It's just something I (now) know.

1) Teddy bears and other stuffed toys kill more people each year than real bears.
2) William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream had the first recorded use of the word "swagger".
3) Cows have best friends.
4) Hippo milk is pink.
5) Swearing when you hurt yourself actually helps with the pain. It releases Enkephalin, which raises your pain threshold.
6) Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, and Busta Rhymes all attended the same high school at the same time.
7) During the Dancing Plague of 1518, about 400 people in Strasbourg danced so hard that they died from it.
8) John Lennon suggested replacing George Harrison with Eric Clapton after Harrison temporarily quit The Beatles. He was vetoed by Paul and Ringo.
9) Ryan Gosling was suspended in first grade after throwing steak knives at other children during recess after seeing the movie "Rambo".
10) There is a group of people in the Himalayas who practice polyandry, which is when a woman has multiple husbands.
11) Elvis Presley dyed his hair; he was naturally blond. Marilyn Monroe bleached her hair; she was naturally brunette.
12) At one point, you were the youngest person in the world.
13) Every atom that is inside your body and every atom that is around you was once part of a star.
14) Vin Diesel is a big gamer nerd. He's played Dungeons & Dragons for the last twenty years and has his character's name tattooed on his body.
15) 1 out of every 100 Germans are genetically immune to HIV.
16) There is a Playboy Magazine for blind people.
17) The average woman smiles about 62 times per day, while the average man smiles only 8 times per day.
18) Leonardo DiCaprio's first on-screen kiss was with a man.
19) The two DJs in the group LMFAO are actually uncle and nephew.
20) Drivers kill more deer than hunters do.
21) LL Cool J's name means "Ladies Love Cool James".
22) Turtles can breathe through their butts.
23) The United States has the most violent weather in the world.
24) The human brain cannot create faces, so any face you see while dreaming, even if it is the face of someone you don't know, you have seen somewhere for a split second.
25) May is the month in which the heaviest babies are born (that's me!).
26) Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress.
27) Saddam Hussein wrote romance novels.
28) Elephants can mourn themselves to death from a broken heart.
29) The last letter to be added to the English alphabet was the letter 'J'.
30) 97% of all paper money in the United States contains traces of cocaine.
31) J.K. Rowling was the first person to become a billionaire by writing books.

And my personal favorite:
32) If you are chased by a crocodile, run zig zag. Crocodiles aren't good at making sharp turns.

We've come a long long way together.

Happy December 19th. It's National Oatmeal Muffin Day.

This weekend was busy + fun. It was bun. I graduated (on National Underdog Day) and it was good times. The commencement speech was over before I even realized I was listening to the commencement speech. And then I didn't fall down or anything! I competently put the hood thingy on the gown. My cap only fell off a couple of times and I didn't fall asleep during the eons of doctoral candidates getting hooded and handshaked and hugged and whatnot. I was amused throughout the ceremony by a handful of supporters of a new doctor named Saif Somethinorother, whose friends took it upon themselves to bring posterboard and write out different words and spell them out in the audience. They had a little rubber horn that they honked when they had the words spelled out so that Saif would see them. They first spelled "Saif". Then they spelled "Egypt" (where I assume Saif is from). They were doing well up to that point. Then they tried to do "We (heart) Saif" except the fella who was put in charge of the (heart) and the S got them turned around so when they honked and everyone looked it said "Wes (heart) Aif" until the guy sheepishly switched it. It kept me awake through the ceremony watching to see what they would come up with next. Thanks, Saif, for graduating in December and having such awesomely amusing and supportive family and friends.

Look at that happy girl with her empty diploma case. Aw.

So, there were also some parties, at which I played some games. It was fun. "Scattergories" was played. I like Scattergories. It always creates some laughs. One of the best ones from the weekend was when one person read the category wrong and instead of listing 'things that grow' that began with an M, she read it as 'things that glow', and she went through then entire round of people saying things like 'Monkeys' and 'Marigolds" and never blinked an eye. Someone became skeptical when she shouted out 'Moon rocks' and then when she realized what she'd done the game kind of fell apart for a while with laughing and mocking, because wouldn't you question someone else's answer when they shout out 'Monkey' and you are under the assumption that the category was glowing things? I arrived late due to dealing with another part of the weekend: Beatrix had to have a little surgery and she's not a patient that handles healing very well. At least not when she's left alone. She's getting better, I think. She's just not any good at resting and not jumping around when she's wounded. I also saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie. I liked the first one and I think the second one is better. But what I really like about it is that it's artistically done with the special effects and things. I love the way they tell the story with the fast motion and then the slow motion mixed. The first one was like that too, and I just really enjoy going to the movies more when the film is actually awesomely shot like that rather than just watching a long tv-show type movie that's got nothing all that interesting about the way its filmed. Nice job, Guy Ritchie. 

Then, I attempted baking. Today was my first day of being a full-time worker bee rather than a student worker at my job. And it was also the holiday party. And snack day. And I wanted to bring lots of stuff. So I made a cake, sugar cookies, and attempted peppermint bark. I am more Julia Child than Martha Stewart. I am more of the gang who believes that if you drop something and you're alone in the kitchen, you can just pick it up and continue on as if nothing happened. It's sort of a 'if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it' kind of philosophy on cooking, I know. But it seems to work okay. Except the cake overflowed the pan it was in and dumped out all over my oven. I accidentally put too much peppermint flavoring into the peppermint bark and it turned out more like peppermint leather. After adding more chocolate though, it finally became more like bark. The sugar cookies turned out great, but the chocolate chip ones I also made are really sticky and have kind of molded into one giant cookie that holds the form of the glass bowl I was trying to keep them in...

But looks are somewhat deceiving! The cake tastes really really good. Half it was eaten today. I put a sign on it that said what it was (Chocolate Pear Spice Cake) and also that it 'tastes better than it looks'. I also kind of guilted a couple of people into trying it. (They all liked it.) The sugar cookies were a huge hit. They taste really good. Even a guy who's mother is a baker told me the cookies were really good. How 'bout THEM apples?! And the peppermint bark...well. One person tried it and said it was 'fresh'. Hardly anybody ate it. I don't blame them. It's a little strong. I won't eat it if I bring it back home.

Oh, holiday baking, you and I are not always compatible. But in a blindfolded taste test, that overflowed cake could be a real contender for winning. Really. It's pretty good. Here's a closeup of the cake, but not the overflowing part.

Nom nom nom.

Also, I was watching "Love and Other Drugs" earlier (not a bad movie, especially being able to watch Jake Gyllenhaal be all adorable and stuff for a couple of hours. It's a pleasant way to spend some time.) and Fatboy Slim's song "Praise You" came on during a scene and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. "We've come a long long way together...through the hard times and the good...I have to celebrate you baby. I have to praise you like I shou-ou-ou-ould-d-d-d-d-d-d-d."

2011 Christmas Card.

[Have a good one, everybody.]

Dr. Seuss (Happy Graduation!)

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!

Where I'd rather be right now.

[I wish I was here.]

[And inside, there would be an awesome grown-up fort to hang out in.]

[And I would be eating these. Mmm.]

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, too.

I'm officially in the Christmas spirit. I came across this version of the classic song and I like it. It's super depressing, but the song itself was never actually all that happy. Judy Garland is bawling while she sings it originally. Also, Andrew Belle doesn't really do peppy numbers.

So, as I said, I am in the Christmas spirit. I saw "Polar Express" over the weekend and it really pulled me into the season. I love that movie so much. I also saw the movie "Nothing Like the Holidays" for the first time. It was good. I liked it. I might watch it again before it has to be returned. Also, I managed to get nearly all of my Christmas shopping done. I went to a party over the weekend, but it wasn't a holiday party. It was a so long-farewell-auf wiedersehen-goodbye kind of party, but lots of fun. I saw people I haven't seen recently, or in years in some cases. This semester I rarely saw anyone if I didn't work with them or have class with them, but seeing many many faces from my past was fun. Mostly. But when you find yourself in those situations, sometimes you are quickly reminded of why you never kept in touch with some people. Like, for instance, the creep who, when he speaks to you, never looks at your face, but stares intently at your chest. I had forgotten that this person does that. I was never a fan of his to begin with, but that little fact about his character had somehow gotten lost in the shuffle of time and I was uncomfortably reminded of this at the party when I got stuck standing next to him. I'm not what anyone would call "busty", and this rarely happens to me. I don't know how other women handle this, but I was mostly doing my best to turn away while shuffling toward the food area under the guise of needing snacks. But, it's uncomfortable to have someone "talk" to you like that and it's especially difficult to stand there and try to be polite and converse with someone who won't look you in the face and never removes their stare from your...person. I mean, I wished I could throw my voice and make it somehow sound like my boobs were talking, but I can't. I don't know how to do that. And, while it's funny to make fun of the situation and laugh about it afterward, if you are someone who does this: you are widely regarded as a creep and women do not want to stand near you or talk to you. Ever. Just so you know.

Switching gears: do people still chat online? Or is it mostly texting now? I haven't had any sort of online chat type software thing for a long time because I don't have continuously-online internet, but I wonder if people still do that, even? I can't imagine having a long conversation via texting, but maybe that's what people do nowadays? Or do they still internet chat? Or maybe they Skype/video chat now? I was just wondering what kids nowadays do. Oh, kids. I guess I'm old enough to consider highschoolers "kids", now. But, I remember chatting online. Much of high school and college was spent hanging out online chatting with people, but I don't think people do that anymore... Maybe the advent of social networking kind of killed online chatting. I remember when I used Yahoo Messenger in high school and a perk of using it was that even if your friend was offline, you could send them a message and they'd get it when they logged on. So you didn't have to sit and lurk waiting for them to hop on the chat thing. I don't remember AIM ever having that feature... but now, I guess that's kind of obsolete. Do highschoolers now even know what "AIM" is? Maybe so. Maybe  they are still in that loop and I just outgrew it. Hmm. I wonder.

I was talking to my dad over the weekend about the website, Pinterest. I think someone who was into psychology or sociology would have a ball analyzing that site. I bet you could write a thesis on self-image just by focusing on the fitness, health and beauty sections of that site. You can look at that and the frequency with which certain topics are pinned or re-pinned and probably make assumptions about society as a whole. Or at least, certain sectors of society. It's kind of depressing. Some of the captions that people put on certain images can make me really disappointed.

Switching gears, again: One month from now I'll be on the plane to Peru! Woot woot.

Also, this is my last week at the museum. This is both exciting and a little sad, too. I'm pretty certain that they need a library person after I leave. I feel very impassioned about this and today I was talking to the IT guy about it and we were conversatin' about my project and what a new library student could do and there is SO much that they can offer a library student in the way of learning opportunities and library kids are great at doing detail-oriented tasks and helping to create access to information and I was getting all excited about it. Finally, Kenyon told me that we would need to just remember this and say it all again at the exit meeting and make sure to hit certain points that we were both getting excited about. Sometimes, me and the museum people weren't always on the same page, but when we are on the same page, it's really fantastic. And today, I felt like we were finally speaking the same language and hopefully that will continue for the rest of my last week there.

Markus Zusak