Finally!

I am finally in all the courses I want to be in!

It involved attending 8 classes last week, but it was worth it in the end, but very nerve wracking, especially when the add/drop form that I filled out on Thursday night did not actually register my course changes until this morning at 10am.  I feel sorry for the poor secretary who got all those panicked emails on Friday!

I did not get into the archives conservation and preservation class, but I am ok with that.  I attended the first class and discovered that if I actually wanted to do conservation I would have to do a years apprenticeship anyway.  If I can't get into the class next time around, I am sure practical workshops will be just as useful.

I was worried about getting into digital libraries class, and while discussing this with a colleague, I remembered that I was 4th on the waiting list for Folktales as well, so I attended that class the next day.  The prof said she was fine with having extra people in the class, so I went to our departmental library to email the secretary to let me into the class.  There I discovered an email that said that I was enrolled in digital libraries!

So now, instead of not having enough courses, I had too many and had to choose one to drop!  My friends convinced me to drop our last required course, Management, because it is compressed this summer, and therefore much more work, and it is a course that will be offered every semester, unlike the others.  

So this summer, I have three storytime classes, intro to archives, and digital libraries.

Can we say "Summer or fun"?!!!!!!!

The algorithm

There is an algorithm that chooses classes for you in my program.

You choose your top 7 classes and rank them, and then the algorithm puts you in those classes if your ranking holds up to the number of people wanting to get into the class.

Of the 7 classes I gave it, it gave me 2.  That, plus my required course meant I was enrolled in 3 courses instead of 5.

I am on the waiting list for my other classes, which means that this week I am attending 6 classes in an attempt to get into at least one of the classes I wanted.  Why?  Because all of the courses I am remotely interested in are wait listed.  Even my reserves that I did not put in my 7. I found another class to enroll in provisionally, so I am currently enrolled in 4 classes.  That class is turning out to be very interesting, so that is ok.

Now, I am ok with just having 4 classes this semester, but it means that I will likely have to come back to make up an extra semester at some point.

What I am mad about is that they claim that there is no order to how people get into classes, it is all based on this magic algorithm.

Now, if that was the case, how did I end up being 4th on the waiting list for 3 of my five waitlisted classes?

Need to go back to bed

I just bought a box of salad greens.

I put them in the fridge.

As I was closing the fridge, I saw a box of salad greens and thought, "Oh damn, we already had a box!"

Then I realized I was looking at the box I had just bought.

Two Weeks of Dog

I am puppy-ed out!  I love dogs, and they pretty much like me, but I haven't lived with one for almost 4 years now since our dear baby bumpkins passed away, so it is nice to be home in a puppy-free environment for a few days.

I am just not used to the constant movement and need to entertain them or they will chew/do something they shouldn't.  I am kind of worn out!

Don't get me wrong, they are all lovely dog-cousins with their own little personalities and hilarious phobias and bad habits, I am just not used to them, and they are not used to me, so they were in constant states of "oh my god! the new person is still here!  she might pet me!  she might throw something for me!  does she taste different this morning?"  It is nice to get my fix once in awhile, but I sure hope my cousins don't have to deal with the hyperactiveness on a daily basis, cause it is very tiring.

I was glad to be heading back home to a quiet uneventful house.

Until we came in the door to two de-leafed flowers with their pots knocked over, and a little bunny looking guilty right in the middle of it, but not wanting to run away because the leaves were too tasty.

Is there any pet who leaves the houseplants alone?

Successful completion

I have now finished one third of my library science degree.

It was a good semester, even though I think all of us at one point or another had a little breakdown and more than a few sleepless nights.  Which was weird, because I do not ever remember a night before when i did not sleep at all, even a little bit, but I had a few this semester.

Even weirder is that I didn't really think I was stressed out most of the time, but my body did.

I definitely have more grey hairs.

But I think I learned a lot, and I could definitely put my knowledge to good use right now if I wanted to.  I also had some really good profs, and i felt really lucky in that respect.

I am also very excited about the summer semester.  I did not get in to all the classes that I wanted to, but I am 4th on the waiting list for the class that I really wanted, so I just have to attend the class for the first few weeks and hope someone drops it, or the prof decides to let me take the class anyway.

My weekend this summer starts on thursday at noon, and goes till monday at 6pm.  I am only going to take 4 courses instead of 5, so I will hopefully not be nearly as stressed out as i was this semester.  also, one of the courses ends in the middle of july, so that should make the end of term a bit easier to handle.

I also made a lot of really good friends this year, and we cemented that friendship with numerous pub lunches to calm each other down over the last few weeks of the term, so that, and knowing what is expected of us now will make this semester coming up a whole lot easier!

I am excited!

Down to the wire

I have a huge paper due tomorrow.  Have i written any of it?  no.  well, ok, i have an introduction, and i have it all laid out, and i know the points i am going to make.

It is just the will to write it that is not there.

I have no idea if this is the kind of thing he wants at all, but this is what i am going to write about, so there! nyah!

I know I have the time to write it, it isn't due until midnight tomorrow, and i have to stay at school until after 10pm tonight, because there is a wine tasting group happening right outside my bedroom tonight, so i will get no work done here if i stay.

but convincing myself i have plenty of time doesn't really help me with getting started.

argh!

and i made cheese things for a party at school today, so now my apartment smells like hot cheese.

When i get this paper done, i only have a minute of a ten minute presentation to do, and then i am done for the semester!  then i get three weeks off and start the torture all over again!

Sorry this is weird and stream of consciousnessy but i am a little addled at the moment, and all i can smell is cheese!

Can you tell this paper is going to make a whole lot of sense when i finally get around to writing it?

Google me!

EEEEEEE!  I am on Google Scholar!  You can Google me and actually find me and not just references to the character in the Johanna Lindsey novel (which apparently doesn't come up any more, hmm, trumped by social media).  Well ok, you can Google Scholar me and find my Master's Thesis, which, i must admit is awesome, and I got very excited in class when I found this out  and was told by three different people that I was "too cute". can you tell my voice is going up octaves and getting faster!  This can only end in jazz hands!  and maybe some jumping up and down!  

EEEE!! 

Bad Day! Bad!

Arg!  Today was not a good day!

I had far too much work to do and not enough time to do it in so I was anxious all day.

It started with a class about i have no idea what, that none of us had had time to do the readings for, which somehow morphed into some woman in the class talking about changing the world through the ethical guidelines for libraries.  And one day every child shall have a rainbow to sleep on and a unicorn for a pet.  I was totally not in the mood and had to try really hard not to storm out of the class or punch her in the face.  The only high point is that the prof actually liked something i said and kept on referring to it, and then I got to prove him wrong about something and the whole class backed me up!

And then I got to go deal with a prof who accused me of cheating on an assignment because five of us got the same wrong answer (totally did not cheat, just happened to get the same answer as five other people because it is right, but the prof doesn't know enough stats to say so, or explain to me how it is wrong, because I was right!)

Then I spent from 1pm-6pm editing a group assignment.  Damned thing is 20 pages long and written by five different people, so yeah, took awhile. bah!

And whenever I got up to stretch or ask one of my group members a question, other kids from my class would say, "What are you working on?  theory?  cataloging?  online searching?"  and I would say, "No, I haven't even gotten to those yet, I'm still editing research methods!"  and getting more and more worried about the amount of work I have left to do.  Far, far too much work.  And only a week to do it in!

ARGH!

Tainted Victory

I have never pulled a april fools joke before.  Or any kind of prank really.  But this morning when I woke up, I thought, "This is my year!  I am going to do it this year!"


I even had the perfect idea.  This is course registration week for my program, and we have all been posting our course selections in our facebook status.  So, even though last night I cheerfully posted my course selection, this is what I posted this morning:

Last night after I registered I really thought about things, and decided I don't want to be doing this any more. I have unregistered, and I am not quite sure if I will be coming back to London after this weekend.

I am not exactly sure what response I was hoping for.  I hadn't really thought it through past "this would be a perfect april fools joke!"

The first response I got was from G who said "really?  are you ok?", so I immediately set up a chat with her to let her know it was an april fools joke and i was fine.  Before she answered though, the next response came in from another girl that said "is this an april fools joke?"

So that was the end, but I was fine with that.  until the next response that came from a guy in our class who is a friend of G's

"Burn.On.You. G, that will teach you to care about people in public!"

Noooooo!  That was not my intention at alll!!!  I would never want someone to feel that way! People have made me feel that way my entire life and I know how horrible it is for people to laugh at you for a normal human reaction of concern.  All of my friends (and "friends") have always called me gullible my entire life, but when I tried to be skeptical, they always got offended and ostracized me for not showing concern for someone's completely unbelievable problem.  Damned if you do, and double damned if you don't.  So then I thought about the whole joke and realized that that was the kind of joke it was, and how horrible it was to have made someone feel that way.  So I started apologizing profusely on facebook, but G and the guy both said that I had got her fair and square and shouldn't be apologizing.  

Then in class tonight, the guy sat next to me, and I said "you didn't have to be so mean to her!"  and he said, "what?  i am not the one who made a joke so they could laugh at people. and you got her fair and square"  "That wasn't my intention," i said in a small voice.  "Well, anyway, G and me are buddies, and she can take some ribbing."  but i had apologized to her in person a little earlier, and she was ok with it,  and said I shouldn't apologize, but I could tell she was still feeling kind of stupid for being a gullible person.

arg!  So, I guess the joke is really on me!  April Fools pulled a whopping good prank on me by convincing me that it would be a fun thing to do.  And even worse, people were congratulating me on a good joke in class.  

Never Again!  

Investigating

So, the other day, I did something quite unthinkable.  I conducted what one of my friends referred to as an "investigation into my past."


I asked one of the guys from our high school group of friends why he thought no one had ever asked me out in high school.


I know you are all terrified by this, I was too, but i figured even though it is something that people don't usually ask, I really wanted to know.  needed to know.  and I knew that this guy would know the answer if there was something to know, and that he would give me a straight up honest answer.  he really is the only person I ever would have asked this question of among any of the guys i have ever known. ok, straight guys i have ever known.  lets face it, i needed a heterosexual, alpha male perspective on this.


It actually went quite well.  I have my own ideas of what I was like in high school, and it was very good to get a different perspective on myself.


I remembered being a geek with a zitty face, bad hair, and hardly any friends.


That stuff didn't even make it into his recollections.  He remembered liking being around me because I was "smart, funny, and always in a good mood."  The only thing he remembered that he didn't like about my appearance was my short upper lip, and my flat bum, which he admitted are only personal preferences.


He actually liked the way I dressed, and my long neck, my beautiful hands, and my eyes.  My "get lost in them for a thousand years enchanting.  like have to throw your eyes in the pits of mordor enchanting" eyes.


oh, and my "gigantic knocks"


He said it was probably my smartness that scared guys off, "guys were just intimidated by a woman that could be more alpha male than the males could."  he says guys have fragile egos and think that if they are not dominant they are doing something wrong.  plus, i didn't seem to be interested in the stuff guys are interested in, and guys are pretty self-absorbed.




All in all, i found it a pretty good exercise.  I am still processing how to incorporate these ideas into my life, but it was really good to see what kind of a lasting impression I make on people, and how the fragile high school male ego perceived it all.

New Specs! New Specs!

So, internet, here are my new glasses:

These brown ones are juicy couture,  the style is called "behave".  Perfect for a librarian, yes?  they are brown with bone coloured stripes down the arms.   They are my business specs.

and these are my funky glasses, they have the magnetic clip-on sunglasses too, which is spectacular!  you can't see it in the photo very well, but the arms are the same colour as the front of the frames, a burgundy red, and the insides are an awesome lime green.  very cool.

The great glass dilemma

I need new glasses.  I haven't bought new glasses since 2006.

I was already starting to get antsy about not liking my current frames anymore, and then I have been having eye problems and headache issues, so I went to the optometrist, and discovered I need a new prescription.

This started "the great glasses hunt" of 2010.

It always takes me awhile to find glasses I like, because I am particular, and I know that I will be wearing them for awhile.  I have only owned four pairs of glasses over the 15 years that I have had to wear them.

The hunt started while I waited for my mom to pick me up from the optometrist, they had some very cool styles, but we ran out of time.

Then, we went to Hakim up the street from me in London, and all they had was crap.  And ugly crap at that.

Then, I was on my own.  I went looking in the local mall, and I found some nice frames at one shop, but quickly decided that being blind, and going looking for glasses on my own was a bad idea.  Well, ok, the decision was made for me when I had to get so close to the mirror in the store to see myself that I bumped my nose and left a smudge.

So then, I had to find someone to shop with.  Someone who understood glasses, and the desire to have funky ones in awesome colours.  I asked a girl that I talk to from my course who, it turns out, has three different pairs of glasses on the go at the moment.  We combined the trip with a general shopping day, and topped it off by going to see "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D with some other girls.  It was a successful trip, even though the store was packed, but the pair that I had really liked from the first time was only there in a different colour combo, so it had to be ordered in the colours I wanted, but we were pretty sure that those were the right glasses for me.

I went back today because they told me the glasses were in, with a different friend, because the first girl was sick.  So I tried on the frames, and my friend instantly agreed that they were perfect.  Then I turned around and told the saleswoman that I wanted them, and she said "Good, so what is your other pair going to be?  They are 2 for 1 you know."  Oh no, I did not know, the store was packed on the weekend, and so someone had failed to mention it (namely her, since it was the same saleslady).

What do I do now?  I had tried on almost every pair of glasses in the store on the weekend, and no other ones even came close!  Luckily, since we were the only ones there, the woman actually had the time to help us, and she suggested some of the designer frames in the centre, that I hadn't even bothered with before.  The second ones she pulled out were fabulous, so I went with those.

So I should have two new pairs of glasses on wednesday!  One funky red pair with lime green on the inside, and they have magnetic clip-on sunglasses; and one slightly more business-like pair that are brown, but have a light stripe down the arms.  My friend said "they are calmer that the other ones.  They can be our job interview glasses."

Don't worry guys, I will post pictures when I get them.  Because they will be fabulous!

Now my dilemma will be deciding which ones to wear each day!

Weirdness, thy name is library science

Yesterday, in research methods class, we had a guest lecturer talking about doing research on Second Life. 

He is conducting research and handing out surveys on Second Life.

Apparently, of the top occupations of people on Second Life, Librarian is only second to the porn industry.

Yeah, we're that weird.  At least some of us.

The class was pretty split between those who thought it was kind of cool, and were very interested in taking the distance ed course that occurs entirely on Second Life, and those who thought it was really creepy.

I am still kind of undecided.  I think it is kind of creepy, but then, I hated any kind of false face when i was a child.  I was even scared of Polkaroo.  I don't like people hiding who they are, putting on a different persona, being someone they aren't.  The world gets very precarious that way.  and there is a lot of weird stuff that goes on there too.  One of the girls who was taking the online course wandered where she shouldn't have been in Second Life, and her avatar was sexually assaulted.

But, I am fascinated by the fun and good things at go on there.  A friend of mine actually conducted a concert of people playing in front of their computers on Second Life once.  The guy who spoke to us does his research on storytelling in Second Life, like story circles and stuff.

Oh well, I probably won't even have time in my course schedule to take that course if it is even offered when I am here, so I suppose it is a moot point.




But let's face it.  The creepiness factor is sooooo going to win out!

Glasses Dilemma

I need new glasses.  New glasses are expensive.  I have expensive taste in glasses.

I have no money.

See the problem here?

now, the health insurance for grads at this university will pay $200, but that just covers the cost of some frames, not even the super expensive lenses!

Also, I am blind and living in a new city, so I have enlisted the help of a classmate who said she would come look at glasses with me this weekend.

Then, she suggested I look on clearlycontacts.ca because they have cheap glasses.  reaaallly cheap glasses compared with the stores I have been looking at.  all designer names and everything.

But, is it weird to order glasses online?  They say you have 30 days to return them if you are not satisfied, or they don't fit, or whatever, but it still seems strange to me.  what if I reaaaaally don't like them?  You know how they look really cool on the racks in the store, and then you try them on and they are horrifying?  or they hit your ears in the wrong place? or squeeze your temples?  these are things you just don't know until you get them in your hand!  granted, they have a webcam thing on the site where you can "try on" glasses, but they only have about a third of the styles that they carry that you can do this with.

but is it worth it when the final price is $117.00?  compared to the $400.00 the girl quoted me at Hakim.

I could get some prescription sunglasses too!

The Voice

This weekend I had to interview my father for a school project. My handwriting is pretty bad, and slow, and my memory equally so, so I decided I needed to record the interview and then transcribe it. That meant interviewing my dad in front of the computer, the only voice recording device in the house.

Everything was fine ... until I heard the playback.

I sound like a small child.

This won't be a surprise to anyone who knows me. You have heard my voice anytime you talk to me.

I only hear my own voice maybe once every couple of years, and it always shocks me. Horrifies me.

Because inside my head? I have a rather deep voice, and a deep belly laugh.

Outside my head, I have a high child's voice and a tinkling giggle.

(ok, so I did only giggle on the recording, none of my trademark big laughs, but still, it is an indication)

This sounding like a child often makes people not take me seriously. Maybe it meant that I didn't get those jobs I interviewed for, who knows. I know my voice get's higher and more giggly when I am nervous.

Maybe this is what my brother is trying to get at when he yells at me on facebook to take care of the dead mice on my own and not let my landlord do it for me. Maybe a "take charge" attitude will make people more quickly see my capabilities, and ignore the fact that I sound like a little kid and still get mistaken for an undergrad.

I too often take the "shy violet" approach. I didn't speak until I was about three years old, when suddenly I went to a family reunion without my mother and brother, the people who spoke for me. Armed with the instructions "don't let daddy fall asleep", when we got back home, my dad said dazedly to my mom "She never shut up. For three days, she never shut up". And I haven't yet, (or so the legend goes, really, I kept my mouth shut all day at school, so the floodgates burst by the time I got home).

The shock of hearing my own voice makes me cringe at what other people hear. But, I have been complimented on my laugh enough in the last few months that I know it is not a bad voice, it is just not what I think it is. This experience should remind me of what other people hear, and why they are so quick to treat me like a child, and that if I want to be taken seriously, I should act seriously.

And maybe wear my hair less in pony tails.

Three Cheers for Canadian Women!

Wow! The Canadian female athletes are definitely owning the podium!

I got home from class tonight to see the medals being given to the women's hockey teams, and then watched the figure skating. Obviously no surprise in the Canadian women winning gold! The girl who won gold in figure skating certainly deserved it, and Joannie definitely earned her place on that podium. Those were some beautiful performances.

In my travels, I was surprised to discover that Canadian women are some of the strongest and self-possessed women in the world, because our culture allows us to be, and encourages us to be. It might not always feel like we have equality with men in all things, but we come the closest to having equality that I have seen, at least in what we are seen to be able to do and accomplish, and the pride we are allowed to take in that.*

It is nice to be able to show that to the world on our home ice and snow!

*I think the same is probably true of most of the US as well. North-America really kicks ass in this department.

Socializing

This evening I went out for dinner and drinks with some of the girls from my program to celebrate some birthdays. It was a lot of fun.

One of the girls brought her boyfriend, but they only stayed for the dinner part. I am sure the poor guy felt very uncomfortable with all us girls, but he valiantly tried to participate in the conversation.

As soon as they left, it was amazing how quickly the conversation turned to girl stuff. Horror stories of the university dorm, how not to flash people in the locker room, boobs, birth control, periods, underwear, and more boobs. Fabulous!

It was a little weird being the oldest person at the table. The birthday girls were turning 23 and 25, and the other two were 22 and 27. I am more used to being the youngest in a group. Age didn't really seem to matter though, because no one was trying to tell anyone how to do something better, or taking a position of authority. The only thing that made me feel old was that I really don't care about flashing people in the locker room anymore.

It was really nice to just talk. I haven't done that with a group of girls in a long time.

Cookies make the world go round *Edited, can you guess where?*

The other day, my mom and cousin and I went over to our friend's house to have tea with her and her daughter.

Our friend, J, is 102 1/2 years old. One of her grand-daughter's has just had J's second great-grandson.

J grew up in the same small hometown as my grandmother in Northern Ontario. J was my Aunty E's best friend, and J's younger sister was my grandmother's best friend. J and Aunty E went to teacher's college together.

When I was growing up, J always timed her visits up to my Aunty E's house on the lake in Muskoka for when we were staying at the cottage across the bay, so we saw her every summer.

Although she can't see or hear very well anymore, she still remembered what program I am currently in (something most of my family don't remember), and when my brother would be graduating from university, and the things that we are interested in.

When we sat down to tea, J asked for some of the oatmeal cookies that her daughter had made to be put on a plate for her. She started talking about how good the cookies were, and how she had eaten these cookies since she was a little girl.

Mom and I took one look at them and knew that they were the same cookies that we have always made as well. We call them Grandpa Lakes' cookies, (my great-grandfather) because they were his favorite cookies. Mom had just made a batch the morning before. Mom and J's daughter compared recipes, and found that it was exactly the same.

Obviously there was a bit of recipe exchanging going on in that small northern town, funny how the one that we still use today is for the world's simplest and tastiest oatmeal cookies. What a good way to connect two families.

The recipe is likely Depression era, since it requires no eggs, and the recipe makes a lot of cookies. It also may just be Scottish, or even from BC, since that is where J was born, and it looks like the recipe came from her family.

So now, I am going to pass the recipe on to you.

Oatmeal Cookies:

- cream together

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

-in a separate bowl, combine

2 cups flour

2 cups oats

-put 1/4 tsp baking soda in a 1/4 cup measure.

-=Magic Time!= pour boiling water over the baking soda in the measuring cup, and immediately pour the mixture over the creamed butter and sugar.

-immediately stir in the dry ingredients.

-roll dough into 1 inch balls, place on cookie sheet and flatten as much as you can with a fork (wet the fork before each cookie to prevent sticking)

-Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes, or until bottoms are golden brown.

-let cool on a wire cooling rack

-eat.

iTunes, you are not helping

I am having a bit of a pity party today. I am mad at this program because an 83% is their equivalent of a 95%, so the majority of marks people get are in the 70s, which just makes you feel like the biggest failure. It doesn't help that we have three things due each week and I have only received 3 marks back so far, for projects that I seriously can't remember writing, even though I only handed them in a week ago. The whole thing is just go go go and I didn't even have time to stop and realize that the stress could have been relieved a bit by dropping down to only 4 courses, so I missed the drop date. argh! I just feel like I am barely keeping afloat on the edge of a big tidal wave.

and so, I am procrastinating instead of writing another paper for a jerk of a prof who writes nasty comments masquerading as constructive criticism. This generally involves surfing the net while listening to music, but my iTunes is not co-operating.

oh, its spewing music out alright, but it seems to be stuck on music that reminds me of guys i used to date. it has seriously only played music from the same 4 albums for the past hour.

thanks iTunes, I guess it wasn't enough to feel like an academic failure today, I also need to relive all my relationship failures, the biggest one being the total lack of a relationship, or even the prospect of one!

ps. also realized that I seem to date musicians, but luckily I don't actually have any of their music on my iTunes, that would be a bit much, they just liked to recommend stuff. and we hung out listening to music.

pps. in hindsight, going to see a very awesome romantic movie with the world's best soundtrack at the end of an awesome day-long date was perhaps not the best idea if i had wanted to avoid feeling a pang every time i heard the music. like when it won an oscar.

ppps. there seems to be a mouse in my ceiling. my ceiling made of ill-fitting acoustic tiles. also, there is evidence that something nibbled the top of my cereal box. ewwwww.

New Header!

Ok, so I was bored today and made a new header.

you may not have noticed because it too is orange.

I am loving orange right now, but it is one of the only colours I can't really wear, so I put it everywhere else!

Also, I needed to procrastinate and not think about the paper I have due tomorrow. I have written it, and edited it, but I am worried it isn't quite right. it took me less than an hour and a half to write it. it is only 300 words, but still. an hour and a half seems like too little time. I am soooo second guessing myself on these things. as long as I get over 70 on each project I am fine, so I guess I shouldn't worry. argh! I keep thinking I am missing something. like maybe some brain cells.

I am soooo cool

This morning it was very cold outside.

So cold, that the lip balm that I had applied right before I left the house froze on my lips.

I did not discover this until I went to open the glass doors into my building and saw my reflection.

My lips were a shocking opaque white.

I rubbed most of it off (I had been quite liberal in my application) and luckily by the time I made it up two flights of stairs, the rest had melted, and I was a normal colour again.

Now, there have been colder mornings than this in the past month, so I wonder how many times this has happened. I am a little scared now.

No wonder the guy I met on the footbridge jumped a bit this morning!

Becoming a mean mom

So, yesterday the rabbit escaped the bathroom while I was brushing my teeth and made a mad dash for my bed. This was the brushing of teeth that happens five seconds before I need to be out the door. She hid right in the middle of the foot of the bed. This bed is a whole unit, and I think it would take five or six burly guys to even make it budge, so I was forced to leave her there until I got home.

When I got home, my landlady wanted to meet the bunny, so she came down with me, and we sort of got a cute little silhouette of rabbit under the bed, but she refused to come out. I assured my landlady that miss baz was litter trained and she wouldn't have done anything under the bed.

Once she went back upstairs, I made some discoveries that suggested miss baz had not in fact left her post under the bed all day. likely, once i was gone, she heard all the noises upstairs and was too terrified to move.

I decided this was not a good state of affairs, who knew how many other times she would try the same trick? so I took matters into my own hands and found a solution:

that is right, I have boxed in my bed. this is the stuff that I usually make baz a cage with, but she is living free in the bathroom at the moment. I had to tie it on with yarn. I have now ruined all that was fun about our apartment. I am such a mean mom. I also caught her and cut her toenails!

Epilogue:

as soon as I finished getting it all tied on, I settled in on my bed with a stack of articles to read. In my shifting around to get comfy, one of the articles slipped down between the mattress and the headboard, under the bed. the bed that I had just blocked all access to. It was an article I need to write a paper on. I ended up having to lift up the mattress in order to reach it. =sigh=

One of those days

Ever had one of those days when everything was going fine, until you check you email and wish you never had?

When you discover that the first paper you ever wrote for this degree has been returned to you.

When you start to question just how he is going to mark the rest of your papers if this first one was supposed to have been marked "leniently".

When you wonder if the three other papers you have since handed in in other classes are up to snuff either, and maybe you will fail this whole degree because you misunderstood what was required of you in general

When you have another paper due in an hour and have no time or inclination to rewrite it and it was fine last night but doesn't seem so good now in light of this other fiasco, and two more due on friday.

grrrrr.

The smell of clean

Every once in awhile today, I caught a wiff of something, and stopped to smell. It was the smell of my laundry. I finally used the scary high efficiency washer and dryer here. Yesterday was the perfect day for it, the washer was empty and my landlords were away for the day. And I hadn't done any laundry since the 9th of January.

The only snag to the laundry plan was that my landlords were away, which meant that I still had no idea how to operate the scary-expensive brand new laundry system. Then a met a very practical classmate at the grocery store who said "Can't you just figure it out? aren't there usually instructions under the lid or something?" She made me feel silly because she had to go to a laundromat to do her laundry.

So when I got back, I decided to bite the bullet and do my laundry, crossing my fingers that my landlords either came home before I started, or didn't come home until I was done. Then, when I had my first load in the machine, I realized I had no detergent. All that discussion of laundry at the grocery store and I forgot to get the most important ingredient. So I borrowed some. Then I really crossed my fingers that they didn't come home until I was done.

The thing is, I usually go for detergent that doesn't smell like anything. I am an itchy person, especially in the winter, so I try to avoid anything that might aggravate it. So, now I am left with two loads of laundry that smell all detergenty.

And I love the smell right now, but it is so going to get old in a few days. Also, after the initial, "=sniff= mmmmm", my mind says "ewww, think of all the chemicals you are breathing in right now!" I can only assume the smell dissipates after a few days.

and now I have a headache. but that might be because I should have eaten more today.

I will remember to buy my own unscented detergent next weekend. It is on the list already!

sorry, my brain lost track of the point awhile ago, maybe its the fumes.

Outlet: Moebius scarf

So, here is my new moebius scarf. I just finished crochet-ing it a few minutes ago. I had started one the first weekend I moved here, but I didn't have an internet connection then, so I did it wrong, but I got some slightly better instructions this afternoon and finally did it. As you can tell, it is in a net pattern, which means I only stitched every second stitch, so it was super fast and easy. Plus I really have no idea how it works, but I worked it in the round, from the centre outwards, which means that somehow, the outer edges are actually just one big circle, there is just one edge. It blows my mind and I shouldn't think about it too much.

If you want to make one, chain your first row however big around you want it (sorry, it is impossible to count mine now), then do one full row flat, like normal. This pattern is one double crochet every second stitch, with a chain stitch in between. Then, with your row on a flat surface in front of you, fold the top left corner over meet the bottom right corner, then flip the bottom left corner up to meet the top right corner, join the ends together, and start the next row, chain four, skip a stitch and make a double crochet in the bottom the second stitch. just keep going round and round, joining the ends of each row and chaining up to the next row until you are satisfied with how wide your scarf is.

anyway, the reason I was looking for patterns online today is that I am participating in a knit-a-thon to raise money for our Librarians Without Borders chapter next weekend. We are raising money to build a library in Costa Rica. Actually, we already raised the money to build it, this money is to put books inside the building once it is done. The knit-a-thon is for 6 hours nest Saturday, so I am trying to find enough to do, which is hard when I only like doing small projects. I was going to save this project, but I got going trying to figure out the online instructions, and got carried away.

Update: Lighter Day

Ok, so apparently all the plugs in my room are on the same circuit, so having your laptop charging, printing off schoolwork, and running the space heater is ok, but don't try to boil water with the electric kettle as well. That is bad, and apparently overloads the circuit, causing it to break.

I was luckily able to easily locate the breaker panel when I got home today, and also easily found which circuit I was looking for, because it was the only one switched to off. So I flipped it back, and all is well!

Well, except perhaps my vanity, because I didn't see a mirror until break time, an hour and a half into class, and it was quite obvious that I had not looked in a mirror this morning. Also that I needed to have washed my hair. =sigh= Oh well, I don't think anyone had the impression that I was cool anyway.

Dark Day

The power is out in my apartment. My basement apartment. With one window.

Ok, I guess I should clarify that it is really just the perimeter power that is out. The overhead lighting in my bedroom and kitchen still works, and thankfully the plug that the fridge is plugged into. But all the rest of the plugs are out as well as the bathroom. Which means that I had to plug in my alarm clock in the kitchen in order to get up in time for my 9am class.

Also, I can't have a shower because I can't see anything in the bathroom.

And it is cold and I have no place to plug in the space heater.

And it is dark and cold and stormy outside.

Could I please just go back to bed, where it is nice and warm and toasty under the feather duvet?

Proof

See?! She really does like her Bacardi Rum house! Not that you guys doubted me, or needed proof, I just think she looked cute all snuggled up around her food dish.

She was totally asleep in there until I stuck the computer in her face and tried to take a picture. She is quite mad at me now because the hours from 10am-10pm are asleep times. She will punish me later when I want to go to bed by running laps around my bedroom and jumping on my head and perhaps giving me another foot thump to the boob.

Ain't she a sweetie?

Better Butter

Last night I decided to make Better Butter*. My aunt has made it for years, and I am not really a fan, but it does mean that you can have spreadable butter right out of the fridge and not have to resort to margarine, which I hate. I know you can buy it now, I think they call it "spreadable butter", but it is so much nicer to know exactly what you are putting on your food.

So, I made it, and all seemed well, until I took the lid off the blender, and caught a whiff. It smelled slightly flowery.

I do not recall my aunt's ever smelling flowery.

In hindsight, I probably should have washed the blender first, it had been in storage for over a year and came from a neighbour before that, so who knows what has been in it, although the lid was on, and it wasn't dusty inside.

Also, I used olive oil, and I think my aunt just uses a vegetable oil, so that could account for the yellower colour as well as the flowery smell. I am really hoping that is it.

I haven't tried it yet, I am a little afraid to. I only made 1/2 cup of butter worth in any case, so it is not too much of a tragedy if it is inedible.

Hopefully someone will let you know if I die of suspiciously flowery Better Butter. Maybe they will put that in my tombstone.

*Better Butter recipe: equal parts softened butter (eg, 1lb of butter =2 cups) and some kind of vegetable oil (olive, canola, sunflower), blend in a blender until combined, put in a container with a lid and refrigerate.

all moved in

Baz moved in with me on the weekend. She is currently living in half of my large bathroom, but I haven't put up her extended cage, so she has the run of the bathroom. And my bedroom when I open the bathroom door in the evenings. Then she runs laps around my bed.

I leave the bathroom light on for her all day, because the bathroom has no window, but she was really pissy with me last night, so I figured she might need some darker space.

So, this afternoon, I made her a little house from one of my moving boxes:

Two hours later, I went in to check on her. She had moved her house where she wanted it, and pulled her food inside.

I think she might like it.

UPDATE: she has finally rediscovered the ability to jump up on furniture! yay!

INSTANT RETRACTION: she just warning thumped my boob. ow.

I think I like it

I think I am starting to like this library school thing.

I am still not sure if I like all of the classes or not, well, considering I have only had two of them more than once so far, but I am liking the people, and some of the things I am finding out.

I like that we get to do actual practical assignments. Today we had a group assignment to catalog a random collection of things from our prof's kitchen. I worked with four other people that I hadn't even spoken to yet, and we all brought our different ideas to the table when designing our catalog. My control freak nature came through, and I actually said "Don't you put things on the wrong side of my kitchen!" to a guy in our group who wanted to put the meat tenderizer with the appliances. But I, perhaps not to subtly, led my group to victory in having the most logical organization in our catalog. We even broke out our new vocabulary, which was awesome!

We also had a career's night today for Special Librarians, and I found out that I definitely do not want to be a corporate librarian. Ever. But the discussion was good, and the ideas that they gave us were great, so I was really glad I went.

The problem I am finding is that I spend all my time at school. First of all, I have a three hour class every single day of the week. On top of that, we are encouraged to attend two IT workshops on Tuesdays. I could also attend a different student group meeting every day of the week, and there are numerous other meetings and guest lectures throughout the week. I left my house at 11:30 this morning and got home at 7:15. Seven and a half hours in one building. I even have a locker. Tomorrow I at least get to switch it up a bit by having a class in a different building.

So, things are going well. For now, we shall see how things go next week when I have two assignments due!

Kitted

My parents used to run a B&B up until the first weekend of August this past summer , when we moved.

Occasionally, guests would leave items of clothing behind, most often socks and underwear caught in the bedclothes. These would get washed and then, because my parents didn't realize they had been there in the laundry, they were most often put into the most appropriate person's drawer. I have lost count of the number of pink lacy panties I have removed from my drawer over the years, "Not Mine!"

Some clothing items, if they fit, or were a full pair of socks, we kept.

I can dress in a shirt, jeans and socks that were all left behind at the B&B.

I thought this random allocation of lost clothing would have finished with the B&B, but when I came home this weekend, I discovered a stack of clean laundry on my bed, at the bottom of which was a pair of pyjama bottoms that were not mine.

In fact, I actually remember the old English gentleman who had worn them.

I have no idea how or where these pants surfaced from after six months, but when I later did my laundry, I discovered that I had to put them on, or walk around the house pantsless.

Mom saw me in them and said, "I don't know how we missed those when we were packing up your stuff to move."

"Because they aren't mine. They belong to some old man from the B&B."

"Oh? Really? Well, they fit you fine.

... Did he leave the top behind too?"

"No!"

"Oh, too bad."

My walk home

My walk home from school involves a cute little one-person-wide bridge over a half frozen river, and a path that takes me past another college which has a daycare.

Today as I walked past, there were four kids playing in the snow in front of the building, and six parents hanging around chatting on the sidewalk.

One little girl was sitting by herself on the snowbank, yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Ah! Oh! Stop, Barry Pepper! Stop! Ah! Oh! Ah!"

Her voice wasn't whiny, she was just yelling in short little bursts, with pretty much no inflection at all.

None of the adults were paying any attention.

Only one of the kids jumped a bit.

She turned and gave me the biggest smile when I walked past.

Her dad (I assume) was facing the other way, talking on his cell phone, "What? Oh yeah, that's her. She's playing with her friends."

That's soooo not the dog

Last night I was dreaming about two people sitting at opposite sides of a table writing. I was both one of the people writing and a person watching the two people. When I was watching, I was annoyed, and looking out the window, only glancing back occasionally, like I was on the lookout.

Then the other person got up and left the table abruptly, leaving his pen rocking on the table.

It kept getting louder and louder.

I got annoyed and told the other person to pick up the pen, but it just kept getting louder.

I woke up.

And realized that the mousetrap under my bathroom sink had finally caught something which was wildly fighting for its life, flopping around in the trap.

Why can't I be awoken from my dreams by a dog licking my face like on TV?

PS, got home and my landlady says "I couldn't find the mouse, our son must have gotten it already." 5 minutes later, her husband comes downstairs and says, "Our son did not get the mouse, so fingers crossed its still there!"

It was. Phew!

School Again

Well, I am here. I don't have internet at my apartment yet, so I am writing this in the hall in my school building.

Things are going pretty well so far, orientation was good, if a little boring, and the classes i have had so far have been good. I already have an assignment to complete this weekend though, but they are all pretty short assignments, so I hope they aren't too bad. I made up my big dry erase calendar last night, and was a little freaked out by the number of assignments. And that was just for the two classes I have already had.

I got quite a shock on orientation day when I found out that tuition was due that day. At UVic it hadn't been due until the end of the month, but they want it here before you even begin! I ran to the bank after orientation and found out that they had not put my student loan extension through yet. Amazing what you can get done at a bank when you start to cry. Half an hour later, I got a call from the teller to say that my loan had gone through and the money had already been sent to the University. yay!

I get to go home this weekend because I don't have a class on Friday, so that will be nice. It will also give me a chance to get Miss Baz, because there was no room in the car for her when we moved down on Thursday.

I am sure there is more, but I am tired this morning because I was awakened at 4:30am when a mouse got caught in the trap under my bathroom sink and started thrashing around. I left a note on my landlord's kitchen table asking him to remove it sometime today.

See? adventures already!

2000-2010: The decade of the university

It just hit me today that this was the start of a new decade. Why this didn't hit me during the week when I was reading all those "decade in review" newspaper articles I have no idea. I guess I am a bit slow to catch on right now with all the stuff I have to do to get ready to move and start school again.

But what really hit me was that I have spent the entire decade in Universities. Ten whole years spent in institutes of higher learning, and I am going back for more!

So here is a short decade in review: the education edition:

2000

I was in the high-school graduating class of 2000. We thought we were awesome because none of the other kids would ever get that privilege. Our grad dance was ok, even better because they had finally found some medication that would make me feel better after a year of some weird arthritis thing, so I was able to dance. My parents felt so bad that I had been sick all year, they let me have an after-prom party at my house with all my friends. It was fabulous!

Then I started university just up the street at University of Guelph. I got to live in residence even though my building was actually on the same street as my parents lived, a 12 minute walk away.

2001

My first summer job at a Lodge in Muskoka. Best and worst experience ever. I worked and lived with a great group of young people, but the job sucked and the people I worked for were even worse.

I lived in an apartment downtown with one of my best friends. We quickly realized that we should never have lived together, but we still had good moments of fun.

I started studying history in my second year. All went well until I missed half of my final exam, but I explained what had happened and my T.A. stood up for me and said I was his best student, so I was able to finish writing it. My life would be completely different if i hadn't.

2002

I had a semester in London, England. It was awesome. We had classes in Art Galleries and saw a different play and concert every week. Plus we lived with kids from all over the commonwealth, and I had my first kiss.

2003

I got back from England and lived with my parents for the rest of my undergrad.

I also started working for the 1891 Census project as the first student employee, and worked for them until I moved to Victoria.

2004

I finished up my undergrad with one last semester in the fall of 2004. I completely fell in love with history that told the story of ordinary people. I discovered the dataset that was the start of my Master's Thesis and decided to go to grad school.

2005

I continued to work for the Census Project at Guelph and applied for Grad school.

In the fall, I moved to Victoria, BC, and started my Master's at the University of Victoria.

2006

More masters, awesome friends, moved from crappy house to better house, became Vice President of the Graduate History Society.

2007

Not so much working on the masters, having too much fun as VP and as a T.A.

2008

I decided to get the Masters Thesis done and over with, so I moved back home to Ontario in September and worked on it in my parent's basement.

2009

I finally defended on June 15th! huzzah! I was fabulous.

And then I decided I couldn't get a job with just a history masters, so I applied for the MLIS program at Western, and I start on Friday.

A decade of University, and I'm not even done yet.