Wednesday, September 7, 2011

BEDS 7: Mid-week exhaustion

Today, which was originally going to be my day off, turned into me going to both of my jobs. The first, at the library, was to introduce the new intern to some of the things I do. It went very well, we got along well, and hopefully she wasn't too bored. The second, at the rink, was rather similar, with me teaching people some of the processes we do.

Other than that, I haven't done much today. I am reading over some of the materials for class tomorrow and getting a refresher in the classic children's books we were assigned. Mike has a friend over and they are playing video games while we wait for dinner to get here. I wish Chinese takeout was healthier, so I opted for a steamed seafood with veggies dish, while longing for beef & broccoli. Sigh.

After class tomorrow we leave for a weekend vacation at Seafood fest at Hampton Beach. I am very excited, although my vacation ends too quickly with me heading to a skating conference from 8-5 on Sunday. Hopefully that isn't too ridiculous!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

BEDS 4 & 5: Bah

I should mention that I wrote a whole post yesterday and then Blogger gave me an error when I tried to both save and publish it. So. That happened.

BEDS 6: Internship swithceroo

Unexpected work.

Now that I am no longer the "official intern" at the library, there is a new one, and a new "unofficial" one, kind of like I was last year. And it seems to be my job, as the veteran intern, to take charge of the new "unofficial" intern. I met her last week, and she seems very nice, I just don't know how great a job I can do of teaching someone else, especially someone roughly my age. Tomorrow will be my first day introducing the intern to our various marketing strategies. I hadn't been planning on working at the library tomorrow, but it is only for a couple hours, and I've yet to really have a bad day there, so I am sort of looking forward to it.

It also turns out that I will be working at the rink tomorrow. We don't have programs tomorrow, just some hockey, which I don't really have anything to do with. However, a new director from a different rink in our company needs some help with our registration process and how we handle things at our rink. So it turns out I will be working not 1 but 2 jobs tomorrow, which was supposed to be a day off. Sigh.

The fact that Cupcake Wars is on TV right now is making all of this better. That, and that I just cooked the most delicious dinner ever.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

BEDS 3: Home is where the heart is

As I sort of mentioned previously, I made a brief trip to my parents' house last night into today to pick up some text books I had ordered for school and some children's books on my required reading list. We have a pretty lengthy reading list for my Children's Lit/Media course, and fortunately I have already read many of the picture books and picked up the copies at my parents' house to bring home to my apartment.

While there, I was able to spend the earlier part of today with a friend I hadn't seen one-on-one in a long time. It was nice to see someone I consider one of my very best friends and even though it had been a while, it was nice and still felt like a normal thing to do. I was worried it would feel forced, but it felt the same as it always did, from childhood, through high school, and beyond. 

Though I love going back to my hometown, and I love the people and the area, it still feels strange. My new apartment feels more and more like home as the days go by, and I am so happy we found a place that we are really determined to stay at for a while. It would be awesome to really make this our home and think of it as such. I will always love going back to my hometown and visiting, and sometimes all I want is to spend time there. I think that Mike and I would both say that our home is wherever we are with each other, as awfully cheesy as that sounds.

Now I am back at my apartment, enjoying our newly installed FiOS. I have missed being able to just turn on the TV and not worry about it stopping and having to choose something else to watch. Always figuring out what to watch on Netflix the past month was getting tiring, and the lazy part of me is glad to veg out for the night and enjoy being a couch potato.

Friday, September 2, 2011

BEDS 2: Let there be FiOS

After living in our new apartment for a month, we finally have TV! There was a big debacle with Comcast, and then Verizon was on strike, and so we had internet through the town for a few weeks, and now, finally, we have FiOS. I am so excited to be able to watch real TV channels again, instead of just watching TV shows through Netflix. Though I do love Netflix, I am just excited that we have tv in time for all the new fall programming. I am particularly excited about the new show Sarah Michelle Gellar is starring in, The Ringer.


I spent a good portion of my day today wandering around Target with a good friend. Target is one of the best stores to just wander around, browsing through DVDs or clothes. I wound up buying a few tank tops because the dryer at my apartment destroyed about 5 of mine. The replacements are very cute colors, which I hadn't seen at the other Target I've been to recently. Walmart is another store that's nice to wander around and find random deals.


I am now sitting at the table at my parents' house, talking with my mom, so I will keep this short!


Good night

Thursday, September 1, 2011

BEDS # 1: My Own BEDA

So I tend to have problems participating in BEDA (Blog Every Day April/August... whichever) when everyone else does, so here it is: Blog Every Day September: BEDS. Note this: I really like beds in general, and will probably write many a BEDS post from my own. This may help to motivate me to write more, or it may help motivate me to sleep more. We're going to find out, either way. Anyways, this post comes to you in THREE parts.

Part one: My final semester of grad school. Intense. On one hand, I am really excited to be done with this program, and on the other hand, I really like going to school. I have only had one of my three courses so far, and I won't start the other two until the 12th. The course I had today is going to be fairly similar in structure to a course I took in the Spring, but with a different focus and slightly different assignments (which is nice, not as repetitive as I was expecting).

Part two: Thanks to Mike's friend, we shall call him HWJC, I am going to be reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as my next book (after Mansfield Park... talk about different styles!). I actually really enjoy when people who don't know my reading history take a look at my book shelves, and it's fun to ask them to choose my next victim --er, book.

Part three: I really want to learn Sign Language. I only know how to spell out my name, and I am looking into taking a course at one of the local community colleges in the Spring. It's something I have wanted to do since I found out a few years ago that colleges offered ASL as a language, and I think it will be a nice transition into non-schooling after I finish my degree.

See you tomorrow!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Book Survey

Wanted something fun to do while I listen to (and completely enjoy) really awful music!

Hardback, trade paperback or mass market paperback?
If it's an author I really like, I enjoy having hardcover books. Otherwise, paperback are easier to carry around, but not mass market.

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
I like Barnes & Noble a lot better, but I can't figure out the exact reason. It feels more like a book store to me.

Bookmark or dog-ear?
For books I care about and really like I use bookmarks, but I do dog-ear pages in a lot of my paperbacks.

Amazon or brick-and-mortar?
For pre-orders of books I plan on buying, I really like Amazon. And if I am going to buy many at once because sometimes Amazon has really good deals. But I love being in an actual bookstore and being surrounded by books!

Alphabetize by author, or alphabetize by title, or random?
I organize differently on each bookcase. Examples of bookcases/bookshelves I currently have: Dystopia shelf, Classics shelf, Books to read shelf, Books to convince my husband to read, Non-fiction shelf, Favorites shelf... and so on. I know exactly where everything should go, but no one else would be able to figure it out.

Keep, throw away, or sell?
I keep almost everything.

Keep dust jacket or toss it?
I keep them unless they get ruined for some reason.

Read with dust jacket or remove it?
I keep them on while reading most of the time and use the leaf as a bookmark.

Short story or novel?
I really like novels, but I also like short story collections at times.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Harry Potter. I haven't read any of Lemony Snicket, though I liked the movie.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
At chapter breaks, always.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
I think "It was a dark and stormy night" is my preference.

Buy or borrow?
Buy. Unless it's a book I am really unsure of, and then borrowing (either from library or friend) comes in handy. If I end up really liking it I will buy it later.

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendations, or browse?
Pretty much all three. I like to see what book bloggers are reading and if we have similar tastes I will go by their recommendations, and I also like to just find out what's coming out soon and see if anything sounds good.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Cliffhangers in series are good, because then I will actually read the next book. But in stand-alone novels I really like a tidy ending with nothing left to wonder about.

Morning reading, afternoon reading, or nighttime reading?
All the time reading.

Stand-alone or series?
I like both, depending on the quality. I don't like waiting for books in series to come out though.

Favorite series?
Harry Potter, Hunger Games, when I was young I liked the Dealing With Dragons series.

Favorite children’s book?
Leo the Late Bloomer is such a good one. There are a lot that I really like though.

Favorite YA book?
The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti and Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Hmm... Samantha Crane on the Run by Linda A Cooney (it only has 3 ratings on GoodReads)

Favorite books read last year?
Highlights of books in 2010: Mistwood by Leah Cypress and Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

Favorite books of all time?
That's a little difficult...

What are you reading right now?
Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) by Sarah Mlynowski

What are you reading next?
Nightspell by Leah Cypress

Favorite book to recommend to an 11-year-old?
Harry Potter! And the Redwall books.

Favorite book to re-read?
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti, The Hobbitt by JRR Tolkien

Do you ever smell books?
Yes, but I don't like the smell of really old books because it feels like it fills my lungs with fog.

Do you ever read primary source documents like letters or diaries?
Not really, though I like looking through those things periodically.