Current Obsessions

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...

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 :)

Sleepy

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!

It may be...

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 :)

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.

Weekly Goals

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

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 :)

Illinois is for Lovers!

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...

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! :)

I've always wanted...

...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!

Chocolate=love.

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



Chocolate chip scones are delicious!!

Confucius Say...

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!

What I've Been Up To

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)

Battlestar and Blog Awards! :)

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 :)

Library Math

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!

The Wizarding World of the University of Illinois

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!!

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.