Moving!

Hey all,
I'm moving my blog to WordPress
There's a lot more I can do there and I want to begin experimenting with HTML and CSS more. Please read my blog there. I'm trying to update it more, also. It'll be easier because I can update it through my cell phone!
Thanks,
Me

Trying out a new layout

I'm making a pact with myself that I will blog more often. Mostly because I always think of things to write and never do because I'm away from my computer. The acquiring of an iPhone has helped immensely in that department. And I've figured out how to add posts from my phone to the blog! Hurray! I'm still in the testing it out phase but I'm hoping it will increase my frequency of writing.

The newest news is that Boyfriend and I are engaged! So I guess he will be Fiancé from now on. We're not really planning the wedding until I'm done with this semester but I have some really great friends helping me out with it. I also lost one of my jobs but I'm collecting unemployment. I did this mainly because it will give me a chance to focus on school without worrying about money too much. Because I'd been working so much, I think I let some of my school focus slip a little but I'm dead set on correcting that. Here's to trying harder at everything!

In which I get all girly and talk about hair and shoes. Sorry dudes!

I've been looking for nice fashion-type boots for a while. I originally thought I wanted cowboy boots although when I was younger, I made fun of my friend Amy for wearing them. She was too cool for me then, I think. I went to the mall looking for a spring jacket, regretting not buying that one from H&M. I walked into every store and didn't find anything I liked. Until, Anthropologie. I love this store. Which is unfortunate because everything is way, way too expensive for me. I mainly go in the store for masochistic reasons and dream about how I want my house to look and how I could totally make a lot of their clothes but am too lazy.

My search for a spring jacket led me to the sale room because, who am I kidding: $68 for this? Do you know how many fruits and vegetables that could buy?! About a million. What I did find in the sale room were these boots:

These were exactly what I was looking for. The appropriate color, tallness, bootyness (not to be confused with bootyliciousness), etc. One of the biggest problems facing me and boot wearing is my calf muscles. They. Are. Huge. My legs look like drumsticks. Seriously. But these boots were a size 10! And they fit over my calf perfectly! They were just a little too big in the toe area but I knew that I had some shoe repair items from my time at the shoe repair. Now, the boots fit well! And I can wear them with my super cool vintage dress and all my great skirts in the summer. If only Michigan would cooperate and stop being cold and stupid.

I also got a new haircut. It's not drastically different from how I looked recently but there are more layers and cuter bangage. I reluctantly have to blow dry my hair in the morning but I'm getting better at it and my hair looks vaguely similar to how the hairdresser did it. Which is good, because I was afraid I would never be able to shower again. Here is the new hair:




I'm not sure why I look so green in the smiling one. Probably because I was experimenting without the flash. This concludes the girly entry. I'll try to come up with something super non-girly for my next post.

Tales from the library! And library-esque tales!

I recently sat down with an advisor and made a plan of work to get me through school. The LIS program recommends students do this after completing their first semester, which I think is a bit unfair. I can't decide what I want to do! I have to follow rules, though. I was assigned an advisor who was on sabbatical last semester so I took it upon myself to switch advisors and I picked a professor that I had a class with, assuming I would feel more comfortable with her because I knew her.

We had to reschedule the appointment two times because one of us was not feeling well each time. Luckily, this gave me extra time to come up with a more coherant plan than "I dunno... I just want to touch books." I hadn't really thought about my experiences at the Opera House as something I would want to do for real but the whole time I was scanning things I kept thinking that there had to be better methods to doing this. I have very minimal scanning experience and even less experience with photo software (like Photoshop or the like). On a whim, (well, a friend said I should take this class with her) I enrolled in a Digital Imaging class for the winter semester. It's only offered every other year and I'd heard awesome things about the professor. This is my favorite class I've taken in the program so far. We're learning all kinds of information about proper scanning techniques and about the retention schedule of digital files. Our group project this semester is working with the Charles Wright African American History Museum. We're helping them digitize some of their random collections for a future web collection.

So I'm officially going into Digital Archiving. This means that I'll be focusing on technology and building web collections for things. I'm really excited about this. I think that this will really help me after I graduate. I'm hoping that I can work for the Library of Congress doing something similar to the Flickr project they have. I also came across a job posting for the CIA that needed archiving experience.

The other news is that I'm going to be given more responsibilities at the public library I work at. I mentioned to my boss how I liked my cataloging class because to me, it's about fitting data into a puzzle and formatting things the right way. She decided that she wants me to learn how to process new books and do minor repairs. I've been feeling annoyed at that job because I don't have anything to do except help people at the circulation desk, so I'm glad that she's giving me a project. I have realized that I'm not sure I could ever work at a reference desk in a public library. I would really love to make the library I work at better but the director is super back-in-the-past and doesn't care about improvements. The reference librarians are all older and seem to like the job stability the most. There are also some annoying patrons I can't stand. I'm fine with chit-chatting and there are som patrons that I absolutely love, but I could really stand not to hear about which pet food is the best and did you know that Obama wants abortions for the whole world? It's totally true, the internet told me. I did manage to create a piece of art based on a patron's hair. He was an older gentleman but was going for that Bob Dylan-my-hair-is-its-own-entity thing. Here is what I produced in MS Paint:



I obviously need to learn Photoshop.

I love making inside joke T-shirts!

A while ago, Boyfriend and I were looking up Darkwing Duck on Wikipedia (what? No one else does this?!). In the Wiki entry, it listed many ways to say his famous catch phrase, "Let's get dangerous!" in different languages. I found the Finnish translation of the phrase and used it in my next e-mail to my friend Laura, who is Finnish and taught me how to say the only phrase I know in Finnish: Olen ötökkä. This of course means "I am a bug." So when she pointed out that the phrase "Let's get dangerous!" in Finnish can combine with the only other phrase I know, I decided to make a T-shirt. Because I'm in graduate school and apparently can't be bothered to do my homework. I apparently love making T-shirts. So, for your viewing pleasure, here's my T-shirt. The shirt reads, "Olen ötökkä. Ollaan vaarallisia!" The translation of this is, "I am a bug. We're dangerous!" So true, so true. Also note my bangification. I opted to get bangs because I was bored with my hair. I like it. Even though the camera used a flash, I really am still that pale.

The infamous Christmas post.

Today is January 22nd which means it's the perfect day to bring out the Christmas pictures! Hey, at least it's less than a month since Christmas. That counts for something, right?

Because I'm in grad school and not financially wealthy, I opted to make most of my Christmas presents this year. The couple of exceptions being for Boyfriend (because I already had the perfect gift for him) and Mom (because she is notorious for not liking anything she specifically tells you to get her. Harrumph.). I made my sister a cute apron and it turned out wonderfully! Here she is enjoying it in its apron glory!


I wanted to make my Dad something that I knew he could use but that other people would see it and think, "Wow, that is a sweet thing, Mr. Reile!" so I made him a tie.
It turned out kind of lumpy and very wide at the top but it was my first tie and he promised he would wear it. When I talked to my mom last week she asked my permission to make it smaller and hopefully less lumpy. I told her to go ahead because she's better at sewing than I am. To her credit, even though I didn't make her anything, she was really proud of what I did make. I also made a couple of pillows for my Dad's University of Michigan themed room. It's kind of been the default present for my family to give my Dad but he still likes those kinds of presents. Or he's good at pretending. Either way.

I got Boyfriend a video game and this T-shirt from Threadless.com. He's wanted that shirt for a long time but I ordered the wrong size and when I sent it back to exchange it, they were out of his size! So I was foiled on the awesome present front. He did like the Lego Batman game I got him, though.

I did manage to be secretly awesome on getting my parents to buy Boyfriend the present I really wanted to get him: Mac OS X Leopard. He was so surprised and happy! Look at his happy face! I told him that I had sent my parents a list of things that we wanted but I left off that I asked them to get him this. And I'm glad my parents decided to get it for him, too. I got a lot of really great presents, too. Boyfriend got me these super cute slippers and I got more sewing accouterments from my mom. What did I get my mom? I bought her a weaving book she said that she wanted. The funny part was that she forgot that she told me about it and was really happy when she opened it. Then I told her that she told me to get it and it was funny that she hadn't remembered that.

When we were at Boyfriend's family's house, we had lots of good food and quality time with his niece and nephew. His nephew got Guitar Hero World Tour for the Nintendo Wii and we played it. We've vowed that when we get out tax returns back we are going to buy it because those drums are too much fun to play. I sometimes think about buying it now but I suppose food is more important.

So this was Christmas. I think this holiday went very, very well. I was glad that my presents went over well and I genuinely had fun with our families. We're going back to visit family during my Spring Break in March and for a whole week so that will be great. It's weird that the older I get, the more I enjoy my family. Someone must be drugging me or something.

I also wanted to post these Christmas cards I made for Laura and Sheree. I'm super, super, super bad at sending things like cards out and just sending them things in general. I'm going to try to send them more things because I need distractions from homework and what better way than to send things to friends overseas. So, Sheree and Laura, here are what your cards would have looked like, had I sent them. The star represents where I am currently located in Michigan: the city of Royal Oak. Or at least as much of an approximation as I could eyeball.

I also couldn't decide which one to send to which person so that's my other excuse for not mailing them. And they're bigger than my hand (here's a picture of one of them by my hand) so how could I have mailed them?! There isn't anything written inside because I got lazy. But I cut out all of the Michigans and animals myself. It was hard to get that penguin's wavy thing right. Just so you know. This is what I do with my down time at work. Halfway make Christmas cards. Please know that I do miss you two and thanks for not being as lazy as me and sending me cards!

That's all from the Christmas holidays. I'm actually going to make a post tomorrow of this really awesome shirt I made and my new haircut.

Quick update, yo!

I have a really huge Christmas post planned but I keep getting sidetracked (read: I keep reading books and watching movies and drinking beer). But I have many things to say about Christmas and some funny pictures to show everyone.

On books: I cannot get through the last "Twilight" book. It is painfully boring and I don't care about the characters anymore. I'm taking a break from it and in the meantime I've read "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" and I'm currently reading "The Botany of Desire." The Roger Rabbit book was way, way different than the movie. I love the movie and the book was great but it was much more noir-y and adult. "Botany" is amazing so far. I really love Michael Pollan's writing style and I am never bored by what I'm reading.

On movies: please, please, please go see "Slumdog Millionaire." It is great. I also rented "Penelope" and found that it wasn't as bad as critics have said. But I love Christina Ricci so maybe I'm a bit biased.

I'm trying to do as many fun things as possible before school starts next week. I'm also trying to organize an Obama Inauguration party that is turning into just an excuse to make a weird cheese dish and drink wine. But anyone that wants to come is invited. I'll get writing that Christmas post for real.

The Nutcracker Suite, or how ridiculous one fifth (or fourth) grader can be.

Yesterday at the Opera House, our supervisor let us sit in on the first act of the Joffrey Ballet's The Nutcracker. It started last night and ends this weekend and the building was filled with tiny ballerinas. This was my first time seeing a "show" at the Opera House and I would love to see a full one, a real opera and not a ballet Christmas thing. The acoustics were amazing. Seeing a real opera in that space would be wonderful.

The Nutcracker reminded me of when I was in elementary school and my class performed the play. I can't really remember what grade I was in, either I was in fourth or fifth grade. And I can't remember if the whole school was involved or if it was just the grade that I was in. Anyway, what I do remember is that I was one of the Chinese Tea Dancers. We were all a bunch of elementary schoolers so it wasn't really a "ballet" but more of a "play with lots of movement." As the Chinese Tea Dancers, we had to make our own teacups to wear on our heads. I remember I made mine out of styrofoam (when I say "I made" I really mean "Dad made the form and I decorated it with glitter"). To make it look more believable, I glued brown felt on the top that was made uneven (like a teacup full of tea would be if it were on a kid's head) for a more "realisitc" look. I also remember wearing my friend Mary's authentic kimono, although it was Japanese and we were Chinese Dancers. But whatever. We were little.

My other really big memory of putting on The Nutcracker was trying to keep a girl in my class away from the boy that I liked. His name was Billy and I had liked him since Kindergarten. Our families went to the same church and he used to chase me on the playground. I used to think that we would grow up and get married? Or something? I'm not sure I knew what that really was when I was that young. Anyway, This girl in my class was obsessed with him and she was part of the Flower Girl Dance so they got prettier costumes and didn't have to wear teacups. I was kind of a tomboy which is why I think I wished I were a Flower Girl. I remember this girl talking about how she was going to kiss Billy and tell him that she liked him at some time during the performance. Billy had a big part in the production, I think, and I remember being super bothered, not only that she would actually say that to him, but that he might want her to! I tried to find Billy before the show started so I could tell him. We'd always been friends so I thought I should "let him know." I did find him and I did tell him but I think all he said was, "oh, ok. Thanks." I'm pretty sure that the girl never ended up telling him that she liked him or kissing him (I'm pretty sure I was in fifth grade, when kissing was still a super new concept).

The funny thing is, I liked Billy almost up until high school. I mean, like liked him. Then in high school, I didn't really care anymore. The last time I saw him, it was when I worked at Barnes & Noble after graduation. I was in this "I'm too cool for the people I used to know" phase of teendom so I pretended that I didn't know/remember him. When he clearly was trying to catch up with me. How ridiculous, right?

I'm thankful that I'm at a place in my life where I don't have to pretend to be myself. And I'm thankful that I'm with someone (not Billy, ha ha, that would have been super ridiculous) who let's me be myself and wouldn't care if I were a Chinese Tea Dancer or a Flower Girl.

interview, schminterview, i nailed that!

I had an interview today at the Southfield Public Library. I basically forced myself upon the library a couple of weeks ago when my class visited. This is the most beautiful library I have ever, ever seen. I had applied for a Library Aide position there a few months ago so after the tour, I talked to a woman who worked there and explained my situation and could I apply for the Intern position they had? Because it's a Youth Intern position, she gave me the name of the Youth Services Director. I decided to call a few days later, while being frustrated with my job. I scored an interview! They still had my resume on file!

I went down during my lunch hour for the interview and was a little late. The library has this massive parking lot and the offices were up on the third floor so I sprinted toward the entrance and up the stairs. I scared this woman ahead of me because she was trying to walk at a normal pace and I just charged up behind her. I was totally out of breath as I walked into the office but I tried to calm down as best I could. I apologized for being late and the librarians were the nicest ever. I feel pretty confident that even if I didn't get the job, this was the best interview I've ever had. This internship would give me a huge opportunity. I would be responsible for maintaining an aspect of the collection, giving school tours, and a million other things. They did ask me how well I work with children and I was completely honest. I said that I've been getting better at relating to them but that I've had minimal experience dealing with them in real world settings (read: babies kind of scare me). I was completely serious when I said that I would love to have more experience with children and that although I am not super wonderful around kids, I'm really passionate about the library field. Even if it turns out that I don't want to go into Public Librarianship, I know this would be good for me.

Because it's becoming winter and the season is effecting my mood, I've been a little more contemplative about my place in this world. I am very glad that I decided to join this program. It's funny because I've loved to read since I was little but never seriously considered librarianship, as far as I know. During the interview, they asked me why I chose this field. I said that I originally wanted to get my MFA but there was a set back (read: I got depressed after not getting accepted right away) so I chose Wayne. I think that I am way happier in this program than I would be as an MFA student. I feel a lot less self-conscious and I feel that this is really something I could be good at. I'm getting an amazing amount of support from my friends, relatives and Boyfriend. It just feels right.

In which I review Twilight and In Defense of Food

I have this huge paper due tomorrow. Six to eight pages about a library observation I did throughout the semester. Naturally, I used this weekend to read two unrelated books and watch a gazillion movies. Let's procrastinate even more as I babble on about two books.


Yes, I read this book. My co-worker read it and loved it so she wanted me to read it. Apparently, while reading it she thought of me and wanted me to read it because she thought I would love it. Man, do I not want to go to work on Wednesday. To be fair, I didn't hate the book. I thought the story got more interesting as the book progressed although it ended abruptly, I thought. The writing style is not my cup of tea and I found it cliché a lot but I know that if I were a fourteen year old girl, I would drink this up like it was diet Mountain Dew (hey, I only drink diet pop now, sue me). I've never been terribly impressed with vampires. I liked Dracula and Interview with a Vampire but that's about it. I've watched specials about vampires and things because I think scary stories are great, but I also will watch them about werewolves with the same apathetic attitude. Anyway, the book. Basically, it was a really angsty teen romance in which one of the characters happened to be a vampire. The language was very flowery and dramatic and felt like a diary entry at times. Like if I were writing a diary that I secretly wanted people to read one day, I would write like this. Now, who am I to talk about good things vs. crappy things being published. I've never been published and I'm crap at writing fiction. But I read a lot of it. And I'd like to think that I'm a good judge of books. So there.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was because the waiting list for reading the series through my library is over 100 people long. Like the Harry Potter books, I wanted to find out what all the hullabaloo was about. And I'm impatient so I jumped on my co-worker's offer to borrow it. Now, I'm probably going to read the rest of the books, I'll admit, in the same way I had to watch all "Saw" movies: I have to know what happens. My curiosity far outweighs my low tolerance for crappy stories. But I still refuse to see "Firefly" for those keeping track at home. On principle. I found myself thinking that maybe Boyfriend's high school age niece would love these books. I am glad that there are these series of books that give young people the enthusiasm to read, however. Granted, I wish they would open their minds a little bit but I can't convince every teenager to read Neil Gaiman. I'd probably be upset if they did anyway; I'm hypocritical that way. Bottom line: if you want to know what the kids are up to, read this book. If you really don't care or are not impressed by lines like "'Yes, you're exactly my brand of heroin'" save your time. I mainly read it today to avoid my paper anyway.


The book that I absolutely want everyone to read right now is In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. This book is amazing. It talks about the "Western Diet" and how it has lead to diseases like diabetes, cancer and heart disease. I've struggled with my weight over the last couple of years (oh, and forever) and eating healthy. This book made me really think about what I'm putting into my body. Basically, the tenets of the book are "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The author goes on to explain these sentences in more detail later in the book. He says that the best way to combat these diseases are to make sure the foods you eat aren't processed and don't have any hard to pronounce words. I've already been losing weight through eating smaller portions and slightly more often throughout the day and I think that this book can help with altering the thinking of most people.

I don't have the time sometimes to make the dinners that I want but I'm slowly learning to prepare meals once a week for all week long. I also watched "Supersize Me" this weekend and this has also contributed to my change in thinking. I'm going to try really hard to make my own food from now on as much as possible. It should also save me money in the long run, which is a good thing. I've already found sources for local eggs and I'm going to start buying meat that is only grass-fed. I really recommend this book, way more so over Twilight although they are in very different categories.

Today is officially the last day of NaBloPoMo but I am going to keep writing on a regular basis. I feel kind of guilty for not posting every day like I should have and I tried to make up for it as much as possible. I realize that writing has helped me "get my feelings out" a lot (man, it's like I'm IN that vampire book) and I think that I should continue. I can't rely solely on the Prozac in the winter. So keep reading!

DEEEETROIT BASKETBALL!

Boyfriend had some of his friends come out last night and we all went to a Pistons game and got into some shenanigans. We had planned this for a while because we would be unable to get home for Thanksgiving and one of his friends was going to be in England over Christmas taking his British girlfriend back home. The tickets were a super good price but apparently there were some problems with credit cards and what not. There was a moment where we thought we wouldn't be able to go; luckily, we were able to get the Palace of Auburn Hills to issue us enough seats in the very back row of the stadium.

If you look closely at the ticket, you can see the words "partially obstructed" on the bottom. We were hoping that we wouldn't be sitting behind a dumpster or anything like that. Really, "partially obstructed" meant that we were in the back row of the press section where we would need to stand up to see it. It wasn't that bad, actually. The basketball players are tall enough that they didn't look like ants and they had the game on the Jumbotron, which helped.

This was my first Pistons game, actually my first professional basketball game. Emma, the English girl, had never seen a basketball game at all. I actually wouldn't mind going again to a game but hopefully with better seats. The crowd was really energized. The only thing that was weird was actually getting to our seats. There was an elevator that would take us up but it took forever to get a car that was empty enough for the six of us to squeeze in. We asked people where the stairs were and we got multiple answers ranging from "oh, there aren't stairs to that level," "well, you can use the emergency stairwell but I can't promise you the door will open up when you get there," and "they're between these seats." When we tried to find them between the sections we were shooed away because we didn't have tickets in that section. Finally, when the game was over, we walked down the hall and DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS TO THE NEXT LEVEL. So... thanks Palace employees for not letting us get exercise. The Pistons won and it was really awesome. I had talked to one of my friends the day before and he had just seen the Orlando Magic play the Milwaukee Bucks (who the Pistons played last night) and said that the Pistons would pretty much kill them. The game was closer that I would have expected but I was really impressed with the Pistons. I've never been a basketball fan, or really any kind of a sports fan, but there is something to being at a game that makes me interested in them.

After the game, we wanted to go out to the bar, although I was the designated driver so I wasn't too concerned with the drinking. Boyfriend wanted to take them to this really awesome bar called Gusoline Alley but when we got there, they were at capacity. Maybe this is just me showing how uncool I am and not used to the bar scene, but almost all of the bars we tried to go to had lines out the door or were super, super packed. We finally were able to get into one bar but we wanted somewhere to sit down. We decided to find somewhere closer to the apartment and ended up going to this restaurant/bar called Royal Kubo. I had been invited there by my cousin a while ago but I didn't end up going so I wasn't sure what to expect. That place was crowded and so so loud. I ended up only having one drink that night but combined with the loud bar and staying out until 2:30 a.m. made me a zombie today. I've basically been sitting around in my pajamas drinking tea and watching movies. Which is really nice but would be better if my throat didn't feel like I swallowed a sword. The moral of this story: I'm getting old and my healthy eating habits don't really allow room for partying. Which is fine, I'd rather keep this weight off than drink a million drinks in one night. By the way, I'm officially down 16 pounds! Whoo!

THANKSGIVING!

Man, I'm so bad at posting every day. Anyway, yesterday was Thanksgiving and Boyfriend and I had our own little Thanksgiving because he had to work so we weren't able to make it home. It was a lot of fun. I'm not sure if I could ever have the patience to cook a full meal for tons of people, but it was a lot of fun having just the two of us in the kitchen. We made two steaks, mashed potatoes, asparagus and candied sweet potatoes. I could only eat two out of those four but that's ok. I did have tiny tastes of the other two.

This was the first time either of us had made mashed potatoes and they turned out wonderful. I'm glad I have a potato masher. Boyfriend made the sweet potatoes and the recipe we found called for brown sugar, which we both thought we had. When we couldn't find any, he decided to substitute maple syrup and I think some Agave nectar. They tasted really, really good but definitely maple-y. That's not a bad thing, though. Boyfriend is really good at making steaks, as evidenced by this picture. I've never had steaks like the ones he's made. I'm not usually a steak kind of girl, but I might be converted. The hard part about living in an apartment is the tiny kitchen. I would love to have a giant kitchen some day with tons of counter space. I think it would be fun to cook a huge dinner for about twenty people but I'm totally not ready for that yet. Plus, this made a special day for the two of us.

This is what our dinner looked all laid out on the table. Yes, those are Batman placemats, yes, Boyfriend is drinking a giant beer. It's Thanksgiving! Here's another picture of him digging into his food. Which is not staged at all. I suppose it wouldn't have hurt to get a couple pictures of me but I was in my pajamas. Which is another thing I'm thankful for about this Thanksgiving. I could sit around in my pajamas and be not showered because it's my apartment, dammit. So I took pictures of the one of us that had showered in the morning.

I was also invited to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dan's house to spend Thanksgiving with some of my dad's side of the family. It was really nice to see all my aunts and uncles and cousins. They asked me tons of questions about my schooling, Boyfriend, working and things like that. I "accidentally" ate a bunch of food that I shouldn't have, though. I kind of felt guilty but when I got home, I cleaned up the entire apartment for the most part. So I'm sure that I burned up all or most of those calories. It feels so good to have the apartment this clean. I'm hoping I can stay on top of it so it doesn't get messy again.

These are my confessions....

Ok, I have to say something about this. I've been dealing with these... feelings for a while and I haven't really told anyone outside of my apartment. At first I was ashamed of how I felt but then I realized, you know what? Who gives a shit? I am my own person and I can feel whatever I want to feel. I thought that in the interest of opening my soul, I would share my feelings here, because you care, and because I felt that I should post some juicy info as an excuse for not posting for the last couple days.

I've been too busy... listening to Beyonce. I know, I know. I never thought it would be like this. I always regarded Beyonce, and pop music in general, with the anti-Lauren. Sure, there was that one time I started listening to Journey to be ironic and then started to really like Journey. And that time when I thought I liked the Spice Girls. This is serious. I think that it started last week when she was on Saturday Night Live. She sang her newest hit, "Single Ladies", and I couldn't get it out of my head. Or the dancing! I am obsessed right now with learning the dance to this song. I blame that on all of this extra energy that I've had since losing weight. But seriously, I like Beyonce. I think she's amazing.

I solidified my feelings when she was the only guest on Ellen's talk show yesterday. She sang the "Single Ladies" song along with another song that she performed on SNL. I didn't like that song when it was on SNL, I think because I was shocked by this creature. But after the Ellen show, I kind of like that song, too. Don't get me wrong, I still adore Morrissey, the Smiths, the Clash, Led Zeppelin, and many others. But I've found the missing piece in my musical life. And that is: Booty Music.

headache

This weekend was spent in front of the computer, almost all day, every day. I should have updated but my head hurts so much from staring at this screen that the only thing I did *not* want to do was update. I've been working on this group project with my group member and we've been chatting on-line while trying to figure this out. We each had to make a five minute video about a topic that we chose and then put it together. The problem was that the files weren't merging correctly and then it wouldn't upload at all. The video was too big or something and kept crashing the site. So we worked for five hours Friday, just as many hours yesterday and it's still finishing up today. I am just waiting for it to upload to my site so I can check it out. This has been one headache of a project and I'm so glad that it's over. I can't really think of anything else. My brain can't think of anything else. I'll try to think of interesting things to talk about that aren't my stupid video project.

Dinner fiasco.

One of the things that I'm glad I'm doing is eating more vegetables. I've gotten very good at cooking all kinds of vegetables that I never really cooked before. And I've gotten adventurous, too. I bought an eggplant the other day because I thought it would be fun to make it. I could remember having eggplant in a stir fry once and not minding it. Because this next week I'm going on a little "resetting my metabolism" week, I can only eat green vegetables. I thought tonight would be a good night to use the eggplant.

I found this recipe on-line that required using eggs and baking the eggplant with some spices. So I decided that I could invent something. I took some EggBeaters and mixed pepper, paprika, and chili powder together. Then I cut up the eggplant and soaked it in the batter and put them in two pans to bake.


Here's what they looked like before I put them in the oven. It didn't look too bad and I was kind of excited to eat it. Since Boyfriend was at work, I asked my roommate if she would want some and she said that she would. So I baked the eggplant for a half an hour while I finished up a school project.


When the food was done, I took it out of the oven. I could see that some of the slices were still wet from the egg batter but I figured it didn't matter. I grabbed a bowl and scooped up some slices and headed into my room.


It didn't look that much different when I took it out. It definitely looked baked and it looked pretty good. I took one bite and thought, "hey, this isn't so bad. Kind of chewy but good." About halfway through the piece, the taste of old socks showed up. I kept chewing, thinking maybe I was imagining it. I ate another piece and it was not my imagination. Baked eggplant = awful. I'm sure there's a way to bake it that would make it not taste like dirty socks but there are only so many things that I can eat right now and I'm pretty sure that "magical eggplant juice" is not on that list. In a little bit I'm headed off to Meijer to buy non-dirty sock tasting foods. Sigh.

Books are all created equal.

Tonight the library was super slow. So I went around and was trying to pick stuff up and push in chairs to get out of there as fast as possible. I was cleaning up around the study rooms and I noticed a cup under one of the study tables. I picked it up and it was full of chicken bones. And the cup was covered in what must have been congealed grease or something. The creepy thing is that I have no idea how long that was there. It must have been a few days at least. Thanks, library patrons.

There was an interaction between a patron and a co-worker that made me think about how I was raised and how I was as an early reader. A woman came in with her three girls and they ended up picking up about 20 books or so. The girls were probably eight and under. She somehow knew one of my co-workers (I'm the youngest one working there and most of the women have children) so my co-worker was ringing her up. They came across the book Serendipity by Stephen Cosgrove and the mom told my co-worker, "I don't think I want that one... it looks weird." So my co-worker tossed the book on the floor and distracted the girl who picked it out so she wouldn't notice it not being checked out. Now, I remember reading these books when I was little. After searching through the author's book titles, I can remember more of his books than I thought.

I wanted to be sure that I wasn't censored like this as a child so I called Kathy who was our nanny when my sister and I were growing up. She's a really great friend of ours now and we stay in touch a lot. I asked her if she would ever not let us check books out. She said that we pretty much could check out anything that was at our reading level. When I told her about the exchange at my work, she thought it was kind of weird, too. Kathy also said that as long as it was from the kids section, we were allowed to check it out. If she wasn't sure about a book she would read through it with us but she never just looked at the cover and wouldn't let us get it.

When the patron left, I read through the book to see if I remembered it. It's a story about a sea serpent who doesn't know what she is so she travels the sea to try to find something like her. I think the moral of the story is basically that everyone can fit in somewhere, even if they look different. The serpent, Serendipity, even becomes a guardian of the seas. I think that kids should be able to read whatever they can. Especially when TV is much more prevalent in households than it was when I was growing up. Should kids really be taught to judge a book by its cover? As long as it's within their reading level, they should be able to read it, right? I was especially frustrated because the mom looked relatively young. Within ten years of my age I would guess. It just makes me think about how I would raise my kids, if I ever have them.

Why isn't this week over?

I hate my job. Well, one of my jobs. I came to this conclusion last weekend and today I've confirmed it. I feel so out of place there. It was different when I worked for the company in Portage, but here, I just feel like an accessory. Take today for example: one of the architects can't organize his workspace. He has old project files everywhere and they're in his way. As a project manager, he should be responsible for cleaning up his files and destroying them. But because he is so incompetent, I'm the one who has to do it. I have to physically read almost all of his files to find the ones he wants to keep and pitch the rest. The worst thing is, my boss won't stand up to him and tell him to do his own damn cleaning. I started doing this for him a month ago and when I started, I had to sit at his desk and ask him, "do you want to keep this file? what about this one?" This is so frustrating.

It's even more frustrating because I want to be able to get a paid internship or a graduate assistanceship but I'm nervous that I won't get one. And I wish that I made enough money to just quit my job. Grrr... I'm frustrated. I just want this semester to end.

Adventures in parking.

This is the purse I'm currently using. I found it in a box of winter clothes as I was putting my summer clothes away and decided to use it. It was my grandmother's but she never used it. This purse is a lot smaller than my other purse which is partly why I chose it. That and my left shoulder was about to murder me in my sleep for putting too much in my purse. I have this "purse organizer" that my sister got me for Christmas a while ago and the idea is that you just transfer the organizer from purse to purse. This lovely yellow purse is not big enough to fit it all and close it properly. Or at all. So I transferred my essentials to the purse and started using it.

Boyfriend kind of thinks the purse is silly but I've gotten quite a few complements on it and I kind of love it. It even goes with my awesome red winter coat. So every Monday I have my one class that's actually on campus and I wanted to head there early to finish my homework that was due. I left right after I got out of work and after changing. The really convenient thing about parking at Wayne State is that you just use your school I.D. to head into the parking structure. It automatically takes money off your card every time so you don't have to worry about carrying cash (which I don't really do anymore, lest I get asked for money and drugs again). This is a far superior method of parking to Western Michigan where it's basically a free-for-all. The parking structures at Wayne even tell you if they're full or not. Neat, huh?

I'm heading to campus and I'm just about to turn onto Anthony Wayne Drive when I realize my school I.D. is still in my other purse at home! I tried to use my debit card to get into the parking structure but the machines are apparently smarter than I thought. So I drive around a little bit thinking, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," and find a little parking lot that let's anyone in but you pay when you leave. I parked my car and ran up to the little booth and asked the guy if there was a way I could park here or get someone to let me into the parking structure because I left my I.D. at home. He told me that the parking lot I was standing in only took cash, which I didn't really have, so I should leave now if I wanted to really park my car and not sleep in it over night. He said that he could call over to the other parking structure and let them know I was coming and they could help me get in. Then we both realize that there's been a miscommunication... A BIG FAT ONE. He thought that my I.D. just wasn't working but I was really asking him if I could use my debit or a credit card to access the parking structure. He said, "the only way you can park on campus anywhere is either by having cash or using you I.D." Great.

I remember that when I bought coffee earlier, it didn't cost me that much so I actually had a couple bucks! And some change! I drove to the parking structure after scrounging up the right about of change to put into the machine. I start feeding the dollar bills in and they keep coming back out. This happens for a few minutes but it felt like ten days. Meanwhile, there are about five cars behind me and they start honking and giving me dirty looks. Awesome. I was able to get some quarters in the machine but all I had left were some dimes which the machine does not take. So I hopped out of my car and ran to the next car in line and begged the dude to trade me ones. He looked disgusted and was all, "I'm not sure it's going to work." I ran back to my car, squeezed into the driver's side, and THESE DOLLAR BILLS WORKED! But they were in worse shape than the ones that I had. But I finally got to park and feel like a giant douche today. Hooray for Mondays!

Library story

A young kid, about four, comes into the library with his father.

Father: I want to get my son a library card.

Son: I want a pink one!

Father: You want a pink one?!

Me: Well, all we have are blue ones, is that ok?

Son: Yeah...

Father: Blue is for boys anyway.

Son: Pink is for girls!

I'm learning to be more tolerant of young kids while working at the library. Especially when they're adorable like this kid. Although I'm not sure if I should put "has a new fondness for children" on my resume. Too creepy...

the Detroit Urban Craft Fair

Today I went to the Detroit Urban Craft Fair at the Fillmore in downtown Detroit. It used to be the State Theatre and sits right across from Comerica Park. My original plan was to park at the Opera House for free and walk the couple blocks there. Unfortunately, it was pouring. So I spent six bucks to park next to the theater.

This event was super fun, although perhaps I spent a bit too much money. There were so many unique handmade items, I couldn't wrap my head around everything. I only spent about an hour there because it was so crowded and I was afraid I'd end up buying more things. Vendors ranged from handmade clothes, jewelry, stuffed animals and paper sculptures. One of the first things I saw was a table full of yards of fabrics from designers like Amy Butler and cool retro fabrics. I ended up buying four different yards. The company was called Crafty Planet. Here are a couple of fabrics I bought.


I thought I could make this into a cute skirt or bag. I tried to find fabrics that matched but I have a hard time picking out things that go together. I really liked the bold flowers and the simple design. It reminded me of "The Royal Tenenbaums" some how.


I can't decide if I want to make this into a shirt or a skirt. The problem with the fabrics only being a yard long is that I'm limited in what I can do with them. But I might devote Thanksgiving weekend to sewing up some cool clothes.


The inside of the Fillmore is gorgeous. I think it's an old theater and it's decorated in the same style as the Opera House, very decadent. I was hoping that by the time I got there at 4:30, maybe there wouldn't be that many people. I was completely wrong though. There were a few times where I wanted to look at something but had to circle around a few other tables and come back when there was a spot. I was also thinking that most of the vendors would be local but there were a lot from out of state. I later found out that one of the sponsors was BUST magazine, an awesome crafty and liberal women's magazine that I love. Another thing I found funny was that I recognized at least two people from the Library and Information Science Program. Library school kids are crafty kids, too.


There was a great booth with a stand up monster but I couldn't get close enough to see what they were all about. One of the reasons I'm happy living in Detroit is there are so many unique arts and craft fairs like this one. This is the first that I've been able to attend and I'm sad that this Urban Craft Fair only happens once a year but I gathered so many business cards for future sales. I also feel more confident in wanted my make my own Christmas presents this year. It also makes me think that if I can get to a point where I can create clothes in a short amount of time, maybe I can sell my own stuff somewhere. I love supporting handmade crafts.


I bought some birch bark earrings from a table called bettula. The earrings were all so unique I couldn't help but want them. Especially since I'll be able to wear them soon. She also sold birch bark bracelets that clasped with a magnet. I think I want to get a better camera because I can't figure out how to focus better. You can kind of see how they curve under a little bit. The back side is a lighter tan, almost white. The girl selling them said the clasps can be worn either way so both sides can be shown.


I also found some vintage-looking earrings from Mimi & Ferne. Again with the camera issues, so I wish the bright orange would show up better. There's also a little decorative piece on the front of the clasp. It's kind of clamshell-like.





The last thing I bought was a cute headband from Talking Squid. I have a weakness for companies that use aquatic animals in their names. And to things with that are bright yellow green. I always say that I'm going to wear headbands. This time I actually mean it.

The craft fair was really awesome. It made me love living on this side of the state even more. The girl I bought the birch earrings from knew about Kalamazoo and I told her how I do still like it (mostly) but that my favorite places kept dying. The sad thing about Detroit is that the middle of the city is dying but there are so many awesome events surrounding it. Hopefully, whoever becomes the new mayor will help it along even further. The craft fair could happen more often, too. I did manage to snag some flyers for some upcoming craft shows. I'm excited to start on my Christmas presents, too. I highly recommend checking out the links I put in here to support these creative people.