The best brownies ever.

Once you go Ghirardelli, you'll never go back to whatever boxed brownie mix you tend to buy. You'll also probably find yourself critiquing brownies from actual local bakers in actual bakeries. This is okay because you have, in fact, seen the light and they apparently have not. So, see the light and share it, please! This is why I'm sharing this morsel of m(mmm!)umbling with you. I pinky swear to you that these are the best brownies in the world, and I don't joke around with pinky swears.

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.]

Attack of the Polyvore

Meet my newest obsession: Polyvore. It's a site where you can choose from thousands of pieces of fashion, music, artwork, decor, movies and just put together collages of things you like. I became aware of this through the ultra-fantastic site, Pinterest. Anyway, I've now spent oodles of time creating my own looks from the selections over at Polyvore. If I had all the money in the world and access to all of these stores and they had these pieces in my size, I would wander around my life dressed in these things:

GO CARDINALS

We're leading 1-0 in the second inning! Let's call the game right here. It could all go to hell very shortly, so I need to get this picture of the rally squirrel up while we're actually ahead.

Let the imagination roam free.

Oh, happy Friday!

Today is Cardinals make it or break it day. Game 5 of the NLDS between them and the Philadelphia Phillies. I am so proud of the Cardinals. I was definitely among those who thought our season was done in August. I was prepared to just throw in the towel and prepare for next season and the return of Wainwright, etc. And here we are, still playing in October. I'm so amazed at the way they've turned their season around and I would LOVE to see them continue this amazing run they're on. Even if they lose tonight, I still think this has been amazing, and even if Albert Pujols doesn't return to us next season, this is a great way to go out. Really proud to call them my team and glad to see how relaxed and fun-loving they are right now. The entire last two months have been so odd as far as typical baseball go, that it's been a happy surprise for everyone and the team seems especially happy with themselves. As they should be. Go Redbirds!

I am currently scanning a Civil War diary. There is a lot of downtime when you do scanning work. I've finished reading a book for Children's Lit. I've finished work on a practicum assignment. I've checked my e-mail oodles of times. I should have brought another book with me. Nobody is working today, either. We're not off work on Monday like the state workers are, so it's not a three day weekend for us, but somehow multiple people took today off. It's super quiet except for me and my scanner. Kind of drives me nuts. I would blast some music, but there is a little meeting going on in a room nearby with some donors. Maybe later I can blast some music. Hmm. Or just go home after this scanning work is done. It's awfully beautiful weather we're having lately and I might as well enjoy it while I can.

I've got Watson this weekend. Watching him while Dad goes to St. Louis for a photography class. Watson is on pills now, but he seems to enjoy taking them. At least he does when Dad gives them to him. I'm hoping he keeps his same optimistic outlook when I have to give them to him.

The jobs outlook in the library world has a little blip in it right now. Over 300 jobs are available on just one posting site. This is unexpected. I hope this is becomes a trend rather than a little blip, but for now I'll have to continue calling it a blip. A few are just contract positions, but I'm not turning my nose up at those. I'm pretty much looking at everything on an even playing field. I'll go pretty much anywhere for the right job. And I'll go plenty of cool places for a not-quite-right job. Like England. Or Quebec. Or even coastal New Hampshire or North Carolina. There was a term job listed about a month ago that was very intriguing. It was a term position for an archivist to assist an author in The Hamptons with arranging and processing their personal papers for a memoir. The author was anonymous, but if they're living in The Hamptons and someone wants them to write a memoir, I figured they've made something of themselves and it could be an interesting job. I'd be into doing something like that. Something different, even if it was just a short-term gig. I don't have anything holding me back right now in the form of family commitments, so there are plenty of paths for me to go if I was offered something awesome like that opportunity. I have the house and a needy cat, but I could probably figure something out with those two if I found something like that short-term archivist job. Oh, the imagination runs wild.

"Someone Like You" cover

Wow! I love Adele and think she's amazing, etc. "21" is definitely one of the best albums to come out this year, but major bravos to this duo who covered Adele's "Someone Like You". I still like Adele's version, but it's nice to hear it as a duet.




Damn.

Letters, letters, letters.

I am a big fan of letters. If you know me or read this blog very often, you might already know that... I still write letters sometimes. I mail letters to people. I work with letters. I have read books full of letters of famous people and made-up people and nursery rhyme animals. I've loved letters since I was little. Not e-mails, mind you, but letters. Handwritten, preferably. E-mails are okay, but can have a lot less of a personal feeling to them sometimes. Handwritten letters have more than words in them. They have scribbles in the margins where the writer thought maybe the pen was running out of ink, they have crossed out words in the middle, they have cursive handwriting that gets more difficult to read the more emotional the writer gets, they have drawings in them, they have misspellings that the author didn't know were misspelled because there is no spell check except the author's own brain, they can be written on unique stationary or on the back of a receipt from a restaurant. They're amazing and fun and sometimes, kept for years and years. I love the human element of these letters.

When I am angry at something or frustrated with a situation, I often write letters to try to deal with the situation. I rarely give the letters to the person. I keep them for a few days and then usually get rid of them. I used to give them to people. My father can probably attest to the letters he and my mom used to get when I was upset or had my feelings hurt. I would scrawl a letter in my little grade-school handwriting and leave it in their room for them to find later. Usually kind of saying things like, 'You really hurt my feelings!', etc. I also used them to try to explain my actions. The best one I remember was a letter I wrote when I was about 13 and I would get home from school and hang out for a couple of hours before my parents would get home from work. I discovered that I could blast the stereo in the living room and pretend like I was a gymnast and race down the hall and into my parents' room and use their bed as a vault and do flips and it was pretty fun. I got major air a few times. Eventually, after days of doing this, the vault broke. That was an apology letter...kind of. It was sort of an 'Ooops' with a 'Huh..your bed just broke by itself' kind of fib letter that totally didn't work out. At any rate, I still write letters and probably always will. I like it better than journal writing. 1) letters are easier to throw out when you're over the problem and 2) blank journals are kind of intimidating in that it feels like you have to write in them pretty regularly. But no matter how you do it, writing out the problems and hurt feelings and confusion or explanations of actions in a letter meant for a certain person seems to make it easier to get over something. And you never have to give it to them if you don't want to. If you do decide to confront the person, you have already worked out some of your points that you want to make. It's win/win. I don't like confrontation, but I dislike feeling angry even more than that. Sometimes the anger is more at yourself than at the person. Writing a letter can help clear up the confusion. And, sometimes, make it glaringly obvious that what you're mad about is incredibly petty and maybe you end up laughing at the absurdity of it all when you re-read what you just wrote. It has always helped to put things into perspective for me. Maybe for you, as well? Long live the handwritten note.

If you like writing letters too, or have a penchant for reading them, make sure you check out website "Letters of Note". It has some very cool letters and stories to go with them some days.

World is whirling by.

Galajsdfaldakmngoiweaflkfas.

That's the best way I can come up with to try to explain how I feel and how I've felt this entire year. Things are going by so quickly and I feel so busy. All. the. time. It's not bad, it's just confusing some times and exhausting almost all the time. I like having things to do. I like being busy. But this morning, I was just lying in bed trying to wake up and suddenly felt like I could really use a break from the galkasdafklajke of this year.

School is good. People are healthy. Work is fine and promising to stay that way for a while. It's just been a whirlwind. As a clear indication of how overwhelmingly busy I've felt, I still have my Christmas tree up in my dining room...yes, from last Christmas. I looked at it last night, lounging against the dining room table, where it's been lounging for over half a year now, and I thought, "Well, I could just decorate it again and at least be actually ahead of schedule for something this year?"

I didn't decorate it....yet.

Also, turns out I have class this Saturday. I thought it was next Saturday, but it makes no difference. I am not surprised in the least when I nearly miss a deadline or am corrected on the date/time of something I'm supposed to be a part of. I'm just running in circles. I knew it would be crazy. This month especially. I've known all year that October will be crazy. I feel prepared for the craziness of this month, but not really for the overwhelmingly busy feeling of all the rest of the months leading up to this one.

So, lying in bed this morning I made myself a promise that I hope I can stick to. I have comprehensive exam week in a couple of weeks (the main reason this month will be crazy) and I decided that, although the exams themselves seem to me to be not that tough (deceptively so?), I will take a break that week. I can cry off from class that week. I've decided that I will stick with practicum because I don't want to fall behind on that, but I think I'll cry off of much of my working schedule that week as well. I will need the time to actually do the exams, but also, I just want a little break. I want to not drive an hour and a half every day, I want to make myself lunch at home, I want to just hang out by myself and chill a little. Maybe after this month is over, things will slow down just a little bit. Or I'll get a handle on things again. It's been a while since I felt actually in control of anything that I'm doing. I would welcome that feeling again, just for a couple of days.