It's Official...

I hate Mondays. I hardly ever have good Mondays.

I put in my request for my Christmas PTO this morning at work. My supervisor emailed me back and said that it was tentative. This afternoon he emailed me back and said that my request had been downgraded from "tentative" to "unlikely to be approved". That means I will be spending Christmas in Minneapolis. It's the first time in my entire life that I haven't spent Christmas with my family. I'm not particularly religious, but I do think of Christmas as family time and I love the warm, safe feeling that I get when I go to bed (in "my" bed with my heavy down comforter and my parents just across the way) and the smell of pine in the air. It's also my brother's birthday.

My parents are discussing what to do. My dad sounds like he wants to come up to Minneapolis for Christmas and my mom wants my brother and I to come down either the weekend before or the weekend after. It just won't be the same. Christmas Eve is the one time I actually enjoy going to church-mostly because of the candlelight. I know that I can go to a service up here, there are plenty of beautiful churches and I've never seen a midnight Christmas mass, so this would be a good time to go to one. But my parents won't be there. There won't be the drive along the lake to see all the beautiful old mansions decorated for the holiday. There won't be the opening of one present and cookies after church. Or dinner with my grandmother's beautiful china. Or my brother's annual chocolate chip cheesecake birthday cake and my annual complaint of "Can't you pick anything else?".

I know I'm welcome at Evan's family's Christmas, but it just won't be the same.

In the grand scheme of things, me not being able to actually be with my family on Christmas isn't a big deal. At least I have family and other people to share it with. There are people who don't even have that. I'm just amazed at how much this is bothering me. I've been fighting back tears all day. Yesterday I was all excited for the holiday season. I never get excited for Christmas this early. Now I don't even want to think about it and I just feel kind numb.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Have You Hugged Your Cataloger Today?

This semester of school has certainly given me a new appreciation for what catalogers do.

The Dewey system and I? Well, we get along fabulously. It's like doing a puzzle. A very elegant, nerdy puzzle. Granted, when you get into dropping digits and zeros it gets a bit confusing. And sometimes when you look at a number, you can't really figure out the thought process that the cataloger took, but I love it. A book on breeding racehorses? 636.12. You say you're interested in civil engineering as a profession? 624.023. Doing a Dewey number really reminds me of letterboxing-looking at clues, trying to decipher them to get to the right place, and the "A-ha!" moment when you find what you're looking for. You can really tailor the number to bring out certain aspects of the work. It's fantastic!

My relationship with the Library of Congress Classification System? I want a divorce. There are 44+ volumes (compared to Dewey's sleek four) and there are no instructions (the brief instructions in Dewey seem downright verbose). Granted, it's the Library of Congress and they do pretty much what they want to do and this system obviously works for them. It was created for use only in the Library of Congress and they don't really share the rules that their catalogers use. So us mere mortal librarians (and poor MLIS students) basically have to figure it out based on what others have figured out.

I've spent the past three hours pouring over various volumes of the LoC Classification System for my final exam and I honestly feel like throwing them out the window. There are directions to look at a certain table, but no clues as to where this table is. The descriptions of the headings are vague at the best of times and the indentations screw with your head. Tables are scattered throughout the volumes, so you have to go digging in several different books to find what you need.

So hug the cataloger at your local library and thank them for making it easy for you to find what you need! 'Cause it sure as heck ain't easy to do.

It's Red!

As I type this, I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop and sipping chai. I'm supposed to be working on my final exam for my Cataloging class and looking up Library of Congress authority headings, but I'm having too much fun playing with my Christmas present to myself-a new laptop! It replaces my six year old Vaio. I'm quite attached to the old one. It's been through several moves and had even gone to Wales with me, but it was time to retire it. The new one has wireless and doesn't weigh 50 pounds. And most importantly, it's red!

It's been kind of fun going through and adjusting the settings and whatnot to my liking. When it came time to assign it a name, I christened it Childermass. My boyfriend (the man who named our home network "Voltron") saw the new name and said "Childermass? You're naming it after a character in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell?"

So say hello to Childermass!

Amazing what fifteen years can do...

This week I received The Little Foxes' contribution to the Quote This! II ring. All of the stamps had something to do with confronting fear and it seemed quite appropriate that I got that this week.

As I've mentioned before, I've started Aikido again after taking a break for fifteen years. I remember how I loved to do forward rolls and being thrown and falling when I was little. I would get this thrill at just effortlessly tucking my body and springing back up in a perfect hamni (stance).

Fast forward fifteen years. Front rolls are the bane of my existence. I hate seeing the floor come up and I dread practicing moves that involve me having to do a front roll. That changed a little this week. Summer is always a bad time for me with headaches and just generally not feeling good, so I haven't been able to go to the dojo as often as I'd like (there's a reason why I live in the northern part of the US!). Now that the weather is getting cooler, I've been going more often and have been able to concentrate more.

This week I felt a little twinge of the thrill I used to feel when doing front rolls. It actually felt good to feel my feet flying over my head and knowing that I am in perfect control. And on Thursday we practiced a move that I have never enjoyed because it basically has the defender turning the attacker's arm in to a staff and launching the attacker into a front roll. I have never been able to do the front roll without hitting my head or hurting my shoulder. But I actually managed to do a decent roll and stand up in hamni. Granted, I still hit my head or roll on my shoulder, but I'm not so afraid of it now.

I'm still amazed that in my (very) long break from Aikido, I became afraid of falling. I went from this fearless ten year old who would try any move, even if it looked really difficult, to a twenty-five year old who cringes when she sees the floor rushing up.

Fear is a funny thing.

Schoolin'

Yesterday was the first day of my second semester of library school. I'm only taking one class this semester since I've heard from others that this is one of the hardest classes of the program. It's "Organization of Knowledge", which is basically learning cataloging rules. It only meets every other Saturday, but for five hours each time. I honestly don't know if I'll like the class or not. Cataloging has never really interested me, but who knows? I could actually end up enjoying it.

There are a few familiar faces in the class, mostly from my Intro to LIS class. And "That" girl is in the new class. You know the type-always has something to say even if it has nothing to do with the topic at hand, argues almost everything the professor says, asks if every single chart or PowerPoint presentation is going to be posted on the class website, etc, etc. She was in my Reference Services class and by the end of the term, the professor was having none of it. It made for some interesting classes and the rest of us would place bets on how long it would take the professor to shut her down. By the end of class yesterday, I could tell that the professor for this class is going to get quite sick of her quite quickly.

In terms of my other schooling (aikido), the dojo is hosting a seminar this weekend with the head of the Virginia Aikikai Assocation. He's a 6th dan (a sixth degree black belt). They're doing testing this weekend as well. I really wanted to watch the testing since the next time they hold testing, I'll probably be the one being tested. I managed to catch the tail end of the testing after my Cataloging class. The upper ranks were testing and it was kind of intimidating. The whole test for the higher ranks is basically defending yourself against three or four attackers. It was amazing watching a woman probably a little taller than me send three tall men flying. I know that they've all been training for years, but I can't imagine being able to do that at this point. Someday...

The Sculpture Garden

A visiting letterboxer made her first plant at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden a few blocks from my apartment. It took me two trips to find it, mostly because it's one of those "hidden under a rock in a pile of rocks" clues that I always have problems with. Not that I minded going to the Sculpture Garden. It's always fun getting lost there.

But success!

I walked there early this morning, thinking that there wouldn't be the clumps of people that are always wandering through the garden. There were a few families, but it wasn't too bad.

Of course, there was a crowd around the Spoon Bridge.



It felt really good to get out and letterbox on my own. Lately it's either been too hot or I've had my parents (and less than enthusiastic brother) tagging along. I spent probably about an hour wandering around the garden and visiting all my favorites.

Unbelievable

It's finally starting to sink in that the bridge is gone.

After I dropped Evan off at the radio station for his show, I had to take the Washington Avenue bridge (two bridges down from 35W) across the river. While I was crossing, Marine One (that Presidential helicopter) flew close to me on its way to the wreckage. As my eyes followed it, I saw part of the wreckage. Only a small section of the northern part was visible-part of the "V". It was kind of shocking seeing an image that I've seen on TV. Up until that point, I had only seen the wreckage on all the news coverage. It still seemed far away. But seeing it in real life was very...odd.

I turned on to River Road and saw that people had parked their cars and were standing and trying to peer into the woods on the bluff. I saw an empty parking spot and went to go see what they were looking at. Marine One had landed at the park across the river and the President was getting into his motorcade to (I'm guessing) go on the closed-to-normal-traffic 10th Avenue bridge to survey the damage. You couldn't really see any of the wreckage due to the curve of the river and the woods on the bluff.

I drove through the Dinkytown/Marcy-Holmes neighborhoods (neighborhoods surrounding the U. 35W is the dividing line of the two areas) and when I crossed over 35W and looked west, my jaw just dropped. Except for the lack of normal traffic and all the police and news vans, it looked normal-the construction barrels were still there, they had just finished paving the on-ramp a few days before. Normal until you got to the start of where the bridge was. There was a sudden drop off and then that piece that's sticking straight up blocked my view of anything else. Once I got to the end of the overpass, I could see the west side of the bridge that's just dangling. I just felt sick to my stomach-partly because of the destruction and partly because of the mass of news vans. I'm only allowed to watch the coverage in the morning, other than that, I avoid it. It's hard at work though. There are flat panel screens that show CNN all day in the elevator lobbies. I saw one "special report" that had the name "The Road to Ruin" plastered across a full span shot of the wreckage. I wanted to find that person that designed it and just smack them. And then Nancy Grace was crying "Terrorism!" within hours of the collapse, even though it was clearly not. My dislike of sensationalist news coverage is at a new all-time high. I lived in Dinkytown/Marcy-Holmes for about five years and it's strange seeing pictures of my old neighborhood with dramatic captions. Especially some of the arial shots that show my old apartment buildings on both sides of the river and the park where I hid my first letterbox.

After doing the errands that I was going to do on Wednesday (the errands that would have put me on the bridge on or near the time it fell), I took the Central Avenue bridge across (it's one bridge to the north of 35W). I couldn't see any of the wreckage, but it was very strange looking over and seeing the 10th Avenue bridge that used to be hidden behind 35W. It was like 35W had never crossed the river there. I drove past the Guthrie and the new Gold Mill Park. People were standing on the hill in the park, watching the meeting with the President and the recovery. There were parents with kids on their shoulders, little ones in strollers, people who had been walking their dog and just decided to stop and watch. It reminded me of when people would pack picnics to go watch a battle. I took the Washington Avenue overpass of 35W and looked east. It looked like nothing had happened. Granted, the highway was empty except for police cars and construction barrels, but since that end has a bit of an up-hill climb, it looked pretty much normal. I couldn't see the wreckage on the other side. It just sloped up and that was it.

I'm happy (it seems wrong to be happy about that-people are still missing) that the number of missing people dropped. There were two people from work (not in my department) who were on the bridge, one is shaken, but fine and the other is in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. I hope Lisascenic's friend is ok. I still can't watch the news without crying, but life is returning to normal. I now live in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, which is about a mile from the bridge, and when Evan and I went out to dinner last night, no one was talking about it and the TVs in the bar/pizza place were tuned to the Discovery Channel and the Twins Game. I think I'm having a hard time getting used to it because I could have been on the bridge. I keep asking myself those dangerous and pointless "What if" questions. What if I had decided to do my errands that day? What if I had let Evan borrow the car to go to the video store? (I would never forgive myself if he had been on the bridge) What if the cats had a vet appointment and I was taking them home from it? Would I have been able to save them? What if it had fallen on Monday when Evan and I were stuck in the same rush hour traffic at about the same time on the bridge? I'm keeping busy and try to stop those questions from running through my head. Nothing is going to get accomplished if I dwell on it. Luckily, we have Evan's 7 year old sister spending the day with us and we'll be busy entertaining her (and we'll avoid the collapse area-I don't know if his dad and stepmom have talked to her about what happened). And (it sounds really dorky), I'm kind of getting excited to see what the new bridge will look like. I know it's a few years off, but will they still make it with no center pier? It probably won't be steel and concrete, what will they make it out of? Will it be all cool and modern looking to fit with the Gehry designed art museum near by and the new ultra-modern Guthrie Theater?

It'll be interesting to say the least.

Le Morte d'Arthur

As some letterboxers might know, I love trying to translate my favorite works of art to pieces of rubber. Sometimes it works, sometime not so much.



I've always been in love with the illustrations that Aubrey Beardsley did for Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and started carving stamps from the many that he drew.



I planted the first of the stamps-a section of the Title Page-when I was home visiting my parents last weekend. I'll eventually plant the rest around Minnesota and Wisconsin, possibly in other states.

Hopefully I can get around to planting the second one-Merlin-this weekend. We have Evan's little 7 year old staying with us this weekend, so I probably won't get much done.

It should be interesting.

It's almost here!

My copy of Harry Potter arrives tomorrow!

I'm almost afraid to read it. I hate endings and apparently this is a big one. I'll probably be a mess by the end of it.

Plan for this weekend:

Avoid news broadcasts, newspapers, etc.
Work Paw Pals at the library and avoid discussing Harry Potter with those who are carrying around a copy of HP#7.
Run errands.
HP#7 should arrive around 4 pm.
Read the rest of the weekend. Have box of tissues at hand.

I'm sure I'll love the new one, but I'm dreading finishing it.

And if anyone spoils the ending for me, it won't be pretty.

Has it been that long already?

Yesterday was my four year anniversary with Evan. Four years! It really doesn't seem that long. We met in a Shakespeare class and started dating the summer before I left for Wales. The "Has-he-popped-the-question?" questions have pretty much died down by now. They resurface around Christmas and Valentines, but we're happy not being married or engaged, thank you very much. Yeah, we'll probably get married eventually, but I just started grad school and Evan just got his first "adult" job, so we're in no hurry to change things just yet.

We stayed in last night, mostly because both of us had to work early today, and had one of our "Asian Stereotype" nights. Meaning we ordered in Chinese, drank sake, and watched anime. Last night's selection was some of the first season of Avatar. Ok, so maybe a Nickelodeon produced show that has it's own Happy Meal toys doesn't technically qualify as anime. It's still a damn fine cartoon.

The best part of all though was what he got me as a present-a gift certificate for Stampeaz! While I do appreciate the gift card, it's more the fact he actually paid attention. Evan puts up with letterboxing. He knows I love it and will go out letterboxing to spend time with me. He's also been known to be amazed by some of the postals I receive. He does complain about the coffee table being my carving table and the little bits of rubber that seem to get everywhere, but he doesn't get too upset because he knows it makes me happy.

I'm really lucky.

Dumping Grounds

Today's goal: Clean out the screened-in porch.

One of the main reasons Evan and I picked this apartment was the screened-in porch. There's a beautiful old tree just outside that provides shade and we're on a quiet street, so it's the perfect place to sit and read on a summer afternoon.

Theoretically.

In reality, it became a dumping ground for empty moving boxes, seasonal items (note the mini-Christmas tree) and things we just didn't feel like finding a home for at a particular moment. And one ugly mauve loveseat. It was in Evan's "bachelor pad". The thing has no seat cushions.

Cleaning out the porch wasn't really high on the good ole' "To-Do" list - who wants to sit out on an un-heated porch in the middle of a Minnesota winter? But now that the warm weather is here (that and the fact that we've been in the place almost a year), it's time to tackle the jungle of junk.

So today I'm sorting through things, decided what stays (the bike) and what goes (hopefully the couch).

If I disappear, send reinforcements. You know where I'll be.

Try getting him to do this if he has to go to the vet...

Try getting him to do this if he has to go to the vet...
Originally uploaded by Heather W.

I think the heat (hey! It's hot for Minnesota!) is making us all a bit loopy. For the past few days, Macavity has been hanging out in his cat carrier. I've been meaning to put it back where it belongs, but he just looks so comfy.

It's like his own little kitty fort. Easily defended against maurauding long-haired calico cats.

Back into the swing of things

Well, I'm back from vacation. Uh, I mean "YAY! I'm back from vacation!" It's always a bit humbling to realize that every day life goes on without you and that you aren't really as important as you might think.

Don't get me wrong-vacation was fantasic. Give me a few days and I'll get around to uploading my pictures. But it's always hard to come back. I always have to stop and look around and see what has changed.

We've been back in Minneapolis for a couple of days now and things are returning to normal. The cats have forgiven us for leaving them in the care of my brother, I'm caught up at work and I've put a large dent in the pile of postals I received while I was gone. We were only gone a little over a week, but it seems like so much has changed. There's a new tech guy at work (who looks a lot like the character of Mason from Dead Like Me) and another guy at work got married. I have two Bleach episodes recorded that I have to watch and there were two new people at Aikido tonight who joined the dojo last week.

Ah, Aikido! I only skipped three of the classes I usually attend (the basic/beginner ones), but it seems like I've been missing them for months. I almost didn't go tonight, but I'm so glad I did. I felt a bit unsteady, but after the warm-up, I felt more centered than I have in a long time. I've only been doing Aikido for a little over a month, but already I find myself noticing how scattered I feel if I haven't attended class in a while. After a good class (actually, even after a bad one), I feel fantastic-more graceful, more centered, more peaceful. Tonight was a so-so class. My rolls still need a lot of work (something about the floor rushing up to me just freaks me out), but Sensei was pleased that I quickly caught on to the moves we went over tonight. I still don't feel like I'll be ready to test in September, but we'll see. I'm going to start going three nights a week next week.

Lookit me!

Here it goes..venturing into the blogosphere once again.

I think you get kicked out of library & information science school if you don't have a blog or at least some form of self-publishing. And honestly, I've been meaning to start a new one anyway.

There will be lots of rambling, some letterboxing adventures, stressing out about school, work, and aikido, pretty pictures, yada yada yada-you know the drill.