The Argyle Sweatervest Incident

Be Carefree and Sparkly in 2012

2012-01-05T00:03:00.009-06:00

So, Shoot for the Sun in Twenty-One-One ended up being a really great theme for 2011. The year started off in the most amazing way possible---my incredible boyfriend Eddie told me he loved me at about 1 in the morning on New Year's Day :) (and I said it back since I'd been holding it in too!).

In February I spent the first Valentine's Day I've ever had with a boyfriend (well, with a *real* boyfriend, since the only guy I dated in high school during v-day COMPLETELY ignored it) with my sweetie, and it was super duper fun! We also celebrated Eddie's birthday, and I dug my car out of the snow when the blizzard hit (ugh!).

All the while I was working hard in my classes and shooting for the sun by applying to an internship program at the Library of Congress, never dreaming that I'd get in. Eddie and I also had a BLAST when he took me with him and his friend to go see Monday Night Raw live at the Allstate Arena.....never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would watch WWE wrestling, let alone be seeing it in person, but it was SUPER FUN! :)

Spring finally came, and I again spent my birthday with my incredible friends and boyfriend! I also got some unexpected news: I'd gotten into the Library of Congress internship program! Thanks to the most amazing best friend in the entire world, I was able to go to DC and spend the summer working with some of the most intelligent and professional people I have ever met, learning SO much and seeing some truly remarkable things. I earned my Master's Degree, and right before I left for DC I took a super fun trip to Florida with my family :)

And after Florida and a somewhat tearful goodbye, I set off for DC not knowing what to expect from the Junior Fellows program. I had a BLAST!!! From seeing Abraham Lincoln's draft of the Gettysburg Address to making pigment samples to experiencing my 2nd 4th of July in DC, it was a wonderful summer. Another highlight was definitely getting to show Eddie all my favorite places and spaces when he came to visit for our exhibit at the end of the summer :)

So, shooting for the sun was going pretty well! I had a couple of job interviews and was feeling confident that by the end of the year I'd have a job and be able to reach my goal of starting to pay off my loans and becoming fully financially independent. Then, in September, I experienced one of the most exciting events of my life: the birth of my nephew! Little Judah was born on 9/10/11 (so easy to remember, awesome! lol), and it has been so much fun watching him grow up so far. I can't wait to read him so many stories!!

And then life started hitting me a little hard. I hadn't been getting any job interviews, and so I decided to go back to working at Barnes & Noble. I also had tons of super fun fall times with my man and my bestie, including going apple picking and especially carving pumpkins together!

So, even though I hadn't gotten a "real" job yet, I was surprised and delighted to get a holiday job working at 1 of my favorite stores, Lush! I also LOVED bringing Eddie to Thanksgiving and continuing to get to know his family as he got to know mine. Spending our 1 year anniversary downtown was definitely one of the highlights of my year, as was spending Christmas together :) Finally, for Eddie's Christmas/anniversary gift we got to go see Monday Night Raw AGAIN, making it the 2nd time I've been and the only time Eddie has ever been to see it twice in one year. Score one for my present buying skills! lol.

Overall, I feel that Shoot for the Sun in Twenty-One-One was a success. I learned that no matter how hard things seem, they could always be worse. I learned how to lean on my friends and family during hard times, and to celebrate with them when good things happened (which was a lot!). I somewhat failed at my goal to eat better and to exercise more, but I'm learning a lot about what discipline means in that respect and hope to improve this year. Even though I am not fully financially independent yet, I continue to strive for that goal and feel that I did everything in my power to meet it this year. Like my friend Holly said, shooting for the sun is not about being perfect, it's about doing everything in your power to make good things happen for yourself.

This brings me to our theme for 2012: Be Carefree and Sparkly! I'll leave you all with what Holly said on her blog (http://meatlesswithmia.blogspot.com/) about our theme, because I could not agree with her more!

"I can worry & obsess over my future all I want, but I only have so much power. If something is meant to happen, it will happen. Being carefree and sparkly is about enjoying life for what it is. It's about working hard toward my goals, of course...but it's also about giving myself a break. If my plan B doesn't work out, hey, at least I did everything in my power to get there. And if plan C doesn't work--then I'll come up with something else."

LOVE it!! 2012, here we come! :)

Things That Rock

2011-12-04T23:43:00.004-06:00

So here's a secret that's not really a secret: I don't like medicine. I take it as little as possible, and even though I am lucky enough to still qualify for my mom's health insurance, I very rarely go to the doctor. I also haven't been sick that much over the past year, which has been a blessing in and of itself!

But all that changed with one little itch.

Well, it started as a little itch. Then it turned into an uncontrollable itching/burning feeling covering literally my ENTIRE body! Maybe this is an overshare.......lol oh well. I share this because, for once, I am SO GLAD that I "gave in" and went to the doctor! With the prescription and advice he gave me 2 days ago, my itch has almost completely disappeared.

So, this is a post in which I humbly admit defeat. I don't have anything against modern medicine, I believe in it and I think it works, but I think some part of me wants to believe that I'm always strong enough to fight things on my own. In this case, I definitely wasn't, and that is a lesson I definitely need to remember in other situations!

Thankful Series-Day 30!

2011-11-30T08:53:00.002-06:00

I made it!! :) I am honestly shocked that I remembered to blog (almost) every day this month! It's been a lot of fun writing down these little thoughts about things to be thankful for, and hopefully whenever I'm feeling down I can look back on this blog and remember them!

So, for the last day of the thankful series, I am thankful for my blog, and other blogs! I love sharing things with people through my blog, and I especially like looking at other people's blogs for ideas and inspiration. It's been a lot of fun discovering new ideas and interests this way, and I hope to continue blogging (although with the retail holiday season upon us, you may not hear from me for awhile...lol).

Thankful Series-Day 29

2011-11-29T12:06:00.002-06:00

I can't believe today is the 2nd to last day of this series!! It has been both helpful and personally challenging to think of all of these things to be thankful for, and has definitely helped me realize that even when things seem bleak, I still have SO, so much to be thankful for!

So, today I am thankful for fun art! I have a few artsy things hanging around my room that bring me lots of joy :) #1 is definitely the beautiful picture of a bird that my friend Lindsay took and framed for me. It's a robin, one of my favorite birds, and the red of the bird really pops against the green of the background/trees it is sitting in! I also have 2 awesome pictures I got from this year's Chicago Comic-Con, 1 of Sheldon wearing his Flash t-shirt and saying "Bazinga," and another of the full cast of The Big Bang Theory (Leonard is wielding a light saber, and Penny is holding a carton of Chinese take-out!). I also have this neat little plate that I've had since as long as I can remember that has a baby's room/stork on it, and has my time and date of birth :) It's fun to have these little things around to look at, they really brighten up my room!

Thankful Series-Day 28

2011-11-28T15:42:00.002-06:00

I am having a little bit of trouble thinking of something that I haven't already mentioned! Let's see......ahh, I know! I am EXTREMELY thankful that the repair of my car is hopefully not going to take very long, and that it might end up costing much less than originally quoted thanks to a very nice mechanic! Yay!!

Thankful Series-Day 27

2011-11-27T21:43:00.001-06:00

Today I am extremely, extremely thankful that no one was hurt in the car accident I had yesterday. Though my tire was messed up, and my axle is broken, it is getting fixed, and for that I am also thankful for my amazing, amazing boyfriend, and our awesome friends Cody and Lea, who came to the rescue and helped us put on the spare tire at the scene. Long story short, the road was slick from the rain and I spun out, hitting a median but nothing and no one else, thank God!

Thankful Series-Day 26

2011-11-26T10:00:00.000-06:00

Today, I am thankful for my awesome mom and dad. Even though they are included in my friends and family, I feel they deserve special recognition for everything they have done with me. Neither of them makes very much, but even so, they do whatever they can to help me both financially and otherwise. I am so lucky to have parents who support me in all I do and who have helped me along my entire life, especially the past couple of months of job searching. I love them both!! :)

Thankful Series-Day 25

2011-11-25T06:41:00.003-06:00

Today's post will again be a short one, since it's Black Friday and I'm sleepy and I have to work later, lol. But, today I am thankful not only for work, but for schedules! I got my schedule for Lush through Christmas Eve yesterday. Despite 2 small conflicts, which I hope to resolve, I am SO happy because between Lush and Barnes I will now be working EVERY DAY (seriously, 7 days a week) until Christmas!!! This is a LOT, and I'm a little scared of burnout, but hopefully the payoff (literally, payoff) will be worth it!! :) Yay for being able to pay bills! lol

Thankful Series-Day 24

2011-11-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Today, I am thankful for the opportunity to spend the holiday with my mom and my boyfriend while visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins in the city :) I am so glad to have such a wonderful and supportive group of family and friends surrounding me. I love you all!

I also really like this verse that was featured on BibleGateway:

“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100:4-5 NIV

Thankful Series-Day 23

2011-11-23T11:33:00.003-06:00

Today, I am thankful for the beautiful music of The Nutcracker and for my parents, who took our family to see the Nutcracker ballet (always Joffrey!) almost every year when I was a kid (even though I was pretty much the only one who wanted to go...lol!).

I have the entire Nutcracker ballet basically memorized. I know the music, and I have committed to memory so many details of the Joffrey's incredible production. I love the oversized dolls that Uncle Drosselmeyer brings to delight the children. I get sad when the Nutcracker's jaw is broken, and a little scared when Drosselmeyer appears above the clock with the owl on it. I am ENTHRALLED by the Christmas tree's magical growth (my favorite part!), and enchanted by the magical world the Nutcracker brings Clara to. I am so thankful that I have been able to see this ballet, and that I can continue to enjoy the music and be transported by it to the world I remember :)

Thankful Series-Day 22

2011-11-21T22:44:00.003-06:00

I know it's a little early, but tomorrow is going to be a busy day and I'm not sure I'll have time to blog, so this post is going up now :) I have cheered up a lot since earlier today, and am so glad to be doing this series, since it continually reminds me that I have so much in life to be thankful for.

For example, today I am thankful for my computer! This may surprise some of you, because my computer has given me a lot of trouble since I bought it in the beginning of 2008. The USB ports did not work, the internet randomly cuts out, and I get the blue screen of death every now and then. But a few weeks ago I plugged my iPhone into the computer (just to see if I could get it to work) and, miraculously, the USB port recognized that the iPhone was connected! So I can use this computer (not my ancient Dell) to update my iPhone! And just today I decided to take things a step further to see if my computer would recognize my roommate's printer, and it installed the software and was ready to print in mere minutes! I'm not always the most tech-savvy person, but I am very thankful for this computer and the many drops, spills, and other semi-catastrophies it has weathered over the years :)

Not my actual computer, but pretty much what it looks like :)

Thankful Series-Day 21

2011-11-21T14:26:00.003-06:00

I can't lie....aside from an awesome lunch with my awesome roommate, today I am having sort of a rough day. My back hurts, I got yet another rejection e-mail from a library job I thought I had a decent shot at, and I am starting to feel really downtrodden.

But, despite this, I am still thankful, and today I am thankful for the fact that everyone at my new job/Lush has been so nice to me so far! Sometimes starting a new job, especially a retail job where people can be gossipy and mean, really stinks, but everyone I have met there has been so great and helped me so much on my first day yesterday! I am so glad to have found a fun place to work :)

Thankful Series-Day 19 and Day 20

2011-11-20T22:23:00.000-06:00

Sooooooo I definitely did not have time to blog yesterday. I worked from 7am-7pm at both of my jobs, and was so exhausted that I went to bed at like 11 (which is REALLY early for me, considering I am usually up past midnight). I also worked my first "real" day (not a training) at Lush today, and it was so much fun!!

But, on to the Thankful series. Since today I need to name two things, I will choose two things that go together: bread and peanut butter! But not just any bread. Today, I am thankful for the invention of white wheat flour. I used to HAAAAAAAAAATE wheat bread when I was a kid, but thanks to the new white wheat flour (and my discovery of honey wheat bread) I can finally enjoy wheat bread for its slightly healthier properties! As for the peanut butter, I am thankful for it because I never really have been before! I NEVER ate peanut butter growing up, and it is only in the last year or so that I have eaten it on any sort of regular basis. I am thankful for it because not only is it tasty, but it provides me, a mostly-vegetarian, with another source of protein. It also fills me up and is easy to take to work as a sandwich :)

So there we have it! Hopefully I will not forget any more days this month, but if I start working more it may happen again...lol

Thankful Series-Day 18

2011-11-18T12:49:00.003-06:00

Today, I am thankful for long baths and showers :) I am so grateful that we live in a place where we do not have to worry about whether or not the water is clean, and that we have hot showers available too!

Today I used 3 samples of very fun Holiday 2011 LUSH products in my bath/shower. The first was the Three Gold Rings bubble bar!

It smells like vanilla and is a little bit glittery, leaving the water a pretty gold color with lots and lots of delicious smelling bubbles!!

I followed that up by washing my hair with the Snow Fairy shower gel (yes, it is "meant" for your body, but you can also wash your hair and even do your laundry with it!).

This one literally glitters, and smells like candy! It left my hair feeling super soft and great-smelling :)

I finished up by using the Snowcake soap to wash up.

Snowcake smells like almonds and paired really well with the Three Gold Rings bubble bar scent! The soap also made my skin feel really soft, and the fragrance has lingered (so I still smell like cake! score!).

This post is NOT meant to be an advertisement for LUSH, although I do looooooove all of their products (hence wanting to work there!). I love taking baths and showers and all of these things helped to make today's bath/shower particularly enjoyable :)

Thankful Series-Day 17

2011-11-17T13:01:00.002-06:00

Today, I am thankful for cupcakes!! I loooooooove cupcakes :) they make me so happy. Here is a list to better quantify why I love cupcakes:

1. DELICIOUS! They are delicious. lol I love to eat these little sugary delights.

2. Baking them! I love baking pretty much anything, but especially cupcakes. It is a fun way to relax and end up with something pretty and yummy at the end of the process.

3. Sharing them! Cupcakes make people happy, and they are easy to transport and share. I also love sharing them by going to different cupcake stores (like the cupcake hunt that my friend Jessica and I went on a couple of years ago! too fun!)

Thankful Series-Day 16

2011-11-16T12:32:00.001-06:00

Today, I am thankful for my own stupidity. lol this may sound weird, but hear me out. Last night I was FREAKING OUT because I entered my work schedule into my phone wrong. This error led me to believe that I was going to have to find people to switch with, at both jobs, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, in order to make it to both jobs. Luckily for me, for some reason the date had been entered into my phone wrong, and I do not have a conflict at all!! For this, I am EXTREMELY thankful :)

Thankful Series-Day 15

2011-11-15T23:42:00.000-06:00

Just in time!! I ALMOST forgot to write an entry today :) But, today I am thankful for something beautiful: movie scores. I loooove classical music of all kinds, but I especially enjoy a good movie score. Some of my favorites are the Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. One of the songs from The Chronicles of Narnia score came up on my iPod's shuffle on my way home from work, and after a kind of cruddy day at work it was nice to have something relaxing and beautiful to cheer me up on the way home :)

Thankful Series-Day 14

2011-11-14T13:31:00.002-06:00

Today, I am so so thankful for free laundry!! Monday is usually my laundry day, and I am so thankful to live in a place where I do not have to pay for my laundry, worry about having quarters around/procuring said quarters, or walking up and down multiple flights of stairs and sitting in an uncomfortable laundry room keeping watch over my clothes and bedding while they get all clean. It is so nice to be able to walk down the hall and to be able to hear the buzz of the dryer when it is finished from my bedroom! :)

Thankful Series-Day 13

2011-11-13T18:42:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for gift cards!! My boyfriend's friend gave him a gift card to TGI Friday's that he found the other day, and it enabled us to go have a dinner out, something we have been avoiding doing to save money. It was great to spend some quality time together and enjoy some delicious dishes :)

Thankful Series-Day 12

2011-11-12T12:08:00.003-06:00

Today, I am thankful for something that actually happened a few days ago! I am thankful that I was able to finally get my hair cut and dyed! My red hair is unfortunately not natural, but I loooooove it and I actually get kind of depressed when I don't have it/it has faded out :( But, thankfully, the other day I decided to go to the Tricoci University salon that is right by my house! Since the students of the school are the ones performing the haircuts/other stuff, it is WAY cheap, and a haircut and color that normally would have cost me over $100 only cost about $50! So, I am extremely thankful that I found this salon, because I was able to afford to get my hair done (which sounds silly but a haircut can really make a difference, especially on a job interview!)!

Thankful Series-Day 11

2011-11-11T10:31:00.002-06:00

I thought it was going to be hard to come up with things for this series! Maybe as we get closer to the end of November I'll have a harder time......but today, given my plans, it was pretty easy to come up with something! Today I am thankful for book signings!

Later today I am going to a book signing. Christopher Paolini is one of my favorite authors. When he was only 17, he wrote and self-published the book Eragon. Through hard work and a little luck contacting a publisher, the book became a worldwide best-seller, and since it was the first in a series ensured that the rest of the series would get written and read! I jumped on the bandwagon of this series pretty quickly (unlike Harry Potter, which I didn't read until the 5th book had just come out). The advantage of this was the excitement of getting to wait for new books to come out.

The disadvantage was that the series, originally intended to be a trilogy, got expanded into four books, and the fourth book took FOREVER to come out! But it is finally here, and I am going to a book signing later today to get my copy signed by the author :) squee!!!

Thankful Series-Day 10

2011-11-10T13:57:00.002-06:00

Today, I am thankful for something that I didn't think I'd get to be thankful for until a little later: snow!!

I looooooooooooooooooove snow! I love the cold, I love staying inside and being cozy, and I especially love a good excuse to drink more hot chocolate :) I think I might have reverse seasonal affective disorder. I hate summer (spring I don't mind too much), but I LOVE fall and winter! I am so glad that the days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler, and that the holidays are almost upon us. I can't wait until some of this snow actually sticks and I can build snowmen and hopefully go sledding like I wanted to last year but didn't have a chance to. Or, maybe if I'm REALLY lucky I will FINALLY get to go ice skating outside in Millennium Park! :)

Thankful Series-Day 9

2011-11-08T23:43:00.002-06:00

So I am posting this a little early (by 15 minutes and technically the night before), but I want to get it out before I forget! Today, I am thankful for my roommates :) I know that they are included in the friends and family I have already been thankful for, but they did something really nice for me that I'd like to share. A few weeks back I got a parking ticket for parking my car on the street during hours when the street sweepers were driving by. I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be on the street during that time, and Lindsay and Carl very graciously paid the parking ticket for me, since at that point I was even more broke than I am now!!

So, every Wednesday I have been trying really hard to wake up before 8 (setting my alarm and/or playing musical cars the night before) to move my car so I don't get another ticket. Well. Tonight I came home to find that Carl has parked on the street so that I can park in the driveway, so I don't have to get up early to move my car in the morning and I will not get a ticket! This may seem like a small thing, and it may not even have been on purpose, but I am extremely thankful to have such thoughtful and generous roommates who have my back :)

The best roommates ever! :)

Thankful Series-Day 8

2011-11-08T14:35:00.001-06:00

Today I am thankful for something that may seem strange: conferences!! I am thankful for conferences because my dear friend Maralee, who lives in California, was sent here to Chi-town to attend a conference for her job. This conference being here means that I get to see her tonight, and I am sooooooooo excited!!! :) So, in short, YAY CONFERENCES!!

Thankful Series-Day 7

2011-11-07T14:29:00.004-06:00

What a great weekend! :) Today, I am thankful for something that might seem kind of strange: raking leaves. I've had a little trouble with being lazy lately, but today it is very nice outside and I thought to myself "hey, self, let's go rake those leaves!" It was a fun way to get outside, enjoy the weather, and move around without feeling like I was "working out" (which I haaaaate). Leaves FTW! :)

Thankful Series-Day 6

2011-11-06T16:45:00.002-06:00

Today, I am thankful for my cat :) If you are reading this and you also know me in "real" life, then you know how much I love my cat! I rescued Rory from the Chicago Humane Society in July of 2008. She is my little cat-dog, always meowing and rolling around on her back for a belly rub, and she comes when she is called. She brings me so much joy and happiness, and I am especially thankful that when she got sick with pancreatitis and had to be put in the kitty cat hospital last year that I was able to find a way to pay for it (a 3 day stay there did not come cheap!). I love my little fluffball! :)

Thankful Series-Day 5

2011-11-05T11:12:00.003-05:00

Most people have pretty regular schedules. They get up every Monday-Friday at a pretty set time, go to the same job, come home around the same time, go to bed, rinse, repeat. They always know that they will do this, they always know that they will have the weekend off, and they know that they will probably not have a problem taking a day off for vacation pretty much whenever they want.

My schedule is not like this.

But, today at least, I am thankful that my schedule isn't like this. Even though I without a doubt need a job that will enable me to pay my bills, I am thankful that if I want or need to sleep in until 11 am to feel rested, I can. I can hang out with my friends during the day (if they're available), I can cook or bake, I can watch tons of TV and read books, and go shopping at odd hours when most people can't shop so the stores aren't super crowded! Although the stability of a "real job" and the routine are something I look forward to, until then I am thankful that I can sleep as late as I want (unless I am opening....booo........lol).

Thankful Series-Day 4

2011-11-04T15:17:00.001-05:00

Today, I am thankful for heating pads. Again, this may seem like an odd thing to be thankful for. But without my heating pad I would have no relief from the random, debilitating back pain I sometimes experience because of my herniated disc. I am very glad to have had physical therapy, which taught me other ways to relieve/prevent back pain, such as sleeping positions and at-home exercises. Without these I'd be in big trouble!!

Thankful Series-Day 3

2011-11-03T13:12:00.002-05:00

Today, I am thankful for something simple: sweet potatoes. Why, you may ask? Well, I LOVE potatoes. Mashed, boiled, roasted, baked, sauteed, fried, I love 'em all! But, often these delicious delights are not necessarily the best for you nutritionally. Enter the sweet potato!

Prior to about a year ago, my only experience with sweet potatoes was the casserole my mom makes for Thanksgiving. It's loaded with brown sugar and marshmallows, and to be honest I don't really like it much. But when I decided to try to eat more healthy foods I decided to give the sweet potato another chance, since they are much better for you then regular potatoes. I like to boil and mash, or bake and mash them, with a little butter, salt, and pepper, and they are delicious! I am thankful to have found a food that is both tasty and good for me :)

Thankful Series-Day 2

2011-11-02T11:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I was thankful for jobs. Today, I am incredibly grateful for my wonderful friends and family, and especially for my amazing boyfriend Eddie. I don't know what I would do without each and every one of you, as you all bring me the greatest joy and happiness that I could ever imagine! :)

Thankful Series-Day 1

2011-11-01T22:55:00.002-05:00

As usual, it's been awhile! I am a pretty lazy blogger. To be honest, I just haven't had the motivation, as I've been hitting the job search pretty hard. Before I talk more about that, I would like to introduce something new! I have decided to join my awesome friend Jessica (click her name to go to her blog) in doing a Thankful series! How it works: every day during November I will write about something I am thankful for. It may be short, long, fun, serious, or heartfelt, but I am going to try to do it! :)

So, for today, I am thankful for jobs!! At the beginning of October I started working at Barnes & Noble, and have also just been hired for the holidays at Lush, one of my favorite soap/cosmetics stores! Even though both are extremely part time, I am thankful that I have this income and hope that soon I will be able to find a full time job.

Current Obsessions

2011-09-27T11:24:00.003-05:00

1. Hot Chocolate from Caribou Coffee

I looooooove Caribou Coffee! I wish there were more of them around here, but luckily there is one very near my awesome boyfriend's house, and so lately I have been going there to hang out on Tuesday afternoons. I leave my house a little early to beat the suburban rush hour traffic, order my DELICIOUS soy half-milk half-dark hot chocolate, sit and read until he gets home, and then we have our TV night. I have come to quite enjoy this Tuesday routine, which I only mention because right now my car won't start and it might mean that I can't do this today :( we'll see what happens...

2. Candy Corn

Part of our Halloween decorations are 2 dishes of candy corn, and I can't stop eating it! I'm so glad fall is here, for many reasons, but I always enjoy the return of candy corn to the candy aisle.

3. RIOT, Paramore's 1st album

I've had this album on my iPod for a long time, but lately I can't stop listening to it! I really like this band, I wish I had their newer albums but the only new-ish songs of theirs I have are the ones from the Twilight soundtrack....lol.

4. How I Met Your Mother

I've always liked this show, but in my opinion seasons 4-6 were pretty crappy. The characters stopped being themselves and started becoming too over the top, and the jokes were just trying way too hard to be cool. But, season 7 just started, and it's been great so far! It's like they finally stopped trying to be cool and started focusing more on the characters actually doing things that their character as a person would do. I can't wait to see more!!

Big Fail...

2011-09-20T12:17:00.005-05:00

So for all my good intentions, I have once again failed to regularly update this thing....whoops. I have been busy applying for jobs, which is unfortunately not going well. I finally put in an application at Barnes & Noble (where I've worked on and off for about 7 years), and I'm hoping to hear from them soon! I got totally played at an interview for a "marketing position" which turned out to be a pyramid scheme, so I'm glad to at least be applying to a company I know and trust.

But, despite this, I am SOOOOOO excited to have become an AUNT!!!! My nephew Judah Gavin was born on 9/10/11 (awesome birthday!), and he is SUPER adorable. I am so happy that he is finally here, and I can't wait to see him grow up (and buy him tons of cute stuff!).

In other news, thanks to the most awesome best friend and roommate ever, I now have an iPhone!!! :) It isn't hooked up as a phone yet, since right now I'm still on my mom's family plan (which is free for me and I can't afford my own bill yet), but so far I LOOOOOOVE having it! My favorite apps are Words with Friends, Curls on the Go (which gives me my "frizz forecast" for the day, telling me if I'll be having a good hair day or not, lol), and Instagram. Here are a few pictures I've taken with it so far:

My brother and sister-in-law's dog Taz, he is sad that he's not the baby of the family anymore:

My nephew Judah:

My roommates' dog Noel begging for attention:

Rory!:

Rory again!:

So, in my spare time, I've been doing a lot of thinking and chillaxing. I've especially been enjoying reading the The Pioneer Woman and watching her new show on the Food Network! I've also really enjoyed reading a blog called Katie Cupcake. Her sense of style is really neat, and her posts make me want to go out and buy so many clothes! I've never really had a huge interest in fashion or style, but reading her blog (and watching The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo) makes me want to think more about my personal style and give my closet a little more "direction." This might be easier once I have a job and know what kinds of clothes I can wear there! Until then, I am going to try to update this thing more, beginning with some of the fun new recipes I've tried lately :)

Almost Home

2011-08-04T17:10:00.006-05:00

In honor of today being my second to last full day in D.C., I thought I'd share some things I will miss about my job and this wonderful city!

1. Touching History

I will most definitely miss how close I have come to some of the most interesting books and documents I have ever seen. Today I got to observe the hyperspectral imaging of 2 such documents, both written by Abraham Lincoln. One was his draft of the Emancipation Proclamation (pictured below), and the other was a copy of his first inaugural address that was typed/printed with many handwritten notes/corrections attached that flipped open to reveal the original text below. It was SO COOL to be so close to something that good ol' Abe had ACTUALLY written in his own hand...definitely one of the highlights of my time here! And, of course, there is the gorgeous Ptolemy atlas that I have been working on all summer, as well as many other cool things that some of the other interns found and exhibited.

2. FOOD!

There are some seriously yummy restaurants here! Those of you who know me well know that I tend to get incredibly specific and intense food cravings for a particular dish from a particular restaurant. Unfortunately, the following D.C. institutions are not very easily accessible from Chicago, and so if a craving strikes I will be pretty much screwed....lol. Good Stuff, We The Pizza, and Firehook provided me with some deliciousness that I will definitely miss (especially the milkshakes made from homemade gelato.....soooooo good!)! I will also miss the convenience of Eastern Market, and all of its quirky vendors. I hope to find a farmer's market back home, because Eastern Market's delicious local produce has definitely turned me into a farmer's market devotee!

3. Things to see and do!

One great thing about DC is that you are never too far away from something cool! The free museums and monuments, as well as the events put on by these institutions, provide almost endless entertainment options that are almost always free! Even though Chicago/the suburbs has tons to do as well, I will miss the Botanic Gardens, the National Museum of the American Indian, taking walks around the Capitol Building and down the Mall, and of course the Library of Congress's beautiful Jefferson building and all of its exhibits.

Sleepy

2011-08-02T18:19:00.002-05:00

I have been sleepy, almost constantly, for the last two months, hence the lack of updates. I plan to start blogging more regularly soon, though! In the mean time, here is a list of goals I have for August:

1. Get a JOB!!

2. Once I get a job, formulate a budget and stick to it!

3. Go to Chicago Comic-Con and not spend more than $20 (lmao, we'll see how that works out...)

4. Go to the Ren Faire and not spend more than $20 (again, we'll see how that works out!)

5. Make time for all of my wonderful friends, who I have missed since being gone!

6. Somehow repay my amazing boyfriend for all of the hard work he's done fixing my car for me!

7. Be a better cat mom and take Rory to the vet.

8. Work out at least twice a week/go to the gym at least once a week*

*note: I have a gym membership that does not expire until next year, and so I feel the need to go there even though it's slightly far from where I will be living when I get home because it's kind of an expensive gym. But, the group fitness classes make it totally worth it!)

9. Re-read the Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr books before November when the final book in the series comes out!

10. Clean/organize my room

I think 10 is good for now. I may add more later :) Happy August, everyone!

Trying Again!

2011-05-31T16:25:00.002-05:00

Earlier this year, I posted some of my goals for the year 2011. So far, I've done okay, but I have definitely not eaten vegan nearly as much as I wanted to. Since I just moved to DC and there is an awesome organic/health food store pretty near my apartment, I am considering this a fresh start (minus the milkshake I had on my way home from the store.....it's like a billion degrees here, I couldn't help it! lol).

I bought tons of healthy food from the store, including oatmeal, brown rice, sweet potatoes, apples, zucchini, cucumber, kale, and more. I have to say that I really enjoy shopping at this store save for one thing: the semi-judgey produce guy I encountered today! I asked him if the store sold any peaches, because I was really craving a peach, and he was all like "well when we do, they are locally grown and organic, but it's a little EARLY for peaches, we USUALLY don't get them until AUGUST...." oh, sorry I'm not a FARMER, dude, I just assumed that since it's 5 thousand degrees here and basically almost summer that maybe you'd have a peach! lol. Nah, he wasn't that bad, but he did make me feel slightly dumb for wanting a peach. In any case, I plan to make and bring my lunches to the Library of Congress, and hopefully I will lose a little weight from eating a healthy, vegan, whole-foods diet and walking around DC so much!! :)

Summer is here!

2011-05-25T12:41:00.003-05:00

I finally feel like summer is here! I don't have very many words, and this place was beautiful, so I will let the pictures from my family's recent trip to Florida speak for themselves :)

It may be...

2011-05-18T14:54:00.004-05:00

It may be cold-ish here in Illinois...but in less than 2 days I will be enjoying sunny Florida with my family!

It may be hard to choose what to pack to bring to DC, since I am flying and will be carrying my own luggage from the airport to my new apartment...luckily I am good at Tetris, so hopefully I will be able to fit everything I need into my suitcase(s)!

It may NOT be good for me...but I really enjoy eating cookies for breakfast! lol

It may be annoying when she wakes me up, but I still love snuggling with my Rory cat and letting her sleep in my room at night.

It WILL be hard to leave my boyfriend, friends, and family for 2 months...but I know it will be worth it for the amazing experience that is sure to come when I leave for DC in less than 2 weeks!

Wonderful :)

2011-04-20T02:17:00.003-05:00

Life lately has been busy but wonderful. I am roughly two weeks away from finishing my master's degree, which blows my mind. I have gotten an amazing internship at the Library of Congress and found out that I will be living smack in the middle of Capitol Hill. I have amazing friends, a great family, and best of all, a super wonderful and supportive boyfriend who made my birthday so special and will take adorable pictures with me like this one:

I haven't crafted anything in awhile, as I've been busy with homework and getting ready to move (again!), but soon I'll be able to post pics of the Shedd Aquarium adventure I had with le boyfriend a few weeks ago! :)

Oh, fun fact, I HAVE been cooking a lot :) I made the Pioneer Woman's recipe for fettuccine alfredo, as well as some homemade bruschetta WITHOUT a recipe, and both turned out really well!! I can't wait to try more new recipes! I'll also post pics of my birthday cake decorating fail.....I wanted to make a cake that looked like it was covered in buttercream hydrangeas, and ended up with something a LITTLE different....lol.

An Announcement

2011-04-07T22:44:00.003-05:00

Hello, dear readers! I am very excited to announce the news that I received today. I'll give you a hint: columns.

Not enough? How about another: massively awesome reading room.

Still not sure? Okay, I'll tell you. This summer I will be interning in Washington, D.C. at the Library of Congress!!!!!! :)

I am SUPER DUPER excited about this, more than I can put into words! I will be a part of their 2011 Junior Fellows Summer Intern program, likely working on something called the Ptolemy Project helping the LOC researchers in the preservation and rare books departments examine a hand-colored "Geographia" atlas from the year 1513. I cannot believe that this incredible opportunity has come my way! I hope and think that I will learn so much from the LOC staff about preservation, conservation, the study of rare materials, etc.

So, that is my news! :) I will certainly miss being in the Chicago area for the summer, but I think it will definitely be worth it!!

Cake Pops

2011-03-28T01:01:00.002-05:00

I went to Starbucks a few days ago and came across this:

Le what?!?! A CAKE POP at Starbucks?! Awesome!! I read a blog called Bakerella, who bakes many things but has recently made cake pops very popular via her website and book. They are supposedly the new cupcakes, although I have also heard that whoopie pies are the new cupcakes, so who knows. lol all I know is that these little cake-lolly pops are delicious, and I can't wait to have more! :)

Spring!

2011-03-21T14:09:00.003-05:00

The storms we had last night have given me hope that perhaps spring is finally arriving!! When I think of spring I think of many things, but I especially think of flowers. And when I think of flowers, I think of one place: the United States Botanic Garden.

It is part of the Smithsonian "complex" of museums, and is free to the public. I think it is one of the most under-appreciated museums in D.C., because it is GORGEOUS!! The last time I was there with my roommate, they were doing a large exhibit on orchids that was so beautiful. It is one of my favorite places in D.C.! Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

Busboys & Poets

2011-03-18T12:41:00.002-05:00

Due to my massive french toast craving this morning, I thought I'd share with you all a little bit about a cool place that my roommate and I visited the last time I was in DC! This place had delicious french toast. It is called Busboys & Poets, and it's super neat! Here's a picture to give you an idea of the "vibe" of the place:

via The Fab Empire

It was this cool cafe with a little store inside that had tons of books and other fun stuff, like bowls and bracelets and blankets and other things that start with "b", but all of the merchandise in the store was fair-trade and locally sourced. I really liked this place and have not yet found a replacement french toast that I enjoy quite as much....luckily this place can serve as an acceptable substitute for my REAL favorite restaurant in DC, Bread and Chocolate, which is sadly no longer with us :( booooooo!!!

Anyway. I get attached to restaurants :) happy Friday, everyone!!

Weekly Goals

2011-03-17T00:25:00.002-05:00

I just read an awesome post on my friend Holly's blog titled "Weekly Goals". She talked about how peppering a to-do list with more fun or enjoyable tasks or goals can make the rest of your to-do tasks seem more manageable. I think this is a FANTASTIC idea! Recently I've felt a bit overwhelmed by my schoolwork, and so here is part of my to-do list for the rest of the week, including some more "fun" tasks so that I can balance the have to do's with some more fun to do's that will help my personal well-being :)

1. Complete government information quiz
2. Complete government information homework
3. Do research for exhibitions class project/visit Columbia College library
4. Go to Zumba or another class at the gym
5. Grocery shopping for ingredients to make another delicious quinoa samosa bowl
6. Birthday present shopping for my dad!
7. Do research/begin putting together list for YA Literature Website project
8. Clean apartment/start going through closet and getting rid of some junk
9. Re-do budget for the rest of spring 2011 semester
10. Have a super fun time hanging out with le boyfriend and other friends this weekend! (after the homework is done...lol)

Things I'm Loving Right Now

2011-03-14T18:48:00.002-05:00

1. LeVersha Chair from Anthropologie. Wouldn't these be so cute in a breakfast nook, or on a patio?

via decor8

2. Bethenny Frankel's book "Naturally Thin." Most of you know this, but I just started Weight Watchers, and even though throughout the book she stresses that she does not like dieting and wants the reader to eat in a habitually, naturally thin way rather than following a strict diet regimen, it has helped me with following the Weight Watchers Plan!

via Bethenny Frankel

3. Daylight Savings Time, because now it's still light outside when I take the half hour break between my two Monday night classes! And for once I didn't have the worst night's sleep ever on the night we set the clocks ahead! :)

image via Daily Postal

4. Vegan potlucks! Last week I had a vegan potluck lunch with my friend Holly and my roommate Lindsay. Lindsay is a devout carnivore, and so she was skeptical, but I am happy to say that we all enjoyed everything we made! I made a quinoa samosa bowl, Holly made her "famous" polenta stuffed peppers, and Lindsay made some vegan pumpkin bread for dessert! It was all DELICIOUS and I hope to have another soon!

Quinoa Samosa Bowl, recipe at http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=38246.0

5. Cute pictures and fun times :)

Sometimes...

2011-02-23T18:52:00.004-06:00

...you just really need a cookie. Today was one of those days. I actually had an awesome day, nothing bad happened at all, I just really wanted a cookie. lol I'm a lot like this guy:

I really love cookies! I had to run to the grocery store for a few other essentials, and a bag of Nestle Tollhouse Semi-Sweet morsels called my name as I walked by....since I had flour, sugar, and everything else on hand back at home from my cupcake-baking extravaganza a few weeks ago, I decided to buy the chips and make some cookies! I followed the directions on the bag with one exception: a SECRET INGREDIENT! That's right, folks, I've gone Iron-Chef style on these cookies. I added a sprinkle of cinnamon, and it made them DELICIOUS! Here's a (bad from my phone) picture:

yummy!!! The only problem is that the recipe on the bag made a LOT of cookies, I can't eat them all on my own and my roommate just started Weight Watchers so she won't help me....lol so I'll probably bring them to game night tomorrow to make le boyfriend and my roommate's boyfriend eat some! :) hehehe

Illinois is for Lovers!

2011-02-14T13:53:00.005-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!! This is the first time I have ever had a significant other on Valentine's Day, and I have to say that I have really enjoyed it :) hehehe. My wonderful boyfriend took me to this neat movie theater last night since I have class for 4 hours tonight. I didn't know where we were going, so I was really excited when I figured it out since I've wanted to go there for a long time. It is a movie theater/restaurant combo where they serve your food while the movie is going on! It was a lot of fun, we saw "No Strings Attached" with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, and it was really funny and sweet.

I thought that was the extent of my Valentine's Day surprises, but boy was I wrong! I woke up this morning to find an adorable stuffed animal dog and a card in my car, and was delivered flowers later this afternoon :)

So I'd say it's been a pretty awesome day!! lol and I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but everything he did for me was on top of the fact that he got new tires put on my car about a week ago after one of the front ones went flat again. I would like to go on the record to say that I have the best boyfriend in the whole world!! :)

I also got him a few presents. I spent the past few weeks making this:

I apologize for the crappy picture, I took it with my phone (as usual) so it's not the greatest. What you see, dear readers, in the above photo is an embroidered love note! I got the idea from a blog I read called Katie Cupcake . It is the first time I have ever embroidered something (although I did cross stitch growing up), and I really enjoyed it! I may do some pillowcases for my bed next...we'll see how much time I have with all of the homework I've been getting lately!

So, a Happy Valentine's Day to all of you, and I will leave you with this funny e-Valentine picture someone posted on Facebook:

Recently...

2011-02-04T15:57:00.004-06:00

Life has been rather busy! I have been doing lots of homework and hanging out with friends....so, I mean, that doesn't sound that complicated, but I feel like I haven't had any free time lately for some reason! So here are some pictures that describe what I have been doing for the past few weeks:

1. Buying presents! It was my sister-in-law's birthday a few weeks ago, and since I found out that I am going to be an aunt (!!!), I included a little something for my future niece or nephew with her present, pictured below.

2. Hanging out with my awesome roommate, who bought me these super adorable owl pillows!

3. Cooking!! Since I made those Snickerdoodle Cupcakes I have been on a roll! I made home made onion straws, hamburgers (for the 1st time ever!), and a baked pasta dish (a recipe from my sis-in-law). So far I am pleased with the results, apparently my years of watching nothing but the Food Network are finally paying off...lol!

4. Reading! I don't have a picture for this, but I have been reading comics, YA books, and much more for my classes. I've also been reading for fun using my new Nook Color e-reader, which I ADORE! I will post a full review of its features soon, but so far my favorite thing about it is that I can read magazines in stunning color (seriously), and use the internet/listen to Pandora radio. I also recently read "Black Heels and Tractor Wheels" by Ree Drummond (aka The Pioneer Woman) and adored it! She is a clever and fun writer, and the story of how she met and married her husband and transitioned from being a vegetarian city girl to a carnivorous country wife is really entertaining.

So, that's all for now. Hopefully soon I will have time to put together a few posts that aren't quite so random! :)

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes!

2011-01-20T18:20:00.006-06:00

I have a confession to make: I have never made cupcakes from scratch before. Until now!! A blog I read called That Winsome Girl (found at http://thatwinsomegirl.blogspot.com/) posted this recipe about a week ago. Since I have been wanting to try some from-scratch cupcakes for awhile now, I decided to give them a shot.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

These are DELICIOUS!! I used the snickerdoodle cupcakes recipe posted on That Winsome Girl's blog for the cupcakes, which she got from Martha Stewart. Here is a link to the Martha Stewart version of the recipe:

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/snickerdoodle-cupcakes

I then made a cream cheese frosting, as I have recently become rather fond of it. However, having no experience making cream cheese frosting, I stayed with my trusted source and found a recipe for cream cheese frosting in That Winsome Girl's archived blog posts:

http://thatwinsomegirl.blogspot.com/2009/08/pink-velvet-cupcakes.html

These cupcakes are SO DELICIOUS! The cupcake itself is cinnamony and sweet, and the cream cheese frosting is pretty sweet as well...so I suppose if you don't like sweet things you will not like these, but since I am a HUGE sweet tooth I loved them! I then put the icing in a Ziploc bag and piped it onto the cupcakes, topping each with a tiny heart sprinkle. Delicious and adorable, if I do say so myself :) BE WARNED: This recipe makes about 28 cupcakes, and many of my cupcakes were overfilled and misshapen, so don't do what I did and assume that it only makes, say, 12 or 24 cupcakes, lol.

I've always wanted...

2011-01-09T09:04:00.004-06:00

...a fun typewriter like this one:

-via WeHeartIt, http://weheartit.com/entry/6143334

It would either make writing papers really fun or a huge pain in the butt...lol!

5 Songs I Am Currently Obsessed With

2011-01-05T23:37:00.004-06:00

Hey, ya'll! The following is a list of songs that I can't stop singing. Disclaimer: The Argyle Sweatervest Incident, its writer and associates will not claim responsibility for getting any of the following songs stuck in your head. You have been warned. lol :)

1. "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry

This song is so beautiful! I can't stop listening to it. The lyrics and melody are just gorgeous, and I am telling you all right now that if I do die young I want you to do exactly what this song says.

link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM

2. "Our Song" by Taylor Swift

Continuing in this list's country theme so far, I can't stop listening to "Our Song!" It may be because of the line "When we're on the phone and you talk real slow, 'cuz it's late and your mama don't know" due to the frequency with which I have had hours-long late-night phone conversations with a certain someone...lol.

link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2stN7kH28

3. "Uncharted" by Sara Bareilles

I really like this song! It's from her new album, which I wasn't crazy about at first but now can't stop listening to. Other songs from this album that I like include "Machine Gun," "Bluebird," and "Let The Rain." I really, really like Sara Bareilles, mostly because of the awesome piano parts accompanying her jazzy voice.

link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqbcEC3LPno

4. "The Wandering Kind" by Josh Groban

Again a theme emerges....I love this song because a) Josh Groban wrote it himself and b) it's all piano, no singing. This video isn't the best representation of this song, I like the version on his newest CD (Illuminations) better, but if you get a chance you should check it out. I love listening to instrumental music, and this song gives me the goosebumps at times.

link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5VbCI62H4s

5. "Hold You In My Arms" by Ray LaMontagne

I have to admit that I really haven't listened to the words in the verses of this song very carefully! I just really like it, it's mellow and easy to listen to, and the chorus says "I could hold you in my arms, I could hold you in my arms forever," and I find that sweet.

link to YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRotMzTuKzo&feature=fvst

So that's it for now! Oh, and thus far 2011 has been the favorite of my 23 and 3/4 years on Earth. Let's hope it stays that way! :)

Reflections: Awesome Again in 2010!

2010-12-30T15:31:00.005-06:00

So if you are reading this blog and also know me in real life, you may know that every year since I started going to Loyola my friend Holly and I have chosen a theme for the year rather than making specific New Year's resolutions. This year our theme was Awesome Again in 2010, and I think it lived up to expectations!

Things that were awesome in 2010:

1. Going to library school and learning SO much, including bookbinding which I have always wanted to know how to do.

2. Moving to my new apartment and having an awesome roommate who helped my paint my room blue!!

3. Getting my first car all on my own!

4. Meeting someone amazing :)

Since most of my year has revolved around a) being at school and then b) coordinating leaving school, I can't think of many more specifics, but I think that 2010 definitely allowed me to become awesome again :)

That said, I am excited for our 2011 theme, Shoot for the Sun in Twenty-One-One!! This year I will be graduating from my master's degree program, looking for a job, beginning to pay back my student loans, and trying to be fully financially responsible for myself, so shoot for the sun seems like a good theme to follow because there is a lot I want to accomplish this year! I also want to continue trying to eat more healthily, as well as exercising more by joining the same gym my roommate belongs to. So, wish me luck, and hopefully 2011 will be as awesome as 2010 was!! :) Happy New Year, everyone!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T11:52:00.004-06:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! I have had a great holiday so far. I came home yesterday and spent the day alternately reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and napping, then had an awesome dinner with my mom and dad and opened presents. I got a bunch of ornaments, including this guy:

It's a cupcake Santa!! I think he's tres adorable :) I also got some super comfy pj's and slippers. Later my brother and his wife are coming for dinner, which should be super delicious again! I love it when my dad cooks, it's always so yummy, even if he does refuse to accept the fact that I'm a vegetarian...lol. But, to all of you reading this blog, I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! I am gearing up to finally move all of my stuff from Champaign to my new apartment in the next week or so, and then to work on my New Year's resolutions, which I will blog about soon.

Merry Christmas!

The Tale of the Voynich Manuscript

2010-12-14T12:07:00.003-06:00

With all of the research that has been done on nearly every aspect of our history, it is sometimes surprising to hear that there are still some artifacts and events that escape our understanding. I learned about one such artifact from a classmate who did research on something called the Voynich Manuscript for their final project.

According to Wikipedia (and my classmate), "The Voynich manuscript is a handwritten book thought to have been written in the 15th or 16th century and comprising about 240 vellum pages,[notes 1] most with illustrations. The author, script, and language remain unknown: for these reasons it has been described as "the world's most mysterious manuscript".[1]" Here are some of the images contained within:

Aren't those cool?? There are tons of conspiracy theories surrounding this manuscript. Its ownership can be traced for its entire history except for 200 years when no one knows where it was or what happened to it. Various testing and dating has proven that the manuscript's parchment and ink are authentic to the time period that it is supposedly from (the 15th or 16th century). No one, and I mean no one, has yet been able to decipher the language or code that this manuscript is written in. I am fascinated by this! How, in all this time, has no one been able to figure out what it's about? Is it real? Is it a fake? Does it mean anything at all? Does it contain some sort of astounding secret, or if we ever decipher it will it just tell us something obvious, like poison ivy is poisonous? It's a mystery...

Chocolate=love.

2010-12-06T10:44:00.003-06:00

I could happily eat one of these for breakfast every single day for the rest of my life.

Chocolate chip scones are delicious!!

I've always wanted...

2010-12-01T09:56:00.002-06:00

...to do this:

This morning's snow on the ground made me so happy it is finally winter! And every winter I say that I am going to go ice skating in Millennium Park, but I never have. The last time I went ice skating was....I can't even remember. I THINK it was when I went to visit a friend of mine who lives in New Mexico, but it's been awhile. We tried to go ice skating at an outdoor rink when our high school marching band was in London, but it was closed by the time we got there. At any rate, I'm hoping I can get into the city at least once this winter to give this a shot, and to go to the Christkindlmarket!

Christmastime is here!

2010-11-29T01:19:00.003-06:00

My thought process for this blog entry was just completely interrupted by a delicious looking cheesecake being talked about right now by the Food Network. Le yum.

Anyway. lol as usual things have been pretty busy for me! I have been working a lot at Barnes and Noble, and trying to finish up all of my projects for all of my classes. Although I have enjoyed my classes and would never ever take back my experiences in Champaign, I must admit that at this point I really just can't wait for this semester/December to be over so I can move to my new apartment!

Today my almost-roommate and I decorated her/our apartment for Christmas, and it was so much fun! I really love the winter/Christmas season. The weather is cold so you can wear these:

and drink this:

while sitting near one of these (if you're lucky!):

I had an awesome time the day before Thanksgiving putting up the Christmas tree in my mom's apartment. I can't wait for it to be closer to Christmas so that I can drive around and look at everyone's Christmas lights/decorations! Am I the only one that does that? Is that creepy? Whatever, I enjoy it, it's something my family did growing up and I think it's really fun! I also can't wait to watch all of my favorite Christmas movies! Here are some of my favorites:

But, dear readers, I will leave you with this, my favorite Christmas movie of all:

That's all for today! What are some of your favorite things about winter/Christmastime? :)

Working...

2010-11-16T08:29:00.002-06:00

Project number 1 of 4:

This is for my Preservation class, as part of a presentation on the preservation of cartographic materials (aka maps). I took this last night before I finished it, and since then have added some "tips" to it as well.

I also took a break from working last night to buy this:

All I have to say so far is this: if I could listen to the prelude on repeat all day every day, I would. The rest of the CD was amazing also, though, so I wouldn't want to do that!! Josh Groban wrote or co-wrote nearly every song on the album and plays piano for almost all of them too, and I'm pretty sure it's my favorite album of his to date. I DEFINITELY have to see him on tour, because if the album is any indication, it's gonna be off the chain!!! ....well, as off the chain as Josh Groban gets, which is pretty civilized. We'll put it this way: at every concert of his that I've been to, I've been within spitting distance of someone who is carting around an oxygen tank...lol.

My "Medieval" Book

2010-11-10T09:43:00.003-06:00

I have been working hard lately on my final project for my History of the Book class. I decided to attempt to replicate a medieval book structure. I can't decide how I feel about it yet. First, it was much harder than I expected it to be. Second, I'm having trouble finding the materials I need, particularly some appropriately sized wooden boards for the covers. Third, I think I screwed up the kettle stitches at the top and bottom of the spine. So I may actually be speaking to my professor today and changing my project...we'll see. I can't decide! But here are some pictures of my work in progress. Book-minded friends, let me know what you think, because I don't know if it's of good enough quality to hand in!

My makeshift sewing frame/sewing process:

The semi-finished textblock:

Get Psyched!

2010-11-08T11:24:00.005-06:00

We are now a mere eleven days away from the release of one of the year's most anticipated movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1)!!! I must admit, I am both peeved to have to wait for part 2 and excited that it gives me something else to look forward to since one of my favorite film franchises is coming to an end. Just look at this poster:

If that doesn't make you psyched, I don't know what will! So mysterious....so ominous....I CAN'T WAIT! Although I must say, I am a little bit disappointed that I can't go with some of my friends :( I will probably end up having to go alone at midnight. That's okay, though, I saw "The Dark Knight" by myself and ended up sitting next to a guy who was an extra in the movie, so that was kind of cool. I'm also a little disappointed that I won't be able to dress up. Normally I dress as this cool cat:

However, my costumes are at my mom's place 3 hours from here, and I won't be going back home before the 19th, so I can't get them. I suppose I could ask her to mail them, but it's not THAT worth it to me, lol. I also can't find this:

In addition to being an awesome costume, it's also just a really warm scarf, and I'd like it back before winter...it gets cold here!

Despite my lack of costume, I am still SO EXCITED for this movie!!!! I acknowledge that this post has fully revealed my level of dorkiness, but I just don't care, lol I am a dork and I don't care who knows it. I love the Harry Potter series, and I am so excited!!!

Fin.

lol :)

Pretty Books

2010-11-03T09:52:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures of pretty books and things that I have studied in my History of the Book class :)

The November page of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (Very Rich Hours of the Duke de Berry)

(source: http://www.streetprophets.com/story/2009/11/16/164554/02)

My favorite part about this book is the nifty astrological calendar drawings on the top of each page. Books of hours were what we would call devotional books today; they were used to guide people in their daily/monthly/yearly prayers and listed all the major holidays, saints' days, and so forth.

Manicule from Cicero, Manuscript: Cicero, De Officiis, 1465.

edit: the image was too large to fit, so take a look here!: http://eprints.utas.edu.au/8522/

I think manicules are so nifty! A "manicule" is one name (there is technically no official term, but manicule is the most accepted) for the various types of pointing hands you see marking important passages in books. They can be either drawn (like this one) or printed. I think they're fun and also sort of creepy! Here's another:

(source: http://www.revue-textimage.com/01_en_marge/barre2.htm)

and another:

(source: http://manchesterdante.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/the-hand-of-god/)

We also looked at John Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis (1653). Here are some images:

(source: http://ouhos.org/2010/06/16/john-bulwer-anthropometamorphosis/)

(source: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/webexhibits/bookusebooktheory/howtobesomebody.html)

So there are a few fun images of books we have studied! I think they are nifty :)

Projects!

2010-11-02T08:43:00.003-05:00

Lately it seems as though my life has been overtaken with projects! I have had a project due for almost every class nearly every class for the past 3 weeks! I also started working at Barnes and Noble, and I don't know if I have mentioned this here before or not, but I now get paid to work at the Conservation Lab. So things have been pretty busy around here!

But, the project(s) I am most excited to start are my Christmas presents! I bought lots of paper, both for decorating and for printing (don't get too excited, I'm just printing from my computer lol). So most people on my Christmas gift list are getting homemade books this year! I am just waiting for a few supplies to come in the mail and then I can get started. They will be either awesome or horrible, depending on what happens....so I pre-apologize if they are horrible, hahaha!! But it's the thought that counts, and I think they will end up being pretty great if I do say so myself! :) And while writing this I just remembered that I need to order MORE supplies....so if you are reading this, imagine me hard at work, and hopefully soon I will have time to write some more blog entries that don't just consist of "gee I've been busy lately," lol!

Angels

2010-10-21T23:13:00.003-05:00

"Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it." The Bible, New International Version, Hebrews 13:2

Lately I have been extremely grateful for the presence of God in my life. The other day, without ever expecting it, something totally cool happened that I can honestly say was completely the work of God, and I wanted to share it with you all! :)

As many of you know, I bought a car over the summer:

Now, love dear Agnes though I do, she's had her share of issues since I got her. The engine makes a strange shuddering when I accelerate, among other things, and even though she gets me from place to place without issue, she's no superstar in some ways. But, up until now I haven't had any real issues, for which I have been thankful. As a matter of fact, without Wednesday's chance encounter, I might not even have known I was having a problem!

Those of you who know cars will think I'm really dumb for not realizing this, but apparently I had a flat-ish tire. The roads in Champaign are really bumpy and my car isn't the smoothest ride to begin with, so if there was a feeling of the air getting low in a tire I never would have noticed. So I was on my way to work from class, and decided to stop for gas. Now normally I go to either the Meijer or Wal-Mart gas stations, as they usually have the cheapest gas, but that day for whatever reason a voice in my head was like "no, just go to the Freedom station, it's right on your way." This Freedom station is a little shady, but I'd been there before and it WAS on my way, so I went there.

I was the only person there besides a middle aged guy at the pump next to mine. He began a conversation about the weather, and then pointed out to me that my front/passenger tire was VERY low on air, basically flat. I had NO IDEA! So get this: not only does he tell me, but he went inside the gas station with a dollar to get change for me, helped me fill it with air, and told me to call him if I had any more problems because he owns an auto body shop. WHAT?!? He even offered to change/repair the tire for free if it didn't hold the air he put in it.

This, to me, was totally an angel. Now everyone reading this might not believe in God, and that's okay, I'm not trying to tell you what to think, just to share with you this cool thing that I know in my heart was totally from God. I seriously hadn't been to that gas station in MONTHS, and just by going there had a chance encounter with a Good Samaritan who helped me for no other reason than that I was there and clearly clueless about my car's flat. I guess it's just a reminder that no matter where we are in our lives, God is right there with us! :)

Confucius Say...

2010-10-11T12:22:00.002-05:00

So I was looking up quotes by Confucius for my friend (inside joke, long story involving a Chinese dog...lol), and found this one:

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop."

I really like it! I think it's good to remember that even if you feel like you are making slow progress, or even no progress on a goal, that doesn't mean that you won't eventually get there. For example, many of you know about my goal to lose weight. I've kind of hit a plateau and lost some motivation, but just because I haven't been hitting the gym hard or eating exactly healthy at every single meal doesn't mean that the little things I do won't eventually add up, if that makes sense. So, in short, don't give up on your goals if you are not making progress, just remember that going slowly doesn't mean that you have stopped, or that you can't go faster eventually if you want to!

Reason I Go To The Gym

2010-10-09T23:26:00.005-05:00

1. To watch television shows like Parenthood

Supernatural

and Glee

2. To be in an air-conditioned building :)

3. To work out, I guess. lol

Fall!

2010-10-04T15:26:00.007-05:00

Ladies and gentlemen, I think it is safe to say that fall has arrived!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! Fall is my favorite season for many reasons. First, it means the return of the most delicious thing ever to have graced my lips, the honeycrisp apple. Observe:

See how they tumble out of the basket, as though they are shouting TAKE ME! EAT ME! Okay, maybe I've gone overboard. But I LOOOOOOOVE honeycrisp apples, and you can only get them during the fall!

The return of fall also means the return of one of my recently-acquired fan-obsessions, football! Football to me means two things. Marching band (like the U of I band that I saw at the U of I/OSU game this past Saturday)...

And, of course, this guy.

This, dear readers, is Brian Urlacher, and he is what we like to call a bad ass. lol my mom met him once by accident, he held open the door for her when she was on her way out of a Chipotle, and she said that he's pretty much a beast. Hopefully we don't have a repeat of last year ***knockonwood*** where he got injured....this guy basically carries the Bears defensive line, as far as my opinion is concerned.

What else....I can't forget that fall means SCARVES and gloves and coats!! When you live somewhere that is cold for almost 3/4 of the year, you get really good at accessorizing with your outerwear. I'm mad because I can't find this:

No, not that I can't find Hermione, but that I can't find the scarf I have that looks like that!! I might have to make a new one. You best believe I will be wearing it to the premier of the 1st part of the last Harry Potter movie in November!! hehehe :)

And, last but not least, fall means Halloween, and Halloween means pumpkins! My friend and I decorated for Halloween last week and it was a lot of fun.

We are going to carve pumpkins soon, too! Hopefully we don't get a repeat of a few years ago when our pumpkins had a little too much fun without us....just kidding :) but you definitely don't want to see your pumpkins like this in the morning!

Finally, just because he's adorable, here is a picture of my brother and sister-in-law's new puppy!! His name is Taz, he is a corgi, and I am going to steal him. Watch yourselves. lol :)

Survey!

2010-09-30T13:23:00.003-05:00

My friend recently posted this survey on her blog, and I am bored and it looked like fun :) hehehe

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse

2. Your hair? Up

3. Your mother? Fun

4. Your father? Working

5. Your favorite food? Pasta

6. Your dream last night? Hanson (lol!)

7. Your favorite drink? Water

8. Your dream/goal? Satisfaction

9. What room are you in? Dining

10. Your hobby? Friends!

11. Your fear? Nothing (not true, but a goal...lol)

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Conserving (books)

13. Where were you last night? BillyElliot!!

14. Something that you aren’t? Normal? lol

15. Muffins? Chocolate!!

16. Wish list item? MacBook

17. Where did you grow up? LZ

18. Last thing you did? Napped

19. What are you wearing? tshirt

20. Your TV? Off

21. Your pets? Rory!!!!!

22. Friends? Awesome!

23. Your life? Hectic

24. Your mood? Great

25. Missing someone? Sorta

26. Vehicle? Blue!

27. Something you’re not wearing? Hat

28. Your favorite store? Target

29. Your favorite color? Blue!!

30. When was the last time you laughed? Always! lol

31. Last time you cried? Friday

32. Your best friend? many!! :)

33. One place that I go to over and over? Chicago!

34. One person who emails me regularly? SPAM!

35. Favorite place to eat? many! lol

Rory the Explorey

2010-09-27T16:45:00.002-05:00

This post is going to be mostly pictures. As many of you know, I love my cat :) and many of you also know that she was in the kitty hospital this past weekend :( sadface. She had/has pancreatitis, which is a swelling of the pancreas, and though she has been home since Sunday, she has not been eating and spitting out what she is being force-fed, and I am worried about her. I HATE not being there 24/7 to take care of her, as she is in my future apartment with my future roommate in another city while I am here at school. I so appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers, and hope that my little kitty gets well soon!

What I've Been Up To

2010-09-13T12:43:00.006-05:00

Greetings, readers! Lately I feel like I am always starting my blog entries with "gee, it's been awhile, huh?" Things have been pretty busy recently, though! First I stood up in my brother's wedding, which was a ton of fun. Here is a picture of the shoes I got to wear to the reception, and the shoes my new sister (!) wore :)

Fun, huh? :) I wish I could wear sneakers to every wedding! Later that weekend my friend/future/current roommate (it's a long story, I semi-live there already but not, lol) and I painted my future/current room!! Take a look:

It was a ton of fun, and I LOVE the color! It's a very pretty blue, similar to the blue that I had in my room at our old house.

Finally, classes have started, and since I got rid of the internet at my house I have been spending more time reading and watching tv, and crafting! I got together a few "care packages" to send to some of my friends, and also made some birthday/other presents. Since I took that bookbinding class I bought some pretty paper to use to make books, and I am really happy with the results! Take a look below at the paper, as well as the finished products. The blue book was the first one I made, and so that's why the inside is different than the inside of the green book, because I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to cut the paper, etc. But I'm pretty happy with the result, and I hope that once the recipients get them that they like them too! :) (side note: as usual, these pictures were taken using the camera on my phone, so they're obviously not so great...lol)

Bachelorette Shenanigans

2010-08-29T21:04:00.002-05:00

Hey all! It's been awhile since I've updated...well, I mean I posted that picture in my last entry, but that's because I was having this bizarre issue with my Yahoo e-mail.

This weekend I came home to attend my almost-sister-in-law's bachelorette party, and it was super fun! Below are some pictures. We made t-shirts using glue and glitter to write "bridesmaid," and flip flops again using glue and glitter, and some ribbon for the bow. We also had fun hairpieces/headbands to wear. It was a lot of fun, we went to this place in downtown Chicago called Rock Bottom Brewery. It was the first time I had ever been there, and it was SO delicious! I "made" my own vegan pizza by asking them to leave off the cheese; it had pesto, spinach, tomatoes, and lots of roasted garlic. YUM! We then went dancing for a little bit but since we hit traffic and got a little lost on our way into the city it was pretty late by that point, so then we came home. It was a lot of fun, though, and I can't wait for the wedding and seeing family and everything this week!

I've also started my fall classes at U of I! This is my last semester on campus, and after this I will have only one more semester left until I have my Master's! So far I am really not enjoying my other required/intro class, but absolutely LOVE my Preservation and History of the Book classes, so hopefully I can power through the one class I'm not enjoying so far. Or, maybe the material will be more interesting once we get farther into the class....hopefully! lol :)

So here I will leave you with pictures of our fun bachelorette/bridesmaid outfits. Hooray!

Showers

2010-08-08T23:26:00.002-05:00

This has been a busy few weeks! I took a bookbinding class, which was amazing, and I will write about it when I have time to really edit the entry because there is just so much to say about it! In the meantime, enjoy this little bit of fluff :)

Today was a wedding shower for my brother and future sister in law that my mom and I threw! It was very fun :) I was in charge of desserts, so I made some cupcakes, and attempted to make cake pops for the first time. The cake pops did NOT turn out well, and I didn't have much time, but was still really set on the idea of having some kind of dessert pops....so I made brownie pops instead! I totally pulled a Sandra Lee and semi-home made both the cupcakes and the brownies, the cupcakes were a boxed mix and can of frosting, and the brownie bites were those little brownies you can buy from Dominick's (and other places I'm sure). So here are two pictures of what I made: cupcakes and brownie pops! The brownies are stuck into some floral foam in little paper boxes with some confetti stuff on top, and the cupcakes are just on a plate. lol

Painting Water

2010-07-26T23:01:00.003-05:00

You must watch this:

http://www.wimp.com/paintingwater/

I'm sorry it's just a link, I tried to embed the video (I even searched on how to do it!) but the code isn't working for some reason. At any rate, this is a guy doing an awesome job marbling paper, something that I learned about in my Paper in the Scholarly World class. You need (as you can see) a tray for the water which has been treated with (usually) something called carrigeenan, which comes from a plant. Then you can drip pigments/paints which have been treated with oxgall (literally stuff that comes from the gall bladder of an ox....appetizing, no? lol) onto the water, where they will float. You can then use various tools, combs, etc. to manipulate the pigments to make cool designs, then gently place a piece of paper that has been treated with allum (another chemical) onto the top of the water. Ta-da, marbled paper! It's often used to cover the boards of books, and/or as endsheets on books.

In somewhat related news, I just started my bookbinding class today and I. Love. It. so much! :) There will be many pictures and a big post to come at the end of the week. I know, you're all really excited to hear more dorky book stuff, don't all tell me at once. hehehe :)

Battlestar and Blog Awards! :)

2010-07-20T01:20:00.003-05:00

I have been totally neglecting this blog. Part of the reason is because I am staying with my friend/future roommate, and we have been watching what is now one of my favorite shows, Battlestar Galactica (the new one, not the old one). We JUST finished it today, and there were some mind-blowing twists! I won't say anything else because I don't want to spoil anything in case anyone reads this who hasn't watched it.

Anyway, when I remembered I had this blog (lol) today and checked to see if I had any new comments or anything, I was surprised to find that my friend Lindsey had posted on her blog a fun thing called the Versatile Blogger Award, which she has awarded me (and some others)! You can find her blog detailing her awesome adventures in New York and beyond at:

http://dork-in-the-city.blogspot.com/

The purpose of the Versatile Blogger award is "to recognize good design, writing, photos, etc.; to network amongst other bloggers; inspire content ideas, etc. Conditions of the award stipulate that I need to share seven things about myself and then pass on this award to other wonderful bloggers.”

Without further ado, I give you my seven things, and then seven bloggers!

THINGS:

1. I sometimes wonder what the conversation must have been like when Congress was deciding whether or not tomatoes were to be classified as fruits or vegetables for tax and trade purposes. I bet it was funny.

2. If you hang out with me after a road trip of 1 or more hours, I will most likely have a hoarse voice from singing loudly along the way.

3. I have budgeted for two trips this spring....locations and details to be revealed, but I am so excited!

4. I wish I could still ride horses, but my back injury prevents me from doing so.

5. I just found out that the White Castle buildings were modeled after the Water Tower in Chicago. Cool!

6. I sing the "Soft Kitty" song from the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" to my cat sometimes. Shhhhhh......lol

7. A few weeks ago I bought my friend some socks that turned out to be children's socks, but since they fit me I didn't realize that they weren't meant for adults. lol

And here are 7 of my favorite bloggers!! I would first like to honorarily award Lindsey, because reading about her adventures is always super duper fun!! But since she has already received the award, I will list 7 other bloggers so that she doesn't have to do a repeat post awarding more people :)

1. Holly of Meatless with Mia, found at http://meatlesswithmia.blogspot.com/

Holly is one of my very good friends and blogs about her random adventures, including eating vegan and inspirational fun quotes she finds!!

2. Carla of The Grass is Greener, found at http://greenercarla.blogspot.com/

I have known Carla since we were itty bitty little kids, lol! It has been fun to find that we have come to share interests, specifically that we have both started eating and living vegan!

3. Emily of Carnival of Sorts, found at http://carnivalofsorts.wordpress.com/

Emily is my library school buddy, and I am so glad that we met! Here you can find excellent randomness, including movie/book reviews and accounts of library school adventures. Beware: we both really like paper, and aren't afraid to blog about it. lol

4. Livy of A Field Journal, found at http://afieldjournal.blogspot.com/

I do not know or have any personal connection to Livy, but I love love LOVE her blog!! It is one of the first I found that got me into reading/following/starting my own blog.

5. Amy, a.k.a. That Winsome Girl, found at http://thatwinsomegirl.blogspot.com/

Again, I do not personally know Amy, but her blog and jewelry are both super adorable! Check out her Etsy shop of the same name, and her delicious looking Cookies and Cream Cupcakes!

......I have run out of blogs! I read many more of them semi-regularly, but that's all I can think of at this hour, lol! So that concludes tonight's Versatile Blogger awards. Hopefully this fun e-award will continue to circulate, I like the idea of a community of bloggers :)

Goals

2010-07-07T11:40:00.002-05:00

Since summer is almost over and the completion of my master's degree finally seems attainable (I'll be done in May 2011), I have decided that it's time to set some goals for myself. I want to make the most of library school, and so by posting them here I hope that I will be more likely to really stick to them! I *usually* stick to my guns pretty well, but it's nice to have an extra incentive, like the thought of people reading this blog later if I update on progress, and, well, if I haven't made any progress I would feel judged by the internet at large. lol. So, without further ado, here we go!

GOAL 1: get in shape/eat healthy very strictly until the end of 2010

This goal is already going pretty well. Part of this has to do with the fact that I need to fit into the clothes I already own, since a) one of them is the bridesmaid's dress for my brother's wedding in September and b) I can't afford to buy new clothes! I would also like to be a more active person, get outside and all that, and eating vegan really helps with eating healthy (although knowing that Oreos are technically vegan has SO not helped...lol). As for eating vegan, I've been doing pretty well, but haven't been extremely strict with myself over the past few weeks. I'd say I'm eating about 75-80% completely vegan, and the other % are just random things, like cupcakes for my friend's birthday, or butter that was already on some pre-prepared frozen garlic bread. But, the goal of getting in shape/eating healthy will be a joint one, as I am moving in with a friend and have been staying with her the past few weeks, and we are planning our meals and working out together!

GOAL 2: gain technological skills useful to future employment/continue professional development

Now, my mom thinks I'm pretty tech-savvy already. I love her very much, but she is not the greatest relative judge of my technological skills, lol! Since I have planned out my library school path anticipating that I will be able to get a job in a rare books-related position, particularly focusing on preservation and conservation, I haven't taken many classes focused solely on technological skills. I hope to broaden my knowledge of technology through my own study, including learning basic HTML, photoshop, and web-design skills. I don't know if this is a realistic goal or not, having not had much experience with technology, but I know that in many library positions I will soon be applying for that familiarity with many kinds of technology is a must and will (hopefully!) give me an edge over other applicants. In addition, I hope to keep volunteering at the preservation/conservation lab, and hopefully to research and apply for internships for the spring semester before I graduate.

GOAL 3: begin researching PhD/second master's programs

I have already started doing this, but what I really need to "research" is the amount of student loans I currently have VS how expensive it would be to get a second master's or even a PhD. A lot of rare books jobs call for a PhD or a second master's degree on top of your master's in library sciences, and so I think it would be wise to at least consider this option in planning for future employment. I think I'd like to get some "real-world" experience first, but if I can't find a job in my field maybe going back to school WOULD be the best option. I just have SO. MANY. student loans, and so the thought of trying to pay for school literally blows my mind. So that's something I need to explore, especially because taking careful inventory of my existing loans will help me when I have to start paying them back, which is pretty soon (right after I graduate).

That's all I can think of for now! :)

This week, on days of our lives...

2010-06-22T20:11:00.003-05:00

...I wouldn't know what happened, I don't have cable. But this week so far has been pretty interesting! I did a lot of grocery shopping/appliance buying in order to make myself eat food that is good for me! The first thing I bought is a salad spinner. It basically looks like this:

Now, I'm sure you know what a salad spinner does, but just in case you don't, it is a handy device that makes it really easy to wash and dry lettuce (and spinach, and other stuff) before you eat it. I made a salad with it tonight that looked like this!:

It was okay, it didn't have any fancy ingredients, just the lettuce, some cucumbers and the dressing. I wasn't very hungry since I had pasta again for lunch, and some of these delicious Back to Nature cookies for dessert :)

They may not be the healthiest food, but they sure are delicious! :) I bought them instead of Oreos (which, surprisingly, are vegan, but I kind of wish I had never found that out lol I need to cut down on desserts!).

I also bought a blender.

Now, the first blender I bought was a total fail, so this is blender #2 after I returned blender #1. Blender #1 honestly took ten minutes to blend (by pulsing) the very small amount of frozen fruit and juice I put into it, and even then was not all broken down! I bought the blender(s) so that I could make my own smoothies instead of going to Jamba Juice all the time.

For those unfamiliar, Jamba Juice is a national chain that has mainly smoothies but also now serves coffee and some lunch sandwich type of items. I used to only get this one chocolate smoothie from Jamba back when I didn't eat a wide variety of foods, and believe it or not this chocolate smoothie is one of the WORST drinks for you nation-wide! So I have expanded my Jamba menu and now just get the all-fruit smoothies, and am trying to make my own at home by blending frozen peaches, mangoes, and strawberries together with ice and some apple or orange juice, or maybe some vanilla soy milk.

So that's about it! I've been doing pretty well with project vegan so far, the only non-vegan items I have had are the remainder of some Dove chocolates I bought before going to the movies with a friend this past weekend! My friend Holly and I also went to the Chicago Diner this past weekend where I had some (vegan, of course) roasted garlic gnocchi in sun dried tomato pesto sauce. It was SO GOOD! We also had a slice of (vegan!) chocolate mousse cake for dessert, and it was hands down seriously one of the best chocolate cakes I have EVER had!!!!!

Vegan powers---activate!!

2010-06-17T14:42:00.005-05:00

Hello, fellow internet dwellers! Life has been rather interesting lately. I've been hopping back and forth between school and my hometown, visiting friends and also volunteering at school since I am between summer class sessions right now. I also just finished reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels because a) they sounded awesome and b) I wanted to read them before the movie comes out. They were hilariously awesome and I 150% recommend them!

If you are not familiar with the Scott Pilgrim story, let me give you the basics which will lead me to the main point of this blog entry. Scott Pilgrim is a 23 year old Canadian slacker dude who plays in a band and falls in love with this girl Ramona. Ramona has 7 evil exes, as in ex-boyfriends (mostly), who Scott has to fight and defeat in order to keep dating Ramona. One of the evil exes is named Todd Ingram, and his superpowers come from the fact that he is....wait for it.....a vegan!!

BAHAHAHA!!! The reason I found this so funny is because about a month ago I read this book:

It is called "The Kind Life" and was written by the actress Alicia Silverstone, notably of "Clueless" fame. Half the book consists of literature/her personal story chronicling the health benefits of becoming a vegan or even of becoming a "superhero" (that's right, get it now? lol) by following a macrobiotic diet. The other half is recipes, which are (obviously?) all vegan.

One of the reasons that I read the book is that my awesome friend Holly (find her blog at http://meatlesswithmia.blogspot.com) recommended it to me. About a year ago (can't believe it's been that long!) we made the cupcake recipe from this book and it was SO good!! Completely vegan, i.e. no animal products involved, and they were SUPER delicious!! Most of you know that I am a (mostly) vegetarian who occasionally eats a hamburger or a steak (maybe once a month at most), but you may not know that I am super seriously considering becoming vegan for the following reasons...

Now, this next part might get a little personal and health-related, so if you're not one to be into topics that might be considered "too much information" you may want to skip the next paragraph...lol

Reason 1: personal health

I have never been a huge fan of eating meat. Like I said above, I'll have a burger or even a steak every now and then, but texture in food really affects me and I very much dislike the texture of meat. Despite this I do eat lots of food made with animal products, such as cookies, bread, cakes, muffins, ice cream, and most notably, cheese, usually accompanied by macaroni (lol). Unfortunately over the past 3-4 years I have noticed that animal foods, mostly dairy, have been giving me extreme stomach cramps and unusual....bathroom events, we'll leave it at that. These cramps and other symptoms have been getting worse and worse and worse, and I have also gained some weight which is bad for my back (a whole different story, but suffice it to say I have a herniated disc and being even a little bit overweight is not good). So, as a personal experiment, I followed Alicia Silverstone's suggestions and noticed an IMMEDIATE improvement to these symptoms. Because of this, I have decided (even though it may be hard for me!) to try to go vegan!

Reason 2: animals' health

I'm not going to get all preachy, but we all know that there are some less than ideal conditions in many factory farms and it pains me to know that any animal is being mistreated. I DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT condemn anyone for eating meat, I don't necessarily even think that it's wrong, but I would be lying if I didn't acknowledge that this is another part of the reason why I have decided to give up meat and other animal foods for good.

So there you have it! I will probably blog some more about recipes I try, any health benefits I enjoy, etc. etc. I highly recommend "The Kind Life" if you want to learn more about the benefits of a vegan and/or macrobiotic diet, as Alicia Silverstone does a great job of presenting her case without seeming like one of those crazy paint-throwing PETA activists, lol. Maybe I'll even get some crazy vegan telekinetic powers, just like Todd Ingram!!! hahaha :)

Library Math

2010-06-09T20:39:00.008-05:00

There are many ways that math shows up in the world around us. For example, take a look at this:

I know, I know. Just from that sentence and picture you're thinking to yourself "Jess? Is that you? YOU DON'T MATH! WHO HAS YOU KIDNAPPED?!?" lol. And the best part is, that isn't even the entire equation! Here's the tail end:

Now to you folks who actually know math and stuff, this probably doesn't look like much. But when one of my professors earlier this summer put this on the board during a lecture I was like "I'm done for!" Surprisingly, this formula was actually pretty easy to understand once it was explained.

These mysterious equations are what is known in the library cataloging/bibliography world as a collational formula. Perhaps you are familiar with the term "collate" or "collated" when it comes to printing? The collational formula is a set way for bibliographers or catalogers to describe a book's physical contents in terms of # of pages, # of "signatures" or groups of pages, and some other factors. Let me break it down for ya'll.

Part 1: The beginning.

The "pi" symbol is used in place of what are called "unsigned leaves." Maybe you have opened a book before and seen blank pages at the beginning? Pi and the number "attached" to it indicate the number of "unsigned" leaves (or pages) at the beginning of the book. It is important to note that there could be things written on the pages; what is meant by "unsigned" is that most old, hand printed books had letters and numbers at the bottom of the pages so that printers and bookbinders would know what order the pages went in. But, since title pages, table of contents, etc. sometimes say the number of pages or page number where something appears in the book, they had to be printed LAST not first, which is why they were unsigned. I hope that made sense. Then the small letters a-c indicates pages/signatures that have been signed with these lowercase letters; again, these pages are likely a table of contents, list of illustrations, preface, forward, author's note, etc. etc.

Part 2: The text itself!

The A-K and K-U and U-Z indicate something interesting to note about hand printed books. As I mentioned before, printers had to have a way to indicate the order in which the signatures, or tiny groups of pages, would be stacked and then sewn together by bookbinders. They used the alphabet, "numbering" the bottoms of pages beginning with the capital letter A1 (usually; every printer had their own system, though). Then you will see A2, A3, A4, etc., usually until the fold or middle of the signature. Think of a signature like this: imagine a small stack of regular old computer paper, let's say 3 pages. If you folded that small stack in half you would then be able to "number" the pages A1, A2, etc., but ONLY on the FRONT of each page. So the "cover" of your tiny pamphlet would be A1, then the next page (NOT the reverse side) is A2, etc.

Wow this is kind of confusing to type out.

But anyway, the numbers after the letters indicate how many pages are in each signature, and the letters "J" and either "U" or "V" are always skipped because those letters didn't used to exist in the old English alphabet!

Part 3: the additional signatures

You may be thinking to yourself, "but what about long books with more than 24 signatures? how did they get to the end of the alphabet then keep going?" Additional signatures and their pages were noted by Aa, or AA, or aa, or whatever new combo the printer came up with (again, each one was different).

Part 4: The final notes!!

These notes tell us a little more about the book. For example, the (*4) indicates that there are 4 "signed" leaves in each signature. So, if we were looking at the book, in the first signature (again, a group of pages) we would see A1, then A2, then A3, then A4, and then nothing on the next few pages until we got to B1. The plus/minus "C" part indicates a cancel. A cancel is when somebody messed up while printing, or there was offensive material, or some unforseen problem with the text, so they would have to go through each and every page with the "cancellandum" or "error" and take it out, and replace it with a "cancellans" or "correction." It could be a letter, a paragraph, or even an entire page. The letter "C" indicates that the cancellans in this book was on the 6th leaf of the "C" signature.

So that is it!! Library math! It's not EXACTLY math, but to me it seems like math, so that's what I'm going to call it. Thanks for bearing with me if you've read this far......I think it's really interesting but I'm sure I'm the only one, lol! Bibliographers and catalogers use this formula to keep careful records of the structure of their books, especially if someone has to take them apart for repairs, digital scanning, etc. It makes it much easier when you're putting it back together to have a thorough formula to work from!

My car and more!

2010-06-08T21:04:00.003-05:00

So my big news is...I got a car!! Long story short I got more money for the summer than I thought I was going to, so I used the extra that was outside my budget to buy a car. It was a little more expensive than I was planning on since the one I wanted to buy had already been bought, but I am happy with the outcome and hope it continues to run well for me! It is a 1997 Ford Crown Victoria, and it is blue and has wood on the inside! I am going to call her Agnes, because she reminds me a little bit of Gretchen, my first car, that was also a "grandma car" lol. Pics below!

I am also just sharing these for fun, I don't know if they will end up letting me do them or even like the ones I have made but I am making sample invitations for my brother's wedding. Below are pictures of some possible ideas....let me know your thoughts! Keep in mind that I am definitely not a professional paper-crafter/invitation maker, these are just my half-finished DIY ideas! I am really enjoying doing them, crafts are fun! lol :)

Etsy/Target Finds!

2010-06-02T17:51:00.003-05:00

Among my close friends it is no secret that I'm sort of a peer-pressure-er when it comes to shopping! Seriously, I could probably talk you into buying just about anything. I've been trying to be good about keeping my spending under control, but I will admit that lately I have purchased a few items that fall more under the "want" than "need" category! Yesterday I bought 2 new pairs of shoes and 1 pair of pajamas at Target. Now, I know what you're thinking: did you really NEED two pairs of shoes, Jessica? Well, no, but my two pairs of brown flats had just about worn out. The insoles were coming up/had been chewed out of both pairs, and both of the soles ("out" soles?) were also coming away from the main part of the shoe. They also kind of smelled......gross. lol so I got one pair of "walking" flats and one pair of nicer brown flats for, obviously, nicer events. Though Target is mass-produced and might not exactly be the most ethical company ever, I am happy to report that both pairs of shoes are technically vegan, that is made without any parts from animals (like leather).

The pajamas were also a borderline want/need purchase, they are super cute! They are the Liberty of London for Target brand. I don't know if you have seen this around Target but basically most of their items are covered in adorable floral prints. I'd been eyeing this set of PJ's for a few months now, and they just went on sale so I bought them! It is really hot in my apartment and I mostly had sweatpants/long pants for pajamas so a pair of hot weather friendly PJ's was not entirely without purpose. Here is a link because I couldn't find a pic to post:

http://tinyurl.com/targetpjs

This next buy was totally a "want" purchase, though! Although I have never bought any really expensive jewelry before (and not that these are that expensive, just more than the $5 Claire's crap I would buy in like middle school!). I found both of these through an Etsy shop called "That Winsome Girl." Here is a link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thatwinsomegirl

Her jewelry is just so adorable!! A couple of days ago she posted that the peacock earrings (that are now mine) were going to all be gone soon. Well. Even though I don't have my ears pierced I really wanted a pair!! I e-mailed asking if there is a way she could convert them to clip-ons, and she said she could. Huzzah!!! I also ordered this super cute "Oui" necklace :) I highly recommend buying from That Winsome Girl's shop, as her items are adorable, affordable, and totally awesome!!! :) See pics below for images of the earrings and necklace.

Papermaking!!

2010-05-28T17:20:00.003-05:00

So today for my Paper in the Scholarly World class, we got to take a field trip! Our professor somehow contacted a local guy who has converted his garage into a home paper mill (handmade paper, that is), and we all drove over to see it and got to make our own paper!

For those who are unfamiliar, there are 2 basic ways of hand-making paper: the Japanese method, and the Western method. They both involve the same basic tools/supplies, which are the following:

1. A paper mold, consisting usually of a wooden frame with a screen in the middle, and a removable top "frame" called the deckle. It sort of looks like a window screen with a picture frame on the top. In the Japanese method, the deckle is hinged onto the mold, and the screen is removable, and in the Western method the screen is attached to the mold and the deckle is completely removable.

2. A vat or tub filled with water and other stuff, which I will get to :)

3. Fibers. Any kind of fibers at all. In the Japanese method they use plant fibers from the paper mulberry plant, also called kozo. In the Western method you can use pretty much anything you want, from cotton to linen to corn to soybeans to daisies to dryer lint, if you can get enough of it. You also need something to grind up or macerate the fibers. Where we went today the guy has his own Hollander beater, a machine used to beat the fibers, but you can also use a blender or literally beat them with a big stick for a few hours. In the Japanese method you also need a binding agent; they use something from a plant called the tororo aoi (pronounced toe-roar-oh owie), but there are also chemical ones. By itself when it is mixed it looks kind of like very runny egg whites, it's completely clear and does not color the water or fibers at all.

4. In the Western method, you need felts. Literally, many many pieces of felt. You can cut up an old army blanket or use synthetic felt, but you need lots of them. You also need some kind of press, for reasons I will explain later.

5. In the Japanese method, you need a large board/flat surface on which to dry your sheets.

So after you have gathered your supplies, you are ready to make paper! Basically you beat the fibers until they are broken up into thousands of tiny little individual fiber strands. Then, you mix the fibers with lots of water in a tub, so it's like over 90% water in the tub. In the Japanese method you add the binding agent to the tub; in the Western method, you can add dyes to color the paper, or other things to decorate the paper, into your tub. After you have mixed the fibers in the water they will sort of float there, but you also need to mix them around every once in awhile so they do not all sink down to the bottom of the tub.

After you have mixed up your tub of "stuff" (also called "furnish"), you then take your paper mold and hold it upright in front of you. You then dip/scoop it towards you in the water, and then lift it straight out of the water. To clarify: at first you will be holding the mold vertically, but as you dip it you turn it horizontal (so it is a flat surface for the fibers to settle on as the water drains down through the screen). In the Japanese method you can continue dipping as many times as you want to get a thicker paper; in the Western method, you just dip once.

I found I much preferred the Japanese method! I dipped my piece 3 times, then removed the screen from the mold by lifting the deckle (or top part of the hinged mold) and pulling it out. They had this nifty contraption that was a vacuum attached to a wooden box with a small slit in the top. I pulled the screen across the slit twice to pull the excess moisture out from the piece of paper (though at this point it was still pretty damp). After you pull out that moisture the piece of paper is sturdy enough to handle, so I took it off the screen and then used a brush to stick it onto a large "white board" to dry!!

I then tried the Western method, where I dipped the mold in the same manner into the tub just once. Either the mold was dirty or I did not have the deckle on sturdy enough, because my sheet did not come out as perfectly straight around the edges as others' had. After that I "couched" my sheet (pronounced kooched) onto the "couch" (also pronounced kooch!). The "couch" is a pile of felts and papers next to where you are dipping your mold into the tub. You start with a pile of water-dampened felts (maybe 2 or 3) so the surface is soft. After that you sort of roll your paper mold with the freshly made paper sheet on it and press down so that it stays on the couch. You then put another wet felt on top of it, and continue couching in a pile until you are done! After that you press the pile, which is called a "post." This guy had a press in his garage but he said that you could also just pile on some heavy boards or books and stand on top of it, lol! This gets a lot of the excess water out of the sheets, which can then be air dried or dried between pieces of blotter (heavy paper or other substance).

So, basically, that is making paper! I hope I have explained it well :) this was also a great review for my midterm tomorrow, lol. I really enjoyed it so I hope I will be able to make some of my own paper in the near future. Below are some pictures, which I will number in order here:

1. The Hollander Beater

2. The Japanese Setup (notice the box with the slit where I vaccumed the water out, and the mold behind it!)

3. The Western Setup (the couch is under that small pile of newspaper, which wasn't supposed to be there lol)

4. Me putting my Japanese paper up to dry! My sheet is the one the brush is over!

5. My sheet of Western paper after being couched. You can see that it is a little rough around the edges, lol!

The Wizarding World of the University of Illinois

2010-05-26T12:45:00.003-05:00

I have found the entrance to the wizarding world, dear readers! Let your wildest Harry Potter fantasies come true at.......wait for it........U of I's library!! That's right, folks, simply by entering U of I's library stacks on floor 9.5 (you heard me right) you will be magically transported into the wizarding world, where you may contact Mr. Potter directly for assistance with any number of magical quandaries, including dementor attacks and where to find the latest Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products!

False. This will not actually happen if you go to U of I's library. lol but I was there yesterday and found it funny that there are many "half-levels" in the library stacks that the elevator also goes to.

Spunky Dunkers!!

2010-05-23T00:18:00.003-05:00

So this has been an awesome weekend!! It was one of my very good friends' birthday, so a friend and I drove to Chicago to attend her awesome beach birthday blowout! Here is a picture of my friend's dog sleeping on the car ride home: she was SO tired after playing on the beach with other people and doggies!!

After we came home from the birthday party we chilled at home for a little bit, then my brother came by to sell us some awesome kitchen knives. I bought an ice-cream scooper, though :) so after we bought some kick-butt knives, we decided we wanted to go to this place that my brother has been talking about FOREVER called Spunky Dunkers! It is a donut shop, and let me just address this really quick, Blogspot is telling me that I am spelling donuts wrong lol but is it doughnuts or donuts? I prefer donuts.

Anyway. So this place was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!! Seriously the best donuts I have EVER had, even though I'm not really a huge donut fan. I got a chocolate cream puff donut, a chocolate donut, a vanilla cake donut with chocolate frosting, and......oh yeah, a chocolate buttercream filled donut! Are you sensing a theme? I really enjoy chocolate. They also had a HUGE selection of donuts, including one that was like a Girl Scouts Samoa cookie (chocolate/coconut).

Below are pictures of Spunky Dunkers! I really enjoyed the whole dive-retro feel of it, from the 50's style sign outside (with many letters burned out!) to the counterspace diner-esque part inside. It was very tiny and super inexpensive, and smelled even better than Krispy Kreme. Seriously. That combined with it being open 24/7/basically 365 makes it pretty much my favorite thing about the suburbs.

Totally Adorable and Hilarious

2010-05-17T03:27:00.002-05:00

As you may be able to tell from the timestamp on this entry, I am up rather late tonight :) But I was perusing some backlogged/bookmarked blogs and came across this one, called Letters With Character, that invites people to write letters to fictional characters. I thought this one was particularly amusing:

http://letterswithcharacter.blogspot.com/2010/05/aa-milne-winnie-pooh-1926.html

It is to Winnie the Pooh, and I think you should read it because it was super duper cute. There's also a great one to Werther from The Sorrows of Young Werther, a book I had to read for a German history class and really enjoyed. So check it out! :)

Friday Fill-Ins

2010-05-15T12:27:00.002-05:00

1.) You have the chance to do something fun today!
2.) I am having lots of fun watching Numb3rs right now
3.) I want to have my student loan money disbursed so I can pay my rent and bills!
4.) Now I am a grad student, but hopefully later I will have an awesome job and be able to get on my own 2 feet!
5.) It's time to be the person I want to become
6.) My immediate future seems up in the air right now
7.) And as for the weekend, I am hanging out with my friends, going to Willow Creek Church tonight, and going to a BBQ tomorrow! :)

Mac VS PC?

2010-05-13T16:53:00.004-05:00

Dear technically minded friends: I need your help!!!

Since I am going to be switching to U of I's online program in January, and will hopefully have a little extra loan money this summer/fall, I am thinking about buying a new computer or laptop, probably laptop. Though I have had no end of trouble with every single PC I have ever bought, I am hesitant about buying a Mac just because of the cost.

So....help! Which is better, Mac or PC? Which is cheaper? Is cheaper really better? I really want a Mac, so are there any discounts or anything on Macs that you know of? What about getting a netbook plus an external hard drive? Leave your comments please! :)

80's Rock!

2010-05-13T16:16:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow, a friend and I are going to see an 80's cover band. But not just any 80's cover band. This cover band, my friends, is FANTASTIC!!

They are called 16 Candles, and they rock. Here is their website:

http://sixteencandlesband.com/2010/index.php

They are pretty fantastical. I have only seen them once before but it was super fun, and I am super excited! Ever since I watched that episode of Scrubs a few weeks ago where Turk keeps singing "I try to discover......a little something to make me sweeter......" I have had various 80's songs in my head, so this will be pretty great :)

What else....summer classes start in a couple of weeks so that should be fun. I also might be getting a new roommate....we will see how it goes!

Pink Sparkly Heels

2010-05-10T09:43:00.004-05:00

Things have been pretty quiet, but also exciting, for me lately. I finished my 1st semester of school and am visiting friends and family at home for a couple of weeks.

One exciting thing, however, was going bridesmaid dress shopping with my brother's fiancee and some of the other bridesmaids on Saturday! We found a dress that looked good on everyone, although I may have to alter mine to be just a teensy bit longer since (as you will see if I can find a picture!) it is a little shorter in the back than it is in the front, and it's pretty short to begin with. We don't want anyone getting flashed when I fall while walking down the aisle!! hahaha!!

In all honesty, though, I am so excited for my bro and his future wife! They are both super cool :) The dress she/we picked is totally her style, funky/adorable, and hot pink which is pretty fun. I don't know yet if I get to wear the black sparkly heels or the pink sparkly heels, but either way it will be interesting to see how that turns out! Maybe I will practice a lot and FINALLY learn to walk in heels, I tried them on and despite the height they are not bad at all!!

So here are some pictures I have found of the dress/heels. I can't find pictures of the exact ones from the exact store, because for some reason this store apparently does not exist in Google's world (lol), but the dress looks kind of like this black one but the color of this pink one, and the heels look pretty similar to the ones below (only with a pink option also!). What do you think? Should my brother wear a tux or go buy a suit? I'm rooting for him and his groomsmen to go buy nice suits, they're all young but also done growing so if they buy nice suits they will last them quite awhile, there are many occasions coming up where I'm sure it will be good to have one! Either way, I'm sure the boys and the girls will all be lookin' fly come September :)

Tony Nominations Tuesday!

2010-05-04T10:01:00.002-05:00

Today, dear readers, is a special day, for today the 2010 Tony Awards nominees were announced!! You can check out the full list of nominees here:

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/index.html

I must say that unfortunately I am not nearly as excited about this year's nominees as I was about last year's, perhaps because last year I got to take a trip to New York and see many of the shows/performances that were nominated. I am excited to see the new Green Day-based musical American Idiot perform, though. Other surprises for me include The Addams Family not being nominated in the category of Best Musical, and Sean Hayes being nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor for his role in the revival of Promises, Promises but Kristen Chenoweth NOT getting nominated for Leading Actress for the same show.

However, the Tonys are always an interesting show (...for dorks like me!), so it should be fun to see the variety of performances, including Chicago's own original cast of Million Dollar Quartet!

Homework Help

2010-05-02T00:39:00.003-05:00

There are all kinds of ways to get help with one's homework. You could ask your teacher/professor for help after class, or go to their office hours. You could get the TA or another student to tutor you. You could form a study group, ask the ipl2, or use your local public library to get help.

And then there are cats. lol :)

Preservation & Conservation

2010-04-30T17:27:00.004-05:00

I had a really good time volunteering at the Preservation and Conservation lab today! Since we do (what I think is) some pretty neat stuff, I thought that I would take some pictures and give a play-by-play of what I do there :) Get ready for a journey of AWESOMENESS!! lol :)

1. I walk to the lab, and put on my apron! I used to use the aprons they had there, but I got one for my birthday from World Market (pictures below). I think it is so pretty! My favorite part is the pink rickrack on the pockets and bottom hem. It's almost too pretty to get dirty with leather red rot, glue, and various other hazards of book repair. ALMOST. lol.

2. Once I put on my apron I set up my workstation. I usually lay down a piece of heavy brown craft paper to cover my desk so that I don't get the desk dirty, it makes cleaning up all the little pieces of paper, book, and dust much easier! I also take out my toolkit (pictures below). It contains many things with which I was totally unfamiliar, some that I was like "oh yeah I know what a paintbrush is" (lol), and some that I was surprised to find (like a scalpel!). I have various paintbrushes, a ruler, scissors, a scalpel, a bone folder, a teflon folder, sandpaper, a needle, waxed thread, a book knife, 2 spatulas (one small one large) and some other things I'm sure I am forgetting! I also make sure my station has a cutting mat, a container of PVA (aka white glue), and a small cup of water for dirty brushes. Sometimes I change the blade on my scalpel. That part is scary. lol

3. I go back to my shelf (which is where I keep my toolkit and any works in progress) and take out the books I am working on. When I got to the lab today I was in the middle of working on 3 books, and am now in the middle of working on 5! Because I am still learning I still need my supervisor to walk me through pretty much every step, and when she goes on lunch/while various glued things are drying I sometimes run out of things to do, hence starting 2 more books today. So, in the next steps we will go through the repair I am learning how to do!

4. The repair I am learning is called a Princeton 305. This is what the books generally look like when I start working on them:

As you can see, the spines are usually falling off, and the boards are either completely detached or falling off. I begin by taking off the spine, and removing the boards (careful not to cut too short some strings that sometimes attach the textblock/pages to the boards).

5. Then, for the leather-bound books, I detach the leather from the ends of the boards. Depending on how badly damaged the leather is, sometimes you have to remove the leather entirely to replace it, but in the picture below the leather has remained intact.

6. I then use something called methyl cellulose to scrape down the spine of the book. I put the book in a press (I think they're called presses....lol) so that I have both my hands free, then I use a paintbrush to brush the methyl cellulose on. I let it sit for a few minutes to soften the paper and glue that are on the spine, and then use my spatula to scrape it down! Depending on the book this can either take me a few minutes or close to an hour...lol I had some difficult ones, like the original 3 I was working on, but the one I started today was not too bad.

7. After I scrape down the spine, I make sure I have sanded down the inside of the boards so the old endsheets (paper attaching the boards to the inside of the book, usually blank pages at the beginning and end of books) are not too bulky. Then I glue new endsheets onto the textblock. This got tricky on one of my original 3 books, because one of the signatures, or group of pages, fell off! I then got to sew it back on, which is actually what I did when I first got to the lab today. It was really hard. And totally awesome!

8. After the endsheets are glued onto the textblock, I glue down new supercloth, which reinforces the shape of the book's spine. I then glue a piece of paper on top of the supercloth (which, as far as I can tell, is for more reinforcement? And also, eventually, to glue the spine back on).

9. There are more steps, but maybe I will wait until next week to post them, because this entry is really long and I also don't completely remember them all, as I have not totally completed a repair of this kind before! The books I did before these 5 were just spine repairs. Thanks for reading if you got this far!! lol :)

Cute Food

2010-04-29T17:54:00.003-05:00

ZOMG! So, when I blog, I realize I do not always sound like the most sophisticated person around. That's okay with me. But these adorable pie pops (see below) have reduced me to the vocabulary of a....monkey, or something. lol they are super cute! Someday soon I'd love to try making pie pops, as well as cake pops and/or cupcake pops, which I learned about from the Bakerella blog (http://www.bakerella.com). I am posting a few pictures below but you should totally check Bakerella out, as well as EpiCute for more super cute food! :)

Web 2.0, Library Skillz (that's right, with a z) and more

2010-04-26T20:25:00.004-05:00

So tonight in one of my GSLIS (grad school) classes we had a discussion about Web 2.0, and the importance of keeping up to date with technology and technology related skills in the field of library and information sciences. One of the things we discussed was blogs, both related to the field and personal. My friend/classmate Emily and I both keep blogs and, without discussing it first, had both decided during this discussion to blog about tonight's class and share it on our course web page :)

One thought I had during class tonight that I wasn't sure when to share was how daunting all of this Web 2.0 technology seems to me. I often browse library and LIS-related job ads to see what the descriptions say and what I would be comfortable applying for. Many, if not most of these job ads list web design skills or familiarity as requirements for the job. Now, my mother may think that I'm some sort of computer guru because I know how to update my Facebook status, but I know pretty much nothing about web design. I can use very rudimentary HTML code, like I could probably make something bold for example, but that's about as far as my knowledge reaches. We talked about web design and other technological skills and how things such as database and other code-related topics are covered in some of GSLIS's classes. However, since I am doing our program's Certificate in Special Collections, I try to take as many rare book/special collections classes as I can while I am here. So while some people may be taking say, community informatics over the summer, I am taking Bookbinding and Paper in the Scholarly World, two classes which will likely do next to nothing to advance my technological skill set!

I'm so torn when it comes to technology in libraries. I hope someday to work in a museum or library in a preservation/conservation related job, and though digital preservation is obviously becoming hugely important to this field, I don't know enough about these kinds of jobs to say how necessary technological skills will be to any future job I may hold. With the wealth of information and tutorials available on topics such as HTML, web design, and even using YouTube, Facebook, and other social media sites, I feel like if I put aside the time and effort I could probably attempt to teach myself some rudimentary skills in these areas. However, the approach I have taken so far to my education is that 1. Old books will only continue to get older as time advances and 2. The people who know now how to preserve these old books won't be around forever, so someone has to pick up the torch. I'm hoping that by learning the somewhat specialized skills involved in the preservation and conservation of books and documents I will be marketable when it comes time to find a job, but I do worry realistically about the fact that I will be a new library school grad with very little experience with technology (not to mention very little job experience on my resume, as graduate assistantships here are harder to find than Carmen Sandiego).

So.....that's my 2 cents and more on the topic of technology! As you can probably tell from my previous entries, this blog doesn't often deal with library issues and I probably won't ever market it as a library-related blog, but I will occasionally blog on library stuff just because I enjoy it so much :) below is a list of library blogs I read, and I don't know how to make them hyperlinks so if anyone can clue me in on that that would be great! :) lol

BLOGS:

1. Awful Library Books at http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/
2. Library of Congress blog at http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/
3. The Adventures of an Unemployed Librarian at http://theunemployedlibrarian.blogspot.com/
4. Closed Stacks at http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/
5. The Food Librarian at http://foodlibrarian.blogspot.com/

I occasionally visit other library blogs that I have found through this list of library-related blogs!

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-librarians-of-the-future/

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2010-04-25T10:50:00.002-05:00

So it's been raining here for the past two or three days, and I'm going a little stir-crazy. Since I am stuck in my apartment, I decided to make the best of it by taking a few pictures! You can view them here on my brand-new fancy Flickr site :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49620959@N03/sets/72157623804162899/

Sorry about there being no hyperlink or whatever you call it, I'm still figuring out this whole blog thing and I haven't figured out how to make it clickable yet, lol. There are pictures of the fancy doorknobs, light switch covers, my sink with TWO faucets, and some of my favorite knicknacks, including a pretty ring, vase, Nutcracker tart warmer from Yankee Candle, dressers, wall of Playbills, and chocolate milk making pitcher :)

A Theory of Relativity

2010-04-23T14:02:00.001-05:00

To begin, a quote from Mark Twain regarding the work of one Jane Austen:

"I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read 'Pride and Prejudice,' I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone." (found at: http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2010m4d16-The-50-best-author-vs-author-putdowns-of-all-time-Part-2)

...say WHAT now?? Many people consider Jane Austen's novels to be some of the finest written in the English language. So why the hate, Mark Twain? HUH??

This may sound like a stupid or obvious thing to say, but people's opinions are all relative. Someone may like you, another person may hate you, and it may not be for anything that you have done but simply because these two people have different tastes! Check out the links above and below for more famous authors dissing one another, it's pretty funny. This also reminds me of a famous factoid, that Michael Jordan didn't even make his high school basketball team the first time he tried out. All of this provides me some comfort, that try as I might I will never please everyone with the work that I do, so as long as I put my best effort in and do a job that I am pleased with, I can be content in life.

More author disses: http://www.examiner.com/x-562-Book-Examiner~y2010m4d16-The-50-best-author-vs-author-putdowns-of-all-time

More Inspiration

2010-04-22T23:50:00.003-05:00

So I suppose to make up for the lack of consistent posting I will just post again, because I am somewhat of an insomniac tonight.

Check this out!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs4I_N--T_U&playnext_from=TL&videos=qTVTCID-oGI

This is a video of Caissie Levy singing "How To Return Home" by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk. I am pretty much obsessed with it right now. Not only does Caissie have an incredible voice, but I am so drawn to the melody and lyrics. I feel the same way about another song of theirs, "Run Away With Me," and I hope to have more time soon to investigate their other songs. It is songwriters like them, and Lin Manuel Miranda, and Scott Alan, etc etc of modern times who have been inspiring me lately. I hope someday soon to refine my piano skills and maybe write some songs of my own!! Of course, I don't have a piano, but hey my old Casio will do for now. lol :)

A Change In Plans!

2010-04-22T09:30:00.002-05:00

So I am a big believer in God, and that everything (good and bad) happens for a reason. Sometimes your plans can change at the last minute, but sometimes that is not necessarily a bad thing!

For example: I had spent quite a few hours dissecting my summer and fall class schedules. I carefully planned the timing of each class, the number of credit hours I was taking, which classes were requirements and which were just for fun, etc. I had accepted the fact that I didn't get into one or two classes over the summer that I REALLY wanted to take and are not offered very often, and had tailored my schedule just so.

Well.

All that changed when I found out that even though I was on the waiting list for one of the summer classes I really wanted to take but wasn't planning on taking, I got in!!! So now I had the option to take Bookbinding. The problem was that this messed up all my other credit hours for summer AND fall, and so I had to change my schedule around again! I did this, then found out that I got into ANOTHER class for summer that I didn't think I was going to get into! So I changed my schedule AGAIN! :)

All of that to say that sometimes even when you think you are totally in control, it is interesting to have those moments where everything you have carefully planned gets thrown in the trash in a second to make way for plans that are so much better than you could have ever imagined for yourself :)

Burnt Out

2010-04-20T19:24:00.003-05:00

I feel like it has been a very long time since I've written in this blog! I'll have to check the last date.

I have been pretty busy with school lately. My first semester of graduate school is ending and I couldn't be happier! Not that it hasn't been super fun, it has been. For example, last week on Thursday and Friday my Library Buildings class took a field trip to Chicago and the surrounding suburbs to look at some libraries with our professor. Not only did we get to see some pretty cool libraries, but we got to talk in person with the staff and see staff areas of libraries and discuss what worked, what didn't, etc. This might sound kind of lame but it was really cool! My favorite that we visited was the Riverside Public Library (picture below). It is done in an "arts and crafts" style which basically means medieval revival and it looks like a castle! It is also featured in a children's picture book called "Bats In The Library!" We also saw a really cool statue of an elephant made out of old newspaper articles about the library (this was NOT at Riverside, I forgot which library this was at!).

So, even though I had lots of fun on our field trip, I am excited for this semester to be done so I can start my summer and fall classes! I will be taking Paper in the Scholarly World, Rare Books, and another intro class over the summer, and then I will be taking Preservation, History of the Book, and Youth Services Librarianship over the fall!

What else. I had to make a sort of tough decision this weekend that I am not ready to share with the world yet. All I can say is that it was the right decision for me and for the others involved, and I am glad to be back in Champaign with less stress involved in my life!

Inspiration

2010-04-11T22:20:00.003-05:00

If you have a few minutes, you should watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUgcOVFhfXM&playnext_from=TL&videos=QZo2VGgYxXg

It's a video about one of my favorite musicals, "In The Heights," and the process it went through to get to Broadway. This may sound boring to some of you but trust me, it's pretty incredible. It's more about the people, the writers, the actors, the creative team, and their lives and how they interconnect with the musical....kind of hard to explain but it's pretty awesome.

Sometimes I find myself just completely in awe of how creative some people are. I hope someday to write a song, or a play, or maybe even a whole musical that is even a fraction as good as some of the ones that I have seen. There are times I wish I hadn't been so shy in elementary/middle/high school, that I would have stepped up to the plate and owned up to what I really wanted to do with my life (be a music major). I know, though, that everything happens for a reason, and I'm here at U of I for a reason, and wherever I go after this will all be a part of God's plan for me and I just have to trust it. Sometimes I wish I were more trusting! But I know that if this is truly a dream of mine, to be on Broadway or to even just put on a show in some dinky little community theater, I will have to work hard at it. I don't know if I have the capacity to do that right now, but I hope that when the time is right and the idea is right and everything lines up where it should be that I will know, and I will follow my creativity to some totally awesome end. We'll see what happens! :)

Champaign's Wildlife

2010-04-09T19:46:00.004-05:00

Every day I wake up and immediately put on my shoes to take Zoey for a 40 minute walk in the morning. We always take the same route, straight down my street for a certain number of blocks and then we turn around. On the last block before we turn around to come back to my house there is a house that I call the "backwards house" because its porch looks like a deck that should be on the back of a house. There are always beer bottles, red cups, and other assorted remnants of fraternity-style debauchery on their lawn, I can't imagine their neighbors like them much.

However, the strangest thing about this house is the cat I sometimes see outside. The last time I saw it was a few weeks ago, but I had another sighting tonight! It ran straight up to Zoey and I as if to say, "Excuse me, what are you doing, this is MY lawn!" I assume it lives there because I've seen some Scoop-Away litter and other cat-related items on their porch-deck. She (because in my mind all cats are girls) took a few swipes at Zoey, so that is why none of the pictures turned out very well, lol. This cat is like Rory's diluted twin sister, like if someone put Rory in the washing machine. Below is a picture of Rory, my cat, then Zoey, my dog, and the pictures I snapped of the ever elusive frat house cat :) The images got switched around so the outside cat is first, then my animals.

Excitement!

2010-04-09T09:50:00.004-05:00

Things I am excited for:

1. Friends coming to visit tomorrow!!!

2. Registering for summer and fall classes this week!!

3. I got my tax refund, and even though it wasn't as much as I was hoping, it's still more than I had before!

4. Another friend coming to visit on Wednesday to watch my dog for me while....

5. We leave for our Library Buildings overnight field trip to Chicago on Thursday, which means I get to skip my least favorite class!!

6. My mom is coming to visit next weekend!!

7. I'm not really excited for this since it already happened, but I NetFlixed "I Love You, Man" and watched it last night and it was really funny (again)!

8. I am excited for the weather to continue to get warmer!

9. I am always excited when I look at the wall in my living room. It is covered in Playbills and 2 windowcards from Broadway shows, which always cheer me up :)

10. Finishing the book I am currently reading so that I can start reading "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"!