"A field goal's like kissing your sister"

Look, I'm posting again. And it's only been like a week. Instead of like a month. Woohoo!

Okay, so last time I did stuff in order, this time I'm doing them in reverse order.

Sunday Night: Sushi

Went out for sushi tonight for the Cool Aunt's birthday. Lots of food, lots of fun. Conversations ranging from Halloween parties, to dead people, to Christmas, to sports stuff. Never a shortage of stuff to talk about in our family.

Quote of the night: "How is she doing?"
Second Sister and myself simultaneously: "She's dead..."

Saturday Night: Huskers Game

The Cool Aunt took me to the Huskers game this week. I was super stoked 1, because it was homecoming, and 2, because the last game I went to was the Kansas game in Kansas back when we were still in the Big 12. Also with the Cool Aunt. So it's been a while.

We rocked it. Final score 45-14.

Ameer was unstoppable, Kenny had some awesome catches, and Tommy has really improved since last season. We have a really young team (with the exception of Bell and Abdullah) so we may have a pretty decent team these next few years.

Here were a few of our favorite things:

Ganz's Pants: I don't know if you watched the game but if you did there was no way you missed Joe Ganz's pants. (for those of you who don't know he used to be a QB, now he works with the QB's). Anyway, he was wearing these bright red plaid pants and they were just fantastic. They looked like something your grandmother would have bought you (like a bird sweater) and then he actually wore them. The Cool Aunt has labeled them as "The Gantz." Though we also liked "Gantzers." I'm wondering if they'll show up in the Huskers section at Scheels like those red and white striped overalls.



Joe is the one in the exact middle of this picture. The only non-player on the sideline not in khakis.

Westy's Crop Top: I love Westerkamp, you've gotta know that by now, but did anyone else notice how short his jersey was last night? It was like they ordered the wrong size for him or something. The Cool Aunt started calling him "Crop Top" as did the lady next to us. "Crop Top's back in..."



You can see it here in this photo, he's #1 running on the goal line.

"Sports Harder!": First off you should know that not all of my siblings are die-hard Husker fans like myself. Or sports fans at all. My brother and I are hardcore fans, but Second Sister knows nothing about sports. I taught her the strike zone this summer. Her motto for her children playing sports is "I don't care if he's running around with his shoes untied, he's having fun!" Anyway, halfway through the game I get a text from her and instead of "Go Big Red" or "Go Huskers" or even "Go Team" she texts me "Sports Harder!" We liked it so much it became our battle cry. Actually it reminded me a lot of that scene in the Big Bang Theory where Leonard paints "Go Sports" on his stomach.



Yep, just like that.

Difference between a touchdown and a field goal: You meet some interesting people at Husker games. The lady sitting next to me was very nice, a teacher, knew my boss, etc. But then we had some interesting characters sitting behind us. When we got stopped on 3rd down and were forced to kick a field goal one of them goes, "A field goal's like kissing your sister." I died.

"Just like I said": The Cool Aunt really wanted us to run a reverse and I really wanted Westerkamp to catch one in the endzone so we would periodically call them out. (you know like when a baseball player points his bat to the outfield like he's gonna hit a homerun) we were convinced on certain plays that that's what they were gonna do because of body language or whatever so she would say "they're gonna run a reverse" and then they wouldn't so she would respond "just like I said." Then I would say "Westy's gonna catch it in the endzone" and it would be a run play instead and she would go "just like you said." So we were totally right the whole time. Not.

Fear Ameer: Even the band had Heisman Fever. Check out what they spelled during their halftime show.





Epic. He does deserve the Heisman. I know he has some stiff competition but I think that run against McNeese State should determine it all.



Enough said.

Selfies Galore: Mr. Johnny Rogers made another appearance last night since it was homecoming. Everyone was getting selfies with him, including the cheerleaders. And guess who my cousin got a selfie with! Mr. Abdullah himself. Super coolness. While the Cool Aunt and I are not big on selfies we did snap one in front of Memorial Stadium. But it was backwards so we had a dude take another one for us.


Saturday Afternoon: TAB Game Day

On Saturday TAB hosted its first event - Game Day. With help from the guard I got the wii set up (which took forever) for MarioKart, plus I had all my board games from camp still in my trunk so I pulled those out. And see, the boyfriend says they're wasting trunk space and that I should unload them...but I've pulled them out on multiple occasions so they stay in the trunk. Also because I have nowhere else to put them really. We played some MarioKart - I dominated - "somebody's actually good at this game?" was one boy's remark, apparently he had never played video games against me before - and then we played some Apples to Apples - I also dominated. Now they want to do it again next year. It's on.

Saturday Morning: Adventures in the Parking Lot

Queen of the Known Universe and I need duo name. Like how Girlscout and I are Team Awesome, you know? We're thinking it should have something to do with our initials since they are the same. We did some excellent teamwork Saturday morning when the gate to our parking lot wouldn't let us in. I can't say exactly what it was, but it was brilliance and I'm proud. Thankfully, after multiple emails and phone calls it is now up and running again. Wildly entertaining.


Friday Night: Hockey Game

Friday was the hockey home opener. I was so excited and had been waiting for this night since like April so I was super pumped. Since the boyfriend was out of town I took Queen of the Known Universe. In true date fashion I had to pick her up, then we had to get her a t-shirt, plus she had to take a picture with the zamboni. Only thing missing was blood on the ice. I was surprised there were no major fights this time. I'm sure that will change as the season goes on. Jitters got to us and we started playing sloppy blowing the lead and losing the game in the 3rd period. Tempers were flaring at the end and they wouldn't even let them do their salute to the crowd just in case there were fights as they left. I've never seen that before. The Queen suggested they have one guy with the puck and then make a big circle around him 'til he gets to the other team's net. Would make for an interesting strategy. Like the Flying V from Mighty Ducks.


And that's all I've got for my timeline. Except it's TV season again, so here are my highlights so far:

Blacklist: Red and Liz are back and I'm stoked. With Berlin still out there the team is in hiding, so he sent Lord Baltimore to find Red's wife to draw him out. And guess who plays Red's ex wife. Mary Louise-Parker. I totally screamed. You have no idea, I'm sure my neighbors thought I saw another spider or something. For those of you that did watch it, the mystery figure in black has to be Tom, right? I mean, he can't be dead. And my "Run Lizzy Run" count continues. Scale of Awesome 10/10.

The Voice: Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani have joined Blake and Adam as coaches this year and they have been surprisingly persuasive. Gwen keeps playing the fashion and woman cards, and Pharrell writes poetry and calls people silk. I love them both, but that came long before the Voice. I did love when one contestant told Gwen she taught him how to spell Bananas. I remember buying that CD and then making Mom listen to that song on repeat the entire way home. Some pretty good singers this year, should be interesting. I'm working on my top 20 list. Scale of Awesome 9/10.

Scorpion: Based on a true story, this show tells the tales of Walter O'Brien and his group of geniuses. The first episode introduces the characters and then they get hired by the FBI to stop a terrorist plot at an airport. Was pretty good, I'll keep watching it if it keeps that up. And it's got Katherine McPhee which should be interesting. Scale of Awesome 8/10.

How to Get Away with Murder: Another Shonda series - I think Thursday night has become a Shonda-fest on ABC cause you've got Grey's then Scandal and now H2GAWM. It's a legal drama about a bunch of law students and their teacher - loving Viola Davis in that role - in which she basically is defending criminals in court while teaching them how to do it. And apparently in the flash forward her four main students killed someone. Should be interesting. Scale of Awesome 8/10.

Red Band Society: Octavia Spencer plays a nurse in a pediatric ward - yay for The Help stars getting major TV roles - her charges range from boys with cancer to a girl with an eating disorder to a boy in a coma to a snobby cheerleader with a tumor. The show is more about them living in the hospital, but she holds it all together. Scale of Awesome 7/10.

Mysteries of Laura: Debra Messing returns to TV, this time as a detective. It actually aired on the anniversary of Will and Grace which was cool. This series is awesome, mostly because it reminds me a bit of Women's Murder Club. Female detective. Ex-husband becomes her boss. Etc. But the crazy kids are new. Love her assistant - or whatever his official title is - the one who helps find the pre-school and all that. But Messing pulls off the detective which is surprising because it's so different from Grace Adler. I didn't watch Smash but I'm sure she was great in that too. Scale of Awesome 8/10.


Yet to come: Castle, Mom, 2 Broke Girls, Elementary, Grimm, Person of Interest, Bad Judge, Mulaney, Cristela, State of Affairs and Gotham (which I have taped but haven't watched yet).

Those of the shows I still tape. I gave up on Bones, Grey's, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. Bones lost Sweets, Grey's lost Cristina and half its cast, NCIS lost Ziva, and Criminal Minds lost Prentiss so yeah....I'll wait for the DVDs.

Songs of the Week:

Fireball - Pitbull


weird video, but good song. which is weird cause usually i don't like his stuff.

Bang Bang - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj


i love this song but the only singer i like is jessie j - i love jessie j - but ariana's a bitch and nicki is weird. however they're all huge now so it's huge.

Boss - Fifth Harmony


Next. Love it.

alright, that's all i got. hopefully you will hear more out of me soon.

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.

"You should be getting flowers, not giving them."

I decided against posting this week as most of them would have been me rambling about my apartment, cat, or staring at a computer screen for 10 hours. So here is your mega post.

It's official. Comps are done.



Celebratory paper throw.

I can now officially leave my apartment and not freak out about it.

Unlike how I felt all week.

Comps were not fun. And a lot harder than I expected them to be. Though I wasn't really sure what to expect.

I went into it thinking the lowest grade I've got on a project is a B and the lowest grade I've got for a class is an A-  (*cough*Library Goddess*cough*...threw off my 4.0) so I can handle this it'll be fine.

Questions were posted at 8, I woke up at 9 and went oh god I'm screwed.

The Cool Aunt and I had this baking analogy where we tied the difficulty level of the question to the difficulty level of a baked good - it ranged from cupcakes to flanby - and the plan was to start with the easy cupcake one and finish with the flanby one.

I emailed her and was like...they're all flanby.

Sketch is secretly laughing right now because she knows that I can't bake so the difficulty level for both of those desserts is actually the same. 

Ironically, I ended up doing it in reverse starting with flanby and ending with cupcake.

If you can call it a cupcake, it was still harder than any of my previous assignments.

There's a discussion board tied to each question where we can ask stuff. I'm pretty sure I asked about triple the amount of questions everyone else did because I was just so lost on the first 2 but then once they were explained I had an idea of what I was gonna write about and did it before I lost the motivation.

This was after meeting with my comrades over lunch. Well breakfast. But it was at lunch time.

Is that brunch? My brain has nothing left in it.

We joked about the questions giving one of us a heart attack. I believe the direct quote was "yeah, take one for the team. then they'll make them easier...would you like more butter for those pancakes?"

We were gonna meet later in the week for drinks but it didn't work out schedule-wise. Now the plan is to go out for drinks after we learn we've all passed.

If anything is worth a drink it was this week.

The longest took me 10 hours - that was 10 pages - another took me 7 and I lost count with the other two cause I spread them out over a couple of days while I made changes on my "final" drafts of the others.

I won't post the questions in case they want to re-use them at some point but one was on technology, another was on group development, another was on collaboration and then the monster 10 hour one was on continuing education.

The funny part about that one is that BossLady (to make sure they made sense) and Oldest Sister (to check for grammar and to make sure they made sense) looked them over for me and after I sent the first one BossLady tracked me down at work and said that I made more CE plans in a day than she had in the years she's been there so she will now delegate that all to me.

I went, um, no...but thanks?

The only breaks I gave myself were to do something else productive.

I've never been so caught up on laundry and my closet has never been this clean.

Amazing what you can accomplish when you're avoiding something else.

I kept second guessing myself and changing stuff so I finally just ended up posting them on Saturday a day early before I could talk myself out of it.

Now they're out of my hands.

Got the confirmation email saying they should be graded by Friday so now I wait.

In limbo.

I hate limbo.

If I pass all I have left are practicum and youth services which both end in December. If I fail even one I have to retake next semester.

No pressure.

But, being done Saturday meant I got to watch the Husker game...ugh...and then go out to the farm to help Mom.

Oh, did I mention that Mom decided we needed yet another experience with white walls and sterilized equipment so she fell out of a tractor and busted her knee?

I bought her flowers, that's where the title comes from, some random dude said it and walked away.

I spent the day cleaning and mowing. My cousin or second cousin or once removed or something like that is coming to help farm.

Kind of random and out of the blue as I haven't seen him in years, but welcome nonetheless.

After that I stopped by to see the boyfriend. We watched No Country for Old Men.



He had to explain a lot of it to me, but it was pretty good.

Same with Donnie Brasco which we watched yesterday.



I'm giving them both a 6/10 on the Scale of Awesome.

That was basically the only time I saw him all week. Except for the one night I took off, we got dinner and watched some TV. I think it was Office Space and something else, I can't remember this week was all a blur.

Oh and we saw Bad Grandpa also yesterday.



Scarred for life but he seemed to like it.

What is it with boys and Jackass humor?

Anyway, so now I'm done and it's back to work tomorrow.

Here's my music rec before I crash.

Smooth Criminal - Glee cast Santana and Sebastian


apparently i'm way behind cause i have no idea who the guy is.

out!

They're not here to fish.

So, this is my last post before I go off the radar for a week.

You may hear from me at some point but there are no guarantees.

Today was crazy, I started at the home branch where I got to work with the Queen of Awesome. We had fun as always, but it was the calm before the storm cause once I got to the work branch I was running all over the place trying to do supplies stuff, volunteer stuff, TAB stuff, and regular circ stuff just so that it was all done and set for the next week. The New Guy's got my back for supplies, Bosslady is good with the volunteers, I can check my email for TAB stuff if needed and they can handle the rest.

I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow, aka the beginning of Comprehensive Exams. I have a week to write 24 pages, if I fail I have to wait to retake them next semester.

Joy.

I think I'm psyching myself out. It's the not knowing what the questions will be that makes me nervous. I'm hoping that once I get them I'll be able to gauge how long they're going to take me.

But! I have my comrades who I'm meeting up with Sunday afternoon. We found a place with wifi and coffee and breakfast all day, huzzah! oh and pie too which is always good. So we may be camped out there for a while. That calms my nerves a bit, especially since we'll be meeting later in the week as well to make sure no one is flailing.

Here's my plan for the week:
Saturday - questions arrive in the AM, plan on coming up with outlines and finding resources
Sunday - church then meet with comrades to brainstorm
Monday - write all day
Tuesday - work/practicum/write more
Wednesday - write all day
Thursday - work/practicum/write more
Friday - write all day
Saturday - write all day
Sunday - church then final edits then submit them then family pictures

That's the rough draft schedule. I'm hoping to see my boyfriend at some point before Sunday. Girlscout says I'll need to take breaks just to keep functioning so that sounds promising. I'm thinking I'll send what I have to Bosslady and Oldest Sister by Friday - they have graciously said they would look them over just to make sure they make sense. It would be nice to be done early and then I'd have time to go back and edit them without all the deadline pressure BUT without knowing what the questions are I have no way of knowing how long they will take me.

See where the stress comes in?

But that's okay, as stressful as today was at work and as stressful as tomorrow will be tonight was really nice.

Went out to eat with the boyfriend then went to see Captain Phillips.



You get used to the accent.

While Gravity bored me - I know, you're still booing me - this one was totally opposite. Was on the edge of my seat the whole movie. Scale of Awesome says 8/10. Similar to Zero Dark Thirty it's not something I'd watch again but it was definitely worth it the first time.

The boyfriend is really sweet, tonight especially. He told me to focus on my school stuff and that if I had time we would hang out. He does have plenty of projects to work on - maybe both of us will actually finish something this week. But he has a point if I pass these, finish my practicum by December 1st and get at least a B in Youth Services I will graduate in December and be done with homework eternally.

Then we'll have all the time in the world. Unless he gets switched to second, then that's a different story.

Song of the Day: Flashback Friday

Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve


Alright, I'm zenned out now. Came home to a nice card and coffee giftcard from the Cool Aunt. She rocks and she knows how much coffee I'll be drinking this week.

So to sum up, I like you all, I think you are all awesome rockstar people, however if you try to get in a touch with me this week and I don't respond don't be offended, I just want to be able to turn off my phone and get this over with.

Hope you all have rockstar weeks.

Maybe "Thor's hammer" is a new color of nail polish.

So it worked, he was shocked.

I'm still shocked he didn't figure it out beforehand, but I think enough time had gone by that he had just assumed it was over.

You should have seen his face when he walked in the door.

He was so happy I totally cried.

Though before and immediately after that it was pure madness.

Half the world was there and we exploded out of the party room and into the main dining hall.

160 people.

But he is 70 so he's met a lot of people through the years.

It was nice, we had really good food and went through and introduced ourselves.

I got to explain that I was the baby and they kept having kids until they got perfection and then they stopped. Cause, you know, I'm perfect.

Right.

Was good to see extended family, though it was amusing because, as mentioned, I was the baby so Mom and Dad used to take me everywhere. So they all know me but it was so long ago I totally don't remember all their names. But of course you can't tell them that, especially when they ask all about the library which really implies that they know you.

Except for that one guy who didn't know who was in the picture on the invitation because when he was in their lives they only had 3 kids.

And finally the Favorite Aunties and the Cool Aunt met the boyfriend.

And they didn't give him the 3rd degree like his aunts gave me so I'm calling it a victory.

Though he was sucked into a black hole and talked trains with Dad's train friends for like an hour. Squirt got him a plate before they took the food away, it was amusing.

It was fun, he had fun, tons of pictures were taken, I'm sure many will find their way to Facebook.

And I'm out, back to work tomorrow.

I'm Gonna Take That Mountain - Reba


I'm sorry but her dancers freak me out. Good song though.

oh the title is from Big Bang. been watching that again lately when I go to sleep.

Slow it down, read the sign so you know just where you're going.

Well, my car was clean.

Until I had to drive it on wet gravel.

Then that all went away.

So the plan for tonight was softball, remember?

Was supposed to be the first game of our regular season, however, the game got rained out.

BUT I still ended up at the farmhouse because of yet another adventure involving white walls and sterilized equipment.

I feel like I use that phrase so often that it should have its own tag.

So, I'm starting one.

Basically, Grams is in the hospital and Mom is staying over but she doesn't have any extra clothes SO since I was going out for the game anyway I said I would pick up her stuff. THEN the game was cancelled but I was on my way anyway so I went to get it.

I called Dad beforehand and asked him to pack the bag so that I could just grab it and drive back.

I was there for a total of five minutes and this was all that he said:

-I packed my robe cause hers is ugly.
-Can a woman wear the same bra two days in a row?
-They're dresses because she doesn't wear pants anymore. She looks prettier in a dress anyway.
-When do I get that music thing?

I drove all the way back and brought Mom her stuff. The Cool Aunt was there with Grams and then Oldest Sister and her husband came to visit as well.

This was their reaction:

-His robe is the ugliest thing I've ever seen.
-No she can't, it deflates overnight.
-You'll be the best dressed person on the floor.
-Give it to him for Christmas.

I get the dress thing cause Mom currently has to wear a boot cause her foot is messed up, but the rest is questionable.

Though he did remember to pack her toothbrush and all that so you've got to give him credit.

We watched a bit of the Miss American Pageant while we were there.

You know they're supposed to be the most talented women in America.

Or so the commercial said.

Though watching their "talents" really made me question that.

Not that I wasn't already questioning it.

We were rooting for Kansas since she was kind of the anti-contestant-type.

Army. Boots. Tattoos.

Of course she lost, but still! that was our pick.

It's amusing to watch and make colorful commentary.

Alright, back to work tomorrow so I should get some sleep.

Hope you all had rockstar weekends.

Stop - Spice Girls


i love that the crowd goes nuts when posh starts to sing. though she is the one with the clothing line so i guess it makes sense.

and yes i know the dance. it's the same one in the actual video.

get over it.

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

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.

You do me wrong now, My love is strong now.

So if you thought that yesterday's post was awkward and ended suddenly, it was and it did.

But that's cause of the chaos that was currently going on in the apartment at that time.

Let me give you the whole story.

Okay, so, I don't know what time it was that I wrote that but it was far after midnight and I decided that I wanted popcorn so I put some in the microwave and hit the "popcorn" button.

Or so I thought.

Then I started posting and watching baseball and got all distracted and like 10 minutes later I'm like, is that popcorn done yet? I can still hear the microwave but it's not popping.

So I look up and HOLY CRAP.

Like billows of smoke coming from the kitchen.

I ran to stop the microwave, grabbed a towel and waved it in front of the smoke detector for like 5 minutes.

Meanwhile Carter is just sitting there staring at me going, what the hell did you do now, you idiot?

I turn on like every fan in the apartment and open the doors so the smoke will filter out then go back to fanning the smoke detector cause the last thing I want to do is set that off and then all the neighbors will wake up.

So, anyway, I can barely breathe and give up like 5 minutes later and Carter and I escape to the balcony which is where that post ended.

Right after it ended I thought I heard knocking on my apartment door, so thinking it was a neighbor coming to check if everything is okay I get up to go inside and run straight into the screen door.

Cause you know, forgot that I closed that.

By the time I get to the door the person is gone.

So then I freaked out like, what if they called fire and rescue?

Crap.

I have to change.

Can't have them showing up when I'm wearing this.

Cause you know, you're never supposed to wear anything you don't want emergency personnel to see.

Or anything that panics the cat.

Sometimes those two coincide.

So I change but it still smells like smoke so I slept with the balcony door open with the screen door closed.

Came home tonight and it still smelled like smoke so I made stir fry in order to cover it up.

And it worked.

And I didn't burn it.

Which is new.

So yes, I guessing you never knew anyone who lit popcorn on fire in a microwave.

Congratulations, now you can all say that you do.

It takes a special amount of skills to do that.

And burn soup.

And slice your foot open when you're making grilled cheese.

Choosing your foot over your grilled cheese as you hop to the bathroom blood trail dragging behind you.

Go here: Sketch and Edit Make Grilled Cheese

Based on a true story.

Just substitute my mother for Sketch, add in some worry for my health and subtract all those sarcastic remarks.

From then on Mom did all the making of grilled cheese sandwiches.

So you could say it was strategy move.


Anyway, I had all this stuff that I wanted to say about yesterday but it got cut short like how I love snarky Walmart employees who tell you not to combine the lighter fluid and donuts that you bought.

Well, the boyfriend bought.

And how UCLA dominated and won the College World Series! So my backup backup team dominated!

Actually would have been my first backup if I would have gone with my gut.

Oh well, still owe the Cool Aunt a round of jalapeno margaritas.

Speaking of the Cool Aunt we saw a preview - also yesterday - for House of Cards and I was like, what is this? It looks awesome! and then it said what it was called and I went, "oh, i have that checked out right now."

Cause the Cool Aunt recommended it and it just came in. But I had requested it purely on her recommendation without looking into it further.

I knew Kevin Spacey was in it.

And that she said to watch it.

But that was it.

So now I'm gonna watch it.

This weekend.

When I'm not working on that takehome test.


Today was good.

I like my job again, yay!

For a teen summer reading event we're making book board games so I'm making an example one and chose Harry Potter.

For which I get to read all the book summaries so I can remember all the places and people and all that to put on the game board.

It's a lot of fun.

Though I am artistically changed so the drawing part of it will be lax.

I also had another teen pick up an application form for TAB today. She seems pretty cool and very mature for her age.

She would make five new members in the past 3 months.

Huzzah!


On to the music.

A continuation of She and Him week plus an additional indie song.

Colors - April Smith and the Great Picture Show


Which I love, these guys are fantastic. You should really watch this one. If you hate it you can yell at me later.

back to She and Him

You Really Got a Hold On Me


love it.

Dream a Little Dream of Me


one of my favorite songs of all time and she does it justice.

Wouldn't It Be Nice


another classic.


stoked to see them tomorrow.

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

AND my homework is done.

AND i'm catching up on Major Crimes.

yeehaw.

Let's order the tornado roll cause we're in a tornado watch.

So, today was much better.

Slept in.

Did homework all day.

Like all day.

From waking moment until dinner until now.

Taking a 30 minute break for lunch - Taco Bell - and then a dinner break with the Cool Aunt.

An entire day dedicated to SirsiDynix.

Its origin, external evaluations and possible directions for its future.

I know, you're all as enthused as I was all day.

But it's done!

And submitted!

Next major assignment due - aside from the constant discussion boards - is the 24th.

Huzzah.

Dinner was awesome, as always.

Sushi. We've basically worked our way through the menu so now we're just picking at random.

Had some good ones and then green tea ice cream for desert.

Which we've never had so we're switching it up.

Talked about fun family stuff.

And school stuff.

And some not so fun stuff.

But it was cool to catch up, haven't seen her in a few months.

AND it is officially CWS season - that's the College World Series for those of you who aren't fans - it starts tomorrow so we've both picked our teams.

She picked North Carolina, I'm all for LSU.

She wouldn't let Grams get away with USA, so she went with UCLA.

Not sure who Mom is for - Mom and I used to have 3 dollars on each game. I think I was up 9 by the end of the series.

The Cool Aunt and I have a new deal - whoever's team gets knocked out of the series first has to buy the next round of jalapeno margaritas.

I love LSU, I always root for them when they're in it - they throw me beads - but I do recognize a lot of the players from NC.

Sadly Stony Brook and Vanderbilt didn't make it - that would have been awesome.

We're all for the Black/Gold and Seawolves.

Games start tomorrow afternoon so my DVR is set.

We usually go but this year we are both super swamped.

By things like homework, ugh.

I feel bad for not starting my other class's homework - I'm taking two, however the homework for the other class isn't due until July 31st.

And there's no class participation cause it's online with no discussion boards.

So my plan is finish this one and then do that one.

But it still feels weird putting it off.

Especially when I spend all day doing homework for this one.

Anyway, when we got outside from dinner it looked all stormy - as was predicted for this whole weekend - but no rain or thunder yet.

Yet being the keyword.

Alright, I'm off.

Finally up to the new episode of Major Crimes.

Actual Huzzah!

Song of the day:

Runaway - Del Shannon


whoa. paul had hair.

retro.


Off to bed. Work tomorrow.

No one intentionally watches that. Unless you're my dad.

Hmmm, today.

Slept in, that was awesome, did some laundry, then met up with my teens at the bookstore to pick out paperbacks for the library to buy.

Huzzah for Barnes and Noble.

My favorite bookstore, though not my favorite location, but it worked.

Big group today, and I'm always impressed with them so it was a lot of fun.

Basically, gave them sheets for them to write down title, author and ISBN number. We jammed in the YA area for the majority of the time, but stopped by the youth area in the end to see if there were any youth stuff that could pass for YA.

In the end I got a lot of great titles. Two of my teens who are close to aging out brought up the fact that next year may be their last year, though technically it's TEEN Advisory Board so I'm saying 19 counts.

But what happens after 19? We do stuff for youths and teens and adults, but where do college kids fit in the mix? We're close enough to the University, we should have some sort of programming for them as well. Perhaps I'll bring it up to the bosses, see what they have to say.

After they wrote down titles they got snacks - which they said was their favorite part. Cause who doesn't love cheesecake, really? I got an IBC rootbeer - flashbacks to high school - and we jammed out in the cafe area for a while until their parents came to pick them up.

I grabbed the Doctor Who version of Monopoly for Squirt therefore re-confirming my favorite aunt status.

Take that fellow competitors.

Speaking of cool aunts, had jalapeno margaritas and fajitas with the Cool Aunt after the bookstore. Got some fun family facts from her so I can continue on with my family history research for Mom's side now that Dad's is officially posted. Scroll down a few and you'll find it.

Quote of the day: "No one intentionally watches that. Unless you're my dad." 

speaking of course of swamp people, ax men, hee haw and all the rest of the stuff he has playlisted for me to watch when i go home.

She recommends House of Cards so I will now have to find the online.

And that was my day, so on to the music and the fiction and then I'm out.

25 seconds of awesomeness that I blame completely on one of my camp kids.

I Knew You Were a Goat When You Walked In - Taylor Swift parody

It's only 25 seconds, you know you want to.

aaannd then there's this:

The Evolution of Mom Dancing - Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama

i love the "Where's Your Father?"

okay, to make up for yesterday's short section

Life of a Teenage Writer: Part Four

“Hi Grams,” he replied, taking off his tennis shoes and putting down his bag. He had changed back into jeans and a t-shirt after everyone had left.

“Riah, is that you?”

“Yeah, I’m home,” he said coming into the living room. Emily, Grams’ nurse, sat in jeans and a white t-shirt on the long white couch, knitting something that looked like a sock. Grams was in her flannel pajamas sitting in her favorite recliner. She smiled as he entered the room.

“Emily, it’s my grandson Riah. He’s a writer,” she said proudly.

“So I’ve heard…” Emily smiled and continued knitting.

“She knows, remember Grams? She’s been helping out for a while now,” A.J. corrected her. Grams didn’t notice as she went back to watching the game.

Emily seemed to be used to it. “How was the party?”

“It wasn’t a party, it was a book launch,” he felt the need to correct her in front of Grams.

Emily laughed. “Was there music, food and frivolity?” she asked.

“If you count lame elevator-esque music playing in the background, stale munchies and crazy people fighting about their places in line, then sure, there was music, food and frivolity.”

“Then it was a party.” Emily and A.J. laughed. He subtly gestured toward the kitchen. Emily put down her knitting and followed him out of the room.

“How was she today?” he asked quietly, looking over Emily’s shoulder and seeing Grams’ eyes glued to the TV.

“She was a little confused after you left but not more than usual.” Saturdays and Sundays were his only real days with Grams, so she was probably confused as to why he was at some party instead of with her. “We went grocery shopping and had some soup for supper. She took a bath and then turned on some baseball.”

“Royals?” he asked already knowing the answer.

“Yep, she reminded me more than once that they were going to play tonight at seven.”

“Baseball is the one thing she never forgets,” A.J. smiled and shook his head.

“Well, that and you,” Emily smiled genuinely.

“Thanks,” A.J. blushed. “So, how’s what’s-his-name, your fiancé?”

“His name is John,” she replied, smacking him on the shoulder. “That’s not simple enough for you to remember?”

“Alzheimer’s runs in the family,” he joked. Emily glared. “Right, how’s John?”

“He’s fine. Busy working as usual.”

“At the granola factory?”

“It’s not a granola factory; it’s a vegan grocery store.”

“Same thing. Is he ever gonna make his way out here to marry you? You’re getting kind of old. I don’t want you to end up an old maid.”

“Twenty-six is far from being an old maid. I think I can manage to last another summer ‘til he’s out here for good.” Emily smirked and crossed her arms across her chest. “What about Kate? I haven’t seen her around here lately.”

A.J. flushed red. “Kate and I are just friends.”

“So you keep saying,” Emily arched an eyebrow. “But there’s totally something going on there.”

“Is not,” he replied, his voice higher than usual.

Emily smiled and let him off easy, they’d been down that road before. “How’d it go with the reporters tonight?”

He thought about lying but Emily had been around long enough to know when he was telling the truth. “Not so good. Some reporter, Sarah Chase something or other, asked about Mom and Dad.”

“Sarah Chase Cameron? Reporter for The Times?” he nodded. “She doesn’t do literary reviews, she writes for the crime desk. Her stories are almost always above the fold!” A.J. looked at her amused. “What?” she asked. “I’m not a baseball fan and I have to do something while your Grams stares at the TV. I wonder why she was there.”

“I don’t know but I don’t like it. Kate has a bad feeling about her.”

“Oh, you and Kate talk about your feelings, huh?” She tried to turn the conversation back.

“Shut-up!” He turned red again.

“I gotta go anyway,” she smiled. She went to the living room and started packing up her stuff. “Bye Margaret,” Emily smiled. Grams looked over from the TV and waved.

“Goodbye Emily.”

“See ya Monday?” asked A.J.

“Bright and early. Get some sleep kid,” she replied, patting him on his head on her way to the door. A.J. dropped into the blue lounge chair, pulled the lever and put his feet up. The blue chair was his, the green was hers. Between them sat an end table complete with an old fashioned lamp, a pile of mystery novels, and a newspaper folded over to the sports TV listings.

“How are our boys doing tonight? Did I miss anything good?”

“It’s almost over. I think we’re winning.” The commercial break ended and the game picked up at the 8th inning.

“Yep, we have 7, they have 5.”

“Good.”

“Yep, that’s good.” The rest of the night was silent, A.J. too afraid to tell Grams what had happened at the book launch. The last thing he needed was more drama.

After the game ended with the score still 7-5, A.J. put Grams to bed then returned to the living room for his usual routine to prepare for the next day. He erased the dry-erase board leaning against the TV stand and pulled out the marker. “Today is Sunday, September 20th. 10 AM – church 12 PM – lunch 6 PM – supper.” He emptied Grams’ hospital-issued water bottle into the sink, put it in the dishwasher and hit ‘start’. He set out a measured amount of oatmeal next to the microwave and removed the used filter from the coffee pot. Then he checked the pill box to make sure Emily had filled them. After he recycled today’s paper he turned off the light and retired to his own bedroom.



another pre-midnight post, holy crap tag in use, i'm on a roll!

sister golden hair surprise.

I'm sensing a pattern with these rollercoaster days.

Work was alright I suppose.

Flew by as has also been the pattern as of late.

I guess there's no real difference in the Dirt System between top soil and mining the minerals below it.

But whatever.

Nothing I can do about it.

Just sit back and watch what happens.

And Slim Shady is leaving so I'm more bummed.

Both of my booze cake buddies have ditched me.

SuperWoman made me pinky promise today that I wouldn't ditch the library to go be with a boy as that's what happened with both Fearless Leader and Slim Shady.

Don't think that'll be happening anytime soon. And if it does we've already mentioned something about living half way between his work and mine.

After work came the high point of today's rollercoaster - aka the Library Goddess's Holiday Party Extraordinaire.

I walked in and she gave me booze with fruit in it. It was thoroughly exciting.

I've never been in a room with both of my bosses and the Cool Aunt all present.

Of course with both LG & SW there came the usual argument about who's boss #1 and who's boss #2.

SuperWoman claims she's number one since she hired me first.

Always humorous when you get those two together. Throw in the Cool Aunt and about 30 other people and it was a party.

Nervewracking though to put all three of them together. There could be a lot of swapped CK stories.

Speaking of stories I heard a great one tonight but since the Library Goddess always calls "Vegas" on all the good stuff it can't leave the room.

All I can say is that it involved a boat, but don't worry there was no tiger on board.

I don't think I can see that movie. I read the book in college for a class and wasn't impressed enough to motivate me to see the movie.

But I can also say that about Moby Dick, and Of Mice and Men.

Along with many others I'm sure I'm forgetting. I am a English major so there were a lot.

They should make a movie about Dante's Inferno.

I would see that.

They made a video game which I may have to look into.

Anyway, so that was all fun but then on my way to the farmhouse from the apartment I noticed my tire pressure was super low but every gas station I stopped at to fill it up all had broken air pumps so I just kept getting more and more frustrated. Almost said screw it and was going to risk driving with it, but the boyfriend was the voice of reason and talked me through it. Though it still took me 4 pumps to find one that worked.

So that was suckish, but I stopped to see the boyfriend on the way home so all is well.

I'm sorry. I'll attempt to be more witty and charming next time. But I am dimmed and I shall spirit myself away so as not to stain those who live in the sun.

Kat Kinsman. Look it up.

Probably won't hear anything out of me tomorrow as I'll be staying with P Squared to do our New Years party early.

Throwback Thursday songs are still stuck in my head. Let's see if I can replace them.


Sister Golden Hair - America


Do Ya - Electric Light Orchestra




out.

I looked. Around. A lousy candle's all I found.

Freedom!

I'd play "School's Out For Summer" but it's really the wrong temperature for that song.

So, last class today - Reference - just gotta post my online evaluations and I'm done for the rest of December!!

Aaannd then there will be classes in January...and then practicum in the summer....more classes and comps in the fall....but then I'll be Done Done.

Physical, actual, done-ness.

The done-ness of awesomeness.

Kind of like breakfast of champions but not really.

Anyway, woke up and headed to school around 9. Missed my turn!!! Of all things, I drive the same route every time, no idea how that happened. Saw 449 fly by and went, woops. But I still made it in time to get my stir on.

See, she's smart and doesn't let me cook. I get to bring bread and stir soup. That's why they pay me the big bucks. Well, that and cutting strips of paper, erasing boards, leading class evaluations, writing a newsletter, going to conferences, not too big of a deal. I'm actually diggin' the gig. The Library Goddess is pretty sweet. She got me a gift certificate to my favorite sushi place.

Which means the Cool Aunt might actually let me pay!

But I doubt it. We are getting some fajitas and jalapeno margaritas next week.

Anyway, back to the gig, it's pretty awesome seeing all the behind the scenes stuff in person. The conference was mad wicked. Got the posts to prove it. But I got her these Christmas ornaments with drink mixes in them, add liquor and it's a party! And a gift certificate for coffee. That woman can find good coffee anywhere. Has some sort of thing programmed in her brain for it. Very impressive.

Oh and gave her the packet of nominations from Superwoman. Basically we nominated her for this big award and came up with all this stuff and SW put it all in a nice fancy paper thing and I got to give it to her, saying she was a winner to us.

Which she is. And she did deserve to win.

Anyway, where was I before this? Oh yeah, so school's out for winter. Which means it's back to work as usual tomorrow and the rest of the week. Kinda nice though today. Came home, watched some Mike and Molly with my big fat cat, no homework to freak about, no work work to freak about.

That'll come tomorrow when I get to start planning for the giant holiday party on Saturday.

No pressure.

Oh well, my teens are pretty low maintenance. But still, it's a party. With that comes added stress. I'll figure it out.

Alright, gonna head back to Mike and Molly. Carl's actually got himself a decent girlfriend. Gotta see how long that lasts.

Though no matter what Victoria's still my favorite. I can't help it.

Victoria on bigfoot - "it's just sleepin' outside."

Pretty much sums up her character.

Katy Mixon plays dumb stoner so well.

Wow, I've posted that link so many times that "bigfoot" has its own tag.

Alright, song of the day.

Which reminds me I should start on that 12 days of Xmas music like last year. More on that later.

Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf

it's a celebration song, right?

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

"and yes, I think he's a total jerk."

coffee, work, homework, and potential flying papers

Aaannd, just like every other end of semester, here you go.

Misery - Glee

Aaannd every time I wanna throw papers but then realize I have to then clean them up.

I'M DONE!!! with all my homework!!

For the semester at least. Now gotta order textbooks for January's classes.

Was a good day. Early morning coffee with the Library Goddess with special guest star THE COOL AUNT with her chai tea latte as always.

We put the finishing touches on our newsletter then they took off for work. I stayed a bit and finished things up. Now just gotta upload it and send her the link so she can pass it on to be added to the website. Huzzah!

After that was 9 hours of work, only 1 of them at the desk. And it was Youth Services. Staff meeting at 9, periodicals at 10, off desk doing aide timesheets with Slim Shady at 11, lunch at 12 - actually got to eat with Slim Shady and literally can't remember the last time that happened cause we never get scheduled for lunch together ever - meeting from 1:30-3:00, off desk 'til 4 working on volunteer stuff with my volunteer, circ work and holds at 4, then YS at 5.

Weirdness, but quite relaxing.

After work added posts to the discussion boards and submitted my reference interview paper. So back to the huzzah!

Huzzah!

Tomorrow is back to work as usual then I have Saturday off and class Sunday with a soup luncheon. More on that later.

I know, I'm boring. I'm sorry. Here. Have some useless information.

-If you blow torch Pepto Bismol you would get a hunk of metal.

-Your foot and your forearm are the same length.

-The only domestic animal not mentioned in the bible is a cat.

- The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.

-You can put a price on fitness. It's $25.


OUT!

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

Bazinga.

The countdown continues.

Now I got the gross cough and the weird feeling in the back of my throat.

Which means if I wake up tomorrow with a fever and the weird taste in my mouth then it's official.

Which sucks cause I got a lot of stuff to do this week.

I don't know what happened.

Last year I got a letter from the Mayor cause of perfect attendance.

This year this is gotta be like the 5th time at least. Ridiculous.

But last year it was weird cause I did get sick, it was just always on my days off.

Oh well, today was nice. Got to sleep in cause I didn't have to go in until 4, but then of course woke up in the morning like every hour cause my cat got restless and decided he wanted to be up and if he had to be up then I had to be up.

Knocking stuff over, meowing constantly, jumping up on my stomach and walking all over the couch just to jump off and jump back on.

But see, he's very territorial. And thinks that this is his apartment and I just stay here. So the fact that I was taking up his couch during his alone time in his apartment totally threw him off.

Now he is blissfully sleeping next to me so apparently I'm forgiven.

Though if I get sick tomorrow and have to stay home I'll be having none of that no sleeping thing.

We'll see.

So The Voice was great. Cassadee seems to be the frontrunner - well, along with Amanda Brown. Though for a while there I really thought Trevin could pull it off. And BRYAN WENT HOME!?! I was totally sad.

Here's what my top 20 looks like at the moment, though tomorrow there will be more eliminations.

Cassadee Pope

Trevin Hunte

Nicole Nelson – knocked out by Loren

Aquile – knocked out by Sylvia

Avery Wilson – knocked out by Cody

Bryan Keith – eliminated during live rounds

Brandon Mahone – eliminated after first battle

Michelle Brooks-Thompson – knocked out by Amanda

Adriana Louise – eliminated during live rounds

Collin Mcloughlin – knocked out by Michaela

Terisa Griffin – knocked out by Trevin

Suzanna Choffel – knocked out by Cassadee

Nelly’s Echo – eliminated after first battle

Melanie Martinez

Gracia Harrison – knocked out by Liz

Celica Westbrook – knocked out by Adriana

Mycle Wastman – knocked out by Nicholas

Mackenzie Bourg – eliminated during playoffs

2Steel Girls – eliminated after first battle

Joe Kirkman – knocked out by Bryan

So basically I'm all about Cassadee, Trevin and Melanie.

But they have this new rule that anybody can be eliminated no matter the team. Which at first I didn't like cause I thought it would suck for a coach if none of their singers made it to the final, but now I kind of like because it's like the really great singers aren't limited because they're on a certain team. Now it's just who's best, not who's best on each team.

So right now Adam's down to two - Melanie and Amanda. I would be fine with Amanda winning at this point, I really love the comeback underdog story.

Blake's got my favorite Cassadee and also Terry the Scot-rocker and he's also fantastic. Like uber fantastic.

Cee-Lo's got three left, Trevin of course and then there's the surprise Nicholas who's like this awesome rugged classic artist and Cody who's anything but classic - just so out there and crazy and fabulous. He's got a lot of attitude - he was the last one picked and he didn't think anyone turned around for him so when he realized Cee-Lo did he totally went crazy.

And then poor Xtina is down to just one artist - Dez who's a real crooner.

Though you kind of saw that coming, I mean she did have great artists it's just that they were all pop singers really and you've gotta have some variety cause not everyone likes pop. You know? Not that I don't like it, I'm just saying with Cee-Lo's team you've got a whole group of characters which I think gives him the edge. Plus he's got 3 people left so even if 2 are eliminated tomorrow when they go down to the top 6 then he's still in it.

Anyway, I should stop rambling and crash before you get bored of me.

Not that you haven't already.

You gotta watch this, totally hilarious.

Flash mob on the set of Big Bang Theory



ps - during a pitch game like 2 years ago the Cool Aunt meant to yell out "bazinga!" but all she could think of was "pizazz!" it was hysterical and stuck so there will be much yelling of that in a few weeks at the annual pitch party.

so funny to hear jim parsons commenting on his life size cutout on leno cause if you've seen the pictures of NLA on facebook....

Legitimate pre-midnight post. Holy Crap tag in use.

Then you begin to make it better.

Class today was fun. Talked about databases and search engines. Then listened to a few presenters talk about ask-a-librarian software.

Basically it's a messaging service where you can chat with a librarian if you have a question.

Or apparently if you're bored. Someone using the username Justin Bieber asked me if I liked pie. When I didn't answer he threatened to mug me in the parking lot.

I was tempted to have the security guard to walk me to my car, but then I was like, Justin Bieber? I think I could take him.

It was fun to see everyone again. I got to know a few of them at conference so it's fun to joke around after class.

Which has become the usual routine. Which is why I love the program.

So I left my usual note under the Cool Aunt's door and headed back to the apartment.

To jam with my big fat cat.

She leaves me notes as well. With presents. I need to take her out for some margaritas after Vegas.

Technically, I could be done with the homework for the class by the end of the week. All we have left is a search engine chart - aka find 3 and compare them - then there's a reference interview - where we interview a reference librarian, a specific one who Maegan, Sam and I are meeting hopefully either this Thursday or next - and then add a few sources to RefWorks and email them to her.

If we do meet on Thursday I can write the paper right after.

Or when I get back from Vegas.

Which is the more likely scenario.

But I have until the 8th of December.

But if I get everything done in November then I'll be free and clear for all of December.

For that class anyway.

Now it's all about writing my paper on Koha for Info Tech and then working on a different one on adult programming for Adult Services.

Gotta come up with a series of programs for adults to take place over a year, ideas?

Will work on that tomorrow, gonna crash now.

The Vegas countdown continues. Library Goddess was giving me tips today, I'm stoked. 6 days and counting. Apparently I'm supposed to go see some sort of Beatles meets the Circ De Sole show thing that's there cause I'd love it. Or the Library Goddess will smack me.

Sounds like fun, I love the Beatles and circus stuff is fun. I don't think I've actually ever been to any kind of circus.

Or maybe I have and I was too young to remember it.



I'm aware this is boring, but I'm feeling boring tonight. Instead of being motivated and working on the homework that would free me up in December I made supper instead and started season two of Burn Notice.

Tomorrow it is.

Hey Jude - The Beatles


I'm out for the night.

Have a good one.


Legitimate 11:50 PM post.

This will never be true ever again.

Holy HOLY crap tag in use.

I stand here by the owl.

Yes, I did post last night, however I'm guessing half of you didn't read it because Facebook went all spastic on me and wouldn't let me post the link.

So, I will post tonight's and last night's and then you'll get a double dose of my crazy and be set.

I'm feeling a bit crazy at the moment, though I'm not sure how I got to this point exactly. Everything was fine a couple of hours ago. Work was fine. Dinner with the sisters was fun. Have half of my rainbow chicken and fries in the fridge. Will most likely eat it after this post.

But you know how you're having a great day and then something happens like say you realize you totally forgot about a massive assignment that's due in like 3 days and then your day just goes from happy to oh my god it's the end of the world and then you turn into some emotional wreck because you don't know know what to do?

Or is that just me?

I feel like that happens frequently, especially lately, but it's just something I'll have to deal with for the next couple years at least.

This whole 3 classes thing is throwing me off cause all the assignments are due at different times and I get preoccupied focusing on the 1 class cause there's more work required and put off the other 2. Then realize I have an assignment due on Sunday that I'm sure she mentioned like weeks ago but since it's an online class it didn't stick with me.

But I did the math today, I'm at like halfway through the program already cause I've taken:

Managing Collections - 3 credits
YA Lit - 3
Management of Information Agencies - 3
Children's Lit - 3
Cataloging - 3

which is 15 plus now I'm in:

Reference - 3
Intro to Info Tech - 3
Adult Services - 3

which puts me at 24 credits out of the 43 I have to complete.

Next semester I'll take 9 more which will be 33, then I'll do my practicum in the summer plus one other class that's only 1 credit so I'll be at 37 and after that I've got 2 left for 43 and I'm done!

For life!

Cause there ain't no way I'm going to get a doctorate, I'll stick with my Master's.

December of 2013.

It'll be done.

The Cool Aunt is making me walk.

As in across the stage to get my diploma.

I live in Nebraska but am getting my degree through a distance education program through the University of Missouri.

And since it's through them the graduation service will be in Missouri.

Apparently getting it in the mail is unacceptable.

Which is fine. As long as the Library Goddess will be there for it I'm in.

Maybe invite my boss as well as she's been supportive of the whole adventure.

But that's a long way off.

Speaking of my boss, don't you love it when your boss calls and begins the conversation with "don't freak out"? Doesn't that make you all warm and fuzzy? Or does your boss not do that?

I find it highly amusing because she knows me well enough to know that I am.

Apparently I'm training some of my superiors on the stuff I learned at a seminar last week.

But Superwoman is going to be there now so I don't know how much she wants me to talk about.

So it'll be fine. I'll act like I know what I'm doing.

Air of confidence that I apparently project at work. Or so I've been told. Which makes me laugh because I'm the youngest and probably the most clueless out of the bunch. They're all super smart. And then there's me. In charge of a bunch of stuff.

But it's good. Keeps me out of trouble.

Where was I? Oh yes, so emotional and crazy but seeing it in writing and how soon it will all be over with is good. Puts things into perspective.

And, since I should really be sleeping cause I totally started the massive assignment before posting this it is super late and totally not the 11:50 this post claims to be.

Which is the norm as of late.

Where was I in videos? Think in the teens somewhere.

Cassadee Pope

Trevin Hunte

Nicole Nelson

Aquile

Avery Wilson

Bryan Keith

Brandon Mahone

Michelle Brooks-Thompson

Adriana Louise

Collin Mcloughlin

Terisa Griffin

Suzanna Choffel

Nelly’s Echo – eliminated after first battle

Melanie Martinez

Gracia Harrison

Celica Westbrook

Mycle Wastman

Mackenzie Bourg

2Steel Girls – eliminated after first battle

Joe Kirkman

yep, late teens. only 2 left after these ones and one of them is already eliminated.

A Thousand Years - Celica Westbrook
i don't know why, but she looks super familiar and it's driving me crazy.
went with team xtina, which is fabulous, and won her first battle against the gymnist...which makes it sound like an athletic event, i meant musical battle, though they are technically in a ring.

Let's Stay Together - Mycle Wastman
he's got soul, went for team cee-lo

Pumped Up Kicks - Mackenzie Bourg
surprised more chairs didn't turn around, he went with team cee-lo, obviously, but you're missing the fantastic coaches commentary. blake says he looks like harry potter, to which x-tina replies he looks more like bieber and mackenzie's like, let's stick with harry potter.

burn.


Alright, emotional wreck has been distracted and is now going to bed to sleep off the crazy. Can't exactly call in sick tomorrow.


Quote of the day: "Who didn't want to be a cheerleader and shake their pom-poms?....Well, you maybe."

The difference between "if" and "when"

As you've noticed I did not post last night.

I had quite the day.

Meeting in the morning - 8:30 but I got there at 8:15 - with the Library Goddess at her house. Which is awesome by the way. She made me coffee - bought caramel flavoring just for me - and stuffed me full of cinnamon rolls, sending one home with me for the boyfriend. We put together our online newsletter and sent it off to be published to the official website, woohoo!

First one down, and it was super easy. Lots of copy and paste work, I dunno what I was freakin' out about. Looks great and got some cool pictures to include from fellow library employees.

After that I headed back to the apartment and met up with the boyfriend and left about 10:30. It takes about 3 hours and some odd minutes to get to Worlds of Fun - it's not just fun, there's worlds of it - so we got there at about 1:30.

I like rollercoasters, but my boyfriend, he's a diehard fan. It was highly amusing. I haven't had that much fun in a very long time.

We were there from 1:30-11:30PM.

Riding rollercoasters.

For 10 hours.

And other spinny things that made me nauseous. But basically everything labeled "high thrill" - their term not mine.

By the end of the 10 hours we had ridden at least 16 times on the rollercoasters, it might have been 17 but we lost count.

The Prowler we went on like 5 times - much cooler and faster at night. Or maybe it just seemed that way cause you couldn't see where we were going. By the end of the night the announcer was calling it the "pa-row-la" which is now how I pronounce it.

And then the Patriot we went on at least 4 times. That one was my favorite cause it was inverted - your feet dangled and you were strapped in by your shoulders instead of sitting in a cart. There were lots of upside down, flailing moments, it was sweet.

The Mamba is the tallest and fastest of them and we sat up front - well, the first time, which reminded me of the last time I went to Worlds of Fun back in 1999 cause I rode in the front then with one of my parents friends. He and I rode all the coasters that were there at that time, but there are a lot more now.

I actually cheated because I couldn't remember the exact year we went. But I was a kid, and you don't keep track of that stuff. I thought I was about 10. I remember we rode out in a van-ish thing. Jackie and I basically sat in the back on a mattress playing card games. While we were in KC they bought a washer dryer set, which was highly amusing to drive back with.

Anyway, I cheated, because I remember when we went we stopped at a McDonalds cause it was raining and they weren't open yet. At McDonalds they had these Tarzan straws that when you took a drink they'd talk. I remember finding one once when I was cleaning out the kitchen for mom. So I googled the year Tarzan came out in theaters - 1999 - and realized it had been 13 years since I'd been there.

How did I live without google on my phone before? It's just so handy, I think I use it at least 5 times a day.

Where was I? Yes, so we rode on the front of the Mamba last time I was there and I got a green shirt with a snake on it with all the dimensions and speeds and all that - no idea where it is now.

So it was cool being able to do it again.

I don't remember swearing quite so much or so loudly back in 1999, but there was a lot of that going on this time around. Oh my god, so the Timberwolf was another one we rode a couple of times and this little girl was sitting behind us and screaming her guts out.

No, like, literally. I thought she was flying out of her chair or something because of these crazy high pitch screams. I was like, waiting for her to take a break to breathe, but there was none of that. And the best part of it all was turning around right after the ride and she was like smiling it up. Like totally did it on purpose.

Hysterical.

We attempted to ride on the back car of the Timberwolf and the Prowler which are both wooden ones, and you get beat up pretty bad back there. Pulled over the top of the hills and thrash side to side. By the time you get out of the car you can barely stand...and then you go get back in line.

But again, we cheated.

This time I blame him, but I don't blame him cause it was totally worth it.

Remember how I said he was a diehard? Apparently the boy has no patience for lines so he decides we need to buy these "Fast Lane" bracelets. With these you can use a separate entrance that takes you straight to the front of the line.

They were expensive but worth it.

Even though we got nothing but glares as we passed by like hundreds of people.

That was fun.

Anyway, I'm guessing without them we probably only would have ridden each one just a couple times cause the lines got super long as the day went on.

BECAUSE it was opening weekend for their Halloween stuff.

This place was decked out. For serious. Everywhere you look there were skulls, spiders, decorative lighting which looked super awesome at night. I'll post pictures of that on Facebook later.

And they don't just do that for Halloween, they build haunted houses.

We went through 6.

Aaannd, because our patience is limited when it comes to theme parks, this time we got "Fright Lane" lanyards taking us to the front of the line. First off there was the insane asylum - super disorienting because there was all this fog and you literally couldn't see where you were going. Like I was grabbing his shirt because if he got farther than a few inches from me I would have lost him in the fog. After that one was,

Cornstalkers which was all outdoors and basically like a maze but with people jumping out at you. And they were good - everyone in all the houses was really good cause half of them would sit there and wait and look like a dummy and then they'd move and you'd be like, "holy crap, i thought you were fake."

After the corn came Bloodshed, which was basically a place where they created monsters, it was alright, but there was a group of teenage girls in front of us that wouldn't move. Like they'd see something scary, scream and huddle and just stand there until they gathered the courage to move on. So that took forever, until they got apparently too freaked out and decided to turn around and get the heck out of there.

I was most looking forward to the London Terror, which was up next, but it was the most disappointing. I just wanted more London horror, you know? I was waiting for Jack the Ripper and all that, but got nothing but steampunk - which is cool but not scary - and weird looking wench women.

Yes, weird looking wench women.

In fishnets.

Although I did have an interesting conversation with a steampunk about my Pippi Longstocking hat, that I totally wore the whole day, roller coasters included. The Cool Aunt has started giving me these off the wall hats for Christmas, they're sweet.

After London was this broken down dollhouse thing which was basically filled with barbies nailed to the wall. Which was bizarre but not scary. And last but not least came "Zombie High" which I guess is the newest of haunted houses there. It was alright I guess, although like 1/3 of the way in the lights turned on cause someone hit the emergency stop button. But that lasted maybe 20 seconds before we were going again.

All in all they weren't completely scary, I think I jumped a few times and that was just in the Cornstalkers one because they'd hide in the stalks and jump out at you. The rest of the stuff wasn't so bad because they weren't allowed to touch you. They'd basically stick their face near your face and they were wearing these creepy/crazy masks or their faces were painted. Or they'd scream or beat the wall or something. I mean, it was worth going through and checking out, but nothing that will scar me for life.

There were a lot of random clowns - Juwanna would have died - and strange characters just wandering the grounds as well. I got a sweet picture of me and some giant dude with an ax that reminded me a bit of Attila the Hun.

There were more roller coasters - the Spinning Dragons was a four person cart that spun as you rode and we went with these two cute kiddos who were in front of us. The Boomerang that you start out going forward, get all the way to the end and then it sends you back backwards.

And I got a sweet picture of us on the Patriot. After going on the rides several times you learn where each of their cameras are, well, he did, and made faces every time we came around. I bought my favorite of the expressions, perhaps I will post it later.

We also went on the ThunderHawk which wasn't a coaster but you did go up and down and spin around, "we don't spit in your house so please don't do it off our ride"

and then two of them where you stood against a wall and it spun you so that you were sucked up against the wall - in one of them the floor dropped out and you didn't move because of the suction to the wall.

I had to take a slight break after that one. I was feeling the nausea full circle.

Ha.

But he was proud cause I didn't throw up the whole day, and apparently I lasted longer than his family because we did 10 hours of rollercoasters, and I guess they only last a few.

But we had fun, and plan to do it again. Gonna hit up like Ceder Point and Busch Gardens and all that. Maybe do something once a year.

I'm sure when we go he'll make us take the train to get there, but that's fine.

Yes, when we go.

We're making plans.

I'm making plans.

It's new and different.

I've never been an actual making plans kind of person - and I'm not meaning to sound all Finn from Grey's Anatomy on you - but seriously, the majority of my relationships haven't lasted much longer than a Mento so I've never felt the urge to make plans like this.

But with him it's different.

I've noticed lately that when we talk it's gone from "if" to "when".

You know what I mean?

It's not just a possibility, it's a will happen kind of thing. But not just things like "when" we go to another theme park we should ride even more rollercoasters, though there are those "when"s as well. I'm talking more about the "when" we get married we'll have an open bar, kind of "when"s.

See, throughout Tweet's wedding extravaganza everyone was all over us saying we were next and asking when it would happen and all that. And I directed them to him, saying that he would be the one asking, and he was apparently directing them to me because supposedly I'm in charge.

And then his mom said that we're supposed to have three kids. Cause she wants lots of grandkids.

Neither of us is ready to get married or have kids at the moment. Even though we've dated before that didn't really count as much as these past 9 months. Though probably including them would put us over the year mark. But, marriage and kids are kind of big things and you don't want to rush into them.

But I keep having all these "when" thoughts. I'm actually excited to spend time with him, whether it's at Worlds of Fun or watching movies on a couch. And I've never really felt like that about anyone.

Which makes me sound like a girl, but I'm happy. Like legitimately happy which hasn't happened in a very long time - relationship-wise.

Like this weekend was fantastic. After all the roller coasters and haunted houses we drove all the way back here, got back at like 3:00, then woke up at 10 because he needed to put air in his tires. Then he came back to the apartment and slept all day while I went to work from 11:30-6 - it's only fair cause I'll sleep tonight while he's at work.

But it was nice coming home to someone other than my big fat cat.

Who also loves me and is sleeping next to me at the moment.

We watched "This is Spinal Tap" when I got home from work. Um, interesting, but it had its moments. Then he took off cause he has to work, leaving me here with my big fat cat, attempting to post whilst watching the Avengers with the commentary that tells you everything that's happening on the screen.

It makes me laugh, "he's wearing sunglasses even though it's dark"

"the boxer punches the bag right across the gym and it bursts open. the boxer is captain america."

Anyway, so we're back and it was straight back to life cause I went in this morning and was total zombie-mode all day. I mean, I got through it, but barely. Thankfully it was a Sunday and rather slow. And he goes back to work tonight. So, vacation over. For now. Vegas will be fun. And it's fastly approaching.

Okay, I think I've rambled long enough.

I'll leave you with some music and most likely crash as soon as my head hits the pillow. I'm zonked. And it's only 11:11.

These two songs were sang repeatedly while we stood in line.

and not by me...



love it. though after singing it with a minnesotan accent there's no going back.


think this is the first time i've listened to the full song. it wasn't just him singing this one though, it seemed like practically all the employees were as well. something about the "hands up" thing on rollercoasters.

after i got some sweet light up gloves it was even cooler.

And I'm out. And sleeping in cause I don't go in until 4, huzzah!

and look, a legitimate 11:33.