taking stock

Making : cowls, scarves, and hats.

Drinking : water. lots and lots of water. it's summer.

Reading : blogs. knitting patterns. my to-read list.

Wanting : johnnie's italian beef. soon.

Looking : forward to vacation. 

Playing : with fiber. and board games with friends.

Deciding : what to wear to work tomorrow.

Wishing : there were more hours in the day to craft.

Enjoying : spending time with my husband. we're less busy these days, and it's lovely.

Waiting : for season 3 of call the midwife on netflix. hurry up, already!

Liking : pinterest, etsy, and craft blogs. my muses.

Loving : my husband. my friends. my family.

Pondering : my options.

Watching : burn notice. yum.

Needing : girlfriend time. 

Smelling : yankee candle's under the palms

Wearing : lots of purple lately.

Feeling : loved.

I have not disappeared...

I have been so out of it lately. SO out of it. It's been about all I can do to keep up with my weekly homework, church activities, and attempting to keep my house in some sort of presentable order.

Here's a few things I've been trying to puzzle out in my own life:

- Which topic I should pursue for my Preservation research paper: photographs in archives (possibly preserving family photographs/albums as well); or preservation programs in small archives (religious archives?).

- I have food in my freezer. I have an entire pantry (well, what would be a pantry if we actually had the space for one) full of non-perishables. WHY can I never seem to come up with good, new ideas for dinner? I love cooking. Don't get me wrong. But I've definitely hit a rut here and don't know how to get out of it. (Hence having pizza for supper. Is it necessary? No. But easier than trying to figure out what to cook.) Problem #1: D and I have opposite tastes. Basically, what I like he doesn't, so on and so forth.... you get the idea. So where do I go from here?

- Why it's been so hard to get myself motivated to do my homework. I'm constantly distracted by other things (mostly internet related), and it's been really frustrating lately. Part of the reason is that I'm not overly excited about any of my classes this semester. Some are better than others, but they just haven't captured my interest like previous semesters have. I'm not used to this....... and trying to convince myself my brain isn't broken.

Things I'm currently loving about life:

- I have fall decorations up. A few vases of autumn colored florals, a cute little pumpkin crafted out of twigs, and a glittery wooden sign that says "Blessings". Fall-scented candles, and it's complete. I love autumn. It's my favorite season.

- Speaking of favorite seasons, one of the reasons I love autumn so much is because it's the beginning of SWEATER SEASON. I LOVE sweaters. So comfy, colorful, and fantastic.

- Sunday, I wound up with a little extra time, so I ventured into my kitchen and baked a crumb-top apple pie for the senior youth group meeting later that day. They loved it, and that was a welcomed confidence-booster for me. I also found myself with a little bit of the leftover pie filling, and didn't want that to go to waste. So, domestic adventurer as I am, I mixed it in with some beer bread batter and sprinkled the remaining crumb topping on top of the bread. DELICIOUS.

- I finally had a chance to get back to our local knitting night last night. It felt so nice to just get out of the house without having to worry about homework or anything else for two hours. Two hours of knitting, drinking chai tea lattes, and conversing with fellow knitters. Yay!

I suppose that's about it for now.... I really need to go for a ridiculously long walk today, preferably before supper and Bible Study tonight. Hopefully it'll help reenergize me and get me to focus a bit more on my studies this week.

Moving Update

Well, we made it! We've got everything in our new apartment, we're slowly unpacking everything, and settling into life here in Sedalia. What a blessing that about 15 people showed up from our new congregation to help us unload our moving van. It was a nasty hot day, and with everyone's help, we got the entire van unloaded in about 30 minutes. Amazing!

I've been planning this post in my head for a few days now, thinking of things to mention about how thankful I am for what I have right now. And of course, I can't remember every single one when I finally sit down to write. Here's a few brief highlights of our first week in Sedalia:

1. We had our first (unexpected) visitor the first morning in our new home. A member of the congregation who works just down the block stopped by to say hello. We were a bit flustered at the presence of the unexpected houseguest while our abode was still in boxes and piles, but glad he introduced himself anyway. We're finding that people here are quite the friendly bunch.

2. I've met two ladies my age who seem really nice and sweet. The one is a crafter, which scores automatic awesome points in my book. I've run into the other one a few times while running around town, and I'm always glad to see her friendly face.

3. Drew made brownies for me the other day. Just because. The super fudgy ones too!

4. My first cooked meal in our new home was a success. Which made me feel really good, because all I did was throw chicken and vegetables in the fry pan and serve it over rice.

5. While we've been cleaning our apartment (because really, don't you feel better knowing that the dust and dirt is your dust and dirt??), we've come across an odd assortment of items that belonged to the former occupants. Such oddities include a red and white striped sock under the fridge, Heineken bottle caps under the stove, and sequins, beads, and earring wires embedded in the carpet. Um. Weird.

6. I'm finally starting to decorate a bit. And, I found a super cute tablecloth on clearance for $3. Score!

7. Yesterday was quite the productive day. Paid the rent, started the official name change process, took a huge load of boxes to the recycling center, and shopped for some home supplies. It felt good to get things done. :-)

That's a good list for now.... I should get back to my logic puzzle while I wait for the dryer to finish. So much for going to bed early today.... ah, the life of the domestic.

Onward and Upward!

Friends. So much has happened since I've last posted, very little of which is library-related in any form. Sitting next to my husband tonight, watching the All-Star game, I thought I'd provide a bit of an update.

First, and most importantly. D and I tied the knot back in June! In fact, we've been married for a little over a month already. Our wedding was absolutely perfect, and everyone enjoyed the day immensely. After the reception, we ventured over to Ted Drewes for some delicious St. Louis custard. Turns out the bridal party gets free custard and we saw some fireworks. A perfect end to a perfect day. We thoroughly enjoyed our extensive honeymoon to Pennsylvania and DC. Of course we visited the Archives again. I couldn't resist! And of course I bought yarn. That alone is a splendid trip all around. :-)

We're finalizing up plans for our big move to Sedalia in a few weeks. Now that we have a place to live, which we're very happy with, we can focus on packing, packing, packing. Not my favorite chore in the world, but it needs to get done. And I'm excited to start unpacking and organizing and making our place a home. Like, really excited.

Sorry I don't have much library-related to discuss right now. The rest of life seems to be more important at the moment. :-)

Why I'm Excited to be an Archivist

Sifting through historic documents, arranging and describing them to the best of my ability without bias, so that others may discover, interpret, and learn from them. 

Funny how my years of writing papers in undergrad and trying to give a fair portrayal of the events, namely not take sides, has turned into something I enjoy doing for my career. I'm thinking I'm might really enjoy A&D, even if it does get tedious, monotonous, and somewhat boring at times. 

Funny how I enjoy it, even when I'm not working with collections that pertain to my personal historical interests. Economic history? No, thank you. Never thought I'd be interested in it, much less working with it. But I'm still enjoying it anyway. And I consider that a huge step in the right direction for my career. 

Another part I'm also looking forward to is reference and outreach. Having that background of A&D gives me the in depth knowledge of creating the finding aids, so I can better collocate collections for researchers. I suppose in a way it's similar to RA, but not quite the same. I'm excited to see how these different aspects are all coming together for me, and how this job has given me a better glimpse into what it's like to be an archivist. I know it's not exactly the same thing, especially as I'm not technically working in an archive, but special collections can come pretty close to that, don't you think? In a way, I'm kind of seeing myself here as a Lone Arranger, which makes me giggle. 

Sitting at my desk yesterday, I realized I'm excited to see where this path leads. Records Management? Archivist? Special Collections? Arrangement and Description? Reference and outreach? Or will I find myself in the digital projects realm? It all kind of comes together.... scary but thrilling at the same time. 

Will I survive as a half baked Master's student in a small town without the immediate support of fellow colleagues? I'm praying it's true.... and I'm about to find out.

Year 1: Complete

Hard to believe, but it's true! I've already got a whole year of graduate school under my belt. I'm a year and a half away from graduating with my MLIS, and I'm looking forward to it. Looking forward not only to the degree, but also to the learning that will take place before and after receiving my degree. Overall, I've enjoyed my classes this year, although I will admit to some frustrating and "What am I doing here??" times.

It's been a learning curve indeed, and that's not about to change any time soon. I'm glad. Learning how to adapt my learning style to an online class format, learning to communicate and articulate better, learning patience with myself, peers, and others during this journey. This blog is intended not only as a forum in which to further discuss topics raised in class, but also about the library and information science profession as a whole. And the archives profession. And most importantly, my journey as I find my niche in the biblio world. Because, you know, I can't just do one thing. :-) As long as you stay for the ride, I can guarantee there will be side excursions into knitting and all things Bleez. Enjoy, and here's to a wonderful summer!