Summertime and the livin' is breezy

To the tune of Barenaked Ladies Three Weeks: It's been three weeks since the England trip.  Turned my head round and I was comin' back.  

I could try to keep going with that silly verse, but my point is that it feels like just yesterday I had airport troubles(to the tune of a 9 hour delay between two airports) and then was uploading photos of my trip to Facebook.  I know everyone in my class has had work or school since returning- I haven't heard much from LH or AG especially(sad!)- and I myself have lost track of summer.  It's August 25th, with just over a week left before I moved back into my house in Rhode Island and already I have attended one wedding, one night of karaoke, one night of a 90s cover band, several girls nights(complete with popcorn!), had a few bottles of Pumpkinhead and Octoberfest, gone to a drive in movie for Despicable Me 2, several movies(Red 2, We're the Millers, The World's End, etc.) and so much more.  In the remaining week, I hope to visit my friend's camp, attend a fair, finish packing, finish my 15-20 page paper(yes, even I still have a little left.  But mostly the bibliography and like a page, so that counts for something) and drink plenty of pumpkin iced coffee.  

In the time that I have been back, I have shared many a story from my travels.  I have way to many photos- no one person(minus myself) has seen them all.  Paris contains almost 200, Scotland almost 600, and Harry Potter holds almost 700.  I think...  Many people love hearing my story about how I went on a date with a Scottish guy.  And I am glad that I did, I think it has given me some confidence and level of assurance that I didn't have before.  In fact, I have been chatting with a nice guy this month and find myself not thinking too far forward.  I miss London, there was so much to see and everything was very close- everywhere I have gone this summer has been 15-90 minute drive away.  Except Moosehead Lake, that was almost 4 hours.  But very fun and the kayaking story deserves to be told.

So it was out first full day there, out of three total days, and BC and myself decided to go kayaking.  Now while I don't own my own kayak(yet) I absolutely love it.  I only ride single, the doubles remind me too much of canoing- which I hate with a passion.  So we head out, I in the single and BC in the double, and go to a small island slightly off our shore.  We "park" and look around, BC asks me "where do you want to go next?" to which I look further from where we are and spot a nice island with big green trees and some landing rocks.  I say "how about that island?"  BC doesn't protest and we head out.  And we paddle.  More paddling.  We had some footage between us so neither one of us was sharing their idea that this island seemed a little too far and that the travel on the waves seemed much too easy.  We got there, eventually, but couldn't park because the waves were almost crashing our boats to the rocks.  So, we tried turning around and found the waves were pretty sizable.  We had to paddle a lot harder.  We went to the shore, on the opposite side of our camp, and discovered we must have been at least a mile or two from the camp.  With the large waves, it took us a lot longer to paddle back.  Apparently BC was swearing, again we were at a distance due to paddling, but I was the least of our worries that week(her grandmother is a little schedule happy and it got on her nerves).  However, it has been deemed that I am not to pick where we go again- hopefully this just means kayak-wise.  Its definitely one of those look-back-and-be-funny tales.

This year is going to be a busy one.  I quit Dunkin in May, before the summer hit, so that when I left for England I had two graduate assistanceships, three classes, and one of which is an internship.  When I came back in August, my boss from the spring told me my schedule was too busy to work for her.  So, I went down to one graduate assistanceship.  I am quite excited about this one because I like the people I work for and the project is cataloging- which I will have proper training and therefore learn tons by.  I am also excited for my internship, on digital literacy, which kicks off in my first full school week.  The classes might prove a challenge, but they pertain to public libraries and I want some class principles as well as first hand experience.  I have an interview lined up for a part-time library when I come back as well as communications with a public library I worked at last year on Sundays.  Needless to say, I am keeping a better daily planner this year.  I don't even want to think about spring, when its comps season and graduation.  Jinkies!

For now, I am going to eat grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, Octoberfest, and blueberries.  Ahh, summertime in Maine and the livin' is breezy.  I always hope for a breeze anyways, it keeps the mosquitos away!

Don't You Miss Typewriters?

First I want to start off by saying thank you for over 1000 pageviews.  While it isn't followers, I definitely feel noticed.  As long as someone is reading, that's enough for me.

In bigger news, I completed the first year of my masters program last night.  While the grades aren't all in- I am waiting on the presentation I gave last night(more on that in a minute) and a reflection paper of my Collection Development class- I can safely say I passed.  I still remember last summer when I began writing about my thoughts towards graduate school.  My concerns, my hopes, the idea of going back for school while having senioritis.  And now here I am.  "A"s in most of my classes, a member of the Student ALA, worker of(now two, I finally quit Dunkin Donuts, which made three) part time jobs, I have been to several "Rhode Island only" places, like Fat Belly's Pub, O'Brien's pub, and OrangeLeaf.  Okay, well OrangeLeaf(a fro-yo shop) isn't in Maine so, to me, it's a Rhode Island thing.  I have completed six courses, with five or six more to go.  I have paid my tuition to attend King's College in England for a summer course.  I'm finishing the paperwork for a Digital Literacy internship this fall.  I still get along with my roommate.  And I am "in-like"(also known as a crush) with someone back home, which is funny because I don't spend that much time in Maine since I moved down here.  

So, like I said, my last course for this first year was last night.  It was great- seven people presenting for 15 minutes a-piece on a project in which they organized some type of information.  For me, I created a comic book store, called The Comic Vault(yes that's now my copyright) and told the story of a man "who recently came into money" and bought an old borders.  I made it all up, but the narrative was necessary to transition from my initial Case Study to my paper(or research).  I split it into four rooms, as opposed to a full, open floor of space.  I gave it nerd-motifs and basically tried to convince people that comic book stores aren't dead, they just have to try new things- like selling Doctor Who merchandise or hosting a gaming night.  Not so new, but highly overlooked.

At one point there was a presenter who talked about the concept of a "Writing Gym" and how he might have a free-write station, of which would have a typewriter.  This got my roommate and I talking on the carpool home.  We more or less felt it was a lost art of sorts, not having used our mother's typewriters since we were kids.  (My mum use to sell Mary Kay in the late 90s and, since we didn't have a computer at the time(IKNOWRIGHT!) she used a typewriter for work.  I used it for fun.  Until she taught me how to erase the type, at which point I went through two erases and I don't remember playing with it after that.)  So in memory of typewriters, I wrote this blog in courier.  

Last on the menu, I wanted to let you know you can look forward to more book reviews, and maybe a few movies as well, because I will be reading plenty of Young Adult literature in preparation for my Young Adult Public Library course this fall. (30 books + 13 weeks = start now)  Luckily, I have read some in recent times and remember plenty, but I want to read more.  This class will be a great excuse.  First on my list are Divergent and The Disaster Diaries: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse. The Great Gatsby will be coming out soon, so I might reread that as well as watch it.  Now You See Me is due out soon as well as Iron Man 3 and others.  I am also attending free comic book day, so whatever I get for free I will read and tell you my thoughts.  

I think that's about it for now.  Back to work!