I went to the mall today*, primarily to pay off my dress**, but of course I wandered around for at least two hours going into stores, leaving, going back, walking back and forth as is my custom. I really like the mall. I think this is partly because during most of my growing up years the mall was a few hours away, and I only had Wal-Mart and JC Penney during the inbetween times. Whatever it is, I still really like the mall and it's always a little bit exciting to go. But today I decided there are a few things that I don't really like, and even though these things can happen at other store-type places, I encounter them mostly at the mall. Let's review.
- Interested employees. I can appreciate employees when they ring me up or when they organize things in a pleasing fashion, but mostly I want them to leave me be. The worst place this can happen is at the underwear store. Is it just me or is it a little uncomfortable to have a stranger hovering about when you are rifling through the clearance underwears?
- The pushy booth workers. There's nothing better than someone just sitting at their kiosk reading a book and completely ignoring me. I don't want a new cell phone plan and I don't care about having fingernails with the sheen of a newly waxed floor. On the other hand, the Hickory Farms people may stop me as often as they please because I'm always in need of beef stick and smoked cheese.
I guess there wasn't much of a point for this blog. Just a few random things that caused me minor vexation for a few minutes. I still like the mall.
*I started this blog on Monday and finished it on Tuesday, so technically I should say yesterday.
** I would love to post pictures of the ensemble, but a certain Intended frequents this blog so you will have to wait until after August 15th.
School days, that is. At approximately 2:45 AM today I finished my last assignment.* Last week my last class was scheduled for Friday afternoon, and it was going to be with my favorite SLIS professor. My very first class was with him so it seemed like such a lovely way to bookend my graduate experience. I was guaranteed to have a great last class with doodling, funny things from M. and probably some good librarianish information to boot. But it was not to be! On Thursday afternoon he sent an e-mail that said he was cancelling class for health reasons.
So instead of my last lovely class with M., my Tuesday class became my last class and I had spent that class Facebooking and not paying attention to presentations. That was my last academic experience? Not a note taken? Not a single doodle drawn? All I have to show for it is a few photo comments on Facebook and chat records. Sad. I feel a little incomplete about it still. Where's my closure? I guess I will get that on Saturday afternoon when I get to wear my $80 rented robes and get a yellow (yellow! *grumble*) tassel. I'm sure I'll blog again about the conclusion to my long affair with the academic world when I have pictures of myself as an official librarian, but it seemed like I should mark these occasions too. Well, as Norrington would say, consider them marked.
*My emotions on that project are a little mixed...I'm glad it's done and I'm relieved that I don't have to act like I care about it anymore. I'm also a little peeved at myself not realizing part of it was supposed to be done and turned in a few weeks ago...d'oh!.** A few years ago I think I would have cried when I figured that out, but I seem to have matured. Or something.
** In my defense, this date was not on the syllabus or anywhere else, except a form that I didn't even need to fill out or anything.
I've been doing my reading for class this morning and here are the opening sentences of two of my articles:
"Bronzed skin over rippling muscles, the gleam of oil smoothed over strong bodies...got your attention? Well, it's time to continue wrestling with the search process. Back to the mats!"*
and
"The information needs and information-seeking behavior of social scientists have been the focus of inquiry within library and information science (LIS) research for decades. Folster reviewed the major studies that have been conducted in this area over the past three decades. She found that research methods had developed through several stages."**
I can't decide which is worse.
*"Inside a Searcher's Mind: the Seven Stages of an Online Search" by Barbara Quint
**Information Seeking in Academic Research: a Study of the Sociology Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison" by Yi Shen
Sometimes during the school year I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to get sick, and not feel obligated to do anything productive for three days?" But then when I do get sick I remember how boring, frustrating and vexing being sick really is. Being able to watch four hours of The Office is not so much consolation when it feels like your body has turned against you. I will say that the most I have ever enjoyed being sick was two summers ago when I had a stomach bug and I spent two days rewatching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. Maybe that was because I got out of French class for those two days, but the world may never know for sure. Either way, as I lay here with my Kleenex, medicine, and one of the cats, I am thinking very fondly of those stomach flu days.
Since the theme for today is laying in bed with only Vera (ie, pink laptop) to entertain me, now would seem to be an appropriate time to introduce one of the best friends you could ever find on the Internet:
The Office! Firefly! Chuck! Ghostbusters! The Fifth Element! Buffy the Vampire Slayer! It's all there, it's all legal, and it's all brought to you with limited commercial interruptions! As an added bonus, I checked today and now you can watch all of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! Awesome!
And on a final note, I just watched the new teaser for Half-Blood Prince and it was so great that I'll have to make a separate blog just about that. Sweet!
