Least favorite word

There is a word that has been on my radar lately as a word for which I care not:

yummy
adj. colloq. delicious, delectable; also as int.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of "yummy" was in 1899: "R. Kipling Rudyard Kipling Stalky & Co. Stalky and co 239 Pretty lips..Seem to say—Come away. Kissy! come, come!.. Yummy-yum-yum!" 

I don't know why, but yummy creeps me out.  It's like some people and their problem with the word "moist".  It just sounds gross and nothing like a word I would apply to food, whether enjoyable or no.  I think this quote from The Vocabula Review's list of "The Worst Words" pretty much sums up my feelings about yummy, irrational or no:

Do I need to explain this? The sound makes my skin crawl, not only for the appalling lack of vocabulary it reflects in its user, but in the visual imagery it evokes in envisioning either the item described or visage of person from whom this hideous word emanated. 

In my opinion it is slightly overused and what for?  There are so many other wonderful, more descriptive, more picturesque words when using to describe an enjoyable dish - whether the dish is food or human, ha!  Unfortunately it has been and continues to be used by people I like, so I can't very well get away from this... word. And since disliking a word is a silly thing with little to no rational basis, I'm certainly not going to tell my loved ones to stop using it.

Why Support Your Local Library?

Came across this infographic today on why you should support the local library and yes! Yes.

FIND A LIBRARY NEAR YOU

FIND YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
INFORMATION INTEGRATED
WITH GOOGLE MAPS

DATA SOURCE:  IMLS

Sources:

• ALA Library Fact Sheet
• Bureau of Labor Statistics - Data
• Bureau of Economic Analysis
• Northwestern University Libraries information
• MIT Library Data
• Institute of Museum and Library Services
• Census.gov - Public Libraries in the U.S. 2009
• ALA - Funding Technology Access Study
• Volunteer Match - Engaging Volunteers
• Pew Internet - Libraries, patrons & ebooks

• ALA Quotable Facts - American Libraries
• Harrison County Library - Facts and Figures
• Stanford University - Library Facts
• Library of Congress - Fascinating Facts
• Libraries for Real Life
• Houston Library - Facts
• Library Journal - Annual Library Budgets Survey
• ALA - State of American Libraries Report - 2012
• NationalService.gov - Benefits of Volunteering
• ALA - Library Operating Expenditures

Thank you to StateStats.org
for providing this infographic and other free web guides and tools. 

Big changes!

A little over a year ago, I moved to a brand new city on my own, ready to start a new part of my life in a place I had barely been, with no one familiar nearby.  Besides starting a graduate program, I didn't really know what the next year was going to bring.  In that year, though, I managed not only to start that grad program but a whole lot more.

I went back to school, which was scary since I had been out of it for 6 years, and yet I proved to be as good or better at it than I was.  I pulled down straight As, balanced heavy courseloads with two internships and volunteering, and was president of a student organization.  I graduated over a month ago with a Master in Library and Information Science!
  

I met a lot of new people, many of whom I now consider good friends, and can't imagine not having met.  Some of them have moved from Pittsburgh already and some have stayed, but I'm so glad school gave me the chance to meet so many great people.    

I lived by myself for the first time, and got bed bugs for the first time.  (That part was hell.)  

I fell in love with someone I met in my program (something and someone I never saw coming!) and stopped living by myself.  We moved in together in the spring, just moved into our second apartment together, and I seriously could not be happier.  He is the love of my life.   

I explored a new city.  Pittsburgh has so much to offer and I'm happy to get to continue to call it home, since I also was offered a full-time librarian position, less than a month after graduating!  

A lot happened in the past year.  I left this blog behind because I thought it would be good to have a "fresh start" for graduate school.  And now I'm finding that since I made the new blog my portfolio, I feel like I can't write about what I want.  I'm bringing back mostly true to see me into the next stage.  It's back, y'all.

Summer is on its way...

Well, my first and so far only Twins game of the season I got snowed on. Yep, snowed on at a baseball game at the end of April. It was COLD too, so cold that when we left the game (in the bottom of the fourth because it was SNOWING, oh, and the Twins were playing so poorly) we couldn't feel our legs. It took the entire walk out of the stadium for my leg joints to loosen up to the point where I no longer felt like an octogenarian hobbling around the concourse. We stopped at Kieran's for a drink but didn't even stay to watch the whole game, it was that bad. This season is so different from last year.

Anyway, spring has been an inconstant presence here lately which has made it hard to do some of the things I was hoping to do. It rained most of last week so there was no opportunity to walk the lakes, though I did get my bike tuned up and I'm looking forward to sunshine this week so I can ride it to work! Anne and I did enjoy a day of some sunshine and we went to Unique Thrift (I can check that off my list!) and spent some time wandering Northeast. I went to a couple of fun parties, including a tiny housewarming party and two birthday celebrations. One birthday party was at the Bradstreet Crafthouse in the 601 Graves Hotel, super fancy!

Some of my fun Minneapolis summer may be slightly curtailed by my summer reading list. It's only May and yet I'm already reading! It's not even for any of my classes! Oh right, I'm entering a master's program. Sigh. One book is for orientation and the other eight were recommended by my advisor. I've already started but I know some of them will be challenging, particularly the ones on IT. I'm excited in spite of that or maybe because of that, though! I'm ready for a challenge.

It's all so official

Well, I officially accepted my offer of admission to the University of Pittsburgh for fall 2011. And now I am going. For real. T-minus less than 4 months until I leave the state and only 3 and a half months until I'm done with working at Half Price Books. It's a little weird to think about but it shouldn't be, really, since I have an apartment leased for August, have RSVP'ed for my orientation days, am communicating with my advisor, and am attempting to use my ridiculous amount of vacation days, among other things.

I think I've said it before but going to graduate school wouldn't seem like such a change if there weren't the accompanying move to another state. I went to Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago and that helped me not feel quite so overwhelmed. Also, my friend Shelly is moving back to Pennsylvania at the same time and we decided it would work for us to go together and share a truck, and we decided on our oficial "Leaving Minnesota Day" which is August 17. It's nice to share the load, literally, with someone else even if she is going to another part of the state. All these decisions made are making the time between now and leaving seem interminable. Right now I'm waiting on the activation of my student account so I can register for classes! All this waiting is getting frustrating.

I'm working on doing all the things that I want to do before I leave and while I can't check off a lot from my first list I feel like I've made some headway! I've gone to movie nights, potlucks, happy hours and game nights galore. While I never made it ice skating at the Depot, I did go pretend snowshoeing with Anne. I still haven't been bowling at Bryant Lake Bowl but I did go there with friends to see a show hosted by another friend! See, friends! I had breakfast at Victor's recently and I've spent more time in St. Paul. Next week I'm going to my first Twins game of the season. Hm, what else? Oh, there will be an attempt at the adult spelling bee sometime next month. The rest I will fill in as it happens...so much to do.