, however, so I've been incredibly occupied with celebrating missed holidays, going out to eat and drink, working and doing school stuff in between and generally being all kinds of goofy. I will be back to blog this weekend to write about fun things.

this is a distraction in a fire in a barrel

2009-02-05T22:55:00.008-06:00

I want to do well in grad school. I want to do well at work. I also want to have fun with friends. And see my family frequently. And read as many books as possible. I didn't realize these five goals would require so much effort to try to achieve.

Lately, I’ve been having a really hard time trying to keep up with everything – from making sure utility bills are transferred out of and into my name, getting licensed, registered and insured again in this state, trying to keep up with my 253 RSS subscriptions in Google Reader, the continual scheduling of training events and subsequently conducting training events for work, and oh yeah ... grad school assignments.

My ability to focus has almost reached an all-time low as I get easily distracted with things like making sure it’s not my move on any of the multiple Lexulous games I'm playing at once (which I just did. It’s not) or thinking of another book I need to add to my list of books to read this year that I'll probably never get to because I'm too busy playing Lexulous.

I've even gotten incredibly distracted with the direction I wanted to go in writing this blog post that I've essentially come up with two other subjects I would instead like to write on but who knows if I'll ever actually get around to doing so.

It's probably stupid of me to think I will ever be able to catch up since, you know, there's that one quote from that pretty famous guy about there being those three words that he felt summed up life: It goes on. He probably didn't actually mean for it to sound as depressing as I'm making it sound here.

In an effort to try to combat my frantic mind, these days I rely more than ever on To Do Lists.

On my To Do list for this weekend:
Review and subsequently become a pro at APA citation style.
Finally read the assigned booklet for class.
Do my three assignments for class.
Do not put off my three assignments until the last minute when I am more likely to realize the only way I can get the journal article that would really support what I'm trying to say is through interlibrary loan and I've only got an hour to complete the assignment. Oh last week, how I've learned from you!

january book review

2009-01-31T19:19:00.007-06:00

This month, I've shamefully only completely read one book: "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World."

For those that haven't heard of it, "Dewey" is a true story written by the Spencer, Iowa librarian who found a kitten inside the library's drop box on the morning after the coldest day that winter. They decided to let the kitten live in the library and Dewey eventually became one lovable, popular feline.

I think because of all the hype I had heard about it and the fact that the movie deal is reportedly in the works, I expected to be more blown away then I was. Don't get me wrong, it was a great little story, and I will admit, I did have quite a few tears toward the end, but I wasn't all that drawn in by the writing style. There's nothing fancy with the writing which was possibly the idea in order to keep it accessible to a large number of people.

Author Vicki Myron does do a great job filling almost 300 pages with cute anecdotes and touching descriptions such as the following:

"Dewey wasn't special because he did something extraordinary but because he was extraordinary. He was like one of those seemingly ordinary people who, once you get to know them, stand out from the crowd."

But I can't help to think that I would have liked "Dewey" better had it not been for the misspelling of Schuyler, Nebraska (it's referred to as Skylar in the book). Having been an editor in college, it's a small thing like this that no matter how many cute anecdotes fill up the pages, I'll always think, "But they spelled the name of a town wrong!"

Despite that, I would recommend this book to the following three groups: people that really like cats, people that really like libraries, or people that are one or two generation older than I and are looking for something to read.

about class no. 2

2009-01-20T21:47:00.007-06:00

Managing Collections will not have the glamor that Special Libraries does. You can't really compete with getting to go to a museum library, a newspaper library and a correctional facility library. But it should be an interesting class nonetheless and will teach me things about building collections that I've obviously never thought about since the only collections I've built are housed on my too-small DVD and CD stands and even-less-adequately-sized bookcase.

Our assignments essentially consist of a few article reviews backed up with sources from other journal articles and a community analysis of either the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo or the Nebraska Independent Retailers Association that will then be used in a service learning project that will help those organizations create a list of resources that they should have in their own collections.

Should be an interesting process, for sure.

yes we officially did!

2009-01-20T16:28:00.008-06:00

This is not a political blog by any means, but today's an incredibly exciting day for this country and I wanted to get in on the action in a very small, small way. Many others have Obama-nized themselves already, including my dear friend Chavi, so I wanted to play along.

You can play too at Paste Magazine's Obamicon.Me site.

about class no. 1

2009-01-17T21:13:00.005-06:00

I am happy to report that my first grad school class was a success and I was able to celebrate with some drinks with friends afterward and some Wii bowling in the wee hours of the morning. Four strikes in a row!

But back to school, Special Libraries is an elective for the program, but I think may actually be the most necessary for me. In this class, we'll be making different site visits to libraries in Omaha and Lincoln and learning about all the different collections and information professionals that exist in the area. I feel like this will give me a really good idea for what's all out there, so I can gain an even better sense of what this profession entails since I'm such a newbie.

I was a little worried at first that the class was going to be full of students that were already working in libraries, and had so much more experience than I, but the class is pretty well-rounded. I'd say just slightly under half are not yet working in libraries, so I am not alone.

So, where are we going you ask? Maybe you didn't ask, but I'll tell you anyway. There are three visits that are mandatory:

Klutznick Law Library at Creighton University

McGoogan Library of Medicine at UNMC

and the Omaha Correctional Center library (yep, that's right!).

Then, we had to sign up for a minimum of three of 10 additional sites, but it was stressed that we could essentially go to all if there were enough slots open for the group. I'm signed up for six, but if I can swing it, may try to go to 1 or 2 more.
The six I'll be at for sure are:

Early Childhood Training Media Center

Omaha World-Herald library

Nebraska Library Commission

Durham Western Heritage Museum's library

Kripke Jewish Federation Library

and the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection at the UNO Criss Library.

I may try to squeeze in the Lincoln Regional Center's Resource Center and the Little Priest Tribal College Library up in Winnebago if I can, but we'll see how my schedule pans out.

While most of the class consists of going to those sites, and coming up with specific questions for each one to build discussion while we are there, we'll also be taking part in a teleconference through the College of DuPage on diversity and will have a final presentation on a topic that is essentially, our choice.

If it's not obvious enough, I'm really looking forward to this class and for the chance to be able to learn about so many different types of libraries that are out there.

Tomorrow begins my other course - Managing Collections. Update to follow.

first day of my (grad school) life

2009-01-16T15:13:00.005-06:00

My first class begins in less than two hours. I didn't even consider the fact that I'd be nervous about this. But I am.

Extremely.

I've already driven past campus and charted out my parking possibilities; I've packed my bag with computer, computer charger, binder complete with folders and ruled notebook paper (Do people still use binders in grad school? Please tell me I won't look like an idiot), extra notebook, planner, pens, pencils, etc.; and I've bought myself a six-pack of beer to come home and drink in case I:

a) discover how awesome I am that I'm now a grad student and how great of idea grad school and I simply need to celebrate my awesome-ness

or

b) get called upon for a discussion and say something very, very stupid and uneducated in front of the whole class.

Here's hoping for the former!

reading list rundown 2008

2009-01-07T22:38:00.007-06:00

The following is the list of books read, in full, in 2008:

January - The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon
January - Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon
February - V for Vendetta, Alan Moore
February - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
February - Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History, Art Spiegelman
February - Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, Art Spiegelman
March – Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer
March - Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer
March - Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
March - The Little Black Book of Style, Nina Garcia
April - Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
April - The Dive From Clausen’s Pier, Ann Packer
May – Persepolis I: The Story of A Childhood, Marjane Satrapi
May - Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas in the Public Library, Don Borchert
May - Persepolis II: The Story of A Return, Marjane Satrapi
June – Reasons To Live, Amy Hempel
June - At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom, Amy Hempel
June - I Was Told There’d Be Cake, Sloane Crosley
July - The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, Daniel H. Pink
July - Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
July - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
August - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
August - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
August - Library 2.0 A Guide to Participatory Library Service, Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk
September - Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
September - New Moon, Stephenie Meyer
September - Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer
September - Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
October - Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott
November - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell
November - The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama
November - My Antonia, Willa Cather
November - Local Wonders: Season in the Bohemian Alps, Ted Kooser

You'll see I did pretty good on "themed" months for awhile until the summer hit. January was Michael Chabon month. February was comic book/graphic novel related items. March was Jon Krakauer month with a little bit of fashion advice thrown in. April was fiction, May was non-fiction, June was short stories. July and August were a sort of hodgepodge of books. I was going to start re-reading all the Harry Potter books in anticipation for the next movie but then the movie's release date got changed to this summer. Then instead I went to the Twilight series (and I still need to see the movie) and finished up the month with some non-fiction and some Nebraska literature. Not too bad.

I liked the idea of the themes but I'm not sure I'll be keeping it up this year. I started Anna Karenina in December but am still no where near finishing it. I want to get that out of the way and then continue on to the following list for 2009 (in no particular order):

Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss (one I've owned for years and haven't actually read yet.)
Blindness, José Saramago
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson (another owned for years)
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
Persuasion, Jane Austen
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Gregory Maguire

Suggestions are definitely welcome for others you think I should add to that list.

Also, for some book cover eye candy, check out this nifty new site stumbled upon via kottke.org. It's called The Book Cover Archive and has hundreds of interesting and pretty book covers.

gifts fit for the (student) librarian

2009-01-05T17:03:00.009-06:00

So, I’m behind on my blog posts, which is not a good start to the new year.
These last couple of weeks have definitely been crazy with family events, holidays, spending much needed time with wonderful people I rarely see, finding a place, moving, unpacking, and settling in that when I woke up on New Year’s Day, I realized I hadn’t even stopped to think about my “resolutions” or whether I should even make any. I still haven’t really had the proper moment to reflect on that other than to know that I want to a) do great in grad school, b) read at least two books a month again, c) embrace my new city of Omaha, and d) continually update this blog.

As I’m working toward those goals (and any others I might come up with), I’ve got a few new tools at my disposal thanks to the wonder that is Christmas presents. (OK, mostly I just want to list what I got for Christmas because a million other bloggers already did and I'm behind. But at least I'm honest.)

MacBook Pro (the previous generation … on clearance)

Technically this was a present from myself to myself (with just a little help from the parents) and I had a little bit of buyer’s remorse at the beginning when I had to take it to the store and get a new hard drive on the third day I owned it. But now, I love it. It’s an incredible upgrade from the iBook. I can finally put all of my music on it without overloading it, the screen gives me 3.3 more amazing inches of space and even typing on the keys is a smooth, wonderful feeling. I don’t think I’ll have any problem spending the majority of my year on this machine.

Illustrated Elements of Style

I am a grammar nerd. What can I say? I’ve had my eyes on this book since it came out a few years ago. I finally got it this year in a gift exchange and I don’t think it will leave my desk.

Becoming Jane Austen

Because every female librarian should probably know as much about Jane Austen as possible.

Moleskine 2009 Planner and matching notebook

So, again technically part of this was a present for myself. I bought the planner a few weeks ago – it not only includes the planner, but a detachable notebook and stickers. Yes, stickers. Then my cousin got me the full notebook in red, too. Now I am so Moleskine coordinated!

Apples to Apples

I like words. I like games. Enough said.

French notebooks

Another cousin got me three adorable French notebooks from laughingelephants.com. The site has a lot of other cute things as well. Check it out!

Lewis Carroll Quote Magnet

Yet another gift to myself. I always see those quote magnets right by the counter, always trying to lure you in. But I could never figure out what quote I really wanted to spend $5 on until I saw this one with a quote from "Through the Looking Glass." Perfect.

Alright, bragging time is over. I'll never do it again.
Maybe.

Disclaimer: For any gifts I received that are not mentioned here, it doesn't mean I didn't love them just as much ... they just didn't really belong on this librarian-themed blog. Thank you one and all.

in transit

2008-12-16T21:43:00.006-06:00

I haven't been able to write here in a while because I've been a) packing, b) cleaning, c) moving my stuff 500-some miles, d) searching for a new place etc., etc.

But, I did want to announce that I have officially registered for my first semester in grad school. I'll be taking:

Managing Collections & Access
Course Description: Selection of materials for libraries and information agencies, policies for collection management, freedom and diversity of information, access to information and evaluation of collections and access.

Special Libraries
Course Description: Goals of special librarianship including information provision, management styles. Library functions as performed in special libraries. Contributions of special libraries, such as information analysis centers, information brokering, and accountability for and evaluation of services.

I'm so excited and I nerdily can't wait for the book lists to be announced.

Now I just need to find an apartment so I can get settled and get started!

. . . the good life

2008-12-01T21:16:00.013-06:00

In my previous blog, I declared at the beginning of this year that I intended to read at least two books a month and that each month would have a theme.
Well, the year is almost over and I can say that I have neither read two books a month nor has each month had a theme, BUT I have so far this year read 33 books. Which, as of this month is an average of three books, not two.

Anyway, the point of this is that I intend to do some mini-reviews about the books I've read this year on this blog at some point before 2008 ends and I begin a new goal (maybe the same goal) for 2009 but first, I want to talk about the last two books I read in November.

Feeling compelled to become more acquainted with the literary works of my home state and the state I'm moving back to in two weeks(!), I finally read "Willa Cather's "My Ántonia" and Ted Kooser's "Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps." Granted, the latter is not necessarily known as a staple for Nebraskan literature, but it was collecting dust on my bookshelf for three years so I figured it was time to give it a whirl.

Both of these books center on Bohemian Nebraskan pioneers and their ways of life. My ancestors were Northern German Nebraskan pioneers ... close enough, right?

Both carry with them descriptions of the idyllic landscapes that I've come to grow fond of and connected to more so in the last three years as I've driven back and forth on I-80 to get from one side of the state to the other. Interstate 80 is what most people consider boring, or, if you're a big city kid forced to drive through on a family vacation, "absolute hell.” I however, have found myself defending its beauty. (Especially compared to the Eastern plains of Colorado. Snoozefest.)

And both really bring forth what it is to live in Nebraska – where “home” means close family, strong communities and simple living.

Now, had I not actually lived in the state when I read these and were I not, because of that, a bit homesick for some of the folksy atmosphere (the good aspects of the folksiness, that is) that populates Nebraska, I might not have enjoyed these quite as much. If I'd never been to Nebraska or lived there, I know these books would not have been as meaningful to me as they were and I most likely never would have read them. In any case, just six pages in to "My Ántonia" I could tell Cather had it right when I read this:

"I do not remember crossing the Missouri River, or anything about the long day’s journey through Nebraska. Probably by that time I had crossed so many rivers that I was dull to them. The only thing very noticeable about Nebraska was that it was still, all day long, Nebraska."

Ántonia's story includes her moving to Denver for a while while she is in her 20s, but that quickly turns out to not work out for her and she moves back to Nebraska. That's probably where the similarities between us end, because I, fortunately, am not returning under the same conditions that she did. (SPOILER ALERT: She got knocked up!) But it was comforting, in a way, to know that a character from Nebraska in the early 1900s tried out Denver for a while only to return, as well.

“Local Wonders” is a series of essays by 2004-06 Poet Laureate Ted Kooser about life in the Bohemian Alps of southeastern Nebraska, which are located just a few miles away from Lincoln, where I went to college.

Kooser finds meaning and humor in the little things - hand sewn shirts lasting for 40 years, garage sales that evoke a sense of the theater and he even has a take on public libraries:

"A library is like an airport; if you wait long enough, everybody in the world will walk past. And in a library there are a lot of people who seem to be waiting for something like that to happen. The anticipation makes some of them very sleepy, and they nod off in their chairs, some of them peeing their pants."

Reading his essays, it's hard not to think of my grandparents. No, my grandparents do not pee their pants in libraries, but they do help me see more of the world around me and they help me see the beauty in a consistent, well-respected life.

The part that struck me hardest was the poem he wrote (that includes the title of the book) based on George Ault's painting "August Night at Russel's Corners."

"If you can awaken
inside the familiar
and discover it new
you need never
leave home.

Local wonders."

Here’s hoping that while I continue my journey into this wonderland, I'll be surrounded by many local wonders that will continue to make me see the beauty that these two authors found in my state.

***
As I was doing a bit of Googling for this, I stumbled upon this literary guide to Nebraska. Czech it out HERE if you'd like (Get it Czech ... Bohemian ... OK, sorry, I had to do it.)

***
P.S. Wish me luck, this month, I'm finally going to attempt to get through "Anna Karenina."

tagged

2008-11-24T20:07:00.004-06:00

The lovely Chavi has tagged me for this bit of random fun times so before I have to get packing for tomorrow's flight to spend Thanksgiving in Vegas I'll partake.

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people (if possible) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

1. I have strong brand loyalty to Aveda and Apple products.
2. After 25 years, I'm finally going to try to be the leading lady of my own life, instead of the best friend (a la Kate Winslet's character in "The Holiday.")
3. I keep track of how many movies I watch every year in a Word document. Last year I watched 188. So far this year, I'm only at 87.
4. When I was younger, my favorite color was yellow, which I called "lellow" until I figured out how to pronounce Y's. I've never really had a strong feeling toward any other colors, so, when asked, I still say my favorite color is yellow, though I'm self-conscious about it because yellow seems like such an immature color. When people get older, aren't their favorite colors things like sage or cappuccino or some such thing?
5. Right now, I'm debating whether I should try to cram everything into a carry-on size suitcase, or just bite the bullet and pay the $15 to check it.
6. Six is my favorite number because it was Julie Gaffney's number in D2: The Mighty Ducks and, doubled, it made up Mario Lemieux's number.
7. In middle school, I really liked hockey.

I'm going to tag:
Clay
Beth
Moseman
John
Michelle
Mary Alice
Amy Jo

UPDATE (12/3/08) I got an e-mail today from my uncle who was well aware that yellow was my favorite color when I was a child (every one was). According to the article, yellow will be an influential color next year.
A color consultant says of yellow, "I think it's just the most wonderful symbolic color of the future."
I guess maybe I should listen to the color consultant and not be self-conscious about it anymore.
Click here for that sunny article.

float to the next level (in a magic chair)

2008-11-17T20:20:00.007-06:00

Since I began to freak myself out this weekend in thinking way too much about my upcoming move and how much of a change it will be and how many things I need to do and how much money will be spent through this process (moving truck, apartment deposit, new computer, new cell service, new car insurance and on and on), I thought I should take a moment of Zen and bring myself back into the state of mind where I know why library science is the right path for me at this moment in my life.
And that state of mind can all be summed up in this video:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

classified, sort of

2008-11-12T22:54:00.007-06:00

I was planning on having my first "real" entry on this blog be something a little more hearty, but I found this and just had to share.

In this week's ALA e-newsletter they had a link to this Web site that lets you enter your name, favorite number and birth date and it will assign your "Dewey Decimal Number" - that is to say it takes some sort of number combination from the characters you enter and puts you in a category so that you can imagine where you would be shelved if you were a book. I must admit, I tried a few different combinations of my full name (which has been suppressed) until I found one I liked best. But considering the site gives you three options to choose from each time anyway, I'd say it's allowed.

So here's my best option from my first, middle and last name.

Dewey Decimal Section:

899 Austronesian & other literatures

Class:
800 Literature

Contains:
Literature, criticism, analysis of classic writing and mythology.

What it says about you:
You're a global, worldly person who wants to make a big impact with your actions. You have a lot to tell people and you're good at making unique observations about everyday experiences. You can notice and remember details that other people think aren't important.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Then, I tried "In A Wonderland" just to see what would happen and it would appear that this blog moniker is a perfect fit for me for you see, I'm a big fan of Canada.

In A Wonderland's Dewey Decimal Section:

971 Canada

In A Wonderland = 9413544582144 = 941+354+458+214+4 = 1971

Class:
900 History & Geography

Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.

What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Try it out for yourself and let me know if you in book form would be placed next to me in book form.

Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.

2008-11-10T21:47:00.004-06:00

I've been blogging for a few years but always without a real theme and always incredibly inconsistently so I'm trying something new under a fancy new name.

The theme here, dear readers, is the new direction my life is going. It's a direction I'm very excited about and one that's bringing with it a lot of change and a lot of curiosity. I've been accepted into my graduate program of choice to work toward a Master's of Arts in Information Science and Learning Technologies (i.e. I'm on my way to becoming a librarian!)

After spending years and years trying to answer the "what will I do with my life" question, I'm finally feeling like I'm on the right track. I'll be able to combine my thirst for knowledge with my desire to improve communities with my nerdy love of literacy, grammar and books. And I get to do all of that once I move back to the wonderful state I was born and raised in.
So what better place than to be able to store and explore all of that but my very own blog!

My blog’s name, as you’ve probably already figured out, is inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

When I was younger my mother’s friend saw similarities between me and Alice, both in appearance and in our curiosity about the world around us. Whenever I was sick, my mom knew she could turn on Disney’s version of the story and somehow I could calm down by following the bizarre world that Alice found herself in.

Now, I, too am going into a bit of a bizarre world. In just five weeks, I’ll be moving back to my home state and in two months, I’ll be starting grad school and working my way toward a Master’s. At this point, my plan is to become a young adult librarian, but just like Alice could never have predicted what series of events would happen when she followed the white rabbit, I can't say for sure that this will be the path that's taken when all is said and done.

So through this blog I’ll be sharing stories with you about my classes (once they start), about the things I’m learning, about what interests me – literacy, grammar, new media, technology, books, community connections, research, education and how to (try to) stay sane in this info-driven world.
And I hope you’ll read! And comment!

P.S. Please bear with me as I continue to work on getting the layout and style the way I want it.