I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems blow.

Last day of my internship.

No more half and half days.

Went in with a pen and marker in my pocket - some patients aren't allowed to use pens but they can use markers - notebooks under my arm, and chocolates for Mr. BossMan Tom.

The good ones. If you haven't had Baker's chocolates made in Nebraska you are missing out on life.

He got me a gift too. A copy of Leaves of Gold with a Catching Fire bookmark.

Now I have fancy quotes to use in my blog like...

Poor indeed is the man whose mind is not enriched by some phrase of lasting truth and beauty which serves to restore his soul in the exigencies of life. 

Take that!

No, I love it, it's got fancy binding and everything.

Yes, that's my librarian jargon. Fancy binding.

One of my favorite library memories is actually about binding - my coworker was looking at the cover of this giant Lana Turner book. So me - trying to make conversation - was like, "hey, is that Lana Turner?" and she was like - "oh, I didn't even notice I was just admiring the binding." Giant - like giant - picture of her face on the cover and like 3 minutes of staring at the book.

We're nerds, have I mentioned that already?

Anyway, after practicum I came home and wrote up my monthly report, submitted it, updated the spreadsheet and then sent everything to Mr. BossMan Tom. So I'm officially done with practicum.

Final Count-Up 90:20/90.

I'm sad it's done. And just when we were making progress with our internet policies. Will have to stop by and check in every once in a while. Gonna miss it.

Back to 9-6 every day.

Which used to be exciting.

Gonna have to reinvent my 9-6.

Actually started that today as I shifted and weeded the entire Young Adult collection.

Took me 3 hours to shift everything - I started weeding it last week but finished this morning - but now there's more space cause I talked Superwoman into giving me another unit, and I also added a nonfiction section cause before it was just thrown in with the fiction and if you weren't looking specifically for it you wouldn't even know it was there.

We'll see how long it lasts.

So that was my day. Good but sad. Glad we're closed Thursday and Friday. Gives me some time to finish up my final homework assignment EVER and set up the Christmas trees.

Or at least get started, we'll see.

Song of the Day:

Radioactive - Pentatonix feat. Lindsey Stirling


awesome cover. i posted an xmas video of these guys last year, they're crazy good.

the song's been stuck in my head all day. am i the only one that thought the words were "ready to rock you"? i mean, i figured it out after they sang it twice on the voice but on the radio that's what it sounds like.



welcome to the new age, to the new age.

I love you, always forever, near or far, closer together.

Is anyone else watching David Blaine?

This is crazy.

And disgusting.


Alright, have you guys read about this already?

'Fifty Shades of Grey' book found to contain traces of herpes, cocaine

As librarians we deal with a lot of gross stuff.

People come in on their sick days to stock up on stuff to watch and read.

There's jam-handed kids running all around, smearing their germy germs all over the place.

We even have an oven bought specifically to kill creepy crawly critters.

All of these things make me use hand sanitizer every other customer, but THIS makes me want to wear gloves.

Basically this professor in Belgium tested 10 books and found bacteria on copies of 50 Shades of Grey and also another novel called Tango by Pieter Aspe.

First question? Why?

Second question? What the hell is Tango about?

My favorite part "and not by reading."

Gross.


Today was good. Another half and half day. 4 hours of work, and then 3 hours of practicum. Practicum Count-Up 83:30/90 - only 2 more days left, can't believe it's almost over. It'll be weird going back to 9-6 every day. Gonna have to go back and visit sometime.

After that was dinner with the Cool Aunt and the Library Goddess. Jalapeno margaritas and leftovers galore! Huzzah!

Was good to catch up. But they were giving me crap cause apparently my graduation party is imaginary until actual invitations are sent out.

Thursday.

They'll be sent out Thursday.

They also told me I'm too young to get married. At 25. Even though the Cool Aunt got married at 24.

Different times apparently.

It's okay, with inflation I've still got 'til 30 before I need to worry. Long story. Go here.

Alright, should probably crash. Back to work tomorrow then date night with the boyfriend.


Song You Know But Forgot You Knew It

I Love You Always Forever - Donna Lewis


yay 90's pop.

Legit pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

Well let's play a game called Spot the Prius.

Oo, it's 11/12/13, do you know what that means?

Nothing.

I love these half and half days cause they don't drag on.

Work branch then break for lunch and head off to practicum.

Practicum Count-Up 77/90, score!

Don't know what I'll do when practicum gets over, it'll be 9-6 every day.

Not that my 9-6 is boring, but it's been nice to break it up every other day.

Today was interesting at practicum, went to a meeting with a bunch of big shots to talk about computer policy.

These are the first internet computers on campus for patients and because of our location the rules are a little bit more complicated than at a regular library.

We have to worry about outside contacts and all that so rule number one on our internet computers?

No social networking.

Gonna be interesting.

Came home to work on some homework and watch The Voice.

Okay, I love that show, I do, it's in my top 5 with WMC, Charmed, Friends, and Warehouse, but tonight's instant save thing was ridiculous.

First off, I'm pretty sure it was rigged cause even though I voted for Kat and I'm glad she won I saw nothing by Jonny's so I think they need a recount.

Second, you're leaving out half your viewers because you're only including votes from half the nation due to time zones.

So,

Dear NBC, 

I love you and The Voice, 

But please do that never ever again. 

Thank you. 

Signed, a fan. 

Speaking of shows I love, or used to anyway, ran across this clip today.



Well at least they gave him a better goodbye than Gideon.

I miss that show.

That clip is the first I learned of him leaving, or of there being a new chick. Is she from one of the CSI's?

I refused to watch anymore after they fired JJ and Emily to fund a spinoff. Then hired them back in an attempt to save the fandom.

Didn't work as Paget quit immediately following that year. Not that I blame her, they treated her like crap, and even though JJ is back now full time the show's not the same without Emily so I've stopped watching for good.

Which is a shame cause it used to be really really good.

Here are a few of my favorites:







See, not the same without her.

I remember when I first got hooked, I watched an episode back in college with Sketch and then went out and got seasons 1-3 at Best Buy.

Mom got me season 4 for Xmas or birthday or something, I don't remember, but I do remember locking myself in my room and watching all of season 4 on Kate.

That was my old laptop.

This one is Ziva.

But now Ziva is getting old and full up so soon I'll have to get a different one. Or just use the iPad that I know about but I'm not supposed to remember I'm getting for graduation.

Woops.

I'll have to think of a name for that as well.

Guess it would be fitting to name it after whoever's replacing Ziva on NCIS - another show I've stopped watching - why do all these shows have to kill off my favorite characters?! - who is replacing Ziva? Have they done that already?

Now I'm watching another one of my old favorites.

Craig Ferguson.

Used to watch his show every night for like 3 years, but then I got busy and distracted.

Watch this, it's hilarious.



on your right you'll see barbed wire...

I want Morgan Freeman to voice my GPS.

He's so calm, cool, and collected. Even when you get lost and/or are in hiding from the cops.

I don't know where I was going before all these TV rants. Work was fine. Practicum was good. Homework sucks. And I'm going in to work early tomorrow morning so I should crash before I go off on a different tangent.

On to the music:

A Hard Day's Night - Team Adam


i was worried cause the last time he did this with his team like last year or the year before it was awful. i think pip was in it, must have been 2 years ago.

We're an American Band - the men of The Voice


this was one of the coolest performances on the show so far. excellent.

My top 20 is fastly folding. Here's where I'm at now:

Red - Adam
Pink - Xtina
Green - Blake
Grey - CeeLo

Tessanne Chin

Matthew Schuler

Holly Henry - Eliminated in knockouts

Kat Robichaud

Grey - Eliminated in live rounds

Brandon Chase - Eliminated in knockouts

Michael Lynch - Eliminated in battles

Timyra Joi - Eliminated in battles

Briana Cuoco - Lost battle, stolen by Blake Eliminated in battles

Jacquie Lee

Tamara Chauniece - Eliminate in live rounds

Ashley Dubose - Defeated Justin battles Eliminated in battles

Monika Leigh - Lost battle, stolen by CeeLo Eliminated in battles

Shelbie Z - Eliminated in live rounds

James Wolpert 

Josh Logan - Eliminated in live rounds

Caroline Pennel

Johnny Gray - Eliminated in live rounds

Olivia Henken - Eliminated in live rounds

Ray Bourdeaux

Still have 3 of my top 5, 4 of my top 10, 5 of my top 15, and 7 of my top 20. Which is okay since we're down to the 10 artists total.

I'm super shocked that all of Blake's team made it through, I really thought Austin and Ray were screwed. Sad to lose Jonny and Josh.

and i'm out.

You know it's a fun-filled Halloween when you cheer cause a second cop pulled you over.

I'll get there.

So here was my Halloween.

Home branch in the morning. Wore my Nerd Herd t-shirt which the alarm guy recognized and called out.

Go Team Bartowski!

On the desk when who should make a surprise visit but the Space Cadet! After being gone a month - or more - due to injury she hobbled her way in to pick up some holds.

I got a hug, I felt special.

Apparently, due to her injury, we are no longer allowed to use the back door as that whole area is just prone for disaster.

After two hours at the home branch I went over to the work branch for another two, one of which was spent weeding our youth collection, the other was on the front desk with the Queen of the Known Universe. I had like 6 stats total. Rockstar huh? Not so much but not my fault.

Hamburger for lunch from the usual place across the street.

Off to practicum - Practicum CountUp 67:20/90 - where Mr. BossMan Tom had homemade eyeballs for treats.



Frozen grapes rolled in cherry jello powder. The strategy is to freeze the grapes so it creates condensation then roll the grapes in a pack of jello powder - you can pick the flavor - then put them in the fridge. They were awesome. He sent me home with a cup full since he had half a tupperware thing leftover.

Oh the pains of being an intern, leftover food, my life is so rough.

Practicum was good, a lot of more interest in the libraries now that we have the internet computers up and running.

After practicum I headed out to see the boyfriend which is when I checked my email and did a slightly embarrassing jump for joy. Actually it was more of a jump out of shock cause I PASSED MY COMPS!

Of course they don't give you any feedback it's just pass or fail. Which is both bad and good. Bad because I put hours and hours of work into those and I'd like to hear something, but good because if they were crap I don't want to hear, "well, they sucked but we felt bad for you so..."

One of my comrades also passed, I'm still waiting to hear back from the other. If all three of us succeed there will be drinks in our future.

Though that's probably true if the other one fails too.

All I have left is the rest of my 90 hours for Practicum and a few more assignments for Youth Services and then I'll graduate and get my Master's in Library Science at the graduation ceremony in December.

Called my mom, then the Cool Aunt since it's her fault I'm in the program in the first place, then sent out a text to the rest of the family and the Library Goddess. The consensus is good.

Second Sister called me a big stud, I wasn't sure how to respond to that.

After all that calmed down the boyfriend and I got Runza for supper - if you're not from Nebraska Google it - then watched The Skeleton Key.



That was messed up. He was shocked I'd never heard of it. I'm a fan of hers but not diehard so must have slipped by. Scale of Awesome says 5/10. I told him if it gave me nightmares it was his fault. Of course he's at work now so he's preoccupied anyway.

So I left his place and I'm almost to the interstate when suddenly this car speeds up and pulls behind me and then I see the lights turn on. I was totally confused, I had my seatbelt on, I wasn't speeding, I'm not drunk. I pulled over - on the on ramp btw not cool - and he comes up and is like, "your headlight is out."

What?

In my head I'm like "it is not, my mechanic boyfriend has been driving this car around all night he would have noticed something like that."

Apparently not so much.

I'll take it as a compliment actually he must have just been too focused on the awesomeness that was me and missed out on the whole missing line of sight deal part thing.

Or maybe it went out after he stopped driving it.

Either way he gave me a fix-it ticket and said keep it with me in case I get pulled over again.

Me, being the sarcastic person that I am, was like okay, how many cops can I get to pull me over and give me the same ticket?

Now, there are rules to this pursuit.

First rule, don't speed. You don't want to get an additional ticket.

Second rule, remember to use your turn signal. You don't want to get an additional ticket.

Third rule, continue to wear your seatbelt. You don't want to get an additional ticket.

Fourth rule, watch the road. You don't want to get into an accident because of your effort to get a replicate ticket.

I passed tons of cops and I was getting sad cause no one was pulling me over.

Slackers.

There was one a few miles from where I got pulled over initially that had its lights on when I passed him but then they turned off so I think the initial patrolman actually cleared him for me.

Bummer.

So I'm driving and I make it to town and I'm about to turn off of the highway when I see a cop in the median - or the grass thing is it still called a median when there's grass on it and cops park on it? Anyway, I see the brake lights come on and I started to cheer.

Oh come on, you would too.

He walks up, I roll down the window and hold up the ticket. He's like, "oh. so you already know." "yep. had that conversation already tonight."

He was nice enough to let me go without running all of my information again, shortest cop-pull-over ever I'm calling it.

Now I'm back with my big fat cat about to watch some more Blacklist. It's amusing to rewatch them and then count the times you yell "Run Lizzy Run" at the screen. I'm at 5.

So there, that was my Halloween. It made up for the semi-boring days that preceded it.

And now I give you the Spell Block Tango cause I think it's amusing.


Disney plus Chicago, two of my favorite things.

and yes that is Amber Riley.

i'm out!

Look ma, no staples!

So, it's official.

I've joined Pinterest.

Not my fault, Second Sister pushed me into it.

Right after Oldest Sister forced me into joining Instagram.

They're the cool mom's on campus with all the new fancy apps.

Speaking of cool people on campus Mr. BossMan Tom is the cool kid on campus for serious.

We walked across campus today and everyone was greeting him by name - there were even people flagging him down in the parking lot!

That's the kind of librarian I want to be. Someone who is so helpful that people actually remember your name.

Though I could do without the flagging me down in the parking lot aspect, that might be creepy.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, Pinterest. We'll see how it goes. Which reminds me that I should post something to Instagram at some point soon. I always forget and then do like 5 in a row.

Hey it works...

Yes, I am a nerd, but apparently one who needs to brush up on her tech-fads.

Especially if I intend to work with teenagers, that's basically all they do.

And, speaking of teens, I now have 18 of us - 3 of which are adults - that are attending the Catching Fire party. It's so handy having them RSVP for movie tickets, makes planning the afterparty so much easier.

I should do that all the time...

Oh, have I mentioned the epic Catching Fire party upcoming in November? We're gonna go see the movie then come back to the library afterward for themed snackage and obstacles in our 4th floor "arena". It's gonna be wicked.

Did I mention I'm a nerd?

Today was good. Flew by as most half-days do. Got to work with 2 people I never get to...explains the weird weather...and then more supply stuff before heading off to practicum.

Practicum Count-Up is 64/90 December is coming up fast but I should have almost exactly 90 hours by the due date. Actually it'll be like 90:15 or something to that effect. Whatever I'll take it.

After practicum I went out to see the boyfriend. We got supper then watched a few episode of Big Bang Theory - yay TBS - and the last half of Pitch Perfect - yay Fat Amy. or Fat Patricia that is. She's the only one officially signed on to do the sequel but the others are listed as rumored and it's the same writer as the original so I'm hoping it'll all work out.

Especially since that ending was so sudden, they need to start right where they left off.

And that's all I got for today. I'm posting this before watching The Voice cause I knew I wouldn't be able to focus fully on either.

You should take that as a compliment, not a lot can do that when in comparison to the Voice.

Have I mentioned it's awesome and I'm a fan?

Yep nerd.

Alright, on to the music and then I'm out.

Song of the Day: Turn it back Tuesday - 90's

Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Poppin' Daddies


love the retro vibe of this one, song and video very cool. i know you secretly want that suit.



oh, the staples line is because we have to take staples out of magazines before we can put them out.

something about swallowing them or stabbing something, i don't know.

but there are apparently some magazines without staples, which brings us such joy.

i know, nerd out.

"Just because you have a purse it doesn't make you a girly girl."

"If, however, it was pink with jewels on it and had a dog inside of it then that would make you a girly girl. I would call you Paris Hilton."

Okay, so I have this bag. That I put stuff in like my wallet and datebook and pens and all that. People keep calling it my purse.

It's not a purse. It's a bag. Cause I don't own purses, I own bags. Mostly messenger bags. While this specific bag may be shaped like a purse, it is not a purse because I don't own purses. Which means it's a bag.

Did you get all that?

Can you hear me clucking, big chicken?

Anyway, the boyfriend decided to tease me about it tonight but then made up for it by saying it was okay for it to be a purse because it's black and not pink and bedazzled.

So I remain non-girly-girl-ish.

Which is my goal in life.

Another goal in life? Graduate! Had another practicum session this afternoon. That brings me to 38/90 on the Practicum Count-up. I think this is my favorite class - aside from Special Libraries and Teen Materials of course - because it's hands on experience so it doesn't feel like homework. Plus the actual homework is like a page summary that due at the end of each month and then that's it.

Just finished mine in about 20 minutes. Woohoo!

After practicum I headed out to see the boyfriend. We had a lazy night. Went out for pizza then spent most of the night driving around, buying donuts, and jamming out on the porch swing.

I know, we're so exciting. But it was good, and much needed relaxation. Tomorrow night will be just the opposite.

Remember how my dad turned 70? Well, we're throwing him a surprise birthday party and apparently almost everyone I know and/or have met at some point in my life is going to be there.

Which means it's kind of a big deal. But amusing at the same time because when the whole surprise party thing was first brought up it was followed closely by, "is it smart to surprise a 70-year-old like that?"

Apparently we don't care cause we're throwing one anyway.

The funny thing is that even though it's a surprise I don't have to worry about posting about it online because my dad is the biggest luddite you will ever meet so he won't even notice. He has never used a computer. He knows how to use his cellphone but not well enough to check his voicemail. Actually his outgoing message is just my Mom saying "don't leave him a voicemail cause he doesn't know how to check it." Now we have one of those smart combines that you have to enter all the information into the computer and then it drives for you. Guess it took him a whole day to figure out.

My brother loves it cause he can nap.

Just what I want to hear when it's my farm land he's napping on.

Anyway, so I don't have to worry about him finding out this way.

Although I'm wondering if he already knows. As mentioned basically everyone he knows is going to be there. And he's smart. Which is why we had to throw him that fake party at the cabin earlier in the month. It'll be interesting to see his reaction.

But I'll let you know tomorrow. I'm out. Totally zonked, though it is 2AM so that would explain things. Yeah, I know it says 11:50 but 99% of the posts on here say that and it's always crap.

Well, except for that one weird time when it was actually 11:50. Had to do a special "holy holy crap" tag for that one.

On to the music.

Hotel California - Eagles


So we've progressed from the Beach Boys to the Eagles during our sorting sessions of practicum. guess he's going to see them live. wondering what will be next on our list. i'm thinking...Beatles. or Elton. i'm going to see him live, i'd be good jamming to Bennie and the Jets.

"It's so romantic." "Mutual indemnification always is."

Bedbugs.

Gross.

Went in early for training on how to deal with them if we discover them in the library.

Gross.

She showed pictures and told stories.

Gross.

And afterward we all wanted to go home and take showers but we couldn't, we were stuck there freaking out about every book we touched.

Or was that just me?

BUT I did get to leave early cause I went in early. Which means I got to go home for lunch and I watched The Blacklist.

Holy crap.

That's all I have to say.

Holy crap.

If you haven't seen it you should find it online, it's awesome and if the rest of the season is anything like the pilot then I'm in.

After that it was practicum.

Practicum Count-Up 35/90. 

First official day staffing the women's library and dude it rocked. There were huge amounts of books checked out, I was really impressed. After that cleared out we brainstormed for a while, gonna make some flyers to advertise our opening and all that, then headed over to the men's building to figure out our shelving situation. We have way more material in the men's building and we're running out of space.

Looking forward to the booksale when we get to fill up on even more.

That's gonna be interesting...

After that I headed out to see the boyfriend. We went to see Prisoners.



This was another holy crap.

But this was more of a stand back and look on with horror holy crap, unlike Blacklist which was an on the edge of my seat holy crap.

If that makes sense.

I figured out most of it before the end - lots of twists and turns throughout the story but if you notice things from early on then you'll get it - but still, we sat in the theater after it was done and all we could think of was "that's messed up."

Scale of Awesome says 5/10, however it did have an awesome cast, obviously Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Melissa Leo, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrance Howard, BUT it also had Dylan Minnette who was in Saving Grace and since has had a bunch of guest appearances in things like Grey's, SVU, Lost, Medium, Major Crimes, and Supernatural. PLUS he's in a band called The Feaver which I enjoy.

This is one of my favorites.

27


I find them wildly entertaining.

After the messed up movie we watched some Big Bang Theory and World's Dumbest - yay. Oh and apparently he's so happy to have a "genius girlfriend" cause I was able to help him with iTunes.

Made me smile.

It was amusing though because the episode of Big Bang that was on was the one when Sheldon got all jealous of Amy and Stuart and officially labeled her as his girlfriend.

I told him he was so romantic, but not as romantic as the Relationship Agreement.



Now I'm back and watching - you guessed it - The Voice.

Since I'm not done with tonight's episode yet I'll post 2 more from yesterday's.

These two stuck out especially which is why I'm thinking Xtina has the best team at the moment.

Cough Syrup - Matthew Schuler


i've never seen all four turn that fast. though i really don't like that song at all i do like him a lot.

Too Close - Josh Logan


really reminds me of Bryan Keith which is why I was surprised he didn't go with Adam.


and i'm out. back to The Voice before I konk out.

Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm, I know it's been coming for some time.

Should I be worried that someone got to my blog by Googling someone's name with the subtitle "the KFC slut"?

What kind of stuff am I posting on here?!


So my dad got struck by lightning today.

Dead serious.

I'm just glad he's not dead period.

Apparently being on the four-wheeler saved him cause of rubber wheels. I don't know if that's true or not - science was never my strong-point.

I do know that usually when someone is struck by lightning they go to the hospital to get checked out.

My dad on the other hand refused. Even after his favorite/pharmacist daughter told him that was a bad idea.

Not all that surprising. Remember the months and months of white walls and sterilized equipment posts? He seems to go to the hospital once a decade and then gets stuck there to fix everything that he neglected to go there for through the years.

This time there might be long term damage. Oldest Sister said the effect was immediate cause he went home and told Mom to stop mowing - you know, before he went back to work - and he never tells anyone to stop working so something must be wrong. She thinks his next hobby will be flower arranging.

It was interesting because I found out right before practicum so I walk in in this weird state of shock, not fully believing that he actually got struck by lightning.

Cause c'mon, who of you knows someone who was struck by lightning? Show of hands? Granted I can't see you raising your hands, but I'm guessing it's slim to none.

Besides my family who can now raise their hands of course.

Anyway, so I tell Mr. BossMan Tom and then go on to explain his other famous injuries.

Drill-bit through the hand, falling out of a tree while chainsawing, and my personal favorite running himself over with a car.

Which also, show of hands on that one? Anyone? Anyone? Nope, didn't think so. I mean, people get run over all the time, but do they ever run themselves over?

He was washing it and he put it in neutral and tried to walk it and his foot got caught and- it's a whole long story, whatever, the point is I'm listing all these things out to Mr. BossMan Tom and I finally realize where I get all my klutziness from.

I mean, Mom has her blonde moments every once in a while - "what's the abbreviation for 'no'?" "Um, no?"

But Dad truly takes the cake on injuries.

Though I'm not the only sibling in my family with klutzy injuries, I mean Oldest Sister blew out her knee doing laundry so...

Aside from that the day was interesting on its own. Worked at the home branch this morning. Listened to their new supervisor do a Toddler Time where she sang a song from Barney.

Which was then stuck in my head all day.

I hate Barney.

With passion.

Stupid purple dinosaur.

Queen of the Known Universe tried to fix it with her own headphones, thanks for that.

Plus, I made up these posters for the libraries we're building for practicum and had them laminated by the place across the street. It was funny cause I uploaded them last night then got this phone call from the lady all frantic this morning saying she's not going to have them done. Then when I go over there on my break I'm like right outside their door when she calls to say they're done. AND I KNOW HER! Cause she comes into the work branch all the time so that was amusing.

It decided to rain today, but only when I was outdoors walking to my car to leave for practicum and then when arriving at practicum - stopping in between while I was driving, which was crap cause it started again right as I was getting out of my car to go in.

Practicum Count-Up 32/90. Flying by. Today I made our check-out slips and decorated the boxes they'll go in. We put up the signs in the women's library and then went over to the men's to work more on that. Still not finished shelving, but the slips and box are there if they want to start checking stuff out.

We listened to a rain playlist today instead of the Beach Boys. It ranged from Jack Johnson to Gun-N-Roses. Huzzah for YouTube.

After that I came home to do homework. The boyfriend is still sick which means I haven't seen him since like this weekend.

Was it this weekend? I can't even remember I just know it's been too long.

When did I turn into one of those girls.

Seriously?

When did that happen?

I used to be so independent.

I still am mostly, but I do like spending time with him and wish he would just propose already so we can stop driving back and forth!

I know, it's not romantic at all, but it would be practical!

Which is sort of quasy...ish romantic.

Right?

Okay maybe not.

BUT I did get a lot of homework done tonight. Which is good cause it's done Sunday night. I wrote the paper, all that's left is citing and graphs. Which I may or may not do after I post this depending on my energy level.

Oh and I watched the new Star Trek movie.



I love Benedict, he's awesome.

Oh, I mean, go Starfleet!

Or whoever it is you root for in Trek... I'm sorry, not a Trekkie, more of a Wars girl.

Speaking of Wars, that whole "we'll fit" thing, total Millenium Falcon reference.

Just saying.

But it was good, I'd say 8/10 on the Scale of Awesome. Worthy of purchase, though I don't have the first one so there's one for the Xmas list.

On to the Music:

Have You Ever Seen The Rain - CCR


also on the playlist and the one that stuck with me as i drove home.

you know, after it had stopped raining cause i wasn't outside.

I've got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire

I hate homework.

I know it has a purpose and all that, but that doesn't make it any more fun.

So, I've decided to start a countdown, look to the right.

Days until graduation.

Although technically I'm done before then.

Comps Week - October 19-27th
Practicum Due Date - December 1st
Youth Services final assignment - December 6th

So I could change it to the 6th, but I feel Graduation is a more appropriate countdown.


Today was good.

I really like these half days, though it makes full days like tomorrow go really slow.

Spent the morning at work on the desk and checking in, then it was over to the practicum adding labels to the women's library shelves and starting to sort our men's collection.

We divided up fiction/nonfiction, now it's just about shelving them in the right places. He sorted through the nonfiction and shelved them by category while I started on the fiction.

There's a lot of fiction.

We got about halfway done but should finish on Thursday.

Had the Beach Boys playing in the background again, this time we got all the way through the concert. Go here: Catch a Wave

Best practicum ever.

Practicum Count-Up: 29/90


After that it was all about homework.

Well that and Wipeout.

I have like 18 of them recorded that I need to get through so I can clear space for actual shows coming up this fall so they were playing in the background.

But I got sick of that so now it's Iron Chef.

Go Alex!

I was pretty productive with the homework, I'm just waiting to hear back from the professor about something.

And it's not due until Sunday at midnight anyway but I figure we have class tomorrow, Thursday I'm hoping to see my boyfriend, Friday I'm babysitting, Saturday I'm hoping to see my boyfriend and I didn't want to put it all off until Sunday afternoon so I might as well get started.

Another demographics study. I feel like I've done 4 of these now within the past 3 years with exactly the same data so I just keep copy and pasting. This time I'm switching it up though and just focusing on one zipcode instead of the whole county like I always do so it's a bit different.


I know, I'm boring, I'm sorry.

Hopefully I'll have more exciting things to talk about tomorrow after class. That's always interesting. Especially the sign-in process since I have to call in.

Here, enjoy some dumb popsicle stick jokes.

What kind of flower doesn't sleep at night?

The Day-ZZZ

That doesn't make sense.

Why couldn't the elephant use the computer?

He was afraid of the mouse. 

Have I mentioned how dumb popsicle stick jokes are?

Pretty sure that's on here somewhere.

And I would know. I only eat 2 boxes a month.

If it helps it used to be a box a week, I'm cutting down.

Alright, on to the music and I'm out.

Roar - Katy Perry


this video reminds me of Hatchet.

but that's just the book nerd in me.

i really like her. some people don't but i do. especially after watching that Part of Me documentary, it was very cool.

"If he was easy to find the books would be called 'There's Waldo!'"

Today I was a Ninja of Awesome.

That's right, I rocked it.

Showed up early, worked with some volunteers, put together shelves - though to be fair, BossLady did most of the work.

She enjoys her mallet.

And dropping shelves so the ends fall off.

Though that is highly enjoyable.

But loud.

But highly enjoyable.

After that I put together my TAB minutes, sent them off by email, and talked to 3 of the 4 bosses who will need to approve when I ask them if I can take the kids to see Catching Fire as part of the Catching Fire party.

I think if they pay their own way and find their own transportation to get there it might actually work.

So far I'm 3 for 3.

Though one of the big pushes for it is if I challenge the kids to read the book beforehand so we can discuss the differences between the movie and the book afterward.

Which means I'll have to read it.

I know, I know, I'm horrible. I was the one who read Hunger Games in college before it got big then recommended it to everyone and then got 2 jobs and started school so there was no time for me to read the rest of the series.

The worst part being the people I recommended it to - Slim Shady & Fearless Leader - read it immediately along with the rest of the series.

So it's just me.

No, I don't know who she ends up with - if you tell me I will scream and throw things - and no I have no idea what happens in the next book but I'm assuming it has something to do with the President being pissed off about how that last one ended.

So I should probably read that and soon.

After all that I headed over to the practicum.

Practicum Count-Up 26/90. 

Today we spent actually shelving our libraries.

The nice people from maintenance moved our boxes (and boxes and boxes) of books from the main building to the men's and women's buildings that we're setting up our remote libraries in so today we spent in the women's building going through all the boxes and shelving the items.

I pulled them all out and made piles - fiction and nonfiction - then divided up the fiction into groups - and I blame this on our DVD organization at work, but hey I was the one to pick those so I'm allowed, A-F, G-N, O-Z - while he sorted and shelved the nonfiction.

And because I am a ninja of awesome the fiction fit perfectly.

Like literally, it went to the very end of the shelf with room for no more.

It was like we planned it that way.

See? Proof positive. Ninja of Awesome.

Then we went back to the main library for rootbeer floats - best practicum ever - and made plans for Tuesday. Which is when we'll officially set up the men's library.

After that it'll be staffing the desk and all that.

Should be fun.

He always has uplifting catchphrases for when I leave, "catch a wave" etc. This time it was "Go Big Red!"

Yes, he's a Husker fan as well, which makes it even more enjoyable cause we can talk Husker football.

Which I can't do at work cause clearly no one is as diehard as me.

Though I did skip the awesome game last week because I went to the races with the boyfriend.

Cause I'm such a nice girlfriend like that.

I'm hoping we play against UCLA the same way we played this past weekend. But we shall see. Last year's was not pretty.

After practicum I went shopping and bought birthday presents for my father and sister.

And called and sang horribly, as is tradition.

Tomorrow we're having dinner at the cabin to celebrate. There will be steaks and much rejoicing.

He did turn 70 afterall.

After shopping came back here, did some editing, wrapped the presents and turned on Big Bang Theory.

Got season six today while shopping, bazinga!

Clips of the Day:

Here's what happens when double date night turns into game night.

Girls vs. Boys



That's good but the next one's better.



took me twice to realize she looks straight at the camera at 2:11.

but I keep watching it over and over to hear Sheldon scream at 1:07.

think i found my new text message alert.

and I'm out.

Underwater Basket Weaving in Mesopotamia

So, Mr. Bossman Tom must be the cool kid on campus cause today not only did he have an entire tour of new employees come through, but also two of what seem like his "besties" stopped by after.

Checking out our piles heading to the other buildings.

I call them his "besties" because they seem to be the only people to keep reappearing throughout our process. They're cool guys, actually everyone there is really nice. I'm diggin' it.

We're still debating the best process of keeping stats over books we really have no control over. We expect them to disappear so we're not barcoding them, but we still need some way of keeping track of what gets checked out. One of his besties says one day we're only going to have one book left.

"Underwater Basket Weaving in Mesopotamia"

Cause who would want to steal that?

Although apparently people do weave baskets underwater.

There are pictures of it online so it must be true.

So says my brother-in-law, the King of Useless Knowledge.

Actually that's not the exact quote he uses, it's more like "I read it on the internet so it must be true."

Where was I? Oh right, practicum, yes more sorting and stamping. I don't know where these books keep coming from. I don't think he does either. But it was fun. And now the Practicum Count-Up is at 20/90. 

Yay!

But that was this afternoon.

The morning started with a staff meeting. Then it was off to the desk, some off desk time to work on TAB stuff - so not ready for our first meeting next week - and then upstairs to the lab to answer reference phone calls.

Reference Question of the Day: What is the average temperature of March in Dublin, Ireland. 

I actually found it online. Huzzah for Google!

After work was the practicum, after practicum the boyfriend came up and we went out to dinner.

Lazlo's for rainbow chicken, fries, apple sauce, and The Situation.

It's a fruity drink that tastes like orange juice. With a kick. Of, you know, liquor.

Half of the chicken and fries are in my fridge. Love leftovers from that place. They even gave me a special container to put my honey mustard sauce in so it wouldn't get all over everything.

After dinner we walked around the new arena.

Or as we call it "the spaceship".

Have you seen that thing?

We walked all the way around it, it's gigantor.

Though apparently from the inside it seems much smaller. And since it can't be bigger than the Quest Center it has exactly one seat less.

Congratulations Omaha.

You win.

Was nice to go out and do stuff. Dinner was good. Walk was fun.

Came back and did my homework while he went off to work.

But now it's done so after this post I can go directly to bed.

Much more relaxing than going "directly to jail."

That was a Monopoly reference for those of you culturally challenged.

On to the music:

Song You Knew But Forgot You Knew It

All Around the World - ATC


Remember this one? I think I was in grade school at this point but I still remember jamming out to it at the time.

Check out that choreography, or more specifically the dance sequence starting at 1:45.

I really like it when the guys sing but all you can hear is her voice.


Alright, off to bed.

Or to watch some Elementary.

Whichever happens first.

Legitimate pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

Rootbeer Floats = Best Practicum Ever

I'm really liking these half and half days.

They don't drag on and I'm able to escape after getting yelled at by crazy old ladies.

They're the worst because they belittle you.

With men they're just mad and yell, but women calmly hurl insult after insult making you feel like a tiny defenseless being.

So that was fun.

Not.

Reference Questions of the Day:
Question: What's a five letter word for small silvery fish? 
Answer: Smelt

Question: Do roaches lay eggs in books?
Answer: Dear God, I hope not. 

So I'm at the practicum right, and we're doing more sorting and stamping when all the sudden this bug crawls out of a book.

And not just any bug, a big huge roach bug creature thing that's all crawling and disgusting and just blah.

Needless to say we put that book outside - and when I say "we" I mean "he" cause clearly I wasn't going to pick it up - and then when we left it was gone.

So either someone stole it or roaches ate it.

Either way I want nothing to do with it.

Other than that the practicum is going awesome. We were in the women's building today going through our collection. We're actually out of a shelves - which is a good problem to have in a smaller library - so we're going to have to do a bit of shifting.

Practicum Count-Up: 17/90

We got done a bit early so we went back to the main building and he asks, "do you like rootbeer?"

Heck yeah I like rootbeer.

Apparently he had brought rootbeer and icecream for some event earlier and there were leftovers.

So we ate rootbeer floats as we made plans for Thursday.

Which will put me at 20 of my hours, woohoo!

Is flying by and I'll miss it when it's over.


Tonight I had a meeting with the Library Goddess plus Comrade and then another classmate/former coworker. He did a stint in our music library for his practicum and the three of us will be taking Comps in October.

Even though I've been to 2 of these review sessions and led 1 myself it's a rule that I attend the one right before I take them.

So I got to review all the tips and rules for The Week From Hell.

Or so I'm calling it.

We get our questions on a Saturday so we're thinking of meeting up - the three of us - on Sunday to brainstorm.

It's allowed. So long as we don't copy each other's papers.

Which would be stupid because then we would both fail - they go to the same person.

Having someone proofread your papers is also allowed so I'm thinking of asking Superwoman - cause she knows all about the subjects - or The Cool Aunt or Oldest Sister because they're accomplished writers.

Or perhaps a combination of the both.

I don't know. I have a month and a half to figure that out, but the hints and tips are already online so I should really get started on researching those early.


So that was my day.

That lady calling and yelling shadowed everything else from work - except for that fish thing - so I don't have any other highlights from this morning. Afternoon was practicum, evening was meeting, after which I went grocery shopping and picked up Elementary Season One.

Cause I love Lucy Liu, and Sherlock Holmes, and think the twist that Watson is Joan instead of John is intriguing.



It's actually quite lovely.

And the cause for this entire post being written with a British accent.

But you know all about that quirk.

I hear someone speak in an accent and I speak back in that accent.

Which is why I have to pause at work whenever I hear someone talk in an accent. Because that would just be disastrous.

So, tomorrow, full day at work, volunteer training in the afternoon and then I get to switch cars with Mom.

Oh yeah, been driving her car this week since mine is in the shop getting new tires.

It's nice to have a boyfriend who notices things like the need for new tires so I don't get stranded somewhere in the middle of winter.

Lord knows I know nothing about cars or tires or when they need changing. Or how to change them.

Sorry.

Not a skill I possess I'm afraid.

On the music:

American Girl - Bonnie McKee


because I know that whenever my car explodes i use the fire to roast marshmallows.

it scares me that she's 29.


Now back to Elementary.

You should really watch that clip, it's delightful.


Plus I should you know, do something with these bandages. For the fourth time today.

This one hurts a lot more than previous years. Perhaps breaking it open twice was a bad idea.

You'd think I'd have enough scar tissue built up by now that it shouldn't even bust open.

The classmate/former coworker says soon it'll just turn into zombie-mode and stay that way.

"Have a good weekend. Catch a wave." "I'll try."

Ah, today.

I'm really digging these half days.

Work branch from 9-1, lasagna for lunch - huzzah for Thursday specials across the street - then headed over to the practicum from 2-5.

Work was interesting. Opened first floor, worked more on my booklists. I actually finished the nonfiction banned books one, so now I can work on my Ornery Old Men and Million Dollar Crazy booklists without feeling guilty.

Cause that one had a due date while the others I'm clear until February.

I'm coming up with some interesting characters for both lists, and there's a lot of crossover.

Perhaps I will post them on here.

When they're finished.

Right now I'm having fun coming up with names and then researching why they fit in each booklist.

After that it was back to the desk and then I covered second floor by myself. Which inevitably meant there would be computer issues. But it was fine, our IT was all over it but I had to leave before they resolved the issue.

The afternoon was the real fun. We finally made it through all of our boxes of books and now we went over to the men's building because it has bookshelves in it with books on them. So, we went through and decided what to keep, what to toss, and then stamped the ones we kept.

So we're stamping and chatting and all the sudden Mr. Bossman Tom starts singing Beach Boys.

And I was like, hey! I love the Beach Boys! I grew up listening to their music along with the Beatles, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell, etc.

So we keep stamping and he keeps singing and we have these two internet computers and all the sudden he's like, we should test these so he pulls up YouTube and plays this video here:



So for the rest of the afternoon we had this playing in the background as we stamped and sorted.

It was highly entertaining and as I was leaving he told me to "catch a wave" this weekend.

Like I said, Mr. Bossman Tom is awesome.

Practicum Count-Up: 14 hours

After practicum I headed out to see the boyfriend cause he's headed off to South Dakota for the weekend. I basically watched as he packed up his motorcar stuff and then we went out to dinner. But it was good to see him before he left.

Quote of the Day:

Aside from "catch a wave" of course.

We're driving to dinner and there's this big dude walking through the parking lot and the boyfriend is driving and we're waiting on this dude to walk faster - and he doesn't - and I'm like, "don't hit him". He responds "I won't hit him with your car. Bubba would end up in your lap."


After that headed home, wrote up my practicum report for August, submitted it and now I'm out. Early morning tomorrow taking Bubby to school.

But at least I'll have time to stop for coffee. I hope.

We have no tolerance for politics at the White House.

The boyfriend and I went to see The Butler.



Sorry, Lee Daniels' The Butler.

But apparently Lee Daniels doesn't like having his name in the title however they had to do it cause there was already a movie called The Butler.

Whatever.

Anyway, it was pretty good.

Scale of Awesome says 7.5/10 so good, but not something I want to watch again. Mostly cause it was wildly depressing.

I didn't realize it had that many people in it.

Robin Williams, Liev Schreiber, James Marsden, John Cusack, Alan Rickman and those were only the presidents.

Who were dead on, by the way.

Except Cusack, as much as I like him I can't see him as Nixon. Even with the nose extension.

The rest looked exactly like them.

Okay, maybe not Marsden, but Rickman, holy crap he was seriously a dead ringer.

No pun intended.

You can watch the preview for the rest of the big names but I was excited about David Oyelowo and Alex Pettyfer. Even though Alex played a complete jerk.

Speaking of him, Fall of Five came out today.

Fall of Five as in I Am Number Four, The Power of Six, The Rise of Nine...

here, watch this:



Yes, I'm a nerd, but you knew that already.

Guess I'll just have to stop at Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy.

Yes, I'm aware I work at a library and can get it for free.

But I like reading things on my own time and I already own the rest of them anyway.


Not much to say aside from that. Worked 9-1, got lunch and then headed out to the practicum.

Practicum Count-Up 11/90 so we're moving right along.

Did more stamping today. My hands are still covered in ink. Thursday will be the big move. Right now we're still in the main building but we got all the way through our collection so maintenance is gonna move it and then Thursday we get to sort and shelve.

Huzzah! Progress.

After practicum I stopped by to check in on Oldest Sister. She's living it up, sleeping and watching movies with her feet up with Mom there to cater to her every need.

They had nice bonding today watching tennis and eating salted watermelon.

Does anyone else do that?

Put salt on their watermelon?

Cause I think it's gross.

But that's how they eat it. Is this just a weird family quirk or do other people out there in the world do that?

Then I headed out to see the boyfriend. We went to the movie then spent the rest of the night talking on the porch swing before he had to head into work.

Now I'm back and ready to crash. Work plus class tomorrow so I'm out.


Song of the Day:

Tiny Dancer - Elton John


when I hear this song I think of two things.

This:



yes i do watch that show too much

and this:



yes i know i watch that show too much too.

speaking of, GUESS WHAT?!



that's right.

it's on.

Where the hell is Matt?

Okay, so this is a nightly occurrence and it still makes me laugh.

It'll be late and I'll be distracted and not realize what time it is cause I'm watching TV or reading or whatever, and suddenly Carter will come, sit on my lap and just stare at me.

Like a hostile takeover.

And I just know that he's saying Do you realize what time it is? Why aren't we sleeping? in that Garfield voice.

He did that about an hour ago, but I was enjoying Hollywood Gamenight on my DVR so I finished the episode while he fell asleep on my lap.

Then, when I actually made an effort to get up and get ready for bed he was mad cause he had already given up on me and fell asleep.

Now he's sitting on his side of the couch giving me the dirty look so I'm gonna make this quick.

Today was cool.

Am liking these half and half days.

Spent 4 hours at the work branch - nothing too exciting - took a lunch break and then headed over to see Mr. Bossman Tom for my practicum where we sorted and stamped even more books.

And uncovered bookshelves to pilfer, huzzah!

Practicum Count-up 8/90

He gave me a tour of the main building we're in - when we needed a break from all the stamping - so I got to check out the canteen and the break room and the tunnels that connect all the buildings.

There was some seriously cool artwork down there.

And on my way out he showed me this video and told me to share it with friends.

So I'm doing more than that and sharing it with the world because I like it.

Where the hell is Matt? the 2012 version


So you should all watch it because I think it's kind of awesome and unique...and c'mon it's dancing all over the world people.

I was informed that the ones where the faces were blurred out are places that dancing is not allowed.

That's right, it's like Bomont all the time.

You're welcome, people who get that reference.

If not look it up.

After the practicum I met up with the boyfriend in his favorite hardware store. He fixed his sister's car then we went out to eat.

Huzzah for greek salads! half of which is in my fridge.

Then he headed back to go to work and I watched Hollywood Gamenight and now have moved on to Wipeout.

I know, I know, but it's filling up my DVR so I have to watch it.

Besides, I love it.

"Life's a beach and then you dive."

Ah Henson, okay I'm out.

That was your music and clip of the night rec. I hope you all enjoy your weekend. Mine starts tomorrow cause I have the day off and am spending it sleeping in, shopping with Oldest Sister and then date night with the boyfriend.

Don't call me before 10AM!

out!

Dancing slowly in an empty room, can the lonely take the place of you?

I'm instituting a new segment to the blog.

It's called the Practicum Countdown.

Today's number is 5/90.

I guess that's more of a Count-up.

I have 85 hours left to go that must be completed by December 1st.

Hit the ground running...

Okay let's go with Count-up, I like that better.


Today was fun. 9-1 at the work branch - nothing super memorable aka bats on the ceiling, crazy stalker patrons, fire drills, etc.

Worked the desk, checked in, worked the desk some more and then ate lunch and headed over for my first official day of Practicum.

2-5 but he let me count my interview and research hours from yesterday so I'm up to 5, huzzah!

Mr. Bossman Tom gave me a tour of campus - there are three main buildings I'll be working out of. The main library and then we're setting up remote libraries in the mens' and womens' buildings for those who aren't allowed to leave those buildings.

After the tour we sorted and stamped books.

Every single stamp all I could think of was this:



Indiana Jones - the good one.

I know, I'm such a nerd.

But you knew that already and you're still here so....

Anyway, we stamped mega amounts of books. Mostly fiction but it's a work in progress. These were all from the booksale our library hosted last year and there were like 10 boxes of them. No, probably more, more like 15.

But it was good cause it gave me stuff to do for hours.

Basically we divided what was going to go in the womens' and what was going in the mens'. And then he had special stamps for each.

The maintenance staff has volunteered to deliver the boxes to the buildings - yay golf carts - and then Thursday we get to spend sorting and shelving.

Meanwhile we'll be coming up with lists for subject headings we've included and stuff we're short on.

I'm so excited, I'm such a nerd.

But again, you knew that.

It's a lot of fun, starting a library from scratch. And he mentioned going to the booksale again this year so we'll get even more to add to the collection.

Speaking of items in the collection, I discovered this one today and was super excited.

Keep the whole nerd thing in mind.

"William Shakespeare's Star Wars" by Ian Doescher go here: If Shakespeare Had Written Star Wars It might have looked a bit like this.

Yay Buzzfeed.

Totally putting that one on hold for myself. Shakespeare + Star Wars = How can you go wrong?

OH! And Mr. Bossman Tom took my side and chose Star Wars over Trek so I like him even more.

I'm feeling better about the practicum now that the first day is over. I was nervous before, but not so much anymore. Once we get the collections sorted out I get to man the desk every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon until December so I should pick up a lot of hours through the next couple months.

I was told today by two different people - Queen of the Known Universe and The Cool Aunt - that I shouldn't say "man the desk" as I am not a man. QoftKU says I should use "staff the desk" but I'm going with the Cool Aunt who said I should say "woman the desk" cause I find it amusing. And true.

After the stamping of awesomeness I met up with The Cool Aunt for some jalapeno margaritas.

I know you're all jealous. Well, the majority of you were on Facebook at least. Though Slim Shady is still not a fan of them. Missing out on life woman, missing out on life.

Dinner was good, though she wouldn't let me pay!

"You said last time I could pay this time."
"I know, I lied."

Thanks.

You should see her and Mom duke it out whenever they go out for lunch, it's highly entertaining.

I don't even try, though I was successful the one time when Mom left her wallet at the store and The Cool Aunt was too distracted by ice cream to grab the check before me.

Take that!

Both had our fajitas. We don't even look at the menu anymore, it's always just jalapeno margaritas, veggie fajita for her and steak fajita for me.

Half of which is in my fridge. I'm sure I'll pull it out around 3AM.

Was good to catch up as we haven't done that in a while.

Our next dinner will take place after comps - I'm also not allowed to say "if I pass comps" according to her and Superwoman it's "when I pass comps".

We shall see.


Am I the only one who has absolutely no desire to watch the show Deal With It? Not a Howie Mandel fan in the first place, but that's just weird.

Sorry. TV on in background. It was Wipeout but it's not anymore. Oh Conan.

I enjoy this segment.



Yay Neal Offerman.

Alright, on to the music.

Uprising - Muse


you have no idea how many times I had this blasting in my headphones today. at least 20. if you listen to it you'll understand why. it's just that awesome.

but i was the same way on my first day of work with Shinedown's Second Chance, go here.

the name is matt bellamy. not what's-her-name's boyfriend.


The Lonely - Christina Perri


super cool lyric video to a great song.


and i'm out. back to work tomorrow. along with my first online class session.

legitimate pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.


they will not control us, we will be victorious.

Thought he was gluten-free but all that I got was bread.

Kind of a rough day.

Getting only four hours of sleep didn't help things.

Add to that the fact that I felt like crap so I was pretty much a walking zombie.

Superwoman kept trying to send me home.

I would have called in sick but I had a volunteer coming in for training in the morning and I didn't want to dump that on some poor unsuspecting soul.

And then I realized that the Book Board Game event is TOMORROW and full on panic set in.

Similar to Library Golf but not as extreme.

As that was kind of an extreme event.

This is more laid back.

And I'm thinking like 10 people will attend, which is fine by me.

I almost finished my example today.

By "almost" I mean my comrade and I had fun coming up with game spaces for Harry Potter and finding online pictures to cut out and use as game pieces.

And then an hour and a half later the board was completed.

Now I have to do the currency and cards.

Though instead of chance and community chest I'm going with:
Portkey - cause you're going to be moving either forward or backward depending on if you set a python loose on your cousin or you won the house cup,
and then Spells and Potions - which can lead to you loaning money to the person next to you while being under the imperious curse or getting money for saving your friends because of your clever use of gillyweed.

etc. etc.

It's Harry Potter-based if you couldn't figure that out by yourselves.

I'm having far too much fun with this assignment.

Which makes up for the current assignment I'm taking a break from.

Ugh.

I hate takehome tests.

Especially when they're not actually tests but more like 3 term papers combined into one that's due Friday.

Ugh.

I have two of the three done, now all that's left is the first one. Which should be the easiest but seems to be the hardest.

As is true for most grad school assignments for the perfectionists out there.

But I have to do them tonight because tomorrow is the 3rd and then it's the 4th and those days will involve traveling and fireworks and therefore no homework will be done.

And I don't want to put it all off until Friday night - even though it isn't due until midnight.

Cause that would be irresponsible librarianship.

Or so I'm told.

Is that even a word?

I'm making it one.


Anyway, sadly the homework and board game weren't the most stressful part of today, it was actually that whole future thing that I avoid.

Juwanna and I use to refer to it as the "f" word cause I hated thinking about it.

However, today I was confronted with it as I talked with Superwoman.

Basically the thing is that I work 40 hours a week.

And in the fall I need to do a 90 hour practicum.

At a location that's open the same time as the library I work at and is closed on the weekends.

So I'll have to use vacation time to do my practicum.

90 hours of it.

Which I do not have when you combine it with things like camp - which I will never ever give up, you'll have to pry that from my cold dead hands - and then comprehensive exams which I will also be taking in the fall.

Which again are NOT TESTS, they're papers! 4 of them, basically dissertations and I have a week to finish them.

So why they call them exams I will never know.

Okay, technically it does evaluate your knowledge of the subject, but still!

They should just rename it "the week from hell" as my classmates so lovingly refer to it.

And from now on I'm sure I will too.


Anyway, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do the practicum on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons and make up for the missing 8 hours every week from mid-August through December 1st.

And I really don't want to be stuck working every Saturday to make up for it.

A girl needs her sanity where she can get it and being tied to a desk is not one of such places.


Anyway, the stress from all that made me overreact to stupid stuff and now I'm all headspace.

Which makes writing these papers even more difficult.

I'm thinking about quitting for the night and finishing question number one on Friday night.

Give me some time to think and confer with people about ideas.

Cause I'm stuck.

Yeah, let's go with that.



Alright, music and I'm out.

Let's do the fork in the garbage disposal!


sorry, i needed that.

on to the real music:

Acapella - Karmin (acoustic version)


yes, i know i posted the lyric video already, go here: You and me are through though, watch me hit it solo, I'mma do it acapella. but i really like the acoustic too.

looking forward to the real video that I assume will come out soon since the song is gonna be released end of this week.

huzzah for awesome nebraskans.

legitimate pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use.

I speak whale.

Okay, fastest post in history of posts.

You'll have to speed read it to get the full effect.

Ready go.

Today was good.

Met up with my practicum rep and it was awesome. For my 90 hour practicum I basically get to build a remote library from scratch. And we're gonna use the BISAC method - which is bookstore, not Dewey for those of you who just went, what? - so I'm gonna look into subject headings we should have and then we're gonna hit up the library's booksale and stock up to start it.

I'm stoked.

Was nervous cause I wasn't sure what to expect but now I feel so much better.

Though I still have to write up the plan and draft schedule to send to the Library Goddess to approve.

Got an impromptu text from Oldest Sister saying she was going out to the farmhouse to light off fireworks so I went too - taking with my three boxes, though I didn't even get through one of them.

Mostly cause I'm saving all the stuff that the boyfriend and I bought together so that we can light it on the 4th, though I wasn't aware of how much I had left over from last year.

We actually had a grill out at dad's cabin by the pond.

Oh yes, remember the cabin that we all had to help build?

I did a whole like 2 nails with the nail gun and freaked out the whole time?

Anyway, so it's finished and has been moved next to the pond on a cement block and soon there will be electricity and air conditioning.

And I'm hoping some outdoor lighting.

Cause I couldn't see anything without lanterns.

Bubby, Squirt and I threw a lot of firecrackers off the dock and into the pond in order to make a splash.

Bubby was successful in spraying us with pond water.

Which was gross.

I was throwing them farther away than that.

And Dad of course brought out his favorite fireworks that he bought in high school and lit one of those on the dock.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

Mom is mad cause I got him more.

Sort of, they don't make those anymore, but I got him the runner-up to them.

Woops.

Anyway, it was fun. We ate hamburgers and smores and jammed in the cabin.

Had our tank war.

I won, take that!

Squirt had a mega tank and Bubby laid his out strategically with firecrackers but I think it was my massive frogs in the back row that did it.

Victory.

Are you still speed reading cause I'm speed typing, this is 3 minutes so far.

Didn't really light any big ones off cause like I said, I'm saving them but my brother did light off a few.

Bubby and I continually quoted Finding Nemo.

"You touched the butt!"

"I speak whale."

"You guys made me ink."

Those are literally the only lines I remember so they were the ones we kept repeating.

To the point where Mom was totally confused.

Quote of the day:

Bubby: "I'm not gonna twerk in front of grandma!"

It's a dance, nevermind.

Still speed typing, this is 5 minutes.

Okay, what am I missing?

Ummm.....meeting, dinner, fireworks, crazy family....think that's all I got.

Oh, except where Squirt drove up to the house.

"How do you turn on the lights?"

Thought I was gonna die.


Song of the day:

okay, now I have to think.

aw man, I was doing so well.

Let's go with clips instead.






swim away!

oh, favorite youtube comment ever:

Two whales walk into a bar.
"AAAAOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOAAAAAA, AOUUUUUUAAAA OOOOO," says the first whale.
The second whale replies, "Shut up, Steve, you're drunk."

yay, 10 minutes and I'm done!

"What the heck?" "That's what I was gonna ask." "Is that legal?" "That's what I was gonna ask."

Said by the boyfriend and I after seeing a kid riding his bike down the median.

Not across it to get to the other side of the road.

Legitimately down the median.

Pretty sure that's not legal.

Sorry, just practicing for 4th of July.

"That's not legal" is a family quote, but we say it in a sing-song kind of way.

Well, Oldest Sister says it more than the rest of us.

Mostly cause her husband buys the not-so-legal stuff.

'tis the season.


Okay, I know I didn't post yesterday, but yesterday was horrible from start to finish so if I was to post it would be horrible too.

Our internet was down at work.

I got yelled at.

There were training issues.

I lost my datebook and broke open my foot in the process of retrieving it - thankfully a nice man found it and called me.

And the Mad Maxines lost by like 200 points.

Which is backwards because usually we win by 200.

Technically, we were skating against the number 2 team in the world - not the nation, the world - so it wasn't completely unexpected, but we are - well, were - ranked 25th in the world.

So...it was just awful though cause our jammers kept getting so frustrated because the refs weren't calling anything on the other team and they got called constantly for cutting the track. It got to the point where our jammer was in the penalty box for at least 50% of the entire bout.

And by the end they had just given up.

It was awful.

I actually wasn't planning on going until I walked out of the door from work. Then I got there and a lady gave me a free ticket so that sealed the deal.

I actually don't mind going to the derby by myself because I feel like my obsession out-ranges my friends' love for the sport.

So I cheer and I stand up and all that.

And it's nice not having to worry about if they're having fun.

Which they do, but you know what I mean.

It's like Del going to the Mumford & Sons concert by herself, because no one loves Mumford like Del loves Mumford. And she doesn't want anyone to hold back her love for said Mumford.

But she also knits in bars.

Cause she's a badass.

And I owe her big for She & Him.


Anyway, so yesterday was total crapsuck, but today was much better.

Ate my muffin and drank my coffee.

Was pretty busy, but not overly. Still had time to update my TAB website and send out all my reminder emails. Mock up some JPEG's for Superwoman.

Range of stats = 30s

So not bad for a Sunday.

Working the weekend means I'm off tomorrow!

Huzzah!

I'm meeting with my practicum rep and going over details. 90 hours of that coming up in the fall and no idea what to expect.

Here are some of the precise guidelines that the Library Goddess has for us to follow:

- Make sure you dress in a professional manner and ask about a dress code during the meeting.
- Review the library's website before you go. This will support good questions and discussion during your first meeting.
- Make sure you make your hosts laugh at least 3 times during the meeting!
- Make sure you work hard to be flexible in terms of hours you're available so that you get the most out of your practicum.

Will do my best to make him laugh. And dress professionally. Should probably figure that out tonight while I'm still conscious.

Wear makeup and all that.

Oh yeah, so tonight I went out to see the boyfriend and his word of the night was women.

Not like in a sentence like "women are, you know, whatever it is we are" just women in that tone that only a man can say it in.

You know that one?

And it wasn't my fault!

For the most part.

I mean, it started when we were listening to the radio and the song "Don't Talk About Him, Tina" came on - the Pistol Annies you know?



Yes, I know, I've posted it already, get over it.

Anyway, so it came on and I told him the inspiration for the song which you can read about here: http://www.accesshollywood.com/pistol-annies-dish-on-bra-inspired-song-dont-talk-about-him-tina_article_79106

To which he replied "women."

And then we're out eating and this employee is out in the parking lot sitting there on a bench for 15 minutes straight brushing her hair.

Just sitting there, middle of the parking lot, not talking to anybody, not on her phone, no one is with her, she's just sitting there brushing her hair.

For 15 minutes straight.

To which he replied "women."

Although that may be what average women do, who knows, maybe I've been doing it wrong all of my life.

And then we're buying fireworks - yes, more fireworks cause I needed more tanks and I got another, "women."

But I told him that since Bubby is gonna be gone it's up to him to take his place in the tank war. So we bought him tanks. And a train. And I got a boat. So it's gonna be tank on tank - and there are different types of tanks involved - and then it'll be train vs. boat.

Should have paid for it with some of those singles in my wallet, but I used my card instead.

Cause people look at you funny when you pay for things in singles.

I have all these singles and not for the normal reason a woman my age would be carrying around a wad of singles, but because our 93-year-old volunteer was in the hospital and everyone chipped in for flowers and since I'm the Volunteer Supervisor I got to be the one to buy the flowers and send them to her.

So, basically, the opposite reason of why a women my age would normally be carrying around a wad of singles.

But this woman is seriously Wonder Woman. We sent her flowers and the next day she was back volunteering.

And very grateful for her flowers.

I don't know anything about sending flowers so I had to have like 5 people look over the arrangement before I committed to it.

Women. 

We're perfectionists like that.


And that's all I got for today.

Tomorrow is that meeting and then cleaning and homework.

And trying to get this smoke smell out of my apartment.

Stupid burnt popcorn.

I keep bringing in more fireworks, my neighbors are probably like, ummm....


Alright, song of the day...was already posted, so let me find another one.

Barefoot and Buckwild - Lauren Alaina


heard this song tonight and was jamming.

apparently she was runner-up on American Idol from last year or the year before or something.

i don't know, i don't watch it.

neither does the rest of america either apparently.

fired 2 of the judges because their ratings sucked - but seriously? mariah carey and nicky minaj? what were they thinking in the first place? - and then randy left so all that's left is keith.

now they're flailing and looking for new judges.

Cause THE VOICE rocks.

and they can't compete.

okay, i'll shut up now as i promised my Voice ramblings were over 'til next season.