I know this blog has been pretty much abandoned for quite a while now, so there's probably not even anyone still reading it, but I wanted to post an update to mention that I've moved house to a new blog at Wordpress, where I've already got a blog for Normal Public Library teen services set up. I'm also switching gears a bit on what I'll be posting. My life is generally pretty boring, and anyone that I care about who needs to know what I'm up to can find me pretty easily on Facebook nowadays, so with this new blog, I'll mostly be discussing young adult library services and literature, as well as the occasional off-topic oddity that catches my interest. You're welcome to come and visit me at my new digs, where hopefully I'll also be a bit better at updating regularly than I have here. Thanks for reading and commenting here, and see you soon at Wordpress!
Adalyn Joy Vail7 lbs. 4 oz., 20.5 in.
With Mommy and Daddy
Snuggling with Grandpa
Opening up her eyes for Grandma
If you try really hard, I bet you can get that whole fist in there, Adalyn!
I think she looks kind of like Yoda in this picture.
Adalyn tells the birthing process exactly what she thinks of it.This happened a few days ago when it got really cold here. It was a slow night, so those of us working at the desk had some interesting conversations. Around 7:00, Maurice comes in saying that it's snowing outside. I run out to check and, sure enough, snow is coming down in little flurries. But Jon doesn't get outside to check until a while later, by which time it's stopped snowing. For the rest of the night, he insists that Maurice was making it all up.
Jon: I don't believe you about anything anymore. You were lying about the snow. I think you got snow confused with stars.
Maurice: You just couldn't see the snow, because you didn't believe enough.
Me: It was falling all around you and you were blind to it. Open your mind to the snow!
Evan: Yeah, it's like Polar Express or something.
Lauren: What??
Evan: Uh, yeah, I don't know where I was going with that.
Jon: I still don't believe you guys.
Me: Every time you say you don't believe in snow, a snowflake dies.
Evan: Quick, clap your hands! Put on your gloves and clap your hands!
Me: I do believe in snowflakes! I do! I do!
I realize I've more or less abandoned this blog recently, for which I apologize. It's not intentional, I've just gotten busy with work and things. I kept planning on doing an update, but then I'd get caught up in something else and forget about it. Anyway, I'm not going to post much tonight either, because I'm tired and tomorrow it's my Saturday to work. I am planning to update soon with a lot more about how things are going at work, etc. I've also got some plans to do something a bit different with this blog than I have in the past, which I'll hopefully detail soon. For now, here's some Random Playlist Friday tunes:
Bag of Hammers - Thao
Baby in Two - Pernice Brothers
I Feel Like Going Home - Yo La Tengo
You Drift Away - The Postmarks
Something To Look Forward To - Spoon
Where Does the Time Go? - The Innocence Mission
Helpless Fool for Love - Annie
In the Morning of the Magicians - The Flaming Lips
My Impure Hair - Blonde Redhead
Back of a Car - Big Star
Living in Paradise - Elvis Costello
I Hear You Say So – The Innocence Mission
Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles
Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (The kids here in Illinois get this day off school!)
Sea Song - Doves
All Neon Like - Bjork
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux - Destroyer
Don't You Want Me - The Human League (Ha!)
Chartsengrafs - Grandaddy
Any Day Now - Elbow
(I'm sort of amazed that no Belle and Sebastian showed up on this one. I have so much B&S on iTunes that I think they've shown up at least once on every other random playlist I've made.)
Wow. *dusts off blog*
It's been way too long since I've updated this thing. I've been busy but happy lately. I've started my new job as a young adult librarian at the Normal Public Library, and it couldn't be going better. I love my coworkers, and the teens are great. I promised Alida and the others at ACPL that there's no way that the teens anywhere else could beat them in awesomeness...well, I'm sorry, Alida, but these guys do come pretty close! I miss everybody at ACPL still, of course, but I'm starting to feel really settled in here, and I'm excited about future possibilities with this job. I'm the sole young adult librarian here, so I'm in charge of everything in the department, as well as helping out with general adult reference duties. There's a lot of stuff to learn, and sometimes I feel so inexperienced when confronted with all of these new duties, but I'm also glad to have this opportunity. Luckily all of my coworkers have been great about helping me learn the ropes. There's just a lot I'll have to learn as I go along. I'll post again soon with more details about the job, but when I realized how long it had been since I'd updated my blog, I wanted to make sure to at least post a brief message to prove I'm still alive.
This past weekend, with the help of my parents and grandparents, I moved all of my worldly goods here to Bloomington-Normal. Mom stayed over an extra day to help me get things sorted, and now I'm starting to feel somewhat settled in. I thought I'd share a few pictures of my new apartment. Don't be fooled by how put together everything looks - my closet is crammed full of boxes yet to be unpacked.
The living room:
The kitchen:
The bedroom:
A lot of crazy stuff has been happening, so this post is going to be a jumble of sorts. First and most importantly, I'm moving tomorrow - and I still have about a million things to do before then, of course. My parents and grandparents are helping, and between us we've got two minivans, a pickup truck, and my little car, which we're hoping to be able to cram all of my stuff into. I hope it all fits.
Yesterday was my last day at ACPL, and it was very bittersweet. I spent my time playing Euchre and Rock Band with the teens - best last day ever! But it was horrible to say goodbye to everyone there. I've loved working at ACPL, and am going to miss all of my coworkers and the teens there so much. I wish I could take them all with me.
I've spent the past several days working hard on finishing my new furniture. A few weeks ago, I went to an unfinished furniture shop in town and picked out a new desk, dresser, TV stand, and bookcase. I did all the staining myself - I got a beautiful dark espresso stain, and it looks great on the pieces. Now I'm scrambling to finish up the polyurethane coats so that they'll be dry in time to pack them in the vans. Maybe I'll post pictures of them in use in my new place once I've settled in. Oh, and I also bought a sofa and chair - no more ugly flowered hand-me-downs from my parents, hurrah. I'm so proud of all my new grown-up furniture!
I can't stop watching it:
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
So, I guess it's about time to mention that I've been offered the job in Normal I talked about in my last post. It happened so quickly that I'm still a little shocked. We've tentatively set my start date as August 4, and last Thursday and Friday my parents came with me to Bloomington-Normal to look around at the area and hopefully find me a place to live. I wanted to live close to work, but unfortunately the vast majority of the apartments around uptown Normal are either heavily student-oriented (Illinois State University is literally right next to the library), or they're Section 8 housing, i.e. rent-controlled, and for the first time in my life, I'll be making too much money to qualify. (!!!) So I ended up looking further south in Bloomington, where apartments were quite a bit more expensive but also nicer. There was one apartment complex I really liked, but they were completely full and had a waiting list, so it didn't look like there was a chance I could get a place there before I'd need to move. But it just so happened that as I was in the leasing office, one of their residents came in saying that he wanted to do a sublease for July and August, and I pretty much jumped up and down yelling "Ooh! Pick me! Pick me!" So we talked it over and worked it out, and now I have an apartment. I'm going to try to head back this weekend to do some cleaning and hopefully move a few of my things in, and then in two or three weeks I'll move over there for good.
It feels like everything has really fallen into place perfectly for me to have this job. I hope I like the job and the Normal area. It's not terribly far from Chicago, and there's a train that goes straight there, so that'll be nice. And it's about four hours away from my family and friends here in Fort Wayne, which makes weekend trips very possible. I'll miss ACPL and the people there a lot, but overall I'm excited about this opportunity. Now I'm just incredibly nervous and worried about doing the job well. I hope I don't disappoint!