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A highlight of the month, heck lets just call it a highlight of my summer since we're having this late-September heatwave, was a long weekend trip with my friends Debbie and Spencer to Sequoia National Park. Well, Sequoia and Kings Canyon since they connect and we entered through KC. It was a "short" four-hour jaunt down I-5 then a bit longer into the Sierras. The worst thing about the weekend was that it's harvesting season in the valley (extra dust in the air) and there were any number of fires burning in the area (ugh, mountain air with a side of smoke). Everything outside that was great.

( Read all about the trees, the trees, the trees, and the BEARS!! )

See the first crop of photos here! More will arrive as soon as I extract them from Spencer!

Current Mood: refreshed

For the third year (or is it fourth?) I helped with the Wines of Clarksburg in a desperate attempt to engage in community service. Yes, I've been promoted to assistant librarian, but in a few short years I'll be wanting a promotion to associate, so I still have to service the community. I love my community, I really do, but I don't have the same appreciation for doing community service. Mostly because it always seems to happen on weekends. Early in the day, at that.

This year I did the usual work including ticket taking, monitoring the art, preparing of the bid boards, etc. etc. etc. But for the first time I also bid on the art! What can I say? I think my apartment is ready for some new decor. Heh, and I swear I wasn't trying to bid up the prices or anything like that - noooo!

Anyway, when all the bidding was done, I was a bit surprised that nobody had outbid me for a lovely wine rack. Yes, a wine rack. Titled the Queen of Diamonds. Just so you know, its an assemblage piece (by a local artist name Steve Cook, but trust me the guy clearly hasn't engaged in the social media craze) and looks great in my apartment. Great! He's my lil diamond queen and you can see photos of him here.

Current Mood: chipper

I just wanted to take a moment to note that Wednesday was my last furlough day. It was the last possible day to take one and I have to say my feelings are a little torn. Should I be happy that I'm going back up to full salary? Actually, my salary will be higher than ever since I was promoted a month into furloughs. The mind reels at what that extra hundred bucks will do for me each month (ok, I haven't actually figured out how much my full salary is but don't worry it's summer and I may be looking for something amusing to keep me occupied at work).

Or should I be sad that I'll no longer have those really, really sweet two extra days off each month? I've always known that I'm not a workaholic (heh, to put it mildly), but these past 11 months I've come to seriously appreciate three-day weekends and four-day workweeks. I'm not sure how I'm going to adjust back to a full work load, I guess September will just have to be a month of pure hell (I intend to take sporadic vacation days in July and August to help put off the pain).

I know I've whined about it before, but alas it's a real issue, I'm worried that without the massive salary savings furloughs contributed layoffs are going to be rampant. I'm trying to stay positive but good business librarian jobs are rare (um, nonexistent) and I don't want to end up in my parents basement.

On that depressing note, farewell furloughs! I loved the time we had together but now it's time to move on. Who knows what the future holds!

Current Mood: pensive
Current Music: songs that start with the word "every"

Here are my (few) photos from this year's ALA which was in Washington DC. Since I'm termed out on my committee and I didn't volunteer for any other committees this could very well be my last ALA in a long while. *keeps fingers crossed*

http://pics.livejournal.com/undeep_thoughts/gallery/0001ykbf

Current Mood: remembering the hot

So today is my first and only weekend shift of the summer. The good news? It's only four hours. The bad news? During the past two hours I've answered a total of two directional questions (where are the magazines and where do I check out books *sigh*). I've already planned my schedule for ALA in DC. I've got one word about that - boring! Some of the more interesting meetings I'd like to go to conflict with my committee obligations. *sigh* I'm working on my second cup of coffee for the day and even that doesn't really appear to be helping me wake up.

Not that much is new here. Last night I went to a happy hour event for a very random collection of librarians at Hot Italian. Ok, so I guess I can report some new things because for the first time in my life I had pizza topped with pears and honey. Um, it wasn't horrible, I'm just skeptical that you can call something that funky "pizza." Surely there's a different name? Along with that I had loganberry cider. Mmmmm! Now that was a treat! Not too sweet, not too beery, it was a cool delight to drink while getting to know some new librarian colleagues in Sacramento.

Hmmm, upon reflection, I have other news of the new. I finally (finally!!) broke down and purchased a new computer. This was actually a huge part of my decision to cancel ye olde road trip in MT this summer (Sorry again, Jessica!). My old computer is about five years old (five!!) and while it had been slowing down for some time now, I knew it's general slowness would break me sooner rather than later. So, when the stupid thing couldn't even properly download songs from eMusic (not to mention that it takes a full two minutes to actually load iTunes *sigh*) I decided it was time to bite the bullet and update.

Despite my misgivings, I went ahead and ordered a Dell laptop (last time I got a Dell I was annoyed with the crappy service and spectacularly shitty cd/dvd rom that broke sooo fast). But they were having a sale and I've found I'm exceptionally reluctant to commit to large purchases while doing "in store" type shopping (just ask my three-year old wardrobe) so I went ahead and place my order. I tried to get one of the "fast track" models that would be produced and shipped out in 48 hours but tragically, there were some production delays. Now I'm just hoping like mad the thing will actually be delivered on Tuesday since I'm leaving Tuesday night for ALA. Do I feel lucky? Hmmm, do I?

Current Mood: sleepily irate
Current Music: somebody's crappy-assed music

Long time, no chat! I had a really stressful April/May. Heh, I think it was brought on by insufficient sleep due to extensive marathoning of Supernatural. [Self-control? What is this concept all about?] Sprinkle in work issues i.e. constant depressing yapping about budget cuts and you have one grumpy, not in the mood to type me!

But now it's summer and I'm torturing myself with ideas of vacation that I promptly bail on because I'm not willing to pile debt on ye olde credit card (Sorry, Jessica!) (see previous paragraph re: constant yapping about drastic budget cuts which now include staff layoffs). I believe I'll be piddling away my ever-growing vacation balance (thank you, furloughs) one day at a time this summer. Not exactly thrilling, but certainly affordable.

One of the many great things about being in California is that there are plenty of nearby wonders to keep me entertained. For example, over Memorial Day weekend I squeezed in a short trip to Yosemite National Park. My co-worker has a friend who lives about 45 minutes away from Yosemite so we stayed with her and "commuted" to the park. On the one hand it was kinda a crappy choice since about five billion other Californians had the same idea (thus Yosemite lived up to its "crowded" reputation - you've never seen such traffic jams at a National Park in your life! Well, ones not caused by people gaping at wildlife or some such). On the other hand, it was a fabulous decision since the waterfalls were bursting with late spring snowfall which is now melting. Sweet! The traffic was so bad it kept us off the valley floor, but I can always go back and do that any time (we'll see if it'll be another seven years before I go back ;). However, we were lucky enough to be there the first day the road to Glacier Point was opened. Yeah, you can see photos of that here: http://pics.livejournal.com/undeep_thoughts/pic/000bsz3p/g53

What further summer adventures are coming my way? Well, tune in to see (I'm warning you now, it's going to be pathetic).

Current Mood: Monday-tastic
Current Music: Beck - Sea Change

Well, another delightful week of work over. Yay! (Um, thank you - yet frickin' again - furloughs). I know I overuse the word delightful, but what other word would you use to describe a three-day workweek? We had Cesar Chavez day (March 31st) off so Tuesday was my first "Friday" of the week. Then today was like a Monday/Friday/Thursday all mixed into one. My poor brain doesn't know what day is up. I guess I should have been like plenty of my other coworkers and just taken the entire week (Spring break, by the way) off. But no, I'd rather accumulate vast amounts of vacation time.

So the week saw some personal firsts for me. First (heh), I had my first ever teeth cleaning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, shame on me blah, blah, blah. What can I say? My parents just didn't send us in for regular cleanings when I was a kid and Dr. Searl only ever hurt me when I went to him in middle school/high school in Havre (dude never waited for the Novocaine to set in!). So I only ever learned avoidance behavior with what little dental contact I did have. I've had dental insurance for 10 years now but I was never enticed by the lure of "free" dental care. It was other pain issues finally made me go recently where I'd say my dentist guilted me into dragging myself in for a cleaning. Bwhahahaha! The dental hygienist couldn't believe I'd never had my teeth cleaned. She tried not to be too enthusiastic about the shape of my teeth (not bad!) since I could tell she wanted me to not go 34 years before my next cleaning. Anyway, my teeth were TOTALLY not bad considering I'd never had them cleaned before and I was out of there in less than 45 minutes with a fairly minimal amount of cleaning. (To all of you who obsess incessantly over the health of your teeth and floss relentlesslly [ok, nobody who reads my LJ, but people I know] - I arrogantly smirk at you. I may not have the whitest teeth, but apparently I've finally found one bodily area where I wasn't genetically shortchanged!!) Heh, now the question is, will I go back for more in six months? Hmmmm....

My other first was much more pleasant - I went to the early bird showing of Hot Tub Time Machine. Heh, in case you were wondering, it was the lure of French toast at the Tower cafe (soooooo yummy!) that got me out of bed early, NOT the thought of paying $5.50 to see a movie. But since I was getting up for a kick-ass breakfast, I thought why not get up early enough to catch the cheapest possible movie of the day (without having to go the second-run theater)? The movie was a solid three-star comedy that I recommend for anybody who lived (suffered) through the 80s.

And now I guess I've procrastinated packing for Wondercon long enough. Yep, it's yet another nerd-filled weekend for me! I'll see if I can find any maximum nerd postcards for anybody who wants one ^__^

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: listenlisten - Funeral Dirge ; Burial Service

Can I just say that three-day weekends are the only way to go? This here one is brought to you by a delightful furlough Monday. Ok, delightful isn't the best word, how about productive? I started my day with a call to the IRS. Delightful. Ok, again, more productive. Seems that letter they sent a couple weeks back was correct. I made a mistake and then THEY made a mistake. Apparently, I just chose to believe the first thing and not the second (I blame the letter, it wasn't exaclty enlightening - I'll show it to anybody who wants to see it for themselves). After the call I checked my bank account, and there was, indeed, another deposit from the IRS in there. Woot! Basically, I ended up with the refund amount I had originally planned on getting and now am waiting for yet another letter which will help me determine if my crappy five-dollar error will cause me to have to refile my state taxes (can't wait!).

With the extra moolah in my bank account I was happy to proceed on to get my car's oil changed, get myself to the gym, and then finally to the dentist for my follow up appointment. See? Productive. Since that new toothpaste seems to be doing it's thing I got out of the dentists really quick and had massive amounts of time to get out and enjoy our weather. Sunny, high 60s, breezy. Perfect weather for patio dining followed by a walk. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm! Only makes me wish this were a four-day weekend instead of three.

Current Mood: beyond productive

Work is going both slowly and quickly tonight. I'm just not in the mood to take care of that pile of work on my desk. I'd rather just sit here and do nothing. Well, I guess this is as close to nothing as I can get. I was going to try to work on my essays for the Citizens Redistricting Commission that I'm applying to get on (in a complete long shot sort of deal thingy). But I seem to be in some sort of undefeatable procrastination hellhole. I did manage to find all my address for the past ten years (that Seattle one was the most difficult) and now I'm filling up previous employers. But those stupid essays just don't seem to be writing themselves.

Oh, and if you want to be one of the three lucky people to write me a letter of recommendation for the Commission, let me know. Heh, it's all due April 2nd, so I guess I'd better get on top of asking for those letters. Of course, now that I think about it, there is a place for public comment on the candidates. Instead of a full letter of recommendation, I may end up lobbying y'all to leave a comment. Again, only if those essays will start spilling forth.

I know at least one person reading this is familiar with my drive to try to win impossible things. Let's just put this into that category of activity, ok? Heh, if there were a chance to win an iPod at the end of this, I'm sure those essays would write have been done last week!

Current Mood: complacent

Now I know why I don't usually schedule myself for mid-week furloughs; it makes for a horribly long week. It seemed like I had everything under control when I left on Wednesday. Only when I got back to work today I had piles of questions/emails from faculty, students, alum, committees - AAAUUUUGH! Then I had a really challenging advising shift. I think I may have had a 10-minute lunch, maybe? And I didn't even leave the building until 5:40 (we're only supposed to work 32 hours during a furlough week - HA!!!!!). I love the extra days off, but I swear I'm squeezing the same amount of work into two fewer days a month (trust me, I've tried to reduce my workload, but unless I screw up royally like I did with that class I forgot Monday night, it just doesn't seem to be happening!).

Hmm, add my first dentist appointment in years (hey, shut up! I brush twice a day and floss, who needs more than that?) and that makes for an extra, extra painful week.

I could talk way more about that dentist thing, but I think I'm going to curl up with my yummy avocado and watch some Dead Like Me instead (see, my dental avoidance behavior is so deeply ingrained, it even extends to LJ!!). Have a good weekend y'all, I'll see you on the other side!

Current Mood: drained

Heh, I'm totally getting back to my LJ groove! It's my Wednesday night reference desk shift and here I am using my time to update here! Bwhahaahaha! I could be making a dent in that $16,000 I have left in my business book budget - which has to be used by the end of March - but I think at this point that would put me to sleep more than anything else.

It's been a while since I talked about work, so let's start with the bad. I was a bad, bad librarian this week. I missed a class I had scheduled to teach. *hangs head in utter shame* I was supposed to do it Monday night, but I had forgotten to write it in my lil black appointment book. *sob* I felt like such an ass when I came to work the next day to a "where are you" voicemail. Such an unprofessional thing to do! I think the person I was working with wasn't mad, really. Probably just more disappointed.

Oh, wait, had to answer (a great) question and now it's time to head home. Ahhh, another day of work done. Tomorrow is a furlough day for me! We're all off to the capital for a protest from 11:00 - 1:00. You know I'm not a joiner, or a protester, really. But I do so wish California would get its priorities straight (schools before prisons!!) I'm mostly going because it's not too early. Heh, I'll go if it's important and meets my preferred sleeping schedule ^__^

Current Mood: sleepy

In an attempt to stave off a shampoo emergency tomorrow morning, I trekked over to the local crap drug store for whatever crap shampoo was on sale this week (Sunsilk, on clearance!). Happily enough, 10:00 pm worked well since the deluge finally stopped and now the stars are shining. Apparently we had thunder and lightening with our rain this afternoon. I didn't see that for myself, but I did see itty-bitty hail (I was hoping it'd be a more massive hail then I could pretend it had snowed).

After getting thoroughly drenched, I went with Debbie to see the Oscar nominated animated shorts (nothing like sitting in a cold theater with wet shoes and damp pants). Vast majority of the entries were pretty darned light hearted this year and I was pleasantly surprised to see a Wallace and Gromit short. But I was disappointed that so many of them done in the same style of animation (I call it Pixar style, cgi? whatever). Ok, so I'm happy there wasn't another oil painting style Russian entry like there was last year. Fortunately, they threw in some "highly commended" shorts too and I just loved a whacked out Canadian railroad themed piece. Hee.

I'd try to predict which one is going to win the Oscar but there wasn't one that really stood out from the rest. Is it going to be Wallace & Gromit for the nostalgia? Naahhh, I guess I'll have to go with the French short Logorama. Even though it felt a bit like an animated Pulp Fiction ripoff (kinda), lawsuit waiting to happen, just missed the mark piece of drivel (don't take my word for it, YouTube it!).

Current Mood: cold

Yes, I'm alive and yes, plenty of things have been happening. I've just been running ragged at work (and a little ragged at play!) which makes me avoid any type of "relaxing" computer stuff after work hours. Yeah, I apologize to those of you who I owe an email to. Um, I'll try to get right on that. Oh, and I've been neglecting my Facebook account too. Um, I don't think I'll be getting right on that :)

( Get all the deets here as I ramble on and use way too many parenthesis... )

Current Mood: refreshed
Current Music: The Notwist

Usually I have nothing but the deepest affection for the IRS. Well, not really but I've never had any problems with them returning my money to me in a nice, timely manner. This year I guess the IRS is determined to blow all that goodwill they've built up. I, nerdly little person that I am, filed my taxes way back on January 17th. Their little "Where's My Refund" page evn said my refund should be deposited by February 2nd. Well, that's long since passed and no tax refund. Boo! I even called them last week and they said "things are still being verified" and "they're still working on them." I can't possibly imagine what the heck there is to verify (sheesh, I don't itemize and the only thing I have is a student loan interest deduction).

My money better not have been deposited in somebody else's bank account (that's why I called the first time, just to make sure that hadn't happened). It's not like I NEED the money today. But I racked up some nice holiday type bills I'd sure like to pay off sooner rather than later. I'd give them a break for snow apocalypse type reasons but I don't think the IRS is entirely located in Washington DC. I think my taxes are processed right here in California. And I assure you, there is no snow around here (mudslides, maybe).

Current Mood: impatient

Oh my! I just got the weirdest message from my bestest childhood friend over on Facebook. She's apologizing profusely for something that I don't ever remember her doing. *sigh* Would you like me to start from the beginning? Heh, well, I am whether you want me to or not! If you're bored by trivial stories, feel free to skip this one (I'm just writing in an effort to write here more often!!)

So, waaaaaay back in the day Nancy was my best friend (we even had the BFF necklace where we each had a half of the whole - remember those?). Even when our parents' jobs had us moving to different states (me, Illinois her, Iowa) we managed to stay friends. Yeah, even before the Internet we managed to stay connected through - GASP - the good old fashioned Post Office (I'm waiting for a call from Ken Burns for when he does a documentary on the last generation that used the Post Office as their primary method for keeping in contact over long distances). In fact, I still have all the letters she sent me (I should dig them out and read 'em). Eventually, my family moved back to MT but hers stayed in Iowa and I think that extra couple states between us was the beginning of the end. We basically both stopped writing (although, to this day I'm 100% sure it was my turn to write. My BAD!) so by the time she graduated high school (she was three years ahead of me in school) we both had let the friendship die. That's what I call a no muss, no fuss ending. Though I felt guilty for years for not writing.

Fast forward to 2009 we have our first direct (heh) contact since 1991. On Facebook we do the usual comment here and there with the occasional old timey reminiscence. Only this weekend, she sent me this long torturous email about how she's felt guilty for years for ending our relationship the way she did. She referred to "that day" as though we had a knock-down drag out horrible end. But I remember nothing of the sort but now I feel obligated to assure her that everything was/is ok. And it really is, for me at least. I'd offer to send her the letter she wrote me so we could focus more on the good times, but I'm not really sure I can bear to part with them. Heh, another thing to feel guilty about? Yay! Back to the status quo in this "relationship" for me!!

Current Mood: sad

Instead of the year of the tiger, I'm going to call this the year of the gym saince I have a feeling that's all I'm going to be talking about around here. Sorry in advance for the boringness!

Today I went to the gym after pigging out at the Sac Scapers meeting (mmmm, pizza! candy! chocolate cream pie! candy!). I got there at 4:30 and every single bleeping treadmill was taken. AUGH! What time does a person have to go to the gym to get a treadmill? Sheesh! I don't even think I can blame this on the New Years Resolutioners. Here I thought I was the only dork with no Saturday night plans thinking I'd hit the empty gym. *sigh* Next weel I'll go later.

By the way, I wore my blue Star Trek t-shirt that I got off the back of the Cheese-It box to the Sac Scapers meeting. Heh, the nerd herd definitely liked. I feel like wearing a sign "Will wear polyester for fandom" ^__^ (I hate polyester and its lack of breathiness). If anybody has a box of Cheese-Its sitting around from this summer that has the "Star Trek" tolken on it, please let me know! I'd love to get another one (maybe in red). I can't find any boxes with that promotion on it around here anymore.

Current Mood: drained

After that last whiny post I thought I'd mention my Chinese New Year resolution for this year (since this year I actually started my other resolutions at the top of the calendar year unlike years past) is to write more on my LJ. Even if nobody read its - bwahahahaha! I just forked over more dough for a paid account because I can't bear to part with my user pics, so all the better reason to write and make it worth my money.

Not much is happening, although I am undertaking new ventures at work - first year advising. Hey, quit laughing! I can at least try to be nice and helpful! Anyway, the world of academic advising is completely new to me and filled with so much stuff that I'm trying to learn so I can guide the young 'uns. I'll probably be yammering about that in the near future (I'm still training and I think I won't start advising live people until the week of the 22nd). I decided to do this not because I don't have enough other library work to do. Rather, I've been looking for something new (maybe along the lines of a goal) to keep me from getting into too deep a rut. Heh, here's hoping it won't be a horrible mistake!

Oh yeah, one last thing. As your reward for reading this far, I posted my Christmas Death Valley, Channel Islands, Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip Vacation photos here: http://pics.livejournal.com/undeep_thoughts/pic/0009pk2e/g52 Heh, I posted them quite some time ago but apparently was overtaken with the laziness to post that I'd posted them. Good thing I've got a resolution about that! Apparently, you shouldn't be expecting any writing on that ^__^

Current Mood: hungry

I'd say good evening, but there hardly seems anything good about it :( It was pouring rain and windy when I got out of the gym. So I walked to the light rail and - for the first time ever - took a bus back to Sac State so I could catch the 30 which would save me a 10 block walk in rain/wind. Just as the bus was pulling up the 30 left!! Stupid thing didn't even take the extra moment to see if anybody from my bus was going to transfer. So I sat in the (fortunately dry) bus shelter waiting 25 minutes for the next 30 to arrive.

Then I got home, logged into my bank account hoping beyond hope that my tax refund had been deposited. *sigh* Wasn't in the bank. I even tried the "Where's my refund" thingy again and this time instead of saying "It should be in your account by Feb 2nd" it said call us and see what's up (not in those exact words, of course). So I actually called the IRS and got the horrible muzak treatment and then the fake polite lady saying oh they're still working on it, verifying information, etc. *sigh* I better not be getting audited (the fear lingers)!

Now I'm starving (haven't eaten since that sandwich at 2:00) for something yummy but have nothing in the house and it's all rainy outside. And worst of all, today's Thursday and I have yet another loooong day at work to get through. *sigh* This all could have been made better if only the IRS weren't so slow to me this year!

Current Mood: disappointed

I'm back!! The Death Valley/Channel Islands/Coastal roadtrip was a fabulous success! We drove almost 2000 miles in eight days (we were a mere 20 miles short of 2000!) and saw many, many beautiful sights ranging from awesome desertscapes to fabulous ocean vistas. I feel like we saw so much Mother Nature-y eye candy that those 2000 miles of driving just sort of melted away (my heiny would like to respectfully disagree, hee) .

If I have time between chores today (my parents are arriving from Utah tomorrow!!) perhaps I'll write a bit more and post some pictures.

Current Mood: happy
Current Music: eMusic playlist

Christmas? Who said Christmas could arrive so soon? Not me, that's for sure. Although, I do seem to have tackled all that holiday stuff here at the last moment before my camping vacation is set to begin. Heh, in fact, I now have two whole days to pack and clean the place up. I promise you the packing is totally going to happen way before the cleaning!

Current Mood: lazy
Current Music: Ratatat

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September 2012

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I have only shallow thoughts

You've been warned

Recent Entries

another day, another trip, another huge tree - YAY!

Wine(-os) of Clarksburg

farewell, my love!

by the way

too bad there's not a stats column for "socially needy" patrons

Sorry, not one postcard sent!

Teeth, double Fridays, and Hot Tubs!

Happy Monday!

where's my motivation?

why am I even online right now?

let's talk about work!

And the Oscar goes to...

how did March arrive already?

moooooolah

another awkward moment brought to me by Facebook

still the coolest person you know!

Year of the Tiger - grrrrrrr!

Boo! Hiss!

from the valley of death, I return!

too lazy to write more!