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.

Currently, I am working at my new, second, very part-time job. How is it that I can be at work and blog at the same time, you might ask? Because I work at a kiosk. In a mall. Selling jewelry. Not the most taxing or exciting work. Plus, I have a nifty iPad at my disposal and I am working that, if not the whole jewelry biz.

I keep coming up with things to add to my list (my list of things to do before leaving Minneapolis/before Minnesota falls into a sinkhole) and of course I don't write them down, so can't remember what they were. One thing was brought to my attention with the announcement of single game Twins' tickets going on sale - baseball! Baseball season is right around the corner and I hope to make it to a handful of Twins' games, at the very least, and by god, if I do nothing else this summer, I will go to a Saints' game. So help me.

Pittsburgh it is?

So, I had an interview last week for a placement with the library at the School of Engineering at UPitt... a placement where I'd get 3 credits a term for 10 hours/week work.  Or so I thought.  I got the official offer on Thursday and it's not only a salaried position (which isn't going to be a ton of money, obviously, for 10 hours a week) but I'll actually be getting 6 credits.  6 credits per term.  Which adds up to 18 credits.  The degree requires 36 credits total.  Do the math with me, people.  Let's break it down.  Divide 36 by 18 and what do you get?  2.  Half of my credits.  Paid for.  By working 10 hours a week.  I think my decision is made.

It looks like I'm going to be leaving Minneapolis in about six months since I got accepted to UPitt and Drexel, two of the grad schools I applied for.  Both are out of state and while I love Minnesota and everything I have here, I've known for a while that I want to make a change.  The change isn't necessarily going to be Permanent and Forever, but I want to try living someplace new and what better time and way to do that than tie it all up with going back to school? It seems awfully drastic when put that way and not a little bit insane: not only making a big change and starting graduate school but also moving to a new city and state to do so...  what can I say?  I live for adventure!  I don't, actually, but I am really excited and completely scared, all at the same time.  I don't even know where I'm going yet.

All that aside, I've decided that I want to fill the next six months with as much Minnesota fun as I can stand.  Seriously.  I want to be so full of fun that I come perilously close to bursting.  I want to spend time with friends, like, all of them, and visit all the Twin Cities things I keep saying that I'll see someday.  I want to do all the things I already love, like walking around Calhoun and Uptown or being with friends anywhere and laughing a lot.  But I also want to do the things I always think I should do more of or really, all the things I think I should do at all, like going to the Swedish Institute or the Witches' Hat or going canoeing on the lakes or riding my damn bike.

It seems so silly to say it like that because I'm not going away and never coming back and Minnesota will certainly not be going anywhere anytime soon.  And ultimately I'd like to wind up back here, if not immediately following a grad program, sometime not too long after.  But what if all my friends leave during the time I'm gone?  What if grad school ages me ten years and I move back and am incapable of having fun?  What if Minnesota falls into a sink hole?  I must take advantage of all the amazing stuff on offer here in the event one of these things happen.

So, what did I do, to make sure that if one of these things happen, I will have the fullest and most complete Minnesota experience before I leave?  What do I ever do?  I made a list, of course - a list of things I'd like to do (some for the first time, some not) before moving:

Swedish Institute, Hennepin County History Museum, brunch at Forepaugh's, Adult Spelling Bee at 331 Club, canoeing the Lakes, bowling at Bryant Lake Bowl, eat outside, the Grand Cafe, Minnehaha Falls, Witches' Hat, camping, Unique Thrift (seriously, why haven't I been there?), J.J. Hill House, movies in Loring Park, Mill City Museum, ice skating at the Depot, breakfast at Victor's, sledding! (if it snows again, which it will), Art in Bloom, spend more time in St. Paul, spend time with friends, friends, and more friends.  

This list is not complete or comprehensive.  I will most certainly be adding things as they come to me or are suggested to me.  This is my statement of intent, however.  I will see people and do things and laugh and when I leave at the end of the summer, I'll be glowing with so many vibrant memories of Minnesota that the new people I meet will wonder why they don't live here.

As for the Classics Challenge, I started A Tale of Two Cities, got about 30 pages in, and got distracted by Norwegian Wood by Murakami and then Mad Men season three.  I'm still trying.

Back to the Classics Challenge 2011

I'm going to do this reading challenge: Sarah Reads Too Much: Back to the Classics Challenge 2011. I don't have problems finding enough reading material or reading classics but I think it gives a nice shape to the first half of my reading year.

Here are the goals to complete and what I'm thinking of for each of them:

1. A Banned Book (The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood)
2. A Book With a Wartime Setting (All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque)
3. A Pulitzer Prize (Fiction) Winner or Runner Up (There are so many to choose from so I think I'll hold off for a while)
4. A Children's/Young Adult Classic (The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton)
5. 19th Century Classic (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.. because I have it already)
6. 20th Century Classic (Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.. also because I have it already)
7. A Book you think should be considered a 21st century classic (This is one is more difficult because how am I supposed to know I consider it a 21st century classic until I read it? Any suggestions?)
8. Re-Read a Book from High School/College Classes (I'm thinking Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison or Catcher in the Rye by Salinger)

Any recommendations for the Pulitzer Prize winner or the 21st century classic?

Autumn

Yesterday I found the most perfect fall street to drive down - Garfield Ave. between 38th and 42nd Streets in South Minneapolis.  It's lined with the kind of maple trees whose leaves turn that golden yellow, and front yards, cars parked on the street, and the street itself were carpeted and golden.  Leaves kept falling, too, as I drove down the street on my way home.  It was lovely.

Autumn has always been my favorite season and usually I like summer a whole lot, as well, but this year it was a relief to say goodbye to it.  I read a poem by Rilke called "Autumn Day," the first line of which is: "Lord: it is time.  The summer was immense."  And that pretty much sums it up for me right there.  Lord, it's time for summer to be done! Wrap it up!  Summer is always so full, so hard to ignore, so exhausting.  There's lots of movement and sun, which is great, but it never feels like there's enough time for everything in the summer.  Everything is so immediate.  Autumn is much slower, more introspective.  It's not quite so vast or overwhelming as summer but not as cocooned in itself as winter, either.  The sun is still shining, the weather is still gorgeous, but things are settling down.  Tempers cool.  Life acquires a steadier rhythm.  We start the process of putting things to bed for a few months.  It's like you can put things on hold for a little while and come back to them when you're ready.  And I love that feeling.

thanks

I've been thinking a lot about gratitude lately.  I think because I've been stressed out about my job, gearing up for graduate school applications and thinking ahead to next year, studying for the GRE, worrying about money, etc. - sometimes I forget that there are plenty of amazing things happening in my life and I have so much for which to be thankful.  And everywhere I look there are signs that God, whatever he or it is, is taking care of me and my people.  I've been trying to say thanks in whatever small ways I can, whether it's to people that I love, strangers on the street, or just the sky above me.  Just so the universe knows that I am sincerely grateful for all that I have, all that I am.  Thank you.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-e.e. cummings

january is a slow month

I made bread for the first time ever!  I've made banana bread and zucchini bread and the like but this was my initiation into the mysteries of bread with yeast and kneading and letting it rise, etc.  Very exciting.   

It was enjoyable but my baking has been pretty limited to pies and cookies lately.  It took me a while to mix everything together and get the hang of it.  I don't think there are supposed to be pea-sized pieces of butter in bread dough.  Plus, it was so messy, what with the water, and smelly, what with the yeast.  But I think it worked and turned out quite well!  I made a recipe from Beard on Bread for cinnamon bread.  It was not a typical cinnamon bread.  Instead of rolling the cinnamon in after mixing everything together, the cinnamon was mixed in at the beginning, giving it a very light cinnamon flavor.  Less like a cinnamon!! bread - more bread that just happens to have cinnamon in it.  It is quite tasty with lots of "good, sweet butter," as James Beard recommended.  He was awfully fond of good, sweet butter on any number of the breads featured in the book.

        

52 weeks of celebration... maybe

Maybe I got a little carried away by my idea of celebrating a holiday every day. Some of these days are actually interesting or fun. Compliment Day sounds like a good time. National Pie Day - well, I would be celebrating that anyway.

However, some of them are mostly pointless, hence why no one ever thinks to observe them. Or even knows that they exist. I mean, Monday was Milk Day, in honor of the day milk was first delivered in bottles, in 1878. Milk Day? Really? I don't have milk delivered so I... drank some milk. Whooo! Maybe I should've delivered milk to someone as a surprise, though it was awfully cold out and I would've been worried about it freezing. Delivering milk in a plastic jug isn't really the same, anyway. Some of my co-workers have been interested in my "holiday-every-day" thing but I couldn't bring myself to tell them yesterday was Work Harder Day. Imagine the glares. I think perhaps I did work harder but it didn't make me especially happy. Saturday was Apricot Day and all I managed to do was eat a handful of dried apricots. There's not much joy to be found in dried apricots, as much as I enjoy them. I'm also not looking forward to days like Dress Up Your Pet Day. I don't have a pet. Or Inane Answering Message Day.

So, what to do? I think perhaps I'll focus on one day a week, or at least one day a week, but really pick the best day of the week to celebrate.

This week, the holiday is actually today - Poetry Break Day. I've been read a volume of e.e. cummings' work this afternoon as well as the Walt Whitman poem Garrison Keillor featured on Writer's Almanac today. Take a break and read some poetry. Anyone have anything to recommend?

Next week is full of days centered around food - popcorn, cheese, blonde brownie, and pie days. I will definitely celebrate Pie Day because I love to make pie. And to eat pie. But mostly to make it. National Pie Day is not to be confused with 3/14, Pi Day. Lots of people tell me I can't celebrate Pie Day on January 23rd; it is only to be celebrated March 14th. I think there's room in the world for two Pi(e) Days, don't you? Plus, the American Pie Council says Jan. 23 is Pie Day, and who am I to argue with them? I think Dahlia Bakery's butterscotch pie with pistachio brittle is in order for Pie Day.

Dear Lillie

One of my favorite Etsy stores is having a giveaway of one of my most coveted shirts.

Some more upcoming days are Bubble Bath Day (Friday), Apricot Day (Sat.), Peculiar People Day (Sun.), and Milk Day and/or Secret Pal Day (Mon.).

365 Days of Celebration

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2010 is to celebrate a holiday every day, or at least attempt to celebrate a holiday every day.

This came to me when I was looking up birthdays of random famous historical figures to put on my desk calendar. Why was I doing that? Mostly because January seems to be a month devoid of birthdays among my friends and family. It made me sad to look at the birthday column on the calendar and see it so empty. Obviously Martin Luther King, Jr. is a big one. Among my favorite birthdays for January, I found Benjamin Franklin (the 17th), Rubber Duckie and Ernie (yes, of Sesame Street fame - the 13th and the 28th, respectively), and Robert Burns (the 25th), who seems an apt one for me to celebrate this year, as I'm going to Scotland in May.

While searching for birthdays, I noticed that January 3rd was the Festival of Sleep and that sounded appealing to me, so I researched it. It's described as a day to catch up on sleep and to let your body recover after the busyness of the holidays. You are advised to sleep in, or take naps, or stay in bed all day - you get the idea. It sounded too great to pass up. On Sunday, I slept in. And went to bed earlyish. It was glorious and I really did feel better. Plus, it was kind of neat to be observing a new "holiday," especially one that didn't involve too much effort on my part. It was decadent without being expensive or commercial. It was nice.

After this, I looked at all the other holidays for January and the rest of the year. Turns out there really is a day out there for everyone. Why not celebrate some of them? It seems weird and like a lot of work, but I have a bit of time on my hands. It can easily be translated into a more common New Year's resolution - try something new. And, even though it's cheesy, it's a way to make every day special. Plus, it gives me something to do to get through the winter doldrums.

To bring everyone up to speed. It started with the Festival of Sleep. Monday was Trivia Day - that didn't go so well, mostly because I was unprepared. Was I supposed to ask other people trivia? Was I supposed to just read up on a lot of trivia? It was kind of a bust. Tuesday was National Bird Day. Birdwatching was out of the question since it was about 4 degrees outside. I did read Audubon's Birds of America and learned some things I didn't know. I would go into detail, but this post is long enough. Today was Cuddle Up and Bean Day. I didn't eat any beans but I looked at seeds online. And I cuddled up, mostly because it's so cold out! Tomorrow is Old Rock Day. It's a day to appreciate old rocks and fossils. I don't have any old rocks or fossils, so maybe it's back to reading about them again. If you have any, dust them off and admire them!

More to come.

Hey, look everyone! Here I am on the Jumbotron at the Target Center! I'm there on the left screen, on the far righthand side. With my mouth wide open and my eyes closed, of course, like almost every other photo of me in existence. At least there was a reason for it this time - singing the National Anthem at a Minnesota Lynx game.



Calliope's spring season is pretty much over now. We had a mix of weird and good performances - from when we sang at the Midtown Farmer's Market and someone had a seizure, to singing the Anthem at the Target Center, to our own concerts at the Macalester Chapel. It was a lot of fun and I'm really glad to be back in choir and to sing regularly again. I missed it a lot. At the same time, tonight we have our last performance for the season and I'm glad to be done with rehearsing and performing for the summer.

It's full-fledged summer here, finally. It waffled between being cold and rainy and sticky and sort of warm-ish, but it hadn't made up it's mind to be really summery. The past week, however, it's been sunny and in the 80s, and it's nice.

My dad is visiting right now. He's here until Monday morning and I took the entire time off from work so we could spend plenty of quality time together. There are no big plans while he's here, mostly just eating and relaxing. We're going to head to The Beat coffee shop in a bit to see Rachel's art and then possibly to the Art Institute. It's nice to have time off from work and not be on a trip somewhere. Plenty of time for just sitting around, reading, walking. And ice cream. Ahhh.

Books are my life

The other day I was thinking about writing a book about working in a used/new bookstore and how probably it wouldn't be successful. After all, who really wants to read a book about someone's experiences working in retail? Not terribly interesting. There are plenty of stories I could tell about customers - strange things they've wanted, ridiculous questions they've asked, stupid things they've said ("The sun is a star? I didn't know that."). I could easily have a whole chapter on things found in buys (such as a bread knife) or things found inside books (such as the report cards of about 40 kids who went to my high school circa 1988-1993). Then there are the books themselves, everything from titles, concepts, blurb reviews from the cover ("This book is unputdownable!"), trends, author photos (Dean Koontz nearly always had Trixie, his golden retriever, in his author photos but she passed away last year), cover art, etc.

Of course, I'm not really serious about the book and just to prove it, here's the working title. It's compiled from parts of 12 titles of popular books of all kinds; usually ones that have been extremely popular during my tenure at the store that we get asked for allllll the time. If you can get the complete titles/series from which the parts came, you will get a cookie. Or my complete admiration.

A is for A Million Little Splendid Keepers of the Boleyn Water for Bees in Death for the Sixth Soul & Me For Dummies

The best part is that, for short, it would probably be called "Me For Dummies." I love that.

Probably I spend too much time at work.

Calliope!

Here are performance dates and information for the choir I'm in! Come see me sing (not by myself, of course, but with a great group of women). This is the press release from my director:

"Minneapolis, MN – Calliope Women’s Chorus is pleased to announce our spring season
program “Eat Well & Prosper”. Who doesn't love to eat? As a group of women, Calliope has a
fondness for fabulous foods and we also care about our health and our community. Through this
program, we seek to link our love of food with our concern for our environment and economic
stability through singing songs about food and agriculture - silly songs like George Winston’s
"Vegetable Alleluia" and thought-provoking pieces like "Farmer" by Kristen Lems will round out
an evening of beautiful music.

Concert Performances:
-June 14th, 7:30pm – “Eat Well & Prosper” Concert
-June 15th, 2:30pm – “Eat Well & Prosper” Concert

Additional Performances:
-May 10, 11am - Midtown Farmers Market
-May 31 - National Anthem @ MN Vixens Game
-June 1, 11am - Kingfield Farmers Market
-June 2, 7pm - QMC Concert @ Como Park Pavilion
-June 7 - NorthEast Farmers Market
-June 8th - National Anthem @ MN Lynx Game"

I'm singing at all but the May 31st and June 7th performances. The day we sing at the Lynx game is actually "Calliope Day" and I'm a little excited, despite the fact I know nothing about the WNBA. Being in choir again is so great, I can't even tell you.

For those of you who don't know, my dad is in Afghanistan for a project until the beginning of June. Just when my worry about him being there was abating somewhat, this happens. He's fine, though, and I read his blog which made me feel somewhat better. While I agree with his closing paragraph - that, as perverse as it sounds, it's good that he can experience this - I also remain incredibly glad that he (and everyone else I love) does not have to go through this everyday.