Cough, cough. moan.

I'm fighting off an illness this weekend, which leaves me with lots of time to sit around and moan. Or, blog/mess about on the interwebs (while I have internet, which is spotty at best).

Yahoo is reporting that Kaley Cuoco from The Big Bang Theory is dating the newest Superman actor, Henry Cavill. I find this funny in a life-imitates-art sort of way.

I had a wonderful time at my conference in Chicago. It was super cool and I wrote a lot about it on my actual travel blog: GadaboutGetaways.wordpress.com. I decided to move to another blog site for the travel stuff because I might share that more than I want to share this with some folks.

Returning to work yesterday wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was really really quiet, except for a woman from the "God, Please Don't Ever Let Me Be Like This" file:  a woman (probably in her mid-to-late 30s) came in and threw a temper tantrum that would have made any teenager envious. She was upset about our 'no bags or purses in the research center' policy. She had told me when she signed in that she'd been here before and she flashed a patron card at me, which means she signed a sheet saying she'd read and agreed to our policies. I always try not to laugh at people when they throw tantrums, because it seems like it would only make things worse. But, God, it's hard to hide my amusement sometimes. Especially when it's something so petty as the fact that she had to put her purse in a locker. She stomped out of the research center and down the hall about halfway, before stomping back in and dramatically scratching her name off the sign-in sheet at the front desk and then stomping back down the hall and then doing her best to slam the swinging door to leave. It was all hilarious. I figured she'd be back though, because people who come to us usually need us for some reason. The things we have, other places don't. You can't just leave and go to another library to get it. Sure enough, about five minutes later she slinks back in (without her purse) and uses the computer for a while and then leaves, without throwing another tantrum. We were all laughing about it later. I think I generally have a higher tolerance for people younger than me throwing tantrums about stuff. But, when you're older than me, I find you really ridiculous, but also really amusing. Especially ones like this woman, who become so dramatic, you want to rush after them with an Oscar for their performance.

I won't have a Throwback Movie Night review to share tonight, but while in Chicago, I caught the middle of the movie "Marilyn and Me" with Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe. The little bit I saw wasn't awful. It did make me want to see the real Marilyn Monroe in a movie, so I'm going to add that to the list of possible upcoming TMNs.

I think I'm going to go back to sleep and see if I can get over this cold or whatever it is. I hate being sick, but especially when it's really nice weather outside.

Speak for me.

Happy Sunday! I finally turned the air conditioning on last night for a while. It was uncomfortable in the apartment. I think it's really the mugginess that eventually gets to you.

I worked a photo conservation workshop yesterday. We had about 14 people attend and I think everyone was pretty pleased about it. It was the first workshop for our photo archivist, who started a year ago. She did a great job and went into a lot of detail about the history of photography, the chemistry of the processes, etc. I was in and out a lot, but I was learning plenty of things when I was in there. Good job! I was sort of the go-to person for taking money for registration, making sure lunch showed up, etc. But there were also some newspaper microfilm problems in the Research Center and I was called in there to help. One poor woman was having the worst luck finding an article. She finally found it, but it took three reels of film for her to locate it. I think we could do more workshops, actually. Maybe split the photo one into a couple of different shorter workshops. I think maybe a document mending and storing workshop would be good, too. I know plenty of people have tons of papers and letters and things just sitting in boxes and maybe they just don't know what to do with them? We can help! We're having a strategic planning meeting tomorrow at work and I might bring it up.

After work, I headed over to sell some of my clothes at a consignment store and all of the power was out on that side of town. It apparently had just happened. It's always nerve-wracking trying to go through busy intersections in those first few minutes of a power outage, when the stoplights are out, but not everybody realizes it yet. I was happy to see the stoplights working on my side of town, but it was a very careful drive home after I dropped my clothes off. The cashier called me last night to tell me that their computers had come back on and that I could get my money today, so I'm planning to head back out that way again. I don't know why the power was out; I didn't actually hear what had happened.

I think I might have an allergic reaction to the violet hair color I've got right now... I got my hair re-dyed last week and my scalp is so irritated since then. I remember that it was sort of itchy the first time I got it dyed violet. I don't remember it ever happening with any other color. It makes me wonder what exactly the violet is. Aveda uses natural dyes and non-petroleum agents for their hair colors, so it's always better for the hair to use their system, but I wonder what sort of flower extract they get the violet color from? Maybe I'm allergic to it. I wanted to go more intense violet next month, but maybe I'll just return to brown. Ho hum.

Loading weekend....please wait.

I am so looking forward to a long weekend. This hasn't been a bad week by any means, but today was long. Yesterday was "Activity Day" on campus for staff recognition week. It was fun. Free lunch, free ice cream in the afternoon, a dunk tank, a deejay, a parade, and a photo booth! All in front of my place of work. Super convenient, eh? The photo booth was especially fun! Several of my co-workers went through the photo booth a couple of times. I went three times! It was too fun..

After a trivia night several weeks ago, my team won the third place prize, which included a free game of bowling at a place in town. I'd not been bowling in years and I'd never been bowling in Columbia. There were six of us and we were the only ones for a while at the alley. Us and the 'alley tender'. The worker said that when it's so slow he's able to bowl also, so he turned down the lights and turned on the black lights and disco balls and we all got to bowl cosmic-style! It was really fun, too. I am just not that awesome at real-life bowling. I'm not terrible at Wii bowling, but I don't think I've ever got over 100 points at a real bowling alley... I got somewhere in the 80s and was in the middle of the pack after the first game last night and fell to the lower 70s, tying for last place by the end of the second game. But, at least there was a tie for last place. That was a nice surprise. Also fun was the fact that the keyboard was sorta tricky and randomly ignored some letters that were selected and multiplied others so that we ended up with names like Eerri (for someone named Erica) and Abbbe (someone whose name is actually Gabe). I was Jilll. Just one extra 'l', but fun to say anyhow. After that was over, I came home in time to see the finale of "Modern Family". I love that show...and I love that my antennae can pick it up. Wooot.

After the fun yesterday, it was hard to go to work today. It felt like yesterday should have been Friday. Today I went to lunch with some co-workers and a candidate for a job opening at work. We went to Addison's. It's sort of a fancy place in town that I'd never gone to before (as it turned out, the candidate was originally from this area and had been there before, so the only person who'd never been there was little ole me). I haven't gone to a lot of places in Columbia yet. I'd always heard Addison's food was fantastic. I judge restaurants by their mashed potatoes. It's a really simple dish to make and one that nobody should mess up, but you'd be surprised at how often mashed potatoes is screwed up. It's a shame. People try to make them all fancy or something. It's a potato! It's fantastic as it is! I don't take messing with potatoes lightly. That crosses the culinary line. At any rate, Addison's mashed potatoes were excellent! Recommended!

I'm looking forward to the holiday weekend coming up. I hope everybody enjoys their holiday! See you on the flip side!

I was thisclose to being a hanger-on for an NPR story!

I (sorta!) made it into an NPR radio 2 minute story over the weekend! I'm between the lines in this story that ran over the weekend:

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/31/175808536/archival-find-could-shed-new-light-on-emmett-till-murder

"Houck and his students figured out the missing issues were in a state historical archive in Missouri."

 It's about 'missing' issues of the St. Louis Argus that the Society has and that I loaned out to Dr. Houck and his grad assistant, Jessica at Florida State. I wish NPR would have given us credit instead of just vaguely calling us a 'historical archive'. But, still, we know we're there between the lines. Another win for The State Historical Society of Missouri (and inter-library loan!). Plus, I've already gotten other people around the country writing me asking to see the film, before it's even back from FSU. We might make another positive copy of the film just so we can meet the demand now.

Several of my colleagues laugh at the 'missing' issues and 'new discovery', considering this film has been here for years and that anybody could have looked at it, bought a copy of it, or asked for it via loan at any time. It's just been here, chilling out since the 1950s. But, it's sort of like Bingham's discovery of Machu Picchu, right? It's not so much a discovery, as bringing to light something that wasn't well-known before this. Like all things that are 'found' in historical archives. The stuff has been there for a long time and the 'discoverer' was not the first person to see it, they are just the one who found an outlet to bring it to light.

We've been curious about how this happened and from what I can tell, I guess one of the main microfilming companies in the nation, microfilmed the paper, but someone removed all the issues related to the trial and story of Emmett Till's death. And then that company sold their film to all of these places around the country. But, that film is not helpful since it's missing this huge event. We're hoping libraries and people want to buy a copy of our film now, since it's actually complete. Woot!

Still got it.

This morning the shuttle bus to work was so full, I had to stand. I pretended I was in a big city. It was exciting! I tried to hide my big smile at my excitement at standing on a moving bus, but I think I ended up sort of looking creepy to my fellow riders as I did let out a random giggle at one point when the driver took a quick turn at one point. I'm happy to say that, although I haven't spent much time standing around on public transportation in many years now, my balance is still superb! Much better than the guy in front of me, who I was more afraid was going to flop back onto me a couple of times. Guys have higher centers of gravity and I think it's a little tougher for them (or, this one in particular?) to stay fully upright on a shuttle bus while going uphill and making quick turns. But, it was really pretty fun and I find myself sort of hoping for a repeat tomorrow morning...minus the fear of being squashed by a fellow bus-rider.

Also, at work we're pairing up with the Textile and Apparel Mgmt department for an exhibit on Nell Donnelly Reed, a fashion designer from KC. (http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/r/reed/index.html). She was the designer/creator of Nelly Don fashion line. She's seems to have had a fantastic fashion sense and was incredibly successful. To the point that she was kidnapped and held for ransom. Interesting life, really. Her husband seems to have not been able to do much to help find her when she was kidnapped. Another man got the police together with a  KC crime boss and found Nell and got her released without paying the ransom. Within a year, Nell had divorced her husband and married the man who worked so hard to find her. There's a whole movie about Nell Reed called "A Stitch in Time". She lived to be 102....interesting stuff. Some of the dresses for the exhibit showed up today for installation and I went and peeked in toward the end of the day and my eyes are probably still green with envy after seeing them. They are so awesome.

I really feel like if someone took the patterns like hers and made lines of dresses in the classic styles and made them cheap enough for regular people to buy, the style sense of the United States would suddenly rise to new heights. I think women would love to wear those dresses again. At least, judging by just the poll of women in my workplace, we all want dresses like those in the exhibit. I know there are a few online stores that sell modern vintage dresses, but I personally feel that Modcloth, Ruche, and the like are grossly overpriced. I love their clothing, but if you want a vintagey-looking dress you have to practically sell your soul to get one. Ridiculous.



Some music to end this Thursday with (I can't stop listening to this song):

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.

Squeee!

I feel like a badass librarian today. Unbeknownst to me, I have been corresponding with an author of books that I would probably read! Most authors I deal with are in the history field and write books that, generally speaking, I don't like to read. I love historical fiction, but most authors who reach out to the Society are the sort who will need annotations and footnotes. Lots of 'em. So, a week ago when I was approached by an author in Texas for an inter-library loan request of some film on Laura Ingalls Wilder, I thought it was for yet another non-fiction book on the Little House on the Prairie author. Today, I got the payment for the loan and shipped it out, but also decided to look up the author and find out more about her. She was very good about staying up-to-date with the status of the request and was really nice to talk to, but she seemed different than other authors I've dealt with so far.

Turns out, she is waaaaay different and waaaaaay awesome. She's written 50+ historical fiction books plus some juvenile fiction books. She focuses on mystery stories which seem to turn historical figures into detectives of sorts. She has an entire series about Beatrix Potter, which I am totally going to read now. She has two current mystery/romance series and she and her husband have their return address listed as "Partners In Crime", which is adorbz once you realize they're not actual criminals. My local library has 52 of her books and those are just the ones published under her actual name! She's got series' right and left under pseudonyms including (dun dun dunduuuuuun!) Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon. Those might not ring a bell immediately, so let me help you out: those are the pseudonyms used by the author of two crazy-influential juvenile book series: Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys. (Several authors have ghostwritten for those series, but I personally have never spoken to them...til now!) I was geeking out all afternoon. I still think it's about the coolest thing that I've gotten to do so far. While geeking out to my co-worker, she began geeking out to me because apparently she was asked to do some research on Reba McEntire's family for that tv show "Who Do You Think You Are?" and she had to sign an affidavit to not talk about it until the show aired last March. I don't think she was able to find much on Reba's family in Missouri, but still, it's exciting to get to take part in these sorts of projects and work with people who are creating books and shows and documentaries that we would read or watch anyway.

Sigh. Good day at work, yo!

Dare alla luce.

I don't have much to report on goings-on in my life, but the lives of folks around me are changing quickly! New things everywhere! Mizzou fans in general had a change over this weekend as we had our first SEC football game. I mentioned last week how excited everyone seemed to be about it. Mizzou lost to Georgia, but it was a good game and I was proud of the Tigers. I saw a Georgia sports blog post about the game and it was friendly and complimentary about Columbia, Mizzou and Mizzou fans in general. The comments that were left were also mainly pro-Mizzou and that the Georgia fans were happy to have Mizzou in the conference and respected their abilities as a football team. It was nice. I think there was some disappointment by Mizzou fans to lose, but I think they should be proud of what is happening. It's a turning point, and I think both Mizzou and Texas A&M, who also began their SEC career this weekend, both did a good job at showing that they can play in their new conferences and not be humiliated on the playing field. I was happy with everything. 

People that I used to know and still keep slight tabs on are starting over in new places all over the world. I found out this week that one is in Estonia, another in China, and one is back in Korea after being elsewhere for a while. Happy travels to all!

But, closer to my life personally, this week has been a busy one for friends! A buddy at work found out she was hired for one of our permanent positions on Friday afternoon (which she is perfect for, in my opinion, and I think she's going to kick ass at it). She had little time to let that sink in because she was also told she'd be starting immediately by heading to D.C. much of this week for training. Surprise! I missed the announcement of her hiring since I was at home on Monday, but we celebrated on Tuesday with a lunch before she hopped the eastbound plane. Tuesday was celebration central, because not only did I find out about my friend and her new job, but another buddy of mine ended up having a baby on Tuesday. She wasn't due for over a month. Surprise, again! I went to see the new family after work today and everybody's doing well. I don't know much about pre-mature babies (or any babies in general, for that matter), but this particular one looked pretty perfect, chilling out in his incubator getting all warm and cozy. Congrats to the new family! 

I follow Letters of Note, which I think I've mentioned before, but yesterday's letter was actually an advice letter from a father to a son and the end of the letter seemed totally appropriate to share while on the topic of new additions to our species. Buddha and the Greeks tend to put things better than I ever could:

"As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you."

College Colors Day at Mizzou

Today was College Colors Day all across the US. Mizzou participated by having departments dress up in black and gold and take pictures of the staff. We did it. I was surprised at how many participated in our office! Our business manager is really into the event and was sharing pictures from her last few years in another department. She got everyone kind of excited about it and then made the picture all decorated and submitted it to the NCAA for some reason. Here are many of the staff, (plus, Charlie, our wooden ultimate frisbee dog) showing our black and gold pride:

Jeneva decided to title the photo "Historical Spirit".
She's very into this event and we were all happy to support her enthusiasm.

Maggie and Erika chilling out with Charlie, the ultimate frisbee dog. 

Mizzou spirit back at home.

(As an aside: I love that shirt I'm wearing! I found it on clearance and wasn't sure why it wasn't being bought? It was at the student center and maybe people on campus aren't that into the vintage vibe of the shirt or something. I think it's great and I got several compliments on it today! I'm still doing my $30.00 clothing challenge that I began last May. Most all of my 'new' clothes are just new-to-me, as I buy a lot of my clothing secondhand. But, this shirt is actually New! As in, no previous owner! Even on clearance, I think I paid too much for it, but I'm happy with it! And the $30.00 challenge is going swimmingly. Four months in and I've had zero problems and really no desire to even buy anything over $30.00. Shoes are the most difficult things to find under $30, but I've managed to find a pair of Fall boots and a pair of Summer sandals. I had to throw out my running shoes, and those are kind of an issue now that I don't have running shoes...but maybe some giant sale will happen and I'll find some fantastically cheap and well-made running shoes? Eh? A girl can dream.)

Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing.

Beatrix has been busy this evening chasing flying bugs. First there was a wasp flying around and now I think there's a smaller flying bug like a little gnat or something? She's been leaping up/off of things and clapping her paws in mid-air all evening. It's much more entertaining now that she's after something less sting-inducing than the wasp. Earlier, I was really just hoping the wasp had enough sense to stay aloft and try to ignore the leaping feline.

I saw the movie "Lars and the Real Girl" recently. I had heard from friends that it was a good movie, and I like Ryan Gosling, but I hadn't ever gotten around to seeing it. It was adorbz. Ryan Gosling is a good actor, I don't care what people say. He made me cry over a doll. The man can act.

My legs still hurt from the 5k on Saturday. Not so much as Sunday or yesterday, but still. I had such a great time this weekend! Everything was a lot of fun. This week at work has been good so far. Yesterday at work I helped completely re-shuffle one of our newspaper storage rooms. We needed a better organizational system and I think we've got it now. At least it's more efficient than it was. I'm hoping that it proves to be a bit of a time-saver. I'm also trying to stay up on a project that I'm trying to finish at work. It's a long-term project but I really want to get a large part of it done in this calendar year. It will make life so much easier at work. Tasks will take half the time, hopefully! Three cheers for efficiency!

All the students are back on campus. Classes began yesterday and campus is buzzing with activity. I like it busy like this. I don't like it crazy-crowded, but where I'm at is less crowded than where I used to be. The sidewalks are bigger and there's much more room for people to hasten around each other without bumping or stepping on each other's heels. It's nice and relaxing to be a terminal degree-holder with a job. No exams, no assignments, no school! I'm really enjoying it all. A lot of our time at work this week has been spent directing students to the auditorium they're looking for, or trying to get them into the actual library when they stumble into our office by accident.

It's been a bit since I book-talked on here, but I've been reading an interesting book lately: The Train of Small Mercies by David Rowell. It's a novel based on the history of the funeral train trip of Bobby Kennedy. His funeral train went from NYC to Washington, D. C. I didn't know he had a funeral train. I don't know too much about him, really. I'm learning a lot but it's hard to decipher fact from the fiction in historical fiction sometimes, you know? Like, for instance, was there really a train that rushed by the funeral train and ran over spectators? It seems like there could have been because it was an awkward tid-bit to throw into the plot if it wasn't true. It kind of came out of nowhere. The book itself is really well-written. It follows several different characters and their stories. The common thread is that all are somehow connected to the funeral train. Most are just going to watch it go by. One is working on the train. I just did a quick search on the subject and it seems like the bizarre twist of a train rushing past the Kennedy train is true. Two people were killed and four were seriously injured. So, that's where I'm at right now in the book. Really sad. The overall book is good, though. Rowell doesn't write about the Kennedys. They are nothing but (important) background characters for the 4 or 5 stories he's threading together. It's pretty good. I recommend it if you're interested in historical fiction.

Enough about funerals, though: on to newborns. I have a baby shower to attend this weekend and I'm a book-buyer for baby showers. Not only because I have rediscovered my own love of picture books, but because books are such a great gift for new parents. They're always getting loads of stuff that eventually they aren't going to be able to use any longer. Books are different. Books are the baby shower gift that keeps on giving...for years and years. Anyway, the mama-to-be already knows that my present will be books. I had a great time shopping for them. I bought a couple for me in the process. Books, books, books. I've been looking at a lot of children's books lately. People seem to equate the genre of Children's Books with 'simple', 'silly', or 'unsophisticated'. They aren't. Most children's books cover some pretty heavy subjects. They can try to lighten the mood with pretty illustrations and artwork, but don't ever shrug off a book as a 'kid's book' because it has pictures in it. It might be one of the most intelligent and touching books you'll ever read! Here are some quotes I've come across recently to illustrate a bit of my point:

But, reader, there is no comfort in the word “farewell,” even if you say it in French. “Farewell” is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. (from The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo)

It’s funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.  (from The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan)

Dying’s part of the wheel, right there next to being born….Being part of the whole thing, that’s the blessing. (fromTuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt)

Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering. (from Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne)

When you have done a great many good things, you forget to speak of them….It is those who do very little who must talk of it. (from Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen)

I'm living life, do or die, what can I say.

Happy Thursday p.m.! I like Thursday evenings; it's the almost-weekend. Wrapping up the week, reviewing how the week has gone, looking forward to the weekend...all things that Thursday nights can include. This week has been kind of eventful, but mostly all in a good way so far. Monday morning I had car trouble and ended up in the auto repair shop before I went to work. It wasn't a big repair or anything and the shop didn't charge me, so it wasn't a huge deal. But, my car was having a fit about tire pressure and, despite putting air in the tires at two gas stations, the car was still unhappy.

The women's platform diving is on the primetime Olympics right now. This was the event that my friend's friend was competing in, but she didn't make it into the finals. She was in the semi-finals but after watching those dives earlier this evening, neither American diver did very well today. They had trouble entering the water correctly. Neither made it into the finals. Even the Chinese divers are struggling today. Still, major shout-out to anybody that decides to throw themselves off a 10m high platform and expects to live and tell about it.

There was an election this week. As usual, things did not go the way I would like. The thing that made me the most angry (but not surprised) was that my county elected to not support the public library. My fellow citizens don't seem to understand that some taxes are necessary to continue life as they know it. They don't want to pay any taxes, but they want to be able to go get library books and movies and audio books any time they want. Uh, where do you think those materials come from? Librarians just pull it out of the air? We're a special breed of humans, but we're not that special. I wish we were, that would be awesome.

I found out that I'm going to get to work the Halloween event at work this year. Some people are upset about being scheduled to work events, but not me. I'm excited to have a reason to come up with a costume this year and be able to hand out candy to kiddos and have fun! And this year I have Pinterest to help me decide upon a costume! Plus, three of my work buddies are going to be working the event as well, so I'm hoping that all of us dress up and have fun. It's kind of early to be thinking about Halloween, but since they sent out the schedule today, it gets me thinking about this stuff. Maybe Carmen Sandiego? Or Wenda, the less familiar female counterpart of Waldo from 'Where's Waldo?' fame? Something that would be relatively easy to put together and wear most of the day to work. Hmm, hmm, hmm?

During lunch today I heard the song "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio. Remember that? I had the 1996 Grammy Nominees cassette tape back in the day and that song was on it. Today I was reminded of how often I listened to that tape. I knew every word of that song and rapped along while waiting for my grilled chicken sandwich + fries. Sixteen years later, and that song is still awesome. I went and listened to several Coolio songs this evening on Youtube, and really? Coolio was awesome. Rap was good back in the mid-90s. I'm sure everyone thinks that about whatever music was from from whatever time they were growing up. Still...good songs. I forgot that GP was from the movie Dangerous Minds.



Sidenote about singing in public: While at lunch, there were several older songs that came on the radio. We had not only a Coolio sing-along, but Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" (a real sing-along song), and some other doozies as well. This particular restaurant never fails at having at least one sing-along song during your lunch break. I could hear singing coming from a couple of other tables and it made me think that if you had all women in one room and piped in music, I would guess that there's a 99.8% chance that before that song is over, you'd have women singing along. Not necessarily women who are friends with each other, either. Just women who happen to be in the same place hearing the same song. I think women tend to sing in public way more than men. If you had a room full of men and piped in really well-known songs, I don't think you'd have as solid a bet that before that song ended, men would be belting out the tune. They might be bopping their heads and tapping their feet, but men don't tend to just up and sing in public the way women do. Kind of a pity, there's something really endearing about strangers singing along together. It should happen more often.

If being in my jammies at 7 pm is wrong, I don't want to be right.

I've calmed down since my last post. I also have moved things around in my house in a mostly-successful attempt to be able to get NBC on a tv upstairs. It isn't perfect and the channel sometimes freezes at inopportune times, but it's better than nothing. I still think NBC is doing a crappy job, but I'm glad I can at least unmute the tv when it's finally an actual event to watch instead of having to hear all the dumb commentary. My evenings have boiled down to dinner, pajamas, tv watching/book reading, sleeping. That's it. Olympics fever for two weeks around here. I've enjoyed what I've been able to see. The swimming has been what I'm focused on, mostly. But I did catch the US women win gold in gymnastics. Good job to them. And I saw some diving. Jumping off the platform is scary to watch. A friend of mine knows one of the American divers that dives from the highest platform and so we're all going to try to sit around and cheer for her when she's competing next week. I don't know how people who actually know an Olympian or are related to these people can stand to watch them compete. Especially the divers. I'd just have to close my eyes or turn away if a close friend or family member was jumping off a three-story tall platform into a pool. It's too much.

The week hasn't been too bad. Monday was the worst, but it was expected. After getting through that day, everything else has been really good. Monday was the fifth anniversary of the day my mom passed away and every year I have a tough time with it. I am loads better with it than I used to be, but it's still hard to get through the day. This one was especially weird because 2012 is exactly the same calendar as 2007. So, this is the first time that the anniversary of her death has landed on the same day of the week as when she died. I didn't realize that we were already back to the same calendar as five years ago. I was just figuring it would be later, but of course not. Leap years make years align differently. It was also weird because this was the first year that I couldn't take the day off of work. I always have done so in the past, because my mood tends to be really dark and gloomy. I was already heading into it on Sunday night with the Olympics frustration post, but I used to get much worse. Still, this year was different in that I have no vacation days yet so I had to work. I was gloomy and tried to stay as upbeat as possible. It wasn't easy, but my co-workers inadvertently helped me through the day. They had planned a potluck lunch for several of us that have just been made full-time employees. It was done to act as sort of a 'Welcome to Work' party. They randomly chose Monday as the day, so it was somewhat of a distraction to pig out with my fellow co-workers when the clock was running through the hardest part of the day for me. My mom died at almost exactly noon. I remember looking directly at the clock before the family walked into the ICU room after we knew she wasn't going to make it out of ICU. And it was like, 11:57 am or so. And I have that clock image stuck in my head and it pops back up every year on July 30th right around lunchtime and it makes it difficult if I'm not doing something that can pull my focus away from that image. But, my friends and co-workers were great and we discussed Olympics and pets and I listened to one of my friends discuss at length the procedure he recently had to get two wisdom teeth out and how he could only eat soft, squishy food at the potluck. It sounds kind of awful, and the description was, but it was something so random and gross that it was a good distraction from where my mind was traveling. I later told a couple of my friends how much I appreciated the  potluck and that they had helped me through a difficult day. Initially, I wasn't going to tell anybody that I was having a rough day, but in the afternoon, once I was feeling slightly better about everything, saying a little 'Thanks' didn't seem like quite enough. I really appreciated their kindness that day. I have pretty awesome co-workers.

And today, I found out I have a pretty awesome workplace. I went to New Employee Orientation and found out about all the perks I get as an MU employee. All sorts of discounts, including an extra 15% off my cell phone bill! I get pretty decent health coverage, including free money from the university to help pay for random expenses above and beyond the general health insurance. Nice! And the vacation, sick leave, and personal days are great, as well. Not to mention the discounts at the Rec Center, which I'm hoping to be able to use soon. The orientation was good. I had heard conflicting opinions about the necessity of going to this half-day session, but I'm glad I went. I don't have enough experience in the working world to yet be jaded enough to assume they won't tell me anything I don't already know. I frankly don't know squat about benefits, retirement, or life insurance policies. Actually, I guess I know slightly more than squat now, thanks to my orientation!

So, "Call Me Maybe" is STILL getting crazy amounts of airplay and dubs and things. The Harvard baseball team didn't know what they were starting when they created that little dance. I still like that one the best, but this is pretty damn awesome. Apparently this dude has tons of time on his hands and he takes Obama's speeches and dubs them over various songs by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. It's super impressive, I think. Here's Obama's version of "Call Me Maybe":





Aaaaaand, Batman's version of "Call Me Maybe":

A note on your announcements.

I've spent the majority of my time at my new job reviewing microfilm of newspapers from all over Missouri. There are a couple that are really addicting and I have to stop myself from reading each and every issue from front to back. Mostly the ones that really aren't ever looked at by the patrons we have because the papers don't contain obituaries, marriage notices, or birth announcements. That's mostly what I'm looking for. Birth, marriage and death. Life all rolled up onto one single page in each issue of a newspaper. It can be kind of morbid, actually. 

Over the last couple of weeks, I've probably looked at thousands of obituaries, baby names, and engagement/wedding pictures. Most have been pretty typical, but some have been astoundingly wrong. Like the obituary of the 30-year-old woman who died in a car accident. Her obituary was placed just above the obituary of a 93-year-old woman, however the photo of the 30-year-old woman was attached to the obituary for the 93-year-old. Then there was the obituary of the 35-year-old guy but there was a typo in the birth-death heading and the paper said he was born in 1077 and died in 2012, making him 1035 years old (he looked pretty good for that age!). Then there are the obituaries that the family (or deceased) had written themselves and it's basically an autobiography of the person's life...moment by moment. Those are the obituaries that take up about four columns each and are mostly in the small town papers. It costs too much to put something like that in a St. Louis or Kansas City paper, but it probably doesn't cost much at all to put such a personal (and detailed) obituary in a Marceline or West Plains paper. And that's just the death part of the paper. I've seen a lot of awkward-looking wedding and engagement pictures. What's wrong with just standing side-by-side and looking halfway happy about your wedding? I've seen photos that look like people are heading to the gallows instead of the chapel, and others that are so posed it makes you uncomfortable having to glance at it, like the one today where the couple were standing facing each other and holding their hands clasped together between them. I think they were trying to show off their rings, but it looked a lot more like they were in the middle of an arm wrestle competition. Just stand or sit and smile, people. It shouldn't be that tough. And, announce your own engagement! Everybody's got their parents, grandparents, or son (yes, really) announcing impending marriages. I tend to let out a little cheer when I see an announcement that says the two actually tying the knot are the ones announcing their engagement. Good for you! Way to be a mature, grown-up couple!

I shouldn't judge, but it happens. You can't really look at as many announcements as I have without comparing and contrasting the differing styles of everybody around Missouri. The birth announcements are easily where I remain judgement free. The baby pictures are usually cute, although sometimes awkward because brand spankin' newborn babies are not really that photogenic...everybody thinks the babies are cute (and they are) but in grainy black and white newspaper print, they don't always look as cute and cuddly as the parents and families like to think. Still, it's a happy column to read the baby announcements and see the names that people choose for their newborns.

I've seen some fun columns written by police chiefs, a paper who published the names of the elementary students who got As on their math tests, and more coverage of the Joplin tornado than I ever needed to see. But, at least the backlog that I inherited is slowly going away. I hope to be completely caught up by the end of this week! Hope hope hope!

Girl Scout Cookies every day!

I'm ready for Fall weather up in here. We finally got some rain yesterday, which was really nice, but it didn't make the temps feel that much cooler yet. I'm ready for the day the weather reporter says the high temperature is 65 degrees. Sigh. Lovely!

I need to get better at bringing my lunch to work so I'm not eating out every day. One of my co-workers and I have made a deal to go out to eat every Monday, because we're closed to the public that day so there's less stress on the research center staff when it comes to being super-careful about when everyone takes their lunch break. I think that will help make the week start out well. It already starts nicely because (since we're closed) Mondays are casual day so we can wear jeans. Adding in the eating-out to that makes it a nice beginning to the week.

Still, I need to come up with ideas for taking lunch that's not always microwaved pasta. Although it is yummy. I look around on pinterest for ideas but they all look really crazy-involved and not that likely for me to actually ever do. I'm not really that much of an organizer or a planner. That's why easy mac and those little microwaved bowls of ravioli are perfect. More thought is probably required.

Today is laundry day. I don't mind laundry that much because I can multi-task with this chore. Plus, if you get extra lazy about it and the dryer keeps buzzing, you just go and push the button for another cycle. Eventually, the clothes will come out of the dryer and be folded, you know? It's one of the few domestic tasks that I can feel like I'm still completing by just sitting on my butt while looking up books on Amazon. 

I was all over many bookstores yesterday just wandering around. So many books that look really good. I was trying to remember them all but I know I'll forget and then probably re-discover them another day. I have to keep myself under control in bookstores. I mainly try to use the library for everything, but it's easier to browse bookstores than libraries, you know? I didn't really ever look at Target for books before, but yesterday I noticed they have a good selection! I also got a cool silver and beaded ring stuck on my finger and thought I was going to have to go sheepishly go find some Target worker to help me get it off...or go to the check-out aisle and have them somehow scan my finger to buy it. It was touch and go there for a few minutes. But, twisting and cussing seemed to work its magic and I got the ring off after a bit of anxiety. I still kind of wanted to buy it. It was a neat ring...   Also neat? They had lipsmackers on clearance! I haven't had a lipsmackers lip balm since middle school. I distinctly remember having the Dr. Pepper flavor. The ones that they had on clearance were actually Girl Scout cookie flavors. They weren't selling super well, I guess, except the Thin Mint ones were all gone. I almost bought the shortbread one, but got myself under control and just bought the face sunscreen that I had intended to buy. Self-control for the win! Still...

Hmm. Mmm?

Please don't tame the shrew.

I kind of want a shirt that has my post title on it. It would probably be one of my favorite shirts. I might make one someday. Hmm.

My house is screamin' for a cleanin'. Now that vacations are done and one job is over and a new one has begun, life looks like it could be slowing back down a little. Maybe enough that I can get a handle on all the piles of stuff around the house. It all stems from my initial foray into painting oh so many months ago. I think I'm far enough removed from some of the painting projects now that I can clean up areas. I might do that a little bit today on this Independence Day. It's too hot to spend much time outside today. The big news of the day is that Watson, my dad's cat, is coming to stay for a while. Beatrix is going to love it. While I was in Omaha, my dad took care of Beatrix at his house and Bea and Watson seemed to come to a bit of a truce, and maybe even the start of a friendship. Since it's only been several days since they've been out of each other's company, I think the transition back into sharing a house shouldn't be too bad. Even though my house is smaller and there are fewer places to hide. I think it will work out.

I'm two days into my new trabajo and it's pretty fun so far. I have a lot more responsibility than I've ever had before. I get to make decisions and stuff! Watch out! Things got done in the past, but people are overwhelmed with their job duties and things are kind of stressful in my new area. I don't like stress, you know. I hate it, actually. Stress and drama are two things I avoid like the plague. At work, I'm now in charge of inter-library loan, which is not something I've ever had anything to do with in the past. It's interesting and I am sorta digging it right now. Still, the procedures for it seem totally wonky to me. Things can be much simpler than they have been and I plan to make things as easy as possible. I don't like being weeks and weeks behind in my work. The person I replaced retired about a month ago and I think she did a great job and wrote out some really awesome instructions, but some of the things that it says to do seem redundant and I won't be doing it that way. I checked with my boss to make sure that I actually am in charge of certain procedures and have the ability to change them and I do! Woooot! But I'm impatient, so I think I need to settle down a little. I am only two days into the job but I've got so many plans worked out in my head as to how I want things done. I think I'm going to need to take a breather because probably my co-workers aren't ready for the Tornado-of-change-named-Jill to come roaring through at the moment. Despite how ready I am. I have other non-ILL duties as well, but for the past two days I've mostly been focusing on that. Since it's a holiday week and a lot of people are on vacation, it seemed easier to just have some time to putter around and get settled in.

I had to go and get a new security badge on Monday and they switched me from officially being a student to officially being a real employee! I was looking at the two badges and the student one was taken almost exactly two years ago when I quit my job at the Archives and went back to school full-time. I actually look younger now than I did then. I think you can tell that you're moving in the right direction if you can look at yourself now and look at yourself a couple of years ago and actually see that you're happier and healthier. I definitely smile and laugh more now than I ever did back then. Looking at the two badges made me realize what a good decision going back to school was for me. I'm definitely in a much better place because of it. It's nice to be able to recognize that you did something that was rough, but good for yourself, you know? Plus, getting a job where I can use the degree that I quit the prior gainful employment to get, helps too. Kind of validates it all...

Isn't it strange that it's already July? This year has gone by really quickly. I don't get to take any more time off for about six months now that I'm a newbie at work again. I think that's okay though. Here I am, already getting a day off for a holiday. Starting employment in July and having that probation period is easier than starting in January, I think. I was thinking of all the holidays I get off during my probationary period since it's the latter half of the year. Counting today, I get 6 days off in the next six months, compared to just 2 holidays in the first six months of the year. Americans are rear-heavy in the holiday department where the calendar is concerned.

I need to go pick some stuff up that Bea has thrown all over the place. A hint that it's time to clean up the paint supplies is when she starts to drag the replacement foam rollers up the stairs as toys. I walked out of my room this morning to see one of the foam rollers I used on the dressers up on the staircase landing by my door. It was on the kitchen sink drying after being cleaned. I think Bea brings me these things as gifts sometimes. She plays a lot, but she always leaves them right by my door or drags them into my room and leaves them so I see them pretty easily. I have to say, though, I much prefer this sort of gift-giving by the cat than what other people's cats bring them. I've never had any cat dump a mouse carcass or anything at my door. I would scream and probably not be able to come out of my room for a while. Foam rollers are more my style. I think Bea recognizes this fact and we're on the same page.

Up in here, up in here.

This morning when everyone was heading to work on campus, there was a bit of excitement when a steer got loose and began running through campus and downtown. It had jumped the fence from a slaughterhouse and was trying to be free, I guess. It did get to run free for about an hour and see campus and some of downtown. Police, Vet School staff, and the owner were all running around trying to catch it, but when it ran over one of the people trying to catch it outside of a parking garage, I think they probably decided they had to kill it before it hurt anybody else. The animal actually got away for a while but it came back and they killed it in a backyard near campus. I decided to go into work early today and so I missed out on the entire thing. It would have been going on when I would have been normally trying to walk through campus to work. I was glad to miss it. As a general rule of life, I prefer to steer (ahaha, see what I did there?) clear of animals that weigh over a ton when they're scared and wandering around in unfamiliar places.

I'm trying my hand at making my own artwork. I found some canvases on sale at Joann's Fabrics and bought some cheapo acrylic paint. It's not worked out quite as I had hoped, but it's going to be okay. I've got only one canvas mostly done right now. It's got the final line from an e. e. cummings poem on it. It just reads "I carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)" and it should add some nice color to whichever room it ends up in. It's not too large. I have one larger canvas and one that's the same size as this first one. I'm debating the next verses or lines to put on the other canvases. A proverb? Another line from a poem? A song lyric? A quote? Not too sure yet. When I get all three finished, I might share them on here. It's not been as easy as I had hoped it would be because I thought that scrapbook stickers of the alphabet would stick to the canvas rather easily. Then I'd just paint it, let it dry, and peel the stickers off and voila! The words would be perfectly visible and beautiful and what not. Oh, silly Jill. It didn't work like that at all. The stickers didn't stick very well and kept moving when I'd paint over them. Then when I would get the paint on them, they wouldn't peel off after the paint dried. So, the first one is actually okay-looking, but not exactly crisp and perfect. It's sort of crooked and stuff. It really wouldn't be a craft by me if it had come out all perfect, though. Everything looks so easy on Pinterest, you know? All those super crafty people making super duper crafts all the time.

I only have a couple of days left of my job. I've been slowly moving things around and cleaning up this and that. I'm only moving across the building, but I hadn't realized how much stuff I had put all over my cubicle in just the 18 months that I've been working at this position. This morning, when cleaning out a drawer, I found 4 mix cds that I brought in the first month that I worked there. I had completely forgotten about them. After listening to a couple of them, I was reminded of some of the songs I was digging 18 months ago. Lots of cheery, upbeat songs that were great for cubicle cleaning and chair dancing this morning. So, thanks to my past self of a year or so ago when I dumped those cds in that drawer and promptly forgot about them until my present day self re-discovered them!

I'm waiting for the fourth game of the NBA Finals to come on tv tonight. I'm not a fan of the tv scheduling that they're doing. I don't like that the weekday games begin at 8. I can't stay up til 10 to see the end of the games. I'm an early-to-bed person now. I usually just make it to halftime and then find out the result the next morning. I'd really like the Thunder to win. It's kind of frustrating to go to bed at halftime with them ahead and then wake up in the morning and hear that they lost it. Boo.

C'mon Durant and fellow Thundery people! I need to keep my mind for a wee bit longer.

Cha-cha real smooth.

I'm still in a creative mood. I've been in it for quite a few weeks now and have continued painting things around the house. My holiday weekend included the sanding down of a pair of dressers that I inherited as a kid. They were originally my grandmother's and were your average wood-stained dressers. I'm still working on one of the dressers, but one is done. I hope to be able to put some of my clothes back in the drawers and close them all the way in a day or so. I love the color a lot. It's a really nice teal color. High gloss in a bold color + new drawer pulls will change your entire room.

And then, in my case, make you feel that now you have to re-do everything else in the room to try to match the coolness factor of your newly revamped pieces. I've decided to go with a sort of Indian meets Bohemian Gypsy vibe. I already had a sari floor pillow. I found a new lampshade for a lamp that actually already has a sort of Middle Eastern kind of feel to it. I tried to paint one of the frames of a mirror I had, but it's turned in to a bit of a disaster and I think I might just look for a new mirror entirely. I'm looking for a rug and a bedspread. Both of which I have a lead on at Urban Outfitters, so it's all looking up.

Speaking of looking up, I saw a squirrel fall out of a tree today at lunch. It fell into a bunch of hostas, which must have broken its fall. It kind of wandered around for a bit but seemed to be a-okay. I'd never seen a squirrel fall out of a tree before. It kind of takes you aback. Tree climbing can be fun. A few weekends ago when I was in St. Louis I went to visit my mom's grave and she's buried under a really fantastic tree. Perfect for climbing. One of the few in the whole cemetery that looks like it's grown itself expressly for people to sit, rest, and climb on. It's great. I'm not a very good tree climber, but I did hop up the trunk and look around a little. There's a place in St. Louis that offers tree climbing classes. For a pretty reasonable price, they'll take you to Shaw's Garden and you'll climb trees with ropes and things for half a day. They teach you how to do it without hurting yourself or the tree and they use the same techniques as the botanists who study the canopies in the Rainforest use. They've got swings and hammocks and things up in the canopy of the trees. It sounds pretty awesome as long as you're not afraid of heights.

Last night was the kick-off of the Summer Special Olympics here in Missouri! It's on Mizzou's campus, but this is the first year I've really been around it. It's so much fun! They have a thing called the Victory Village in the afternoon today and they'll have it tomorrow (hopefully the rain will let up for it) and I went out for a walk in the afternoon and the DJ was playing Macarena and I had to run back inside and get my co-worker to come out and go with me down to the party. The Macarena was over, but we sat down there and it was such a fun atmosphere. I might volunteer for that event next year. It looked like a lot of fun. I danced a little of the Cha-Cha Slide before coming back to work.

Everybody clap your hands.

Plus, in breaking news: I accepted a new job today! Same place, different duties (including some photo collection duties! Yay!). More permanent. We'll see how it goes, yes? I am hopeful that it is wonderful. I really like where I am and the co-workers I have, but this is a better opportunity for me. Plus, they want to change that section of the workplace into a more positive and fun place and feel that moving me over there will help in that goal. I'll be taking some of my bright origami cranes over, for sure. A future blog entry might be about how I'm re-decorating the research room with bright colors and fun prints. As I'll be in a more public area, I'm not sure just how to do this, but insight will be had and fun will ensue. I hope.

Bless your beautiful hide.

Last weekend Beatrix got some new toys that are like nerf balls and each night we spend about 15-20 minutes playing. Or, rather, I do. She enjoys having a playmate for a bit every night. This is my attempt to be more interactive with her because she's alone most of the time and she's a very social cat. I'm feeling kind of guilty about not giving her all the attention she kind of needs right now. I am seriously considering getting another cat so that Bea won't be alone all the time. I think she'd be happier with a feline friend. But I'm not quite at the point where I'm ready to get a second cat right now. So, here I am throwing a nerf ball around the house to entertain Beatrix Potter each night.

I'm actually in the middle of playtime right now. Blog a little, throw the ball around/entertain the cat. It's a delicate balance. I do think my hand-eye coordination is getting a good boost from this. It's been a while since I've played catch.

I got my hair cut this week and my hair is officially out of the pixie stage. Totally gone. It's kind of cool to have long(ish) hair again. It's been about four years or so since my hair has been longer than a pixie cut and I had forgotten a lot of things about longer hair. A) I have a lot of hair. B) It takes a long time to blow dry long(ish) hair. C) My hair is wavy. C is a real surprise because I don't remember any wave to my hair. At all. I even went back to pictures from when my hair was long and it was straight. I remember using a flat iron on it, but that was mainly to just squish the thickness down a bit, not to actually flatten any waviness. So, anyway, that's new. Hello, waves. Speaking of outer appearances: I woke up the other day with a scratch on the back of my left hand and I have no idea where it came from. Don't you hate that? When you notice clear indications that you've somehow injured yourself but you have no recollection of how you might have received that cut or bruise?

Tomorrow is Missouri's National History Day. My office hosts the statewide contest. We're all reporting for duty at random points in the day tomorrow. I was not silly enough to sign up for anything that required me to show up before two in the afternoon. Mornings are not my strong suit and certainly not a Saturday morning. I'm mostly just background noise tomorrow. No judging or anything. I have been a judge in previous years both in Missouri and in Texas. It's okay, but I'm happy as background noise this year. I am always impressed by the students and the awesome work that they do on their projects, though. It's a really great program. None of my history teachers ever participated when I was in school, but I wish they had. I would have enjoyed it.

The radio is currently playing a non-stop 30 minute music block of complete suckage. Not a single good song has been played yet. I tried to get Spotify to work on this computer but it refuses to play any music for some reason. Boo. I think I'm going to give in pretty soon and go see the "Hunger Games" movie. Probably when it gets to a cheaper movie theater than the ones it's currently playing in. I haven't read the books, and I want to, but I think I'd just like to see the movie. I've heard really good things about it. Also, it's been eons since I've been to see a movie in a theater. I think last summer was the last time I was in a movie theater. I watched "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" this week in the evenings. I finished it earlier tonight. After the trivia night last weekend I decided I wanted to see the musical again. I just love it so much. Great dancing, good use of color, catchy tunes, interesting story...what's not to like? The barn dance scene is my favorite, and I think one of the best choreographed dances in any musical, ever. The brothers (ones in the colors) learned to dance, like, 5 minutes prior to this scene. They picked it up real well:

Blathering on and on.

This has been sort of a long week, yes? I began it with a trip north for some fieldwork and I think that threw me off on my day-keeping this week. Fieldwork is progressing pretty nicely, actually. Last week was kind of a drag sometimes because the scanner is very temperamental and was in a really bad mood for the two days when I really needed it to be cheerful. It was much less moody on Monday, so I actually got things done early!

I'm doing pretty well on the 'bring my lunch' plan. The fieldwork has made it easier, I guess. I have to buy my lunch but I get a per diem, so it's money I know I'll get back. Oh, blah. Beatrix just sat on the keyboard and made the computer upset. She smells kind of bad again. I've not tried to bathe her yet, but maybe I might have to. Adventure!

I'm sitting here trying to decide what to make for dinner tonight. Pizza? Pasta? Soup? Hmm. Whatever the meal, the dessert will include chocolate. I know that much for sure.

I've been trying to plan my vacation for this summer. I'm waffling. I really want to go to a beach. Really really. But, I also still want to go see the Olympic trials for swimming. Or I could just do a road trip and end up on a beach for a day or so before turning back. Hmm. So many options, eh? 

I really don't have much to blog about. Life is moving along nicely. No worries. No problems. Just living. I'm watching "Mansfield Park" while I type. This is definitely not my favorite Jane Austen story and it's not a particularly fantastic movie, but it's okay. I'm going to stop blathering on and go make a decision on dinner. 

If ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep

After months and months, the Civil War website at work is up and running!

http://shs.umsystem.edu/civilwar/index.html

It's got a lot of content and we've been working on it pretty hard for over a month now, so I'm glad it's finally public. There are still more collections and newspapers to be added in the future, but it's nice that the large part of the development and design of the site are finished. Huzzah!

I'm glad Friday is here. This hasn't been a bad week by any means, but this afternoon I'm really feeling the antsy feeling of the weekend nagging me. I'm also kind of in an organization mood. It doesn't happen too much, but the other evening I managed to re-organize a lot of my Pinterest boards. I'm still doing some clean-up. I realize you don't care about this, but Pinterest is a big deal. Whereas some folks are hooked on websites like Facebook or Twitter, I'm hooked on Pinterest. Simply amazing. I saw a job vacancy for a librarian-esqe position with Pinterest in Palo Alto, actually. Hmm.

I did some archival fieldwork in Mexico this week (Mexico, Missouri, that is). Mexico is a bigger town than I thought. We got lost. It was fine though. The people I met were really nice to work with, and what I love most about this fieldwork (aside from the people I get to meet) are the cool old homes and historic sites I get to visit. For whatever reason, I've lived in this area all my life, but I've not spent much time just exploring the region. Mexico was a big deal for showing American Saddlebred horses for over a century. One of the world's best breeding of that one type of horse. And for a number of Olympics in a row, there were Mexico citizens who were on the equestrian jumping teams. It's all changed now. The lady I was talking to said that all the breeding organizations have shut down. They're re-furbishing one of the oldest stables in the middle of town, but I can't remember what they're turning it into. The Audrain County Historical Society is where I was doing my scanning and it's housed in a historic house that has a Saddlebred Horse museum attached to it. There's also a one room schoolhouse and a cute small church on the grounds. I went into the schoolhouse. The lady at the Historical Society told me that the teachers used to bring their fourth graders to the schoolhouse one day each year and hold class in there to try to give the kids sort of a "living history" lesson. The budgets apparently have gotten so tiny that the schools don't do that anymore. That's a shame. The schoolhouse was pretty cool. I was remembering my fourth grade class and we were kind of a big group. I'm not sure that 30+ kids would have been able to fit in that one room school, actually. But, it still would have been fun to try. The church was locked up, but I bet it was kind of neat as well. When I was in school in Texas all of my classes were inside a museum. And behind the museum building was our historic village and it included a really cute old church that I liked to go and wander into and sit sometimes. This old church in Mexico reminded me of the one in Waco.

Next week I head just down the road from my home to Osage County for a couple of days to do some fieldwork. More places to visit!

Spotify is having a pretty good day today. If you use Spotify, have you used the Filtr app? I've come to really like it. It's like Pandora in that you type in an artist or song and it creates a playlist around that sound or artist, except you can see and manipulate the playlist that it comes up with pre-listening. So there are fewer awkward moments when you type in The Andrews Sisters and for some reason Pandora gets off track about 4 songs in and starts playing Katy Perry. There are still some head-scratchers on Filtr, like when I put in James Taylor and it threw up Carrie Underwood, but I was forewarned, you see? I knew what they had done and was able to tweak it. I like my robot-made spontaneity with a touch of human-control.