This one's for the 25%.

Mid-terms are happening at Mizzou right now and that has led to an upswing in the  number of students roaming through the Society trying to quickly finish assignments that they've known about for over a month and that are due in, oh, fifteen minutes (Not kidding. That happened today.). I am definitely a procrastinator when it comes to schoolwork. I can relate to the students who are trying to get something done that they've put off for a while. But there is a limit. Fifteen minutes is hardly even enough time to walk from one end of MU's campus to the other, let alone enough time to start and finish a midterm project that you were supposed to be working on for weeks now. It's hard to not laugh in these students' faces sometimes. I've been trying to keep as neutral a face as possible when hearing them talk about what they need to look at, explain how they have only an hour to do their research, get an attitude when they find out that all four thousand+ manuscript collections aren't housed on site for their immediate perusal, and whine about the cost of copies. My tolerance for fools has never been high. I'd say 75% of the students that come in are fully competent human beings that seem to function well-enough out in the world and, even when they are running short on time, they still 'get it' where we're concerned. They understand that we're not a library and we have different policies that require protection of 'old stuff' and they act accordingly. It's that other 25% who seem to have some sort of....damage. No matter how many times you might try to explain things to them and no matter how many different ways you try to explain things to them, it never sinks in. They aren't much younger than me and it hasn't been long enough that I've been out of school for me to take pity on students and think 'Oh, they just don't know how to do this. They're young. I'll cut them some slack.' I'm more of the mind to look at them incredulously and tell them, 'Get your shit together, fool. Enough of your classmates have been in here in the past two weeks that we actually know what your assignment is and that it's due today. Don't blame it on your professor when you just suck at college. No, that spiel that my co-worker gave you about how you can't bring your purse or backpack in here wasn't a joke. For the twelfth time, you can only use pencils in this room, no pens. Yes, you do actually have to fill out that form because this is a bureaucratic organization and we love our color-coded forms, so go ahead and write your lil old name on that line; we don't want to leave you out of the fun. And, no, you can't student charge your copies so your parents can pay for them next month when the bill arrives; it's twenty-five cents per page now. Cash, check, or Credit card, chump?'

And yeah, congrats on doing primary-source research. You're a true scholar, now. I'm sure you're going to blow your professor away with the superbly awesome, well-cited research paper you're going to spout off in the next ten minutes using the manuscript source citation that you...left here on the table.

*facepalm*

God bless the teachers and professors that have actually chosen deal with these people every day. Or maybe they chose it for the 75% and just try to deal with the others as best they can? Either way, their tolerance and patience amaze me.

Math is not my forte, but this equation seems right.

I'm done with school! (Forever?) It ended as it usually does, with a big ole' facepalm. My final case study was due on Sunday. I thought it was due this Friday. I decided to check today and see what the exact date was and imagine my surprise when the due date was several days ago.

Now, the thing is: this has happened to me before. More than once. You'd think I would pay more attention. I mean, I did this last year at this exact same time. Hell, I did this earlier this semester. For this same class. I figured my grade and, even if this particular professor is exhausted of my shenanigans, I will have a C in the course, which means I will still graduate. This professor is also my advisor and, I kind of feel like he'll give me some kind of grade on it just to get me the hell out of his hair. I'm sure there are worse students that he's had to advise than little old me, but this entire graduate school experience was pretty bumpy sometimes and he did have to pull me out of a couple of dungpiles I found myself in. So, really, a facepalm plus a(nother) apologetic e-mail for his inbox tomorrow morning seems like the only true way for me to exit this program.

But, still: Exit, thisaway.

5 years + 2 states + 2 degree programs - 1 parent + 2 assistantships + myriad of jobs + several loans + 2 apartments - 1 car + newer car + 1 house - 1 cat + different cat + a lot of chocolate + a lot of movies and old tv shows on dvd + many rants and assignments - lack of confidence that this is what I want to do = I am a librarian!

Fo realz!!!

Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

"He seemed like a really nice European DJ with a face tattoo."

I'm having to re-scan everything I scanned at work yesterday. Lame! Photoshop tricked me into thinking it had saved my custom settings when it had not.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I watched the so-far season of "The New Girl". I had heard good things about it and I am a fan of Zooey. Things I liked about it:
Zooey is funny.
Zooey's character's clothes are amazing.
The three fellas are (sometimes) funny.

But, I don't think these three things can save this show, yo. I'm not a tv show critic or anything...I don't even watch much tv at all because I only get one channel, BUT, there's not much of a plot on that show that I can decipher. I don't know. I think it's hard to create a truly eccentric character without making them seem unbelievable. Zooey's character is believable, and I actually don't think she's as weird as people have claimed she is. She just seems like a fun person that's slightly too open with her feelings. I really wanted to like the show, and I laughed. But I wasn't hooked on it. I volunteer to take all of Jess's clothes when the series gets cancelled, though.

I have a backpack brimming over with graphic novels today. Astro Boy, Cyborg lunch lady, the one about the girl that saves the books in Iraq, etc. My last assignment for Children's Lit was to create a library program for a group of kids. I picked the 9-12 age range and decided to do an entire program on graphic novels and basic cartooning. The gist is that we would look at graphic novels and see the different cartoon styles and the different plots and storylines for the novels, and the kids could share their favorites or be introduced to other ones that the library has in its collection. Also, an art teacher or cartoonist would come in and work with the kids to learn the basics of cartoon drawing and the kids could practice their drawing and create characters and things. I'm planning to read through a couple of the graphic novels before class tonight, just so I have a better idea of what I'm doing here. So, if you see a girl in bright red jeans reading Astro Boy (Volume 8) all by herself at dinner, say "Hey!", won't cha? I don't have to do this program in real-life. Just pretend do it. Which is good. I bombed the last presentation I had to do in that class. Bombed it hard.

It just occurred to me that I might not be assertive enough in certain settings. I'm not a super assertive person to begin with. I generally kind of go with the flow, or go it alone. I don't really put up much of a fight about things. Most things aren't worth fighting about, but sometimes...I think I should say more about what I'm thinking. Like, when this kid (who is very nice) is constantly using the computer I use at work to check his facebook,e-mail accounts, and chat on google plus. I just want to be like, 'Hey, I need the computer for work stuff, can you save the personal stuff for the library lab or your home?'. But I'm like, 'Oh, Hi! No, I don't need the computer. No problem. I'll go find some collections and be back later.' I mean, I don't want to go off the deep end and become one of those mean drivers who constantly is flipping people off on the highway. But, just a little more confident in my own abilities. So at least during presentations, when I mess things up, I don't go "Eeeek. This is a mess! Sorry! [exuding flusteredness]', but rather: 'Oops, that was a mistake. I meant to say...[oozing composure]' Hmm. I'm going to work on that.

It's actually raining outside.

Oh, group projects, you are a frustration beyond all frustrations. The problem is that I'm having to wait on others before I can act. I'm not a patient person. I'm not overly impatient, but when I'm ready to move forward with something, I'm ready to go. And I'll wait for a bit (like, a tiny bit), but then I'll get frustrated and just go on alone. I don't have any problem going on alone, but I sometimes think after the fact that perhaps I could have waited a little longer for another person to make up their mind. This is why group projects are a pain. There are a lot of group projects in my life right now. 


Interesting horoscope today:

Worrying won't help you get closer to a solution. Think of pleasant things.

[Thanks heaps, Yahoo. I'll try to keep that in mind.]

I got a really fantastic piece of information yesterday from the museum. They'd like to make my graduate assistantship a permanent assistantship for a Library Science student. This is really cool because they don't have a librarian on-staff and I had to beg my way into an assistantship with them because they generally only hire students from within their own department. So, after nearly 18 months, they've seen the awesomeness of having a library student in their midst! I'm pretty proud of that. It makes me feel like I have actually affected something (in a good way) while I've been there. Sometimes I wasn't sure whether I really fit in there or not, but this semester it's been much friendlier than the previous two were. Maybe it was just sort of a long get-to-know-you phase? Regardless: Go, museum! Good for you! I just hope that someone from LIS takes the position in January. It would be too easy for the museum to want to hold an assistantship for an LIS student and then have nobody want it (or be able to take it mid-year) and then the museum just lets go of the idea and never gets another library student again until one comes and begs them for another job. LIS has no real coursework or practicum or GRA positions available to students who are interested in museum work, but there are a couple of others that I've had classes with who are/have been wanting to go into museums with their MLS degree. So, I hope that it all works out and someone can pick up where I'll be leaving off.

So, I'm about halfway through the semester and I realize I haven't shared much in the way of books on here. I use goodreads, like any good library student does, and have kept track of all the children's lit materials on there. I've had literally no time to read any other books but childrens and young adult books for about six weeks. But here are two books that I've read that I absolutely recommend to everyone. (I'm thinking about asking for Elephant and Piggie for Christmas, personally. Happy Master's Degree Graduation, here's a picture book?):

I tend to like books about time travel. I'm quite the nerd for time travel, actually. If you are, too: this is a really interesting book. It's classified as a young adult book, but I had actually put this on my Goodreads 'to read' list long ago. I think it's YA mainly because the main character is a girl in middle school. The story is very intriguing and has a really impressive and surprising ending (I thought). It's a little mysterious, a little sad, and a little wonderful. And if you liked "A Wrinkle in Time", you'll probably feel a kinship toward the characters in this book. That was not a spoiler, just a fact. It's a good read.

I would challenge anyone to read this book (or really, any by Mo Willems) and not crack a smile. I did more than crack a smile reading this particular Elephant and Piggie book. I was guffawing all over myself on the couch. I'd heard Mo Willems talked about at librarian meet-ups in rather hushed kind of idolized-tones, but I'd never read anything by him. It's sometimes tough to get your hands on a copy of some of the books; they're checked out so often. He is a master at telling a story for children, but making adults fall in love with the book as well. In this book, it's all about the facial expressions on the elephant's face. It's a super simple concept, but done so well. READ THIS BOOK.




That's all for now. The Cardinals are up by a run in the sixth inning of game 3 against the Brewers. I'm hoping they can hang on and win the game. Hope, hope, hope. Don't choke, guys. [Also, it's totally raining outside. It hasn't rained here in weeks.]

Went shopping today and talk is still cheap.

My collections are live on the web!

http://statehistoricalsocietyofmissouri.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/amcw

Hurray! You have to click 'Browse Selected Collection' to get to all the collections within the American Civil War in Missouri. Might I suggest laughing as you read the Bethiah P. McKown letters to her son in the John D. McKown Papers. She's Bethiah P. or sometimes just B.P. She's a hoot. Also, the letter from T. A. Sidner in the Noah Sidner collection is sad/interesting in a morbid way. It's the last letter T.A. writes from prison the day he's executed. There are several 'final letters' in collections that deal with war, but few are written by a person who knows this is their last letter. It's not profound or anything, it's just sort of chaotic. Still, it's interesting in a sad sort of way.


Tonight in class we had a blended session with people videochatting in with our regular class. I am just not someone who is cut out for technology like this. I don't like it. It just cements the fact that I am really not a 21st century sort of person. All the social media, the online classes, the fancy phone apps, the skype...I just don't feel inclined toward any of it, really. The teacher kept telling me to be louder when I was talking and to talk slowly, etc. I have a very soft voice and I know this. Lord knows I've been made aware of this fact my entire life. I know people don't always hear me when I talk and I do try to speak up, but frankly, my voice is a weak one and I stumble over words or my voice gives out entirely when I have to strain to speak louder than normal. My vocal chords aren't superstars and can't hold up their end of the bargain sometimes. It isn't cool, but it's the way the cookie crumbled in my life.  I don't tend to speak a lot in front of people either, but here on trusty old blogger? I don't really talk to anybody, in particular. It's a void, and I like that. I write better than I speak. I can write and write and never lose my "voice". The void doesn't strain to hear my words or think I'm mumbling or constantly tell me to speak up. Even writing letters to certain people is easier than calling or chatting or whatever. This is why I like my job. I like spending much of my day focused on letters from people that never dealt with phones or wonky internet connections or television or cars or anything that makes up so much of the world we live in now. They talk to me just like I talk to you and I hear them fine. Their voices don't go out halfway through; nobody's shouting 'What'd she say?' through a crackly laptop connection hundreds of miles away; they're not even alive and I understand their words better than a person sitting virtually in an online classroom discussing children's literature. It's there in print and the connection is always fine and I like that I can count on that.

Plan B for my late afternoon.

This blog entry honors the first week of school finished. The plan at this time was to be paying attention/participating in a Comprehensive Exam web meeting with some of the faculty in my program. That plan went out the window when the software wouldn't load on my computer. So here I sit (not lonely and brokenhearted) without a web meeting. I love how I'm in the Information Technology school and NOTHING ever works for us. They use us as guinea pigs for learning technologies and it always fails somehow. You can take that to the bank if the bank would give money for sure bets like that.

Since I am now in my weekend mode with very little to do at the moment. Hows about I do something fun? Like live blog a song? Yeah! I live blogged an episode of Sesame Street to my Twitter friends once a couple of years ago when I was home sick (later to discover that the sickness was being caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from my furnace. To think I could have died with Elmo's terribly high voice as the last thing I heard? I still shudder.)

But no. No live blogging of tv shows because that was exhausting...and kind of obnoxious. But a song is good. What song should we do? Hmm. I will let the gods of Windows Media Player randomly choose the song. Here goes [random choosin' tune]:

And the lucky song is "Start Me Up" Rolling Stones

0:00 Well known guitar riff blares through the too-loud tinny computer speakers.
0:16 "Yiiif ya start me yup; Yiiif ya start me yup, I'll never staawp." x2
0:35 I'm generally just humming, head-bopping, and waiting for the chorus at this point. Don't really know the words here.
0:48 Everybody sing! "You make a grown man cryyyyyy" x3
0:50 We've got some hand-clapping to the beat going on in the background.
1:00 More mumbling that I don't understand. They're lucky the beat to this song is so good.
1:08 Stop clapping.
1:12 "Gotta start it uhhhhhhp" You have to sing 'Up' in a wheezing sort of way.
1:28 The electric guitar is getting antsy in the wings. I think it wants a solo.
1:38 Everybody, one more time! "Don't make a grown man cryyyyyy" x3
1:41 We're clapping again.
1:50 Again with the mumbling and I don't know the lyrics.
2:03 Wheeze 'Uhhhhhhp" once more.
2:16 More heavy duty clapping with some squeals thrown in.
2:23 "You make a grown man cryyyyy"
2:26 "Don't make a grown man cryyyyy"
2:30 "You make a grown man cryyyy"
2:42 A cymbal has taken the place of the incessant hand clapping. I would bet their hands got itchy. Mine always do if I have to clap for a long time.
3:02 The electric guitar is whining for a chance to do a solo bit.
3:05 The door is slammed in the electric guitar's metaphorical face by a loud "Yoooouuu"
3:07 Yay, more hand clapping!
3:20 The electric guitar is not going down without a fight...
3:25 ...So, they must fade out. The electric guitar must wait for another song to show its talent solo-style.

Singing hey mama, don't want no drama.

Happy first day of school!

I've been in a really happy mood for days. Despite the roof and the car, etc., life feels pretty happy. Partly it's the knowledge that I'm graduating this semester and this is my last first day of school. The other part is just listening to Mat Kearney's album over and over. Two of his songs get me up and dancing every. single. time. And any living thing near me is my immediate dance partner. The cats have been a little less than enthusiastic about this. Watson was hilarious. He was settled in watching the front yard at my Dad's house and the next thing he knows he's being carried/danced with through the living room to the youtube version of one of the songs. Dad came and rescued him pretty quickly, but it was fun while it lasted. Iris enjoys being part of a dance party, but it has to be on her own terms. She's not fond of being picked up, so we just dance in circles around the house. Lots of dancing over the last couple of days up in this mug!

It's blaring right now, but it's a mellower song than my two sure-fire dance songs. I'm sure the neighbors could hear the bass if they were out in their yards. I don't feel too bad about that since I am regularly a listener of a local garage band's rehearsals, even when my windows are closed.

So, I shared the one dance-y song in the previous blog post, but here's the other sure-fire upbeat dance song from his album. I hate to be such a plug-ger, but you know? It's good, catchy stuff and you should dance and be happy! So grab the nearest living thing and flail around the house for a while. It'll do ya good.

Let the awesomeness continue!

The first three days of the week have turned out to be pretty cool. I spent much of last week debating a final project topic. Everyone else in class seemed well on their way to finding their topics, gathering research, doing primary source research via a survey in one case, and just generally moseying on down the task list. I, however, was sort of stuck in limbo. Nothing on the list of topics the teacher provided was interesting at all, and when I'd suggest a topic it was either nixed or completely taken the wrong way and I would have to stop her and say, 'No, that's not what I meant.' Anyway, it was kind of frustrating and a big ole headache because I figured I'd have to just pick something dull and boring and I don't do well with those sorts of topics for big papers. I wasn't that worried about it, but it was just kind of in the back of my mind. Especially since fellow classmates had been discussing their topics for weeks. Enter last Friday morning. I am woken up by the cats and a thought comes to me that I should design a library space for the museum I work for. Boom! Lightning! Thunder! Light bulb! The research paper was due Sunday at noon, and you needed a certain number of sources, etc. Then you had to create a presentation to go along with the paper and I was due to present that on Monday.

I will share a tidbit with you now: I don't religiously check my horoscope, but when dawdling around, sometimes I do check it. I think they're fun. And sometimes, it blows me away! I checked it on Friday and this gem was what it said (get ready to *gasp*):

"There will be a moment today when you suddenly realize that while you've been taking things at a nice, leisurely pace, everyone else has zoomed ahead of you! Do not panic -- you are doing things in a way that is right for you, and that is the most important thing. Your steady pace will pay off in the end. Be careful of comparing yourself with other people right now. They have different forces working in their lives, and you have your own strengths to focus on."

How 'bout that for cosmic influences? So, all weekend was spent on this paper and presentation. I stopped to eat, and sleep, but mostly it was the focus of my thoughts and actions all weekend long. So, Monday comes and my presentation ROCKED. I did really well, the presentation technology worked out, people were interested, the teacher was impressed. Teacher even said that my paper was really good. Insert mental image of me beaming.

So, that was Monday. Also, this week has been good in that I've been getting lots of work done at both jobs. I passed the 6,000 items cataloged mark at the museum and the state historical society grant work that I'm doing is at the point of finally uploading it to the website. And I had thought that the website and content viewer was going to have to be seen in a webspace that I loathe because it's unsearchable, the viewer is terrible, we don't have control of the features or IT services, etc. But, I came to find out that this was not true. To my utter happiness and amazement, my boss told me that we would be hosting the civil war manuscripts on our OWN site with our OWN content viewer! And, after uploading two collections already this week and seeing them on the web: they look wonderful. The website and collection documents look fantastic; they're easily zoomable; you can see the transcript of the letter in the same screen as the images. Sigh. It's just fantastic. That has been probably the biggest boon of the week for me. I've been working with these letters for six months now through scanning and metadata and reading them and I get kind of connected to the people's lives a little bit. I actually care about these people's lives in this short time span that I'm working with, and I really wanted their words and letters to be shown in the best way possible. And I think they will be! My bosses were pretty psyched about my metadata organization too, so they're having me re-do some of the work done previously on the first phase of this project. I've had some computer problems, but nothing too terrible except that I have so many applications open at a time that I fully expect a message like this from my computer:But mostly, it's just been a great week school and work-wise!

Cue the music for the Lone Arranger.

This day has gone downhill. It started out great. I got in the car and the song playing on the radio was Jimmy Cliff's "I Can See Clearly Now" and I was laughing and singing 'bright bright bright bright sun shiney day' as I navigated my way toward Columbia. Then I got to work and checked my e-mail.

Tangent: getting rid of the internet at home was perhaps one of the best decisions I've made. I don't have any kind of pull toward the web because I don't really care what happens on it that much anymore. I do really well with ignoring all the crap that goes on over the internet. It's very easy to realize that if it's important or if someone wants to see you, they will get a hold of you. They will find a way. It's a nice isolated kind of feeling and I've come to love not being tied to what people are saying on social networking sites or having to check e-mail and read links of random things that people send you. It's really nice and makes me pretty happy.

That being said, when Monday rolls around and I'm back to work and have to check my e-mail, my days tend to go downhill really quickly. Like today. Not only is it annoying to shuffle through all the junk mail, but just the crap news that you get. I found out I no longer get to talk about biblioburro (boo!) in class tonight, but have to find some other topic to discuss. That's really lame, and I can feel myself digging in my heels and wanting to argue with the professor about what she said about biblioburro and how it isn't relevant to the class. It's on the fringe as far as relevancy goes, but I think it would be a good topic to discuss for the class and could be discussed in a way that made it relevant because the point is a specialized audience and how to meet the informational needs of a special patron base (in biblioburro's case, that's rural school children). I scoured the professional resources and unfortunately couldn't find a scholarly article on biblioburro. Damn it. I've found some other topic that might be okay, but way less interesting. This whole class has taken a turn for the worse. I feel like pouting like a five-year-old, but (deep breath), it's fine. It's too narrow of a sight line that these teachers try to push on the classes and it's pretty crappy sometimes. They panic if someone says anything outside of the little box that they have outlined in their syllabus and it's frustrating for me sometimes.

Rant over.

The US Women lost to Japan in the World Cup Finals yesterday. It was a good game. Very well played. There were hardly any fouls. You could tell before the first half was over that things weren't going well for the US. They were playing really well together but couldn't get the ball in the net, despite tons of good opportunities. Japan is really good. They looked so good against Germany and they stayed good the whole way through the semifinals and final. I was sad that US lost, but couldn't really be upset about Japan winning, either. It's nice for that country to have good news this year. And those women played so well. The US women played well but it wasn't their day. I think the game of the tournament was the US vs. Brazil game and they showed how good they are in that game. This game went to penalty kicks as well, but it wasn't the same kind of intensity. It was more laid back. The teams aren't bitter rivals like Brazil and US are. There weren't terrible referee calls in this game. There was nothing to be angry about. I don't know how many times the ball hit the crossbars in the goal, and it was just sort of off-target a lot. Still, it was a good game, and I hope the US do well next summer at the Olympics. [I can't wait for the Olympics! I love Olympics! Bring on the swimming!]

I found out a name that people who are solo archivists are called: Lone Arrangers. I love it. I want a nice western theme song playing in the background as the Lone Arranger sorts the Civil War letters in some sort of rational order.

Breaking out the 3-d glasses!

Checking out Harry Potter in 3-D tonight. I'm excited. I have a group that I generally go and see the Harry Potter movies with as soon as they come out. We've gone for the last three and I had read all the books and enjoyed the books but was never of the crazy Harry Potter fanatic sort. I've read all the books once a piece and I didn't pick them back up to re-read before seeing the movies, so it's all basically new to me when I see the movies. I can't debate the production of the movie and what was cut out or whether I liked how they did that scene or whatever. I just don't remember enough details about what I read to be able to do that. The books all blend together and I can't usually even remember the titles or the numerical order of the series. I just read it and liked it and actually just enjoy hanging out with this particular group on these premiere movie days. It's good. We've not seen any in 3-D before (I don't know if the others were available in 3-D?), and I've never seen a 3-D movie, so I'm kind of excited about it all. I went to my old workplace to get the ticket and my glasses from my friend who had ordered and picked them up. She and one of my other former co-worker friends ended up going last night and so the group will be down one because Dave isn't going to go tonight as originally planned since he saw it last night. Anyway, I think it will be a blast. It usually is and from what I've heard, this is a really really good movie. I thought the Harry Potter Part 1 of this book was the best movie, so I'm expecting to like the second half as well. Anyway, then Harry Potter will be done and I think that's good. He's run his course. It's time to let go.

I was asked earlier today what I planned to do after I graduate. I realized that I really have no idea. I mean, obviously try to find a grown-up job. But I no longer have a real answer as far as the type of job I hope to get. I used to be pretty set on museums, but working in one has kind of changed my mind on that. It's not that I don't like it at the museum, but it's just not the sort of workplace that I'd like to spend a bunch of years on end. It's slow and super quiet and very academic. I need something a little more rowdy and informal and unpredictable to keep my interest. In my opinion, the environment of the workplace is just as important as the job you're asked to do.

I've been doing surprisingly well with saving money. I do have willpower and can use it to keep myself in check when I need to. I had banned myself from going to Target earlier this summer because I couldn't go there and not buy something. Something that I don't need. So, I stayed away for a while and then recently I tried to go in and test myself. I didn't need anything. I just went in and looked around and left the store. Without purchasing a thing. And I didn't feel weird doing that. I get bored just sitting around places, so I like to wander around stores sometimes and just look at things, but the problem was that I couldn't seem to not buy stuff when I was doing that and that adds up pretty quickly. I've tested myself a few more times recently and have passed them all! I have tried it at Maude's yet. I think that would be really really difficult because I tend to do the 'treasure hunt' sort of shopping there and feel like I really can't pass something up because the finds are cheap and unique. That's really too much temptation. Luckily, it's been too hot for me to wander all over creation when I'm waiting for class to start. This helps the wallet as well.

I'm gonna sit back real easy and laugh.

Been a kind of odd week. I've been having trouble with what day it is. I don't know why. I did manage to catch up on a lot of missed sleep on Sunday, so maybe that's part of the reason? Whatever it is, the week hasn't been bad, just really confusing at times.

Springsteen's "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" saved me today. I must have listened to it a dozen times over the course of the afternoon, just chair dancing in my very lonely, very dark, new desk area at work. We moved last week and everyone is still sort of getting used to things. Because I only work there one day a week I'm in a storage area on a no-internet-computer with my scanner near all the collections I'm working with. Not a soul around. I didn't know this would be the case, so I only came prepared with my regular headphones for listening to my internet radio. But, alas, I need cds now. After a lot of looking and a little begging, I managed to get my hands on a mix cd of Springsteen's older stuff. I love Springsteen's stuff anyway, but it was like a miracle after dead silence for the morning. And Tenth Ave. Freeze Out is such a great song! I was dancing in my chair and lip syncing and head bopping along all afternoon. It really turned my day around. Cheers to The Boss!

After last weeks inability to get nearly anything completed, I'm on a roll this week. One of my midterms was released today and due by next Tuesday or something like that. It has to be done using reference sources at one of three specific locations in the state due to the bizarre way our classes are set up. Anyway, I knew I didn't want to trek back up to Columbia over the weekend if I didn't have to, but I was worried about how long it was going to take me to finish the test since I am pretty horrible at using reference sources. But: it's done! I went right after work and spent a frustrating bit of time in the reference section, but eventually found enough to finish the test. I saw one other classmate also wandering kind of lost through the area. We're not allowed to ask for help, which would be useless, since those whom we'd be asking for help are in our class and have to complete the midterm as well. But, at any rate, that's an entire huge weight off my shoulders. I have plenty of other weights on my shoulders at the moment to fill its place, but still. I feel kind of proud right now for my productivity today. I'm sure it will pass quickly enough.

I feel like it's not a blog post unless I include a picture or link or something. Cats are almost always funny, especially when they're clearly embarrassed or pissed off (although, could be this cat is actually enjoying his scuba adventure and is only annoyed that it's been stopped for a photo opp...). So, for your viewing and guffawing pleasure:

Heads up, I'm planning to party like its 2012 next year.

Hello, March. Good month, March... Full of leprechauns and spring break and such. Also full of projects and mid-term assignments, but it will feel good to get those over with. I'm signing up for Summer and Fall classes next week. My for real last time to sign up for classes, if all goes as planned. And sometimes things don't go as planned, but we roll with it, don't we? I'm not looking at all the ways in which things could screw me over. Instead, I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'm going to celebrate the end of this master's degree road I've been travelin'. It really has been a fiasco at times. Come graduation day, it will have taken me nearly 5 years, two different programs in two states, moving myself and (eventually) my cat four times in two cities, five jobs (2 assistantships), good new friends and colleagues, one failed class, one academic probation, one appeal process to get off probation, one successful attempt to beg for transfer credit, two cars, a billion (pretty sure that's accurate) miles driven, numerous headaches over course content, hopefully one practicum experience, 3 loans (but one already paid off, whatwhat), and plenty of expensive books. Also minus one mother and one aunt who would have been as stoked as I will be to finally get my ass across the stage to get this freaking degree.

In short: come December 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Mizzou's Hearnes Center, I plan to be in a celebratory mood and prepping to embark on some sort of trip. I had been thinking about going to Quebec City because I decided it's gorgeous and looks especially wonderlandy at Christmas and I think I'll be in a wonderlandy kind of mood:
I can see myself strolling down this little road all blissful and graduated. But after giving it more thought: I would be freezing. While it's very beautiful, it's easy to sit here in my warm house and imagine the lovely world of Christmas lights and snow of Quebec City without actually feeling what I'm sure is face and limb-numbing cold. I wouldn't enjoy that. If this winter has taught me nothing else, it's taught me that I am wimpier when it comes to snow and cold than I had led myself to believe. So, I've come to the decision to leave Quebec City in Winter to the hardier Northern stock of humans and go see it some day in the Summer.

So, that left me with the question of 'Well, newly graduated super happy version of Jill, where do you want to take your blissful self?' So then I thought: Macchu Pichu, of course! (see picture in posting from yesterday) Because, I REALLY want to go there and I need to go there before certain things happen: 1) I get old and can't make the climb 2) Peru closes the site because of destruction done by the throngs of tourists that are constantly visiting the site.
The second thing is already kind of happening. The government is now issuing only a certain number of permits for tours and there is a cap of 400 people per day who can climb up to one of the upper areas of the site. 200 at 8 am and 200 at 10 am. Then it's closed off for the day. So, it's kind of imperative that I get to MP within the next few years. However, it's kind of pricey (Although I could probably spring for it and get there for 1500 if I was really frugal) and secondly, I would go to this awesome place alone (in that I would be traveling alone; I'd be with thousands of people at the site, and I'd go with a tour, so there'd be others to share it with in the moment, but after it was over, it'd just be my own experience). I'm not afraid to travel by myself, but it's really lame to go someplace super awesome and then return home and want to share it with loved ones, and they don't get it. MP is my tippity top travel destination and going there and having this awesome experience and having nobody really understand what it was like to go and see this place would be extra disappointing and I'd rather put it off and wait for a travel buddy than do this particular trip alone. It was disappointing to go to Venice before anybody I knew back home had gone because it was hard to be able to gush and share the experience and feel like they 'got it'. It's much better now because I have family and friends who have been and it's more of a shared experience, but MP would be even worse since it's practically my everything.

So, I'm giving up on the Macchu Pichu idea for next year and trying to think of other options. I've mostly settled on taking a cruise. They're cheap in January, I could see some ancient Mayan ruins (which might satisfy my ancient ruin craving for a while), I might be able to see some cute sea turtles and some cool toucans, I could zipline through a jungle (YES, PLEASE), and I've never been on a cruise, so it would be a new experience. Also, there's the added luxury of unpacking once and still seeing a number of different places. I've been looking at cruise lines over the past few days and some are way out of my league, financially. The reviews I've seen of some aren't really up my alley, either. I think a Caribbean cruise would be pretty sweet, and there are a couple of cheap cruises that leave from Galveston or New Orleans, which would be more convenient than having to go to Miami or Tampa. And 5-6 days of sandy beaches and fun adventures in the Caribbean would certainly make me feel suitably celebrated. So, I've mostly settled on this idea.

I have some major assignments due over the next few weeks which are desperately tugging me away from doing any more research on my post-graduation excursion plans. But, I have it in my head now. Anytime I feel upset at the course content or the program in general, I'm going to imagine myself swimming with sea turtles and ziplining through a jungle.