Librarian in Disguise

all dressed up and no where to go

Alicia took this picture just before she left to return home to Chattanooga. I've officially be at EC for 4 full weeks now. It's been an adventure and an adjustment.

I have my first long weekend and will spend it visiting with Alicia, Fuller & Damon. In two weeks I'm off to Florida for a long weekend to go and celebrate Genevieve's baptism. And no Eve hasn't made her appearance. She was according to her doctor's due yesterday, but I don't think she'll come until Mid to late next week. We should all place bets. What should the winner get. I think she'll come a week from tomorrow. Sarah Ginny probably won't like me now since I guessed she'll be prego for another full week.

Yesterday at work I was approved for full funding for my first official librarian conference. It's not until June 08 but in the work of academics ya gotta plan ahead when it comes to paying for stuff. So I'll be in Boston the 2nd week of June. Yeah!

I'm hoping to go to the ALA Mid-winter Meeting in January. It's in Philly. It would be a double fun conference, get to hang out and talk book speak in my shhush voice (ode to Chris) and I'd get to hang out with the Jone's. Yeah that would be fun.

Okay...time to get ready for the day.

a new week

It has been a busy few days. Alicia & Fuller were in town for a nice visit. Momma came to town last Sunday and left yesterday morning for FL. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening in Atlanta at my cousin Lissa's house celebrating her son, Jaden's 5th birthday, it was good to visit with her and see my Aunts and Uncle who I haven't seen in almost 4 years.

Momma's visit was great and boy did she/we accomplish a lot in the house!! I'll have to do a little video tour so you can see the difference. I am also now the proud owner of a washer and dryer! It was delivered and installed on Friday and so far I've done 6 loads of laundry. It's so nice to have it in my house. I also am the proud owner of a new dining/kitchen room table. My house really feels cozy and welcoming.

okay need to cut this short. I need to get home and finish my hair and get to work. Have a great day and I'll write more later!!

saturday morning update

A. It rained last night. It was a good real rain storm complete with lots of lightening and thunder.

B. It just occurred to me that my family of five currently resides in five different states--Texas, Florida, Ohio, Georgia & Tennessee.

C. My nephew Fuller & his momma (my older sister) Alicia are coming for a visit today. They will stay until Tuesday. I'm so excited. I even have my toy cabinet ready to go!

D. My mom is coming tomorrow afternoon on her way to Florida. She's going to Florida to be with Sarah Ginny & Nat as they all await Genevieve's arrival into the world.

E. One of the great things about being a librarian---you get to take home magazines and I'll never have to pay library fines (at least in my library). I already had to pay $3 in fines at the public library.

F. I went to Weight Watchers last night, just for the weigh-in lost 1.4 lbs last week. I'm back down 33.7lbs. I didn't really lose any weight this summer. Mainly maintained, which considering the summer I had, was great. Since I've been in Georgia I've lost almost 4lbs. Hopefully this is an indication that I'm back on track. At last calculations I've got about 24 more pounds to go. Slow and steady wins the race for this girl.

G. This morning on NPR Scott Simon interviewed Jesse Harris about the Soundtrack to Ethan Hawkes new film The Hottest State. It is wonderful I think I'll see if I can find it when I'm in Athens tomorrow.

H. The first three days of school went well. I was even able to help a few folks figure out some research questions. Yes! I tried not to act too excited. Keeping my nerd factor to a minimum.

I. Next week I start my new work scheduled. Monday 1-10; Tuesday 8-5; Wednesday 8-5; Thursday 11-8; Friday 8-4 and once a month I'll work on Saturday and when that happens I don't have to work on Friday. Yeah! I love that I don't have to work until 1 on Mondays. Makes the weekend seem long.

J. I discovered this week that setting up my morning coffee and laying out my clothes the night before makes the morning routine much more bearable. Who Knew?!

K. I took my new to me car to get belts replaced yesterday. One nice thing about living in a small town, I called yesterday morning he told me to bring it in and it was done by 2:30 and it all cost me less than $100 to get 2 belts replaced. I love it! My director graciously arranged for pickup and drop up for me! And while I was at the shop I inquired about oil changes. If I call in the morning they will come and PICK UP my car for me and have it back by the end of the day. Oh my goodness that is luxurious!

L. My house truly feels settled. Although it will be lovely to have curtains this week. I'd eventually like to get some new side tables. But those will have to wait.

M. I watched a Japanese film this week called Nobody Knows. It was a slow moving film about human tragedy and will to live and survive. It was much more intense than I bargained for. I went to bed that night with swollen puffy eyes.

N. Borat came in the mail this week, I don't remember putting it in my queue. Anyhow after watching a few scenes of it I decided that I could do without it. It is the first film I've mailed back without watching it.

O. I recently purchased Ryan Adams new album Easy Tiger. I especially enjoy track 2 & 3

P. Okay I was going to try and go all the way to Z, but I've run out of things to write and I really need to get my day going!

control

As someone who has control issues and likes to think I can hide them, I found the following passage from Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert to be rather telling.

So I buck up and admit it. "OK, I think you're probably right. Maybe I do have a problem with control. It's just weird that you noticed. Because I don't think it's that obvious on the surface. I mean--I bet most people can't see my control issues when they first look at me."

Richard from Texas laughs so hard he almost loses his toothpick.
"They can't? Honey--Ray Charles could see your control issues!"

suggestions?

I need to beef up my blockbuster queue. Any suggestions? I enjoy Foreign Film, Indy Films, Drama, Documentary, and the occasional action film. And I'm always a sucker for a "good" chic-flick!

AC Update

A few of you have inquired about my AC. Thankfully it did not die. I think it was just having a hard time because of the extreme heat on Saturday. When I returned home from an overnight in Athens and turned it on, it worked just fine. Thank goodness.

I've been having some internet connection issues. Because AT&T doesn't offer DSL on my street the only way that I can access the internet is by using the college's wifi. I am able to connect through a router across the street in one of the residence halls. Well students returned this weekend and last night and this morning I couldn't even get a signal strong enough to connect to my email. This is a problem because I currently have my phone through SKYPE (ie over the internet). So I'm working on a few possible solutions. However this afternoon I was able to get on no problem, so maybe it was just an overload because everyone was home at once because classes don't start until Wednesday. Who knows?! The mystery continues. Currently I'm blogging from the comfort of my well air conditioned office in the library.

I had to make a trip up here to drop off a chair that doesn't fit in my apartment. Despite the fact that my ugly green chair is ugly I simply couldn't bring myself to get rid of it. So for the time being it will live in my office.

Time to go home and see about some dinner.

p.s. if you'd like to see some photos of my new little house. click here.

food for thought

"...Faith, hope, and love do not cohabit in the heart with cynicism and apathy. Instead, these virtues call us forth into service of our neighbor, forth into service of the common good, and forth into the pursuit of justice."

Dr. Gideon Strauss

it's hot outside

i think my ac just died. not good.

saturday chores

So it's Saturday. And now that I've joined the world of 40 hour workweeks I think I'll better understand the joy of weekends. It was nice to sleep until 8, drink my coffee in leisure, eat a yummy hot breakfast and think about what the day might hold for me.

So far today I've washed the windows in my kitchen and bedroom. I did the living room windows last night. I must say that clean windows are lovely!I tried to install my newly purchased ceiling fan. However, once I had the power supply off and took off the old light I chickened out. Ah! And reading the instruction book is scary. Caution! Not following instructions correctly may lead to serious injury or even death. Ah! Scary. And well I'm not the confident with my electrical skills. I put the light back together and I'll pack the ceiling fan up and wait until I can find someone to install it for me. Anyone out there want to help this single gal out?

So far this morning I've listened to Weekend Edition, Car Talk, Wait Wait don't tell me, and now the Economic Report. Not having a TV hasn't been as hard as I thought. I like that my living room isn't focused on the display of my TV. I hope to get a little cart to store my TV & DVD player on so that when I want to watch a movie I can just pull the cart out of the closet.

I hope to drive down to Athens this afternoon. I need to return some stuff, drop off some items at the Goodwill, and go to Target to pick up some recently printed photographs and maybe get an end table. We'll see. I'm at the place now in life where I'd love it if my furniture matched! Ha, what strange things we want in adulthood.

Well, I think I'll start by going to the postoffice.

a new favorite

My sister took this photograph at my cousin's rehearsal dinner. It is my new favorite photo of me and Fuller. In fact I like it so much that I'm having it printed so I can hang it in my new office at the Library.

ramblings...

Today is officially 21 days away from Sarah Ginny's official due date. But as we all know with baby due dates, babies come when they come. I am super excited about Genevieve's arrival, because it will balance my Aunthood out. I will have a boy and a girl and then I just have to wait a few years before the three of us can vacation together. I have visions of cross country road trips and flights to far off places. The tricky part will be convincing their respective parents that Fuller & Genevieve should be allowed to join me in my adventures.

I made reservations today for my trip to Stuart for Genevieve's baptism. Airtran was having a great sale and I got the ball rolling on picking a date for the special occasion. I'm excited to meet her, just so excited that I might not wait until the baptism to meet her. That will however depend on when she decides to make her debut!

So I now live in not only a small town but a small county. Franklin County Georgia has less than 30,000 people. That is correct folks the entire county has less than 30,000 people. Franklin Springs, where I live, has fewer than 1000 residents. Welcome to small town America Austina!

I tried to get a landline, but AT&T was taking their sweet time getting back to me for a variety of reasons. In the midst of waiting a friend suggested that I try getting a SKYPE phone. I investigated and decided that it was too cheap not to try it out. And so now for about $7.50 a month, I have unlimited long distance and voicemail all through my computer. It will surely take a bit of getting used to and once I get a wireless headset I'll be good to go. Until then I have to sit on my couch with a wired-headset on (so there's no echo). If you know me and want my new contact info let me know.

Today I finished Day 5 of my new job as a librarian. And well if you are an occasional reader of my blog you probably know that my blog has been titled, Librarian in Disguise. That was mainly because when I started this I was working in campus ministry and was subversive about my work as a librarian. Well now that I officially employed as a college librarian I wonder if maybe I should change my blog title. Honestly though I enjoy my title and find it to be clever. What do you think? Maybe I should have a contest to rename my blog. Any suggestions.

Well this has indeed been a rambling post. But because I decided to do without TV this year I thought maybe I should blog more.