Spring fever

The weather has been cool and stormy this past week. I don't mind this, as it reminds me of home. It really affects me in various ways: my hair reverts to its naturally curt state because the humidity is above zero; I start drinking a lot more coffee throughout the day; my sleep paradoxically improves, possibly because of the afforementioned humidity; I drop into dreamy reverie often, prompted by the scent of wet lilac, the sound of rain, or watching the clouds over the mountains to the west.

I also get a bit dippy, judging from the paragraph above.

I'm updating from the coffee shop on my iPod, so I can't add any photos. Recent fun things I've done include going to the Neko Case show in Denver, laying around reading novels, and buying my ticket to Seattle for my TWO-WEEK visit!

I know I've been M.I.A.

There's stuff going on, and even stuff worth writing about. But instead of talking about me, I'll post a video of Ken Stringfellow and his gorgeous voice.

neglected

I've been remiss in not updating the world on my fabulous life. Heh. You know I'm kidding, right. Since my Seattle/Phoenix adventures, I've been totally wrapped up in life and not really taking the time to reflect on it.

Not long after coming back home, I left again for Wichita to go to the Kansas Library Association/Mountain Plains Library Association conference. Highlights of the trip include eating paella, drinking whiskey with Josh Neff, and barely restraining myself from buying shoes I can't afford at a very cute boutique in Old Town. I also enjoyed this sign on the front door of the Hyatt where we stayed.

After getting back to Laramie, I got caught up in work business and the impending move to the new offices in the addition to the Library. It's beautiful in there. I haven't take any photos in the office suite yet, but here's a sneaky peep through my old office into the new building.

And then it was my birthday! I kind of celebrated all weekend. I ate a cupcake at my desk on Thursday.

I had drinks out and then watched Point Break with Chad on my actual birthday. I'm glad I have friends who like cheesy movies as much as I do sometimes. No pictures from friday, strangely. On Saturday, a couple of other April babies and I had a party, where we danced, drank, and ate fun foods. I took some pictures, but was more into partying than photography. And here I am after the party, all sweaty and messed up from dancing.

Today's all about lazing around and reveling in not having to be anywhere. Happy Easter!

the big trip

I've been through several states in the past couple of weeks. First up was Seattle, for the ACRL conference. The first thing I did when we checked into the Paramount was look out the window of our room and take in the lovely city view.

Then, we skipped the opening keynote in favor of a little shopping (needed top and cute shoes for the presentation, of course) before heading to the College Inn for drinks with the ipeeps and some assorted non-librarian friends. After that, Mel took Rick and me to the Little Red Hen, where I two-stepped badly with some guy and drank some Rainier beer from a can. The place was packed and the music was good.

Friday was kind of a blur of poster session committee work, but I do remember Sherman Alexie's keynote. As always, I loved him.

After that, we headed to the Space Needle for a reception. There was a DJ who gamely played "Jump on It" at my request. Sadly, my booty shaking did not inspire other librarians to follow suit. I drank too many glasses of wine from the open bar, then snapped this shaky picture from the observation deck.

There was more to Friday night, but some of it involved me becoming belligerant at being charged $17.50 for a drink, and therefore does not bear repeating. Saturday was the big day of the presentation. I was supposed to meet up with family downtown for breakfast, but the St. Patrick's Day parade and I-5 construction scared them off. I think Rick and I handled the session well, though being assigned a huge ballroom that could hold at least 500 people made our crowd of about 100 seem kind of sparse. You can see the cute top here, but the rad shoes are sadly out of sight.

Other highlights of Saturday included dinner at Etta's, where I ate oysters, mussels, and a giant crab salad. Then we went to the all-conference reception at EMP. Once I walked in and saw the DJ, I danced and danced and didn't get around to any of the exhibits. After the party ended, my friend Patrick and his friend Ryan took me dancing at the Baltic Room. It was Indian dance night, and was so much fun. Alas, no photos of this evening were taken because I was living it up too much to get out the camera.

Sunday was the last day of conference, and we woke up to snow. I thought Rick was kidding when he said it was snowing, but here's the proof.

The final event was Ira Glass's keynote. He spoke sitting down at a mixing board and basically ran his talk like a radio show. It was really fascinating, especially when he talked about the process of putting shows together, choosing stories, and craftily tugging at heartstrings. Very cool.

After a quick Indian lunch at Westlake, we headed to the airport and flew back to Denver. From there, we drove as far as Pueblo, Colorado and stayed the night at a motel where we deemed it appropriate to sleep in our sleeping bags on top of the bed. Again, I regret the lack of photographic evidence. Monday was all-driving, all the time. We made it to Phoenix at about 10:00pm and managed to hang out with Peter for about an hour before we all crashed.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. In case you can't remember a week ago, that was a handy reminder. Peter went off to work, and Rick and I went downtown to check out the Phoenix Public Library. I am a good librarian nerd tourist, after all. It was pretty snazzy.

Then we had lunch with Peter, followed by an A's vs. Diamondbacks game. Oakland demolished the D-backs, I got a sunburn, and we decided to bail after seven innings of sitting on what felt like the surface of the sun. It was a good time, though. I think this is Nomar coming up to bat, but it's hard to see.

We met up with Peter again for some St. Pat's Day drinks on Mill Avenue. After a while of that, we decided to grab some food and came upon an Ethiopian place. Here we are after feasting on delicious, delicious food. Note that the guys both have the red devil-eyes, while I am obviously demon-free.

Getting tired yet? On Wednesday, after kind of a late start and general clulessness about where to eat breakfast, Rick and I went to Taliesin West. It was really beautiful and I'd be into going back. Our tour guide was pretty interesting, and though 90 minutes is a long time to listen to somebody talk, we agreed that it's worth it to get to go into the residence, which you can't do on the hour long tour.

After Taliesin, we had lunch with Rick's grandparents. He took off to hang out with them at their place, and I met back up with Peter and his family for a relaxing evening sitting outside in the yard. It felt amazing to be outside in a tank top well into the evening in March. I was acutely aware that I would not be able to to the same when I got home. After P and I drove out to collect R, we all grabbed some late dinner on our last evening together.

The three of us had breakfast together on Thursday, where Rick finally got his bagel sandwich and I finally got my Jamba Juice. This is why god invented strip malls, yo. Then R and I took off for Wyoming. We drove through Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and finally, finally, finally made it to Laramie at 3:00am. It was fifteen or so hours of driving, eating snacks we'd grabbed at Trader Joe's, bickering, singing along to music, and just wanting to get home already. But it was a wonderful trip, and I'm glad we did it. Besides, we got to drive though 1000 miles of our beautiful country on the return trip alone. This final picture is from Monument Valley.

"I've got a brand new pair of rollerskates..."

photo by Marshall Astor (used under Creative Commons license)

I don't actually have my own skates yet, but I did go to my very first roller derby practice on Wednesday night! It's something I've been interested in trying for a while, but with the nearest team about an hour away in Ft. Collins, I knew the likelihood of making practices was slim. But recently, the Naughty Pines started up here in Laramie and now that I'm over the flu, I'm ready!

It took me about five minutes into practice to realize I really like it. I'm sore from the holds in skating position, but look forward to more. It's a great workout, and I think it will be a nice counterbalance to the yoga (which I really need to start up again). Stay tuned, and send vibes for no broken bones or teeth!

9 thoughts in my head

1. I am wearing new cowboy boots today. It's very satisfying.
2. My to-do list is terrifying. Remind me to never get sick and miss 4 days of work the week before taking a few vacation days.
3. Should I be concerned that I still have little to no appetite? Can I live on tacos, coffee, and yogurt (1 serving of each per day) indefinitely?
4. Statistical significance is freaking me out.
5. Is a western-wear shirt, a pencil skirt, and heels appropriate for a national conference presentation?
6. I'm really hoping to love the new Neko Case album. Mark also reminded me to pick up the new Morrissey, which he thinks is amazing.
7. My mom gave me a great new clutch. It's navy patent with gold hardware, and is oversized. Women stop me to compliment it and men generally think it's horrible.
8. I'm reading The Perfect Scent, by Chandler Burr and it inspired me to start wearing perfume again. Today I'm wearing Fendi, which reminds me of Melanie. (My other favorites are Chanel's Egoiste for men, Jil Sander No.4, and YSL's Paris.)
9. If I don't get outside for some exercise, I will go crazy. But will I die if I try to go snowshoeing while still wheezy from bronchitus?

what's the frequency, Kenneth?

Update! Denver's Fox station now comes in badly. Denver's ABC station comes in pretty well. I got the latter to a barely-snowy setting, but then when I tried moving away from the antenna, the reception got worse. When I sat between the dipoles, it got better. When I leaned in toward the tv and raised my arm up, it got even better. My mom said I was required to stay there so she can watch the news. Her laughing comment, "You're going to get cancer! Stay there and block the radiation!" Nice mother I have, huh? (By the way, neither of us really thinks cancer is funny. At all.)

Needless to say, I'm not still sitting three inches from the teevee, but I am watching the insipid network news and it's surprisingly satisfying. Once we go digital, I should be in pretty great shape. Yes, I realize I'm posting a lot about my tv antenna, but it's on my mind these days. I think it was spring training starting that really spurred me on to get hooked back up on television. If I can watch some baseball this season, that would be nice. I'm also determined not to pay the cable company any money, ever. You might remember my fight with them a couple of years ago, when they wanted to charge me for cable that wasn't even working properly (I got sound or a picture, but never both on the same station). Well, they will be on my list forever.

In more entertainment news, I went to the MFA Creative Writing reading tonight. It was a nice way to end the weekend. I especially liked Julie's fiction piece, but I enjoyed all of it. The coming week has lots going on, and I need to balance out all of it with getting actual work done. Being sick for almost a week, then taking a few vacation days for Mom's visit means I have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks. But there are some good shows in Denver, and it looks like I have company for both Andrew Bird's show on Thursday and the Railbenders on Friday. Fun times.