back to the grind.. literally.

I'm BACK! Vacation was glorious, but now it is back to the library. I'd been gone for almost a whole week, which is the most time I've had off since I started this job back in August. However, I came back to some intense library renovations happening all around me.

One of the library's that I currently work at is closing at the end of the semester. We've all knew the day was coming and have been preparing all sorts of reports and data over the course of the last semester. When I got back though... there were no books! They'd all been transferred out to their future homes. It is the craziest thing seeing all of these shelves without any thing on them.

So there is that, but there is also some intense brick work being done on the exterior of the main building. The structure was built in the 1920s and is definitely showing some signs of wear and tear. Apparently they are removing the grouting and then re-grouting and fixing some of the damage. This requires a large amount of drilling. Today is the day that they are doing it right outside my library. JOY. I've been enduring 3 hours of lovely drilling. Only 3 more to go...

where's the advil?

spring BREAK

This year I am headed down to Naples, FL to partake in some fun times with my amigos. The trip will be my first real spring break adventure. I feel like all of my breaks up until now are usually spent playing catch up. I think this will be a lovely diversion from the job hunt (even though I have already checked, and there IS a computer and internet for me to get some stuff done if need be). I am looking forward to some fun in the sun.. and taking a break from blogging.

see ya'll in a 6 days!

a genius idea.

I smell a new entrepreneurial opportunity. It might be too niche of a market though. 

long weekend

I am still recovering from all of the festivities of my birthday weekend. It was fabulous and filled with family, friends, sausage-making, corned-beef-eating, working out, and planning for Florida. Did I mention that I am going to Florida for part of spring-break next week? Well, I AM! This is my first time having a traditional spring break experience.. I'm going to Naples, which is definitely no Panama City or Daytona.. so I think I won't be too overwhelmed. We shall see!

24 is the new 22.

Today is my birthday... It doesn't get more exciting than turning 24. Actually as I have been reflecting back on these past couple of years I've been feeling like they've been smushed together in one huge blur. I think it has something to do with grad school.

It seems like going to grad school has added on these two extra years of not-quite-college, but still pretty much college life (if that makes sense). It seems like I've gotten a stay of execution, a reprieve from the real world if you will. I've put off getting a job in search of higher education. I am starting to understand more clearly why all of the people in my field are coming back to school or are working on their second, third, or fourth master's degree. It's rough out there. Especially if you're a baby like me.

The topic of my birthday has come up in conversations with my colleagues these past few weeks and I keep getting hit with the same response. "you're so young!" I know, I was born in the late 80s. I think what they are getting at (or what I am interpreting this as) is a remark on my laser like path towards a professional career. In a quarter of a century I will *hopefully* have managed to sorted out what I want to do with the rest of my life. This is quite an accomplishment, one that many of them have not achieved. I don't really know if they pity me or are impressed (for my own sanity, I will probably believe the latter).

Anyway, it's another birthday, another year.

I've created a kitty monster

I posted earlier this week about my kitty sitting duties and there has been a new development. It shouldn't be a secret that I love tv. My best friend is probably my dvr (is it wrong to love an inanimate object?). I watch an inordinate amount of television a week. I never really thought that watching all this television could have any side effects, but alas I've been proven wrong. My habits have obviously rubbed off on my ward. She is enamored with the television and can't stop watching!

Do they have interventions for kitties?

I might have been talked in to reading... romance

My literacy class this semester has spawned a lot of food for thought. It has broadened my horizons about all types of reading and reading practices. This week we talked about Janice Radway's "Reading the Romance." Radway did an entire ethnographic study of the readers of romance. The article was interesting, but it wasn't until we discussed it in class that it really became contextualized for me. My classmates offered up their reasoning for reading romance and what they get out of the books. It seems like Radway's findings and their feelings lined up on the literature being a form of escape. Apparently the texts are easy to read and provide them with a break from their day to day.

I admittedly have never read a romance novel. I don't know what this says about me, but it really doesn't appeal to me. It seems too formulaic and contrived. This being said, I've decided to give it a shot. I think what is really driving this is the possibility that in the future I will have to deal with readers that are interested in this genre. I want to be able to connect or at least help them find a new romance novel. So I am going to bite the bullet and get it done. I will report back...