Librarians · Do · It · By · the · Book

January:
Dinos at Denver Museum of Nature and Science; Hiking @ Flatirons Vista; Started full-time at Aurora; Pueblo trip/interview; Florissant Fossil Beds; Aunt Margaret died; ALA-Midwinter.

February:
Brainamania

March:
Hiking @ Four-Mile Creek/Old Kiln Trail; 10-mile hike @ Hall's Ranch; trip to Arkansas without John.

April:
My birthday at Mataam Fez; Starfest with Brent Spiner and Robert Picardo; I started playing D&D; Golden interview; Hiking @ Wunderland Lake; Japanese-tea-garden-themed birthday lunch.

May:
John got IPM job; Denver Botanic Gardens free day/plant sale/dinosaurs; Spamalot; we found an apartment; Boulder Creek Festival in the rain.

June:
Moved into apartment; breakfasted at Chataqua; Renaissance Festival

July:
4th of July with friends and games; Hiking @ Gossock Ridge; Ren Fest part II; I chopped off my hair; Scott and Jenn's wedding; PLACE test.

August:
John's birthday at Jewel of India and the Denver Zoo; John's Mexican-themed birthday lunch; I got horribly, horribly sick.

September:
Got a cat, named her Hermione; my parents visited, we went to the US Mint and the Georgetown Loop; went to see the aspens a few weeks too early; Denver Botanic Gardens Japanese Tea Ceremony.

October:
Started Welsh class; MTG tournament.

November:
4A failed in Aurora, assuring the demise of my job; fall party with friends, food, games; Ft. Lupton interview; Thanksgiving in Colorado.

December:
A Christmas Carol at the Denver Center; Westminster lighting ceremony; Welsh Christmas Tea; Danielle's wedding; Boulder interview; Christmas in Arkansas; my last day at work.

Dear David Zinczenko,

I'm tired of how, in every one of your articles, you find a way to bash vegetarian sandwiches. For some of us, it's the only fast food option. Let me point out the things that upset me about your including Blimpie's veggie sandwiches on your list:

1. You always list the foot-longs. Of course eating a foot of a sandwich is going to be more fattening than a 6-inch, which is what most people order!

2. I don't think that most people assume that a veggie sandwich is going to be good for you. Nothing that's loaded with cheese and dressing is. You never mention that people can choose what to put on their sandwiches at Blimpies...there is always the option to have veggies only, no condiments.

3. Having said that, a veggie sandwich is RELATIVELY more healthful than a meat sandwich. A meat sandwich may have all the same cheese and condiments anyway. Haven't you heard that meat is generally bad for humans? About all the cancer and disease it causes? I won't even get into the environmental impact of meat and factory farming, because that's another issue entirely. But it's equally un-healthful.

4. Only a complete moron thinks that eating at fast food places could possibly be healthful, anyway.

5. And what makes you an expert on nutrition?! So you can add. You can say that one sandwich has more calories than another. Big deal! I could've written that book myself, and I'm obviously more eloquent than you.

6. An unrelated side note: foods are "healthful," not "healthy." People are healthy. Get your grammar straight, you idiot.

I hate your articles, and your book is stupid too. Just because a Whopper has fewer calories than a Big Mac, it does not make either one good for you! You're just giving the wrong ideas to stupid people.

Oh, and your "vegetarian hippo" comment was WAY out of line, jerk.

NOT a fan,
Whitney

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/32165/the-most-shocking-quothealthyquot-foods-and-what-you-should-eat-instead/

The past month or so, I've had a recurrence of strange migraines. They're not the normal kind. They don't make my head throb or pound. They're focused right behind my eyes. Do you know that feeling of staring straight into the sun, and having to shut your eyes because of the glare? And there's a kind of burning sensation in your eyes? That's what I have, only without the sun. It usually happens at night when I go to bed. Sometimes they come right as I lay down; sometimes in that case I can make them go away by pressing my fingers against my eyes. Not a good idea, I know, but it does help. But oftentimes the pain comes back and wakes me up in the middle of the night. That's when it's the worst. It hurts so much it makes me cry. Usually the only thing I can do is take some Tylenol and wait for it to go away.

These started in the middle of college; they usually only happened every once in awhile, but for a couple of weeks it was almost every night. I went to the eye doctor about it, and she said it was probably migraines caused by stress and eye strain, although she didn't know for sure. Eventually, they went away and only came back very rarely.

Lately, though, I've had it almost every night for a month or so. They're more severe now. They last longer, even when I take Tylenol. Sometimes they even show up before I go to bed. As you can imagine, I've upped my Tylenol use. I never take more than the recommended amount, but I'm still worried that taking it every day will mess up my liver. So I started researching (something I'm surprised I didn't do long ago). Hypochondriac that I am, I latched onto one of the possibilities: Glaucoma. The pressure could definitely cause the symptoms and headaches I'm having. It could also just be eye strain or stress, two things I definitely have at work. Eye strain from looking at the computer all day, and stress from every possible source. I read that inhaling steam could help reduce the migraines if that's the case. Also possibly taking vitamin C and zinc. Still, just to make sure, I requested an eye appointment (for some reason with Kaiser you can't just make an eye appointment online, you have to request one and wait). It's time for my annual exam anyway. For the record, I always really REALLY hate the glaucoma test. I can't stand things touching my eye, even if it's numb. And a big scary machine with a little light and thingy coming straight towards my eye is terrifying to me. I always cried about it when I was a kid, and sometimes they skipped it because I made such a big fuss. Now, I don't cry (much) but my headaches do come on fiercely during the test.

So for now, I'm going to try to reduce my computer usage and relax more and not worry so much about work and other things. Maybe a yoga class on Sunday would help?

1. What’s the last card game you played, and with whom did you play?
Magic, with John.

2. What’s the last board game you played, and with whom did you play?
Scrabble, with John and my mom.

3. What’s the last computer game you played, and with whom did you play?
Does GeoChallenge on Facebook count? With myself. If not, then Guild Wars with John.

4. Of the games you listed in the first three answers, did you win any of the matches?
Yes.

5. If you could only play one single game for the rest of your life, which game would you play and why would you choose it?
Magic, because each game is different and anything can happen. Plus, it's so customizable, so it's not really like just one game.

http://www.patrickkphillips.com/category/saturday-six/page/2/

1. What’s the last movie you watched in the theater?
Either Wall-E or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (it's been a long time).

2. How much is absolutely too much to pay for seeing a movie in a theater at night?
Probably what we pay now.

3. Other than popcorn and a drink, what concession item are you most likely to buy in a movie theater?
Hot chocolate, which has only been available in one movie theater (in Rogers). Or an Icee, which I guess would count as a drink.

4. What was the last movie you watched at home?
Christmas Vacation.

5. Would you have paid to watch this film in a movie theater when it originally came out?
You mean what was the cost of a ticket when the movie came out, or what it would be worth to see it? I don't know. $4?

http://www.patrickkphillips.com/category/saturday-six/

There's an interesting little site at http://thedailymeme.com/ where I got this.

How do you sleep?

1. How long do you sleep each night?
Anywhere from 2 to 12 hours, depending.

2. Do you fall asleep easily?
No, not at all.

3. Do you fall asleep at times not in your bed?
Hardly ever, except on the couch.
4. Do you listen to music or use “white noise” to sleep?
No.

5. Do you sleep through the night or get up a couple of times?
Depends. Usually I'll wake up a few times, and sometimes I can get back to sleep.

6. Do you have trouble sleeping away from your own bed?
Yes.

7. Do you need an alarm clock to get you up?
Yes, although sometimes it still doesn't help and I end up sleeping until 4 pm.

8. Do you ever take medication to help you sleep?
No, not on purpose, although I'm always grateful when I take Tylenol at night because it makes me sleepy.

9. Do you/have you slept with pets?
Yes, cats and dogs and stuffed animals.

Now that the blur of NaNoWriMo is finally over, I can pause, catch my breath, and reflect on the holiday season. John and I have both commented on how this November hasn't seemed like November at all. We were too engrossed in writing most of the time, and that and the lack of snow or even cold weather made it seem like we were trapped in a nebulous non-month, a 13th month if you will. Even Thanksgiving at my parents' house, although fun, now seems like it came and went in a blink of the eye.

On Tuesday we hopped a plane to Tulsa, OK (because it's cheaper and easier to fly there than to XNA in Northwest Arkansas). My parents came and picked us up, and although they came to Colorado in October, it still seemed like a very long time since we'd seen them. I missed them a lot. Afterwards we went to my cousin Andy's house. My aunt Mary was there, and it was great to see her. She's moving from Waco, TX to Tulsa this winter, and we got to go see her new house. At Andy's house, we saw him, his wife Jackie, their two kids and niece, and their extremely wide pug Priscilla. She was very sweet and very fat, and seeing her made me miss Lily. We got home late that night and didn't do much else.

On Wednesday, after pizza for lunch, John and I took my mom's car to do a little last minute Christmas shopping. We had to make a stop at Vintage Stock first, of course, where we drooled over the Magic cards and comic books and every kind of video game cartridge. We then went to Best Buy and Barnes and Noble to buy my parents a few more presents, then went home. It was a really nice day, and I wished that we'd been able to take a walk. I bet there wouldn't have been any ticks in November. (We had a ghastly adventure with ticks there in the summer.) That night we watched Garfield's Thanksgiving, and I fell asleep on Garfield's Christmas.

Thursday was, of course, the big day. I love the quote from Garfield's Thanksgiving: "Thanksgiving is the day you celebrate having food by eating as much of it as possible." We got up around 9 am to watch Macy's parade. I realized that when I was a kid, I was able to recognize all or most of the stars and performers on the floats. But the last few years, they'd announce some now-famous singer and I'd be like "Who the heck is that?" It made me feel really old. But the parade and the balloons were still good. My favorite float is always the Sesame Street float. It brings back great childhood memories. We ate lunch before the parade was even over. The meal consisted of: turkey and tofurkey, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, potato cranberry dumplings, gravy, two kinds of stuffing, crescent rolls, pumpkin pie and chocolate pie. We continued to eat massive amounts of this same food for the rest of the trip. Then we watched the rest of the parade and I squealed like a little kid upon seeing Santa Claus. After that John and I took a long nap, and I'm sure my parents conked out for awhile too.

Then we had our early "Christmas." We had all decided that it would be too much trouble and too expensive to mail all our presents to each other, so we opened them all early. So, on Thanksgiving afternoon, we had a second holiday. My parents got us way too much stuff, but we're incredibly grateful anyway. John got a hard drive for his XBox 360 and a couple of games. I got two seasons of Buffy, three seasons of Scrubs, a book, a couple of games for XBox and DS, and a few graphic novels. Plus, of course, the goodies in our stockings, including the traditional LifeSavers Sweet Storybooks. That night we drove to Fayetteville to see the Lights of the Ozarks in the square. They were pretty, but extremely bright. We took Daisy, my parents' chihuahua puppy, and she barked at the horses pulling the carriages. There were Christmas carols playing in the background. Later that night at home John, my mom and I played Disney trivia (John won) and Scrabble (I won).

Friday, we skipped the early morning Black Friday insanity, although we did go out later in the day. My mom wanted to get presents for her angel tree kid. We chose a one-year-old, and bought him clothes and toys. My mom also bought me pajamas, socks and a new coat (thank you, mom). The mall was CRAZY busy, and I'll never understand why people think it's FUN to get up at 3 am to be at a 5 am sale. Some poor worker at a Wal-Mart in New York actually got killed this year; he was trampled to death by greedy shoppers. Ugh. That is one thing about the holidays that's seriously messed up. At least we braved the crowds for a good cause.

Then we met my dad at Olive Garden and ended up eating too much food yet again. At least it wasn't leftovers. That night my friend Dianna came over to talk, and we caught up a bit. At midnight, John and I realized that we wouldn't get much sleep anyway, and it would be very hard to wake up, so we just decided to stay up. (Our flight was at 7:30 am, so we had to leave at 5 am to drive to Tulsa). This was good and bad. Good, because I got some more writing done, and getting ready to leave was easy. Bad, because by the time we drove to Tulsa, flew to Kansas city for a layover, for some reason ate at an airport Mexican restaurant, flew to Denver, and rode home with John's dad, we had been up for 26 hours and I was about to keel over. Seriously; I noticed that when walking up the steps at John's house, I swayed a little bit. But we fell into bed, which felt gloriously good, and I slept for 9 hours. This didn't prevent me from going to bed later last night and sleeping for another 8 hours.

And now, back in Colorado, there are even more leftovers. Which is very bad. There are at least 5 different kinds of pie still left, although the other foods are waning. I gained some weight after the holidays last year, and I'm going to try hard to prevent that this year, although I fear it may already be too late. I also finished and won NaNoWriMo this evening, as you've already read, and now I'm happy and exhausted and relieved. Also, it's been snowing here. Finally!

My first NaNoWriMo, and I won!



It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. If I had been able to write just the minimum word count every day (around 1666), it would have been smooth sailing. But we went home to Arkansas for about 5 days for Thanksgiving, and it was harder to write at home. John and I still managed (he's doing his second year of NaNo). And today, I wrote my last 2,000 words, all before 6:00 pm! John's still working, but I have no doubt that he'll join me in winnersland soon. I am so proud of myself! Even though my novel is complete drivel (and badly written drivel at that), it doesn't matter. That wasn't the point of this exercise. The point is, I proved to myself that it IS possible to write steadily every day. Maybe next time I'll work on quality!

I am a NaNo VIKING!

So, I knitted a few scarves and hats for Christmas. Most of them turned out well, so I decided to ply my trade online! I made a seller's account on Etsy, and listed a single item: a peach scarf. Hopefully there will be more for sale in the future, but in the meantime, check out my page and spread the word!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5585243

So, 2007! What was it like? I'm going to attempt to recount my experiences of the year, month by month. This might prove difficult for me, as I can barely remember what happened last week. And, sorry if these things seem superficial (the necklace and all), but if that's the case I honestly can't remember anything else about that month.

January: Rang in the new year with John, who had come to AR for the holidays despite the raging blizzard in CO that almost kept him away.

February: John sent me an amethyst necklace for Valentine's Day. I sent him a giant fortune cookie.

March: It was...windy? Oh, and John came for Spring Break.

April: My birthday.

May: Went to Colorado for John's graduation.

June/July: Struggled through summer class, in which the work was piled on.

August: Went to Colorado yet again for John's birthday, got a job, and made plans for the big move.

September: Moved in with John and his folks in Colorado. Started my new job at the Aurora library as an assistant.

October: Went home briefly for Comps. Passed Comps, though I didn't know it at the time. The rest of the month was spent in preparation for Halloween, and it turned out to be the most spectacular one yet.

November: Cut my hair. Missed my parents during Thanksgiving.

December: Got engaged! My parents came for a few days mid-month. Aced my last class in grad school. Had an awesome Christmas!

So, you see, most of my year has revolved around my boyf...ahem, my fiancee. But who could blame me? He was the best part of my year; he's the best part of every year we've been together. Here's to you love, a great 2008, and the years to come.

Visit my idyllic, lush village in the English countryside:

http://whitshire.myminicity.com/

Every visit increases my population!

Also, if you're a nerdfighter, join:

http://nerdfighters.ning.com/

http://www.2decide.com/table.htm

Although he doesn't have a chance, it seems Kucinich's beliefs are still the closest to my own. I'm sad that Clinton's pro-death penalty (if this chart is entirely accurate).

Sigh. Well, no one's perfect. She's still getting my vote.

I feel like I should update this blog. I don't know why, because John is really the only person who reads my posts, and even that is pointless now that we live together and already know every intimate detail of each other's lives. So, this is for all you who have been starved of my witty and brilliant dialogue as of lately and are dying for an update. (I'm also writing this when I really should be writing in my physical journal instead.)

Two major holidays have come and gone. Halloween was fantastic, the best Halloween ever. John and I dressed up as Link and Zelda from the video games. I invested a lot of money in my costume, and John a lot of effort and creativity (as well as money) into his. But it was worth it. We had the best costumes at the party we went to, where his friends in The Bluebird Equation played. We were gypped in the costume contest, but everyone seemed to admire us anyway. Halloween night was good too; John and I wandered around the neighborhood after dark in our costumes, critiquing the other decorations. Our pumpkins totally trumped everyone else's. They were made of awesome.

November has passed in a blur...shortly after Halloween I chopped my hair off (I waited, because Princess Zelda can't have short hair). It was shorter than I'd imagined but I've gotten used to it. The first half of November was warm, and one day John and I hiked in El Dorado Canyon, forging the stream and gawking at the insane mountain climbers. The rest of the month John has spent sequestered in front of his computer, working on Nanowrimo. (For those who don't know, that's short for National Novel Writing Month, a sort of writing exercise that's a self-contest to write an entire novel during November.) John's done really well so far, and I'm proud of him for making himself write every single day. Not only that, but his novel is also well-written. Yey for John! I want to be a writer too, and if I have the commitment and time next year I'll join him.

And Thanksgiving. Once again we had enough food to feed a small, third-world country. We had an additional guest this year, Clint's girlfriend, but there was still more food than the 9 of us could handle. Turkey, tofurkey, dressing, twice-baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, apple-cranberry potato dumplings, three kinds of gravy, noodles, fried okra, cranberry sauce, cabbage crunch salad, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, mince-meat pie. In addition to the meringue cookies, breakfast burritos, and gingerbread we had for breakfast. And the relish tray and layer dip and chips we had in between. Good gosh. Surprisingly, there aren't many leftovers left. It's always so sad when the leftovers run out. Speaking of sad, I've been homesick a lot in recent days. I feel fine at the moment, but this will be a difficult holiday season, spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas without my parents. They're driving here to see me the middle of December, but only for a few days. I couldn't stand it if not for my John to comfort me.

And now it's Christmas season. I've been knitting a lot, mostly presents for people. I'm still no expert, but I'm making scarves for both my parents. This is a good idea for them, as they always say they want nothing for Christmas. They may not wear them, but I am putting a lot of effort into them, and they'll appreciate that. Ironically, it felt more like Christmas on Thanksgiving than it does now, as it was snowing then and Santa Claus was on television. Now it seems weird that there's still a week left in November. I propose that December should start the week after Thanksgiving every year, to save confusion.

Oh yeah, school. Almost done. About to graduate. Working on website for class, blah blah blah. School is too exhausting to spend time writing about. Work, the same. Work is mostly good, 2-3 days a week, 5 awesome days a week off. Might possibly get reference job at same library. (You'll notice that as my post gets longer, I get less witty and articulate.)

P.S. As a sweet surprise, John bought us Blue Man Group tickets! We're going to see them Sunday. Report on that later.

8 days to go.

Things I'm Doing Instead of Studying for Comps, Part I:

1. Cleaning the kitchen
2. Writing this entry
3. Untangling a giant ball of yarn
4. Finding places for all my bouncy balls
5. Playing Pokemon Red Version
6. Looking for chihuahua clothes on the Internet

So, consider that last post null and void. I'm still moving to Colorado, however John and I will not be getting an apartment. How will we live, you ask? Simple, by moving in with his parents and putting off being adults a little bit longer. See, the day after I wrote the last post, I was still uncertain about the move, but in the end I decided that it was time to get out of Arkansas and get on with the rest of my life. Oddly enough, though, my original doubts had an effect on John, and by the following night we were taking opposite stances. With John uncertain as well my confidence faltered and we came to an impasse: we didn't know what to do. Not even after four phone calls and time to think. Finally, John came up with a compromise: I could move in with his parents (he already lives there). It was a long shot, and I was afraid my own parents wouldn't go for it, but it all worked out in the end. I'm going to pay his parents rent, and my mom stipulated that I was to do all my own laundry and dishes and pay for my own food as well. That's cool with me. (Don't tell my parents, but it's always easier to do these things at someone else's house.) This way, we'll still be able to save some money, and by the end of the year I'll have graduated and hopefully we'll both have better jobs.

I'm very happy with this arrangement. Living at John's house will feel like an extended vacation, even if I have work and school at the same time. I'll be away from my parents but I won't get as homesick because I'll still have the support of his; that will ease the transition. As John put it, we'll get to be kids a little while longer.

My last day of work will be Monday, September 3rd. John will be flying here on the 4th, and we'll both drive to Colorado on the 5th. That's only 11 more days from now!

(Oh, and everyone knows that "Happy Medium" is not only a cliche, but a reference to A Wrinkle In Time, right? The Happy Medium was the jovial woman with the crystal ball who didn't wish to look at anything unpleasant.)

Am I doing the right thing?



It's official: I am moving to Colorado. I interviewed for a library assistant job last week in Aurora, and the next day they hired me. It's only 20 hours, but it's $3.70 more an hour than I make now. Then, yesterday, John and I found an apartment. The rent is a little more than we'd hoped, but it's the biggest apartment we saw and it seemed pretty nice.



Then today I was looking at apartments.com and found that of the 14 reviews of this apartment, only 3 are positive. There were complaints about the management, maintenance, and cars being broken into. Now I'm worried about a slew of things including that, plus the fact that while John works at the theater, many nights I'll be alone in the apartment until the early hours of the morning.



My mom told me she wishes I could finish school before I moved. Then I could have a better job and we could afford a better place. I have to admit that I've thought about that occasionally. It would also be nice not to have to worry about school on top of the stress of moving. I'd be safe and taken care of at home for a few more months...but then I'd also be apart from John longer, my sole reason for moving. Then again, we've been apart so long, what's a few more months? But my heart couldn't take it. But my heart is afraid of leaving my parents too! My mom cried today and asked why I had to move so far away. As a result of that and other scary thoughts I've cried a lot tonight too. In fact I'm crying right now. I'm so scared and confused! I love John, but I love my parents! As much as I complain about them I love them as much as any kid can love their parents. They take care of me and would do anything for me, and do. I have to break free sometime, but Colorado is a long way away from Arkansas. Of course I want to be with John; of course I want to be away from Arkansas. But why do I have to be away from my parents? I couldn't even move to Oklahoma without being so homesick that it caused me to be physically sick and have to move back home. Am I ready to move? Am I being silly and impulsive for moving so quickly? I don't know. I just don't know.