Did Somebody Say Crab Cakes?

See those little snowflakes above? I get to miss them!

I'm on the reference desk tonight until 10:00 and then go home to finish packing before getting up at 5:00 to make the drive to Denver with my colleagues. We don't arrive in Baltimore until 5:00-ish EST, so I'm hoping to nap on the plane. I'm tempting fate by bringing library books with me, but I need to keep up my 52 books in 52 weeks personal dork challenge.

Not many of my library school friends are going to ACRL this year, which is a bummer. On the plus side, I'm rooming with a friend from Washington and all my former and current colleagues are at the same hotel. Much revelry should ensue. I'm blogging the conference this year, so if you're interested, you can check out what I'm up to there. Most of the sessions I'm planning to cover are on emerging technologies, either social networking or instructional, or instruction in general. I'll be on Twitter, too.

Already on my non-conference agenda are crab cakes at Faidley's, mussels at Bertha's, and a visit to the American Visionary Art Museum. Cocktail time will take place at some point. Although I don't want to miss Nina Totenberg, I'm sorely tempted to skip the closing keynote to see the Postsecret show at AVAM before heading to the airport. Speaking of keynotes, I'm pretty excited for John Waters at the keynote luncheon. ACRL is such a crazy short conference and there are many sessions I want to see, so it will be difficult to see and/or meet everybody I'd like to. I'm wishing I'd tacked on a day of vacation at the end to allow for more sightseeing. I don't know if I'll have time to see any of the Poe sights.

More from Baltimore.

Happy Anniversary

vanilla stoli and diet coke at Lovejoys

I've officially been in Laramie for a year now; tomorrow I'll have been at my job for a year, too. To celebrate, a couple of my friends and I went out on the town last night for some adult beverages and appetizers. It was kind of nice to be out on a quiet Sunday evening, when the bars aren't crowded with students. I even broke out of my Jack & 7 rut after my first drink, which could have been why I woke up with a headache. Diet soda is evil.

Anyway, I made it. The year went by so quickly that I think I can easily stick it out here for a few more. While I miss the water, the weather, and the beauty of home (not to mention friends and family), I really like my job and the people I've met here. So, Laramie, I tip my 40 to you.

What are you reading?

My latest obsession is getting back to reading for fun. I say obsession because I have an obsessive personality and can't just do something a little. No, I turn everything into a challenge. I'm hoping to read an average of a book a week, which is 52 books in 2007. Yes, the idea is shamelessly stolen from Doppelganger's 50 Books, which I've been reading for quite a while. Of course, I had to top 50. I'm nothing if not competitive.

You can follow my progress at Kaijsa Reads, if you're interested. Yes, I started yet another blog. I needed to keep it separate from my crazy ramblings over here for my own sanity. Also, I like the aesthetic of just having sequentially numbered posts there with nothing else going on. I'm not pretending that makes sense--you remember the crazy part I mentioned above, right? So anyway, I don't promise super interesting book reviews. Sometimes I have lots to say about a book and other times I just want to name it and be done with it. It has been nice to get back to fiction; it makes a nice change from reading LIS articles and spending too much time reading librarian blogs--not that I've stopped doing either one of those things. I've fallen into a tiny mystery and YA fiction rut, but I vow to read some literary novels again, too.

Reading suggestions are welcome, as I tend to be kind of unimaginative sometimes. Just beware that if you suggest anything inspirational, I will make fun of you. Yeah, I'm a jerk.