YOLO

Well, it's 1:30 and I'm still awake. Blog post time!

The "YOLO!" phrase has pissed me off for a while now, as there are lots of examples where people say it after doing something like an asshole, not a risk taker. Sadly, I am seeing more and more of people being assholes and completely charmed with themselves for it, so I don't think this is going away anytime soon. But the guys of The Lonely Island were kind enough to write a YOLO song, which I've been listening to for the last ten minutes. Two words about furniture: KILLING MACHINES. It is helping me remember to relax and let people be ridiculous because if no one is ridiculous, who the hell am I going to judge and then what, what I ask you, would I have to open blog entries with?

Hmm, what's going on aside from jerks and music? Question for the ages.

It feels like school is slowly killing me. The semester is nearly over and that is probably why, but there's just so much going on, work is busy... It's good to be busy, but I feel overwhelmed and that means all I want to do is hide in bed or on the couch, read something, anything that isn't a scholarly article or textbook, watch HGTV, and daydream. None of the pressure makes me feel like the tasks left in this term are insurmountable obstacles, but I'm having trouble keeping myself on the obstacle course at all.

This semester's challenge has mostly been that two of my three classes are on Tuesday and Thursday nights. It sucks the big one. Hubs has Pathfinder Wednesday night and game night Friday, so Monday is our one night together and I work until 5:15 that day and usually have homework. Which I usually ignore, which usually makes me tense in some way. Augh. No more night classes if I can avoid them! None in the summer and none in the fall, thankfully. I'm trying to set up my practicum for the summer at a public library I focused on for a paper last year. I like the library and especially its director a lot; it'd be a dream to get to work there and the experience they make available to students is ideal. There are some gaps in my Alex Has Done This And She Is A Pro At It list, so filling in those blanks would be really satisfactory.

Work continues. I've started training with a young woman who really knows her stuff in the academic library job, and that's making things there much less headachey. I'm learning a lot. I respect this woman and she's very kind, doesn't seem to mind questions about the why of what we're doing. The cataloging is much less confusing since I got ushered under her wing. I am very happy to be there! Have been doing a few new things at the public library, too: shelving magazines and YA materials (it doesn't require special training or anything but it seems like there are always two carts of children's materials to be organized and shelved, so I give those priority), processing holds (cool) and returns (a mule could do it). Tonight Josh and I watched the mid 2000s Casshern movie. It wasn't what I was expecting based on the cover, but I'm glad we watched it because now I feel like a cool kid with a "foreign film watched recently" badge to display. 

I miss having garden plans this year. My fingers and toes are getting itchy to plant, so I may bite the bullet and get a big planter for our porch, but it would have to be carefully selected; we don't get much sun. It would be better to save the money towards house downpayment but just typing that I'm wrinkling my nose so you, dear reader, and I know exactly what's going to happen here. 

Speaking of foregone conclusions, I got a super serious craving for a doughnut or six Friday night. Dunkin' Donuts didn't disappoint. What I wanted was a chocolate frosted doughnut and not only did they have those, they had brownie batter doughnuts.

WELL, OKAY.

It was some kinda special. There was actually too much filling (I love yummy middle-of-doughnut surprises that are supposed to be there, but I had to move my neck pretty quick to not spill brownie batter [?!] on myself), but it was good. As Josh and I are MyFitnessPal-ing it around, I entered the doughnuts like a good little guilty-over-food-er.

WELL, NOT OKAY.

Jeeeeeeeeeeesus, doughnuts are terrible for you! Who knew?! Why did you ever let nutritionists know?! Why are there Big Oil, Big Used Car, and Big No Abortions but no Big Doughnut to look out for my interests?! You'd think if there was going to be a doughnut lobby, it would be here in the US but no. No. This is why other countries don't respect us, I am quite certain. But since they don't have doughnut lobbies either (?), whatevs. Deuces, other countries. You Only Live Once.

Growing a Little Older...

For the last year I've been thinking I was a certain age and that my husband is a year younger. As expressed that's true. I don't feel like I've lost a year, but I was very embarrassed to learn that I'd been thinking one number when it was really that number +1. My birthday is in a few days and there's no plan to do anything big, I don't think we did anything big birthday-wise last year. Josh is magnificent and my favorite but not one for part planning and I don't have time to put anything together, so it will probably be a quiet celebration. I just hope there is a smooshy, chocolate-frosted doughnut.


Or sixteen. I've never tried, but I get the feeling I could eat a shameful number of doughnuts if given the opportunity. And solitude. Let's not forget the solitude.

Semester is trudging along. Nothing awful, but I was pretty sick for two weeks after getting back from the cruise, and have been feeling like I'm in catch up mode since then. Fun condiment racing video game: Katsup Mode! (with exclamation point, of course). I like my multicultural literature class a lot. All my classes this semester are much smaller than last time-- I think less than half the size, if that-- which is nice. The night classes are a drag because I want to be home and the morning class is a drag because I want to be home. So for summer and fall, I'm going to look carefully at when classes are offered and select accordingly. I've missed a lot of cool events because of my class schedule this go 'round and I'd like to be able to do more in the next semesters.

I'll be graduating next May, which is mind boggling. I was lucky to take classes as a special student and there's plenty to do between now and next May (I imagine before the semester is over it will feel like fooooooooorrrrrfuckingeverrrrrrrrrr until graduation), but the two years just doesn't seem like enough time to become super competent in areas where I want to be.

Looking forward to seeing Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing next month at the Madison Film Festival. Looking forward to the projects of this semester even as I'm a little trigger shy of group projects. The stuff we will be working on is interesting. I lead a small book group next week for the multicultural literature class and I feel like I picked neat picture books; hope everyone else thinks so.

Work's also kind of trudge-y. Working at the public library is fantastic in that it's work in a public library, a little monotonous in that it's being a page in a public library. Several times a shift I think to myself "Oh, is that how the alphabet works, now?" but most of the other pages I work around seem nice. It's definitely nice to still be in my happy library place and interact with the people I got to know a little bit when I was volunteering. Work on campus is extremely monotonous, but they gave me a small raise at the start of the semester and I feel like if I can just get more training on the cataloging system this could be a stupendous experience and résumé boost.

As next May looms, I'm continuing to slow-simmer back burner (double range pun!) panic about getting a job after graduation. We're focusing on buying a house at the end of the summer right now, and that's the biggest life thing. When we've bought a place and moved in I imagine the panic will bubble over accordingly. What can I say? The saucepan of my life overfloweth.