Put the Sun in the Glasses

Once upon a time, I broke my sunglasses.  I replaced them with an identical pair, and, surprisingly, they broke!  So I went through the ensuing months without, and they were very squinty months indeed.  Then we got married that August and went to southern California the next day.  Southern California is pretty bright.  Really bright.  I couldn't squint the bright out!  

See?  So I did what anyone would do, and bought some sunglasses from the aquarium, which saved me on the rest of our honeymoon in the bright, bright land of California:

Those sunglasses have traveled the world with me since, until one sad day, a few weeks ago, when they decided to travel no more:

I guess it's time to go back to the aquarium.

Oopsy daisy

I haven't blogged in a long time. Lots of things have been going on around here, but I will post more about that later at some point later, later on. For now, here is a story.

Some while ago we went to Disneyland (*sigh*). Since we were driving, we stocked the car up on her necessary fluids, including a can of gas for just in case. It was a great trip and the car behaved perfectly well, as she is prone to do. We came home and went on our merry way in life.

A few weeks ago we went over to the gym, and when we came out to the car there was a post it note on the windshield. This time it was not an ad from the nearby Paul Mitchell school, but was instead from a fellow exercise enthusiast. They had parked behind us and noticed a lot of liquid under the back of the car, and wrote that they suspected we had a gas leak. We looked under the back and sure enough there was a load of liquid blackness on the pavement, freshly dripped. I flailed a few times and then we got in the car, which now had a distinct eau de gas. As we drove home I went through different scenarios of the car suddenly exploding and pondered our chances of survival.

Once home we investigated the car and found the obvious hole where gas was leaking out. Mr. Graham, ever resourceful, stuck some packing tape over it until it could go to the shop. We were out of duct tape.

So the next day, Mr. Graham dropped me off at work and then took the car off to see the mechanic. (Isn't Mr. Graham so nice? He always takes care of my car for me.) The car, Leeloo, was hoisted up so they could check her underpinnings. But instead of immediately seeing the hole on her underside, Mr. Mechanic didn't see a thing and had Mr. Graham come and point it out to him.

No, there was no gas leak. Did you know that trunks have a drainage hole? It turns out if you have a gas can in the trunk, it can tip over. And sometimes it can tip over and land directly on its spout. And sometimes gas cans inexplicably have no cap on the spout. And then the gas leaks out and down through the trunk's drainage hole, prompting concerned gym goer's to leave notes.

No, the mechanic didn't charge us a thing.

It's that time again...

...time to go to Disneyland! It was so worth standing at a door at the Scera theater for an hour saying "Enjoy the show!" to get free tickets.


See how we are staring off into the distance that is California. Soon we will be there! Like in two weeks! Huzzah!

Money: It Must Be Funny

In case you have not heard the news, I recently ended my long streak of unemployment with a return to the workforce. The workforce I joined is a company called Backstage Library Works, and because I'm so bored with trying to explain the company to non-library people, I'm going to write it all out here and then none of you can ask me any questions about it ever again.

Okay, only semi-kidding because I'm happy that I have a job to explain to people and a few years ago I would have made that same puzzled face at hearing "It's a company called Backstage Library Works." But I'm not really one who enjoys retelling the same story over and over, even when it's a fun one. Similarly, this past Sunday Drew and I realized that I am more like a man when it comes to listening because I don't like to rehash the same story and I try to solve other people's stories instead of just sympathizing. Meanwhile Drew is more like a woman because he is a rehasher and good at listening without forcing unwanted solutions on people. Somehow we balance out.* That was a long sidenote.

Anyway. So, a few weeks ago I applied at BSLW where I blew through a typing test and took a bunch of quizzes designed to test my brain. I was asked many perplexing things like the years of the Civil War (1861-1865) and whether Nova Scotia is a country, city, state or none of those (province). I did it all in my trusty Jack Sparrow t-shirt, which I kept under my coat to avoid looking unprofessional while interacting with sheets of paper**.

That was a Friday and on Monday they called to set up an interview, which I had on Wednesday or something. I put on my charm and, finally, felt somewhat successful afterwards instead of going home to cry (okay, that rarely happened). When my interviewer called on Friday I was sure she was using her "I'm about to disappoint you voice" but no, she offered me a spot on the team. Huzzah! I took it, and was a little relieved to hear I'd have a week before starting (sweet, impoverished freedom).

Now I will tell you what I do. BSLW does a lot of cataloging stuff for all kinds of libraries. For instance, some old school libraries still have card catalogs and they hire BSLW to make all their catalog digital. In my case, I am part of the group that is switching a library's collection from their own system to the Library of Congress classification system. This means I look at their records, I search for the item in a database to find a call number, I verify it and I put it in the record. Sometimes there are none and I have to find them myself on the Library of Congress's website. I would show this to you if it didn't require a login. It would make all this much more impressive if you could see all the rules and exceptions and exception exceptions. Just know that it hurts my brain by the end of the day.

Now I'm starting my second week but have yet to work on the actual project because I'm still training. I make lots of stupid errors, just like I did in my cataloging class in the beforetimes. Sometimes I come home and wail about my sure-to-come firing, but then Drew pats me on the head and gives me chocolates.*** But it is good to be working in a library-related business, and I like the work. I seem to do pretty well with monotonous tasks involving just me and a computer, though I do miss handling actual items (it's half the fun!).

So, there you have it. I only recently realized that it's been just about 9 months since I last worked, and it is rather a shift getting back into that mode. It was really convenient to have such an open schedule, but I think it will be even more convenient to have twice our current moneys. That means we can go to Disneyland and Disney World sooner, and isn't that what it's all about?
*I actually can't remember what this asterisk was going to say. I remembered! That whole man/woman thing is according to what people were saying in our marriage class on Sunday. No, we aren't in counseling. We just go because they asked people with A-K last names to go and boost the numbers. Anyway, we are traditional in our gender ways otherwise.
**Nope, can't remember this one either.
***We didn't really have any chocolate but he did get me ice cream.

*ahem*

As much as I hate to use my blog for this, I really want to go to Disneyland. So! If you want to go to Disneyland too and don't want to pay for it, you can enter contests at Sweet Life in the Valley or Out & About with the Family to win trips to Magicland Disneyland. And just to make reading this post even more worth your while, look at this pretty picture.

I want to gooooooooooo. *sigh*

Conquered: That's What I Am

Here's another blog post I don't really know how to start. Hmm.

I went to Disneyland last week. I got engaged. Now I'll tell you how it happened.

The day was Thursday, our first day at Disneyland. I had pretty strong suspicions that there was going to be a proposal while we were there. Nay, I should say strong certainties, though I wasn't sure what the ring status was. I gave D-Rew a little teasing during the day, asking him if he had everything and if he had any souvenirs for me. When we were on Soarin' in the mid-afternoon I went so far as to pat the side pocket of his shorts and lo and behold, there was a small box in there. Then I felt really bad for spoiling things a bit, since I don't ever *really* want to have surprises spoiled (even surprises I'm expecting). As it turned out, he wasn't sure I had felt the box so that was something.

Anyhoo, a little while later, back in Disneyland it was about dinner time and my family was discussing where we were going to eat. The plan was set and we were going to head over there but D-Rew suggested we take a walk first. So walk we did. We walked all the way over to Snow White's Wishing Well by the castle, seen here:

Okay, so you can't see the actual wishing well but we were standing by the railing anyway. There was a goodly number of people standing about just then and so we discussed the color of the water while they wandered away. Finally there were just a few people standing around and Mr. Graham said he did, in fact, have a souvenir for me. And then he pulled out a ring. A ring with a star and Mickey head with rhinestones. Nice, right? Classy. I gave it a few ooo's while I tried to figure out which finger I should put it on. Was it substitute for a real one? Was he just a dense boy? However could I tell for sure? I settled on the middle finger of my right hand for no particular reason. Nice.

But then he said he had something else for me. And then there was kneeling and hand holding and a box with a little sparkly thing for me inside. Words were said, words were said in reply and oh, just look at the reenactment pictures (they are highly accurate, besides our different clothes).


And then we were happy and took pictures of ourselves before getting some handy dandy tourists to take some for us. Here, look at both:

So...yes. That is how it happened, and it was lovely. And soon we shall be wed and that will also be lovely. I went to Disneyland almost exactly a year ago and it is funny how different things were on this trip. Life changes really fast sometimes, but luckily in this case it changed for the better. Is "better" the right word? That doesn't seem to quite cover it, but you know what I'm saying. And as another bonus, now my Mother need no longer despair at my life long lack of interest in marriage.

PS: We've been engaged since March 21st. Did you know I've had a life goal to be secretly engaged? (I didn't know how I was going to do that when I didn't want to get married, but you know. Whatever.)

PS #2: If you want to read this story from a different perspective, you can check out Drew's account here.

Lucky: That's What I Am

Last night on Facebook I changed my status to say that I'm the luckiest girl in the world. People seemed to interpret this (understandably) as a reflection of my current romantical status. That is true, but it's actually not what I had in mind when I wrote that status. I will enlighten you all now, since it is a pretty good resolution.

For my web design class we've been making websites for a client all semester. Mine was mostly together on Sunday night, and I was just going to add some things on Monday afternoon before class, when we were all going to show our websites to the class. But sometime in those hours before class the whole site kind of fell apart and it looked like garbage. So I sat there and cried to myself and emoticon cried to Drew and decided to skip class and lose 5% of my grade. I did get it all back together and nice looking after about 2 hours, but class was over. Sad. But! As it turns out the SLIS server was down just during class and no one could present and class was cancelled! And now we're just doing all the reviewing and commenting of each other's sites online! Magical! I really couldn't believe my good luck.

I have been feeling pretty lucky lately. Here are some reasons why:

• I found the entire second season of Battlestar Galactica for $35. Normally it is sold in halves for that price. SCORE.
  
• I passed the website along to my client last night and she raved about it. I do believe the phrase she used was that she "kind of loves my guts."
• I'm almost done with school for good! Less than two weeks to go.
  
• I'm going to Disneyland next month! I predict it will be the BDTE.
• I have three kinds of delicious cheese in my fridge. Gouda is so gooda.
  
• I found jeans at Kohl's that were on sale and in my size. Needless to say, I bought them.
  
• Hugh Jackman made a movie for me and it comes out next week.
  
• I came to work today and got a mini cheesecake.
  
• There are flowers everywhere!

If I were a really irritating and inexplicably popular blogger, I might say something about being seriously so blessed. Instead I will say I am the luckiest girl in the world. There are a number of things coming up in the next couple weeks that I'm really not looking forward to, but that's okay. Life is good.

2008: I Liked You

2008 is gone forever and there will never be another one, isn't that sad? I don't generally tend to be a fan of one year more than the other--they are all good for different reasons usually--but I did really enjoy 2008. 2007 was all right for the most part but 2008 had some really great things. Here a few of my favorite 2008 things/happening/stuffs (luckily 2008 included a new camera so I am not without a visual record of these lovely things):

• Adult Reader's Advisory. Still my favorite SLIS class...which maybe is not saying much, but it is my very very favorite!
  
• Sundry foods: Haagen-Dazs Fleur de Sel, Gatorade Rain lime flavor, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (aka BCE), Inn-n-Out burgers, gummi coke bottles and probably some other stuff.
  
• Travels: Chicago, Washington, Utah (twice)
  
• Summer in Bloomington. Just in general.
  
• D'CALC! The best librarian apartment that ever existed.

I also did a number of new things, and they were all fun and exciting so I'm putting them in their own special section of specialness:

• Disneyland! Oh how do I love thee... In some ways I'm jealous that I never went as a kid, but I also wouldn't trade my maiden voyage for anything. I'm still hoping they'll have a librarian job at the Beast's Library in May...
• Las Vegas. OK, so I never actually got out of the car, but I saw the city from the ground and that is the closest I have ever been. Maybe next time I go down that way I can stop for the loo at Caesar's Palace.
  
• IKEA. What was my favorite part? Probably seeing those wooden drawing figures available in a variety of bright hues.
  
• I got to introduce the Boyfriend to my parents which was...not a big deal at all as it turns out.
  

Other runnerups (runners up?) for interesting events: turning down a co-worker (sorry, Nemesis), dying my hair red, nightswimming with a frog, the museum in Ohio, a crazy awesome first half of season 4 of Battlestar Galactica and some other stuff I can't remember. Anyway, 2009 is looking full of nice things as well. Since I like lists, let's look at a list of things I'm looking forward to, in rough chronological order:

• Spring.
  
• Spring Break! (Disclaimer: ! is not an accurate indicator of the level of excitement.)
• Graduation foreverty ever from school
• Moving to Utah, where I never planned to live again
• Disneyland! Again!
• Getting a job? Maybe? Making real money? So I can start paying those loans back.
• Spring Break! (Disclaimer: Multiple listings do not accurately indicate level of excitement.)

So until one of those things happens, I will try in vain to enjoy winter and salivate over pictures of Disneyland. What, illustrious readers, are some things you look forward to in 2009?

A Brief Summery

I bet you're all thinking that I'm such a dingdong because I wrote "summery." But what you don't know is that this is my report on summer! See what I did there? Oh ho ho! Tricky me.

It's September now. That means school, jackets, leaves falling, real shoes and apples. It also means that, once again, summer is over. It's always a sad thing to see summer go because lots of wonderful things happen in summer and only summer--although, isn't that true of all the seasons? I had a lot of fun this summer. Here are some of my favorite summery things that I did:

• Went to Disneyland for the first time
• Went to In-N-Out Burger for the first time (on the way to Disneyland!)
• Went through Las Vegas for the first time (on the way to Disneyland!)
  
• Ate lots of barbecued tastiness
• Ate tomatoes right off the vine
• Went nightswimming--with a frog!
  
• Played MarioKart on the Wii
• Bought a car (maybe one day I will be able to register it too)
• Went to Utah
• Set off and watched fireworks
  
• Watched a movie in the park
• Saw blockbuster movies
• Caught fireflies
• Went outside in a thunderstorm
• Listened to the bugs at night
• Stayed up too late
• Read books outside
  

Of course, some of these things will still be possible in the lovely season that is autumn, but some things, like barbecues, aren't the same in chillier weather. Luckily every season has its own attractions so now I'm looking forward to fall things such as:

• Apple cider. Or as I like to call it: "nectar of the gods"
• Sweaters! Boots! Jackets!
• Colorful leaves, and walking through them on the sidewalk
• All the colors of fall: brown, red, gold, dark green
• Halloween!
  
• Going back to Hogwar--wait...

OK, I promise the next time I blog I will actually write something instead of making a list. Have I mentioned that I like lists? Maybe I should have added that to my 100 things list...

Year of a Million Souvenirs

I went to Disneyland a week ago, and I was planning to write a big ol' blog about it. But I'd rather watch a Disney movie so I'm just going to make a few points and post some pictures. Easier for everyone, right?

Favorite ride: Indiana Jones, followed by Pirates...and Splash Mountain. And Space Mountain. And Tower of Terror. ANYWAY. Indiana Jones was a blast.

Least favorite ride: what?

Tastiest food: I actually hardly ate anything the whole time I was there, but I did enjoy some turkey leg (mmm). The Dole pineapple whip was also very delectable. I also really liked the Starbursts I put in my bag.

Favorite souvenir: I only bought one, a Pirates hoodie. It was inevitable, but a Nightmare shirt almost won out. Actually, all of my souvenirs are my favorites--I also got a "1st visit" pin and my lovely sister-in-law traded a pin of hers to get me a neato Davy Jones pin.

A few of my favorite things:
--the first Jack Sparrow on Pirates.
--the "how do you do" song from Splash Mountain, although I prefer my version of "mighty fine shootin'" to "mighty fine greetin'".
--seeing a real live Ariel. There's some thrilling about seeing an animated character in real life. You know?

This all makes me sound like I was a total Pirates spaz at Disneyland, and, well, I was but I loved everything. I squealed about the castle, I got starry eyed in the princess store, I was enthralled by the videos at Off the Page and I seriously loved that Splash mountain song. So, just for the record, my Disney love goes well beyond Pirates territory. OK, picture time!

Pretty!

This isn't the Jack I mentioned, but it was the only one I could take a picture of. Yes, that is my hand, and no, I did not swoon. Giggle? Perhaps.

You know how on What Not to Wear they talk about flared jeans making your legs look stumpy? Um. They do.

Look! Princesses! I never saw Belle, which was too bad, but...princesses!

I was waiting for a rendezvous at Autopia and liked the palm trees.

This is one of my favorites, and sadly it came out a bit blurry.

Did I mention that I like the castle?

So, final thoughts: I want to go again. Very soon. But I want to go in the fall next time so I can see the Haunted Mansion all decked out Nightmare style. I also want to go on a weekend so I can see Fantasmic. And of course I want to go again so I can do all the things I missed and do all the things I liked all over again. Disneyland? Fall? Anyone?