Travel is fun

This vacation hasn't gotten off to a great start. I drove to Denver yesterday morning to pick up my mom at the airport. She was going to drive with me back to Seattle. My car overheated just as I got onto the airport exit. I cranked the heat, rolled down the windows and made it to pick up Mom. We had AAA tow the car from a parking garage at DIA to a repair shop in Aurora, CO. We ended up wasting a travel day while my thermostat was repaired, so we drove back to Laramie in the evening, stayed at my place and booked a flight for morning.

We're at the Laramie airport now, and just found out that out flight's been cancelled, so we're getting shuttled to Cheyenne. I don't know if we'll make our connection in Denver, but we'll try. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Where I'm at

I've been on a blogging hiatus of sorts lately. It's more by circumstance than design. We've been gearing up for the new semester and I've been trying to get things ready before I leave on vacation. Several things in particular have been occupying my attention, including the rollout of a project I've been working on: the library's fancy new website. We still have a few things to work out, but it's pretty nice. The other big thing is the new responsibility I recently inherited. For this year, I'll be coordinating the library outreach instruction, and I have a lot to figure out in a short amount of time. That goes double because I'm still figuring out how to do my primary job.

Classes start in the morning, and I'm pretty excited to see all the students come to campus. Summer's been great, but fall has always been my favorite time of year. Of course, it's not quite fall yet, and I'm not used to the semester system. Personally, I think it's cruel to make kids start school before labor day weekend, but then, I'm not in charge. In any case, I'm only going to be at work for a couple of days before heading back to Seattle to get my Bumbershoot on; I start driving on Wednesday and should roll into town late Thursday night. It might be an awkward time for a vacation, but I don't anticipate BIs to start heating up until I'm back. So, I'll have four action-packed days at home before driving back here in my new car. It will be nice to actually get to use the vehicle I've been making payments on for the past few months. Plus, having a working radio will make the 1300 mile trip home a bit more fun.

If you're one of my hometown people, I can't wait to see you!

Dance til you can't dance til you can't dance no more

Bad cameraphone picture of Ghostland Observatory at the Hi-Dive

I haven't left town much since I got here. Before moving, I assumed I'd be going down to Boulder or Denver for shopping and music on the weekends. This has not come to pass. It's a combination of the price of gas, my nagging residual city-guilt about single-car driving everywhere, and sheer laziness. The radio also went out on my car, so that makes long drives pretty unappealing. So I've pretty much been rambling around town all summer.

One of my colleagues here is full of crazy and wonderful ideas. She's always instigating last-minute karaoke or something equally fun. So when she organized the Ghostland Observatory Caravan, there was no way I was going to miss out. Basically, she borrowed her mom's minivan, filled it with her friends, and had her husband drive us all down to Denver for the GLO show last night. I even broke out and danced. We got home at about 3:00 this morning, but I seem to be plugging along quite well at work today. We're already forming a plan for Silversun Pickups in October.

Meebo me

I just added the new Meebo Me widget to my sidebar after seeing Kris's post about it. Now you can IM me right from the blog, if you're so inclined. I just have to remember to log in! I used to be really good about logging into my various IM clients, but have been forgetting lately. Maybe this new toy will be a reminder.