listening after dark

Library moments

Two weeks into my grad school experience, and I'm not quite adjusted. I would rather knit than read about bibliographic objectives, and sometimes I do.

However, working in a library gives me the all-important context for these theoretical concepts. My job is so enjoyable, so varied and, sometimes, so challenging that I know it will be worth it.

This is why I have faith that the dry, jargon-laden information science textbooks may actually have something to impart:

• Discovering a book that smells precisely like clean linens dried in the sun.
• Retaining my patience while trying to read synonyms for "old" to a half-deaf man over the phone. He liked "antique" but not "geriatric."
• Feeling a rush of satisfaction after finding, in just a few moments, the name of the author who writes, as the patron phrased it, "Swedish crime novels." Thank you, Amazon.
• Hearing that a little boy who lost his mom told my co-worker that his name was "Bitchin." He repeated it three times. (It was actually Benton).

Happiness...

I've been reading The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. He travels to assorted countries to see how happy their inhabitants are. Today I read, in the chapter on Qatar:

"So the greatest source of happiness is other people—and what does money do? It isolates us from other people. It enables us to build walls, literal and figurative, around ourselves. We move from a teeming college dorm to an apartment to a house and, if we're really wealthy, to an estate. We think we're moving up, but really we're walling off ourselves."

I find this interesting, considering I live alone and love my space, my separation. But I do enjoy people. Also, I wonder, is happiness the greatest achievement? Maybe I'll find out by the end of the book.

Anyway, I do find that connections with others improve my mood. Feeling useful at the library, helping people do simple things like find a book or use the computer, makes my day better. Making a co-worker laugh, sometimes at my expense, helps too.

Other people-connecting: I've recently had good phone conversations with a couple of close, faraway friends. This afternoon I went to a surprise baby shower for a friend, complete with scones, finger sandwiches and PG Tips. And non-annoying games. On the way home, I stopped at a liquor store where they were having a wine tasting. They had a fantastic syrah...it had been too long since I had one of those.

Late this afternoon, I carried my $15 Wal-Mart float tube (complete with handles, cupholders and a headrest) along the river for about a mile, then drifted back toward the man-made rapids. Altogether: perfect weather, cool water, very lazy thoughts. The toenail I smashed on Tuesday got clean enough so I could see what was going on—and sterilize it, then glue it back together.

This evening, I baked a cake and listened to some favorite music:

• "Rave On" by M. Ward
• "Ordinary" by Late Tuesday
• Louis Armstrong, Bon Iver, Jimi Hendrix and Deb Talan

I've been looking through photos from the last couple of weeks: Seattle with the family, then Kai and Branden's wedding in Hawaii. I love candid shots. I think they show more about the situation and the personality than posed portraits. I'll be posting a lot of photos in the coming days, in these two albums:
Seattle Weekend 2009
Kai and Branden: Hawaii Wedding

Rainy night, rummaging through old poems

From 2005:

When you are this happy, you tell yourself God must be
upset by your bliss. Something must not be right.
He's waiting, piss-poor and grouchy,
holding a staff, stroking his beard.
He loves you, dammit.

Wild, wet, wooly

Wild: The weekend with Leah was a fun and eventful one. In brief, we scaled rocky precipices, observed an antique car parade, contemplated attending the sock hop (but $15 was too steep to dance on concrete—no thanks), forded rivers (with some complications), ate a good deal of raw fish, enjoyed ice cream and pizza, took scads of photos (some of which we will share) and played disc golf in the wind and rain.

Wet: Yes, rain. It's been a very Washington weekend, and I blame Leah. It's been wetter, calmer and more humid than it usually is, so she is now under the impression that Casper's climate has something in common with Seattle's. Interestingly, when my brother visited Casper from Seattle/Montreal two summers ago, it was also very rainy. But green follows rain, therefore I suppose it's OK with me. Plus I don't have to water my flowerbed tonight. And I may even see some seedlings emerge soon.

Wooly: After spending about an hour sorting through my digital music and deleting a good deal of songs (at least 2 gigs, I think), I updated my iPod and pressed play. There followed: "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," "Comptine D'Un Autre: L'Apres Midi" and "Wooly Bully." Unique memories are associated with each of those songs. The first I listened to on a hot summer day, probably in 2004, while driving from Walla Walla to the Snake River and Palouse Falls. The second is from Amélie, but it also reminds me of a hostel in Montreal, where someone was playing the soundtrack in the common kitchen/dining area, when I was there during a very rainy week in October 2005. The third song was played an interminable number of times by my dance teacher at Whitworth, January 2003, when I took ballroom dancing. We learned the triple-step swing to that song. Over and over and over.

A sample of Wyoming's greening (compared to the same view in March):

Rain! Spring is slow. One down, one to go.

This morning it is raining, a light rain in cool, bird-songed air.

We've had one or two nice weeks this spring, but for a while now it's been cloudy and cool, with snow and rain. Yet things continue to bloom. I have two basil sprouts in the pots on my radiator. I hope the lavender will make an appearance soon. Maybe by the end of the month I'll be able to sow my flower seeds in the back yard. Just a little color this summer would be nice, instead of weeds and dirt.

Friday I found out I've been accepted into the University of Alabama's library science master's program. I have until May 15 to respond. This program is entirely online, except for a four-day orientation in August. The other program I applied for, through Emporia State University in Kansas, is a distance-learning course with one weekend a month in Salt Lake, but everything else is online. I haven't heard from them yet, but that program doesn't start until next January. The Alabama program is cheaper (yeah, not the most important factor, but a good point for me) and is apparently well respected by the ALA, according to a co-worker who has looked into the same program. I could check another state off my travel list, anyway. I think I'm leaning toward Alabama, because I could live anywhere and still be working on my master's.

Well, three weeks so far at the library, and tomorrow I move upstairs to really begin my training at the reference desk. I have worksheets and homework to do. I'm glad they've been so thoughtful in detailing my training. I like to know what is expected of me and to have some clear schedules.

Just three weeks until Leah's visit! I'm certain the weather will be much nicer by then. Even if it's not, we'll still have fun. We're very skilled at that.

Snippets

• Five days in Washington reminded me how much I enjoy fog and dislike wind. Lots of family time, pie, games, later nights than usual, time with old friends (and a new baby!). Good flights, The Office, even some knitting.

• Now it's 18 degrees and we've had rain, thunder, hail and snow since yesterday afternoon. I wore my happy silk long underwear for the first time this winter.

• I'm really thinking I might do this library science master's thing. So far the Kansas-based Emporia program in Salt Lake is looking most promising. I had a good conversation with one of the public reference librarians, who actually went to Emporia in Kansas. Her job sounds pretty cool: helping people, ordering books, planning events. So now the GREs. I always did enjoy tests requiring the precise shading of tiny boxes.

• I spent the evening with the youth at church, so I'm kind of hyper and tired at once. It's my usual Wednesday sensation.

• I'm reading and/or listening to three books right now, all having to do partly or mostly with the West from various angles.
  - Three Cups of Tea
  - Little House on the Prairie
  - Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs
It's a huge place, this West. And not very populated. And difficult to categorize. With which states, for example, do you lump Wyoming or Utah? "Mountain West" seems most appropriate. But New Mexico? Idaho? South Dakota? How about "Those Big Square States in the Middle"?

Split view

Just down the block from my apartment, where I walk every day. Early October (left) and mid-October.

Balloons, marshmallows, fishies

It's been a fun—and too-fast—summer. I don't know if I'll ever get used to working during the summer. It just doesn't seem right. (At least at present we're having "office Olympics," which makes things a little more festive.) Perhaps this feeling of being cheated out of a long vacation comes from my homeschooling years, when summer meant no homework (instead of very little), camping trips and fun with the family. But I've been having fun this summer, too.

About the photos, from left to right:
• A couple of weekends ago, I got up at 6 a.m. to watch the balloons take off for the annual balloon festival. Little did I know that last year I could have been in one of them. Because he was writing an article about the festival, Wes was offered a free ride but declined, as he didn't want to go and I was out of town. Of course the offer was no good this year. Dangit.

• Marshmallows toast much better with a telescoping, twirlable roasting stick. Wes gave it to me a couple of years ago, and I finally remembered to pack it. Best marshmallows ever!

• We went backpacking last weekend in the Big Horn Mountains. After 4 miles uphill, a touch of hail, digging a fire pit and a bottle and a half of wine, we were a wee bit tired.

• Willow Lake was lovely the next morning, and I caught tons of fish! (At least 10. With three times as many hits that got away.) My fish story: I've been learning to fly fish for, oh, two years now. I had previously only caught one fish on my own, last summer in southern Wyoming. I was getting a little bored with it, frankly, and told Wes as much on the drive to the trailhead. However, after several hours of fishing Willow Lake, I wasn't bored at all. In fact, he was ready to go before I was. And that's a first.

• Here's one of my fishies. They were rather attractive graylings with cool fins on the top of their bodies. You can barely see it here. After never unhooking a fish or tying on my own fly, I managed to accomplish both tasks with minimal trauma—to myself or the fishies.

More pain, or, I like rock climbing

Last night's (second) class was great. We had a few minutes of terms and then were set loose to climb. It was basically like what I imagine a school playground might have been, had I attended school and therefore experienced a school playground. We climbed around, helped each other, showed off, complained about sore arms, squinched toes—basically, we played.

I'm probably the oldest person in the class, which is a strange thing. All the others seem to be barely out of high school. One of the guys who was belaying me just turned 18. Which means he was born in 1990. !! That makes me feel old.

After biking home into the (20ish mph) wind last night, I was unbelievably tired and could hardly lift my arms, but today I feel better than expected. The weirdest things are hard, though, like dressing myself. Putting on pants especially. But I'm already looking forward to the next class on Monday, when the soreness is gone and the climbing will be just slightly easier. Maybe I'll even be able to grasp that one hold I couldn't quite reach...

The long wait is over

I survived the winter. Spring is come. The lilacs are in full bloom (I keep stealing little sprigs from alley bushes). It has been raining like Washington. I don't think Wyoming is usually this green.

Finally had a holiday from work—my first day off since Presidents' Day in February (and that day was spent house sitting with an enormous Great Dane puppy who tried to eat one of my shoes—because I wasn't family, I think). Now I have many summer things to look forward to: vacation to Montreal in a month, rock climbing classes starting in June, hanging out with some new friends (really, it's true), camping, hiking, fishing.

My great discovery of the weekend was made while going through some cabinets looking for things to give away or toss out. It's spring and I must declutter. If only a little. My first digital camera, the one I got as a Christmas gift at my first job, stopped working sometime in 2006. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out, and good thing. I put in some fresh batteries and it works just dandy. Now I can carry it with me again for those small moments when I feel the need to document something.

Sunday I went hiking for a couple of hours with a new friend (also Wes's co-worker; he's been trying to arrange a play date for us for some time). It was a perfect hiking day. Monday it rained nonstop and I made green chile chicken enchiladas, knitted and watched movies.

I've been reading a lot lately. Maisie Dobbs is my latest enjoyment, thanks to my friend Stephanie. I like the mixture of history, mystery, fiction and English geography.

It's also a good time for new music. Of course, my favorite is The Weepies' new album, Hideaway (only $7.99 from Amazon). They've also posted a "making of Hideaway" video on YouTube.

And, dangerously, I listened to lots of World Café this weekend. I always discover new musicians, which can lead down a path to more and more newly essential music. Much like browsing CD Baby. It's a path that should not be tread upon lightly. A couple of stand-out songs: "Asking for Flowers" by Kathleen Edwards; "Army Dreamers" by Kate Bush.

Oh, and I might be famous now. If not now, then maybe around 10 p.m. MDT. I happened to be wandering downtown at lunchtime today and was accosted interviewed by a reporter from one of the local news stations. He asked me some questions about Casper: what I like, what could be improved. You want to know what I said, don't you? Well, if I show up on the 10 p.m. newscast, it will also be online. Next to my all-too-brief childhood appearance on the TV news in Spokane as a patient at the dental school, this could be my big break.