I have a problem

Why are red shoes so irresistible? I'm powerless to resist them. The picture on the far right is today's outfit. Those Biviels were on sale and I had to have them. There are at least two more pairs of red shoes in my closet that aren't represented above, but no sling-backs with a round toe. So you can see why I needed these.

more stuff I want to do and see

It's another pretty day and I wish I were sitting outside, drinking a margarita. Instead, I got a cherry limeade from Sonic and drank it at my desk.

May I have a sip of your tasty beverage?

Summer also makes me want to go to a baseball game. I wish the Rockies were in the same league as the Mariners so I could see them play here. They're not playing over Labor Day weekend, but the Aquasocks have a homestand against Vancouver. I didn't really think about baseball when I gave up on television.

You know what else summer brings? Lots of awesome shows. I haven't been getting to things in Denver because everything falls on weeknights and/or I have no available partners-in-crime. Anybody want to go to Silversun Pickups on July 30 or this show on July 31? Or the crazy delicious combination of Band of Horses and Modest Mouse on August 1? Also, how crazy is this lineup: Ryan Adams, Devotchka, Jessie Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Lucinda Williams, and Old 97's? Can we also talk about music festivals? Capitol Hill Block Party is probably out because I can't justify flying back to Seattle twice in one summer. I'm currently madly budgeting for Bumbershoot and Monolith, and now I find out about another awesome show! September is going to be bananas.

Summer songs

Does the weather affect your choice in music? I know I complain about the weather around here and moan about the lack of rain, but the sunshine really is pretty. A bonus is being able to bust out all my summer dresses and skirts. When it's lovely and summery, it seems I always reach for power pop. I was listening to Matthew Sweet yesterday and it occurred to me that his music, especially on Girlfriend always reminds me of Echo and the Bunnymen's Evergreen. You might think I'm crazy. It's the guitars.

Compare the title tracks of each for yourself:

Girlfriend (Matthew Sweet)
Evergreen (Echo and the Bunnymen)

kill your television

Ever since I quit the cable entirely, I've been turning over my Netflix much faster. I thought about upping my plan so I'd never be without something. Then today, I discovered that my membership comes with an allottment of streaming video each month. Truth to tell, I don't really like watching on the computer. It makes me antsy, although I did enjoy being able to follow Veronica Mars to the end on the network website. So I tried the "watch now" feature, and tried out a couple of episodes of Coupling, which was kind of disappointing. I expected it to be funnier and not so...juvenile about sex. Whatever. The movies/shows I've watched this month have been mostly good: Vanity Fair, The History Boys, The Bourne Identity, Weeds (season 1), and Bright Young Things.

I thought I might spend some time outside now that the weather is so nice. The mosquitos have been terrorizing me, though. After a few hours drinking wine in a friend's backyard on two occasions this week, I have two dozen or so bites. Those suckers got me through my clothes and a fog of DEET. Maybe I'm tasty or something.

Another thing that keeps me from being outdoorsier is that I'm generally shod in impractical footware. So, no spur of the moment hikes or even long walks are really in the cards for me. It's not that I don't have any sensible shoes. It's just that they're hard to dress around because I don't do sporty well, even though I was once on actual sports teams and the whole nine yards. It seems so weird now. When contemplating a walk this afternoon, I looked at some walking shoes in my closet and grimaced, reaching instead for some teva flip-flops. I guess I'm going for incremental change. But my new silver wedge sandals are much, much cuter.

Travelin'

When I made my traveled states map back in October '05, it looked like this:



create your own visited states map

One of my previously unvisited states is WY, where I live now. Just living here brings me to CO often. I also took a road trip through MT and ID and on a seperate trip, went to UT. A conference took me to MD. Here's where I currently stand:



create your own visited states map

It looks like Nevada will remain a giant hole in the west for a while, unless I go to LOEX of the West next spring.

I'm planning a trip to New Mexico next month, so I probably should have waited on this. Guess I get to inflict this on you again, especially after Midwinter in PA and possibly a drive to NE this summer for some dorky crafy shopping.

Edit: it really annoys me that the east coast doesn't show up. Although, it is kind of funny that my blog seems to understand that west is best.

Almost summer

Sunset view from my front yard tonight, 9:19 p.m. MST

On her way to other western places, my friend M. and her dad J. drove through Laramie and stayed with me for a night. In the 15 months I've been here, I've been lucky to have my parents and my two best friends come to visit, and the weather was beautiful each time. Both my mom and sister-in-law helped me move during the winter, so they experienced the snow and cold. If they hadn't, I bet my loved ones would have already stopped listening to me or believing me when I complain about the weather here.

Anyway, it was fun to have guests over and especially fun to have these particular guests. They made it from Seattle to Laramie in 28 hours, which included a couple of hours in Yellowstone and the Tetons. That's pretty much awesome. I took them downtown for dinner then back home where J. crashed and M. and I had cocktails and caught up. In the morning, there was more gabbing and coffee and breakfast out, followed by a trip to my office and a bit of campus and a little driving around town. Finally, we picked up more coffee and my two guests departed for the next leg of their journey. My one regret is that I didn't take more pictures while they were here.

After they left, I realized how nice it was to actually talk to other human beings on the weekends. I'm so social at work that I tend to kind of retreat into my own personal cocoon when I'm off. In the city I had more motivation to go do and see stuff on the weekend, but I don't know what to do here. Perhaps now that summer is approaching, I'll actually leave the house and socialize. We'll see.

The irises live to die another day

Speaking of pictures and weather, I finally remembered to snap the flowers of the resurrection. This spring, I was surprised with the arrival of tulips, daffodils, and irises in my yard. I don't remember them last year, so either they were dormant, or elves planted bulbs last fall when I wasn't looking. Anything's possible, as my yard does magically mow itself on the weekends. Okay, I know my landlord mows it, but I've only actually seen him do it once. Anyway, these poor spring flowers just emerged a couple of weeks ago and then were brutally snowed and hailed upon. In true frontier spirit, they picked themselves up and dusted themselves off, though. I kept forgetting to take pictures and finally ended up going out there in the semi-dark this evening. You'll just have to imagine the daffodils and tulips because I wasn't going to traipse about the yard in my pyjamas for too long.

Random Eight

Jessica tagged me for the Eight Random Things meme. Okay, I'm unleashing my innner weirdo.

1. I'm naturally a night-owl and have chronic insomnia, but I have a hard time forcing myself to go to bed when I'm tired. Of course, I'm usually sleepy between 5:00 and 7:00pm when it's too early for bed. By the time it's a reasonable bedtime, I'm wide awake. Despite hating to get out of bed in the morning, I'm pretty happy once I'm up and moving.

2. My memory for some details is really great--I can remember in detail the outfits my friends and I rocked in junior high--but I have to put everything on my Outlook calendar or I won't know what I'm supposed to be doing, or where that event is taking place.

3. I procrastinate even when I benefit from getting something done, like depositing checks, requesting reimbursements, or going to the grocery store when my fridge is empty.

4. I have very neat handwriting and honestly think that people who don't are just lazy. Unless they're little children or have a disability, of course.

5. Some weekends, I don't step foot outside my house from the time I get home on Friday night to the time I leave for work on Monday morning. There's nowhere in town to just hang out alone, anyway.

6. I'm a water connoisseur. I detest Evian because it tastes of silica. There's a WY-produced water called AquaVista that's like gross tap water. I generally prefer still water to sparkling, but sometimes want some fizz. Favorite brands: Aspen Pure, Volvic, Le Bleu, Ty Nant, and Ramlösa. Fiji is very good, too, but loses points for the square bottle that doesn't fit in my cup holder. I work on a Pepsi campus, so the best I can get at work is Aquafina. At that price point, I prefer Coke's Desani. That said, I'm really trying to save money and buy less plastic, so I use a Britta pitcher at home. I filter all the water I drink and cook with. I will say in all seriousness, "I made some water" when offering up beverage choices, and my friends either use the same expression or at least know what it means. Are you afraid of me now?

7. People who know me in real life think I'm an outgoing extrovert, because I love working with people and spending time with friends. But I need a lot of solitary time and there are some activities I have a hard time doing with other people, like watching television or film. It's hard for me to live with another person because I need my home to be just mine. On the flipside, sharing hotel rooms with friends/colleagues and having or being a houseguest is kind of fun.

8. Believe it or not, there are lots of people out there who share my first name. Most of them spell it Kaisa or Kajsa; Kaijsa is a much less common version. My middle name is Joi, after a dear friend of my mother, and I've never encountered anybody else with the name spelled this way.

If you read this, consider yourself tagged. Or not. Whatever. Stop looking at me like that.

Back to the 206

Jon Auer sings "Golden Blunders"

By 10:00ish tonight, I'll be in Seattle. This in itself is awesome, but on Friday I also get to see the Posies acoustic show at the Triple Door. Imagine the (already perfect) video above only twice as awesome because Ken will be there, too! I'm pretty sure I've seen the Posies more times than any other band. It's been a few years since I last saw them, so I'm ready. Speaking of, I need to find the list I used to keep of all the shows I saw, circa 1989-1993. It's a long list.

Un-gentle reader

Fun feet for Monday

I let a month lapse without updates, mostly because I've been focusing on the book blog. When I get started on a project, I tend to get obsessed. That's why I don't allow myself to collect anything seriously. I'd go broke. My goal for 2007 was to read 52 books in 52 weeks. I got off to a slow start, reading just two books in January. During February and March, I did better, with three and four books, respectively. But I got on a serious roll in April, to the detriment of most everything else in my life. I read 12 books in April! So, entering the 18th week of the year, I've finished 23 books. Of course, a lot of them were young adult fiction and mysteries, so it wasn't hard to get this far.

home again!

Is it hot in here?

I'm back from Baltimore and am too tired to think. As soon as I get done writing up my travel report for work, I'll be more forthcoming here. I just have to write this up before it all falls out of my head!

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.

Ben Gibbard, why don't you love me?

So, Ben Gibbard is embarking on a solo tour in May, and not only are none of the dates in Denver, but I miss him in Seattle by five days. He obviously doesn't care about me at all. The Google map tells me that it's only a 13 hour drive to Minneapolis and 16-ish to Portland or Austin. I don't know if I'm up for a huge road trip, but it could be fun.

In other concert news, I'm trying to figure out if I should plan on the Decemberists on April 22. It's a Sunday and it's kind of expensive. I see the tickets are almost gone, though. I have to figure it out soon.

Vote for SJ

My awesome friend SJ, who has the funniest and most finely crafted blog ever, entered the BlogHer Academy Award Speech contest. SJ never asks for votes for blog awards, etc., but this time the prize is free conference registration at BlogHer 07, so the stakes are higher. If you're so inclined, see her entry here for all the details.

Art Appreciation

Coffee Art

It figures that as soon as I post about my weather-related ennui, we have three days in the 40s. Maybe I should complain more often. Of course, the melting snow has turned my unpaved into a mess of slush and mud two feet deep, with huge ruts and leftover snowdrifts here and there--good thing I bought that SUV. It's odd how my mood has improved now that I've been able to go outside without bundling up and with no danger of my face freezing off. I've been oddly productive this week.

My two stays in the city lately have left me in withdrawls from things like films in limited release, delicious and beautiful coffees, and something cool to do every night. That added to my afforementioned ennui. On Friday night, I was reminded of the really unique things that happen here, though. I have season tickets to the cultural programs series here on campus and the spring series started on Friday. Violinist Benny Kim premiered a new piece commissioned by the university and four other Wyoming community arts associations. That's pretty cool. I've been constantly surprised and impressed with the variety and quality of the arts here and sometimes need to remind myself that the big cities don't have a monopoly on culture.

Another cool thing I did recently was attend the art museum's latest exhibits opening reception. The Kararina Kaikkonen installation is amazing and has to be seen to be believed. I'd love to see more of her work. Everything up right now is awesome, but I especially loved the American Modernists and Women's Work, a century of art by women. The reception was also included the awards ceremony for the Student Juried Exhibition. There is a lot of great work in the show and I was excited that one of my favorite paintings was selected for a UW Libraries purchase award. Our fine arts librarian selected our two purchase award winners, so we'll have two new paintings up here when the student show is over. Very cool. As an aside, you can see some of the great looks people were wearing at the museum over at Wyoming Style Report.

There are actually lots of cool things happening here. Right now I'm missing Second City for free on campus because I'm on the reference desk. I'm kicking myself for not subscribing to the theatre and dance series. Because I procrastinated, I'm missing Spinning into Butter because it sold out. I'm figuring out when to see ...the body through which the dream flows before that sells out, too.

I guess I'm pretty satisfied with all that. But not with the terrible coffee I just drank. What I wouldn't do for another latte from Vivace like the one above.

This past week or so has been really difficult. The unrelenting cold, the bleak landscape, and the vast whiteness all around me have made me question how I'm going to survive the next few months here. This isn't what I'm used to. I'm used to being surrounded by green all year long. To huge bodies of blue water. To grey skies, heavy with moisture. To 200 days of drizzle followed by a brief, but stunningly beautiful summer and the loveliest warm autumn.

People who aren't from the PNW get depressed by the dark, overcast days. I never understood that because the heavy, grey rain was always so comforting to me. The weather was mild and didn't ever deter me from going about my life. In fact, there's nothing I like better than sitting in the steamed-up window of a coffee shop, looking out at the rain in the street. It's cozy.

Now I think I understand what it feels like when the weather affects your mood. This winter is getting me down. I stay indoors as much as possible because the sub-zero temperatures are torture. I haven't worn contacts in three months because they either freeze or the wind blows them out of my eyes. Looking out at the huge snowdrifts and frozen streets makes me feel panicky and trapped. It's weird how all this land can make me feel so claustrophobic, but the city energizes me. I don't know how I'd be feeling if I hadn't spent three of the last seven weeks in Seattle, with less than two weeks to go before another long weekend visit. I know this can't last forever, but it's getting to me.

Indeed

Cass sent me this awesome label. When we were in Seattle getting our fab haircuts, we decided that we needed salon stage names for when we eventually go to beauty school. Cass decided on Muffin Top and I'm going to be Robot. Between my delight of the 30 Rock quote above and our robotic encounters, I think robots became the unofficial theme of the trip. Check it:

Cass gets snuggly with Rad 2.0

Robot love at the ALA exhibit hall

I'm finally an aunt!

My mom holding her first grandchild

My nephew finally arrived! He was due while I was in Seattle for ALA, but stubbornly decided to wait to debut until the day after I left. In my admittedly biased opinion, he's beautiful. I'm in the midst of coordinating a long weekend trip back home in February--I need to exercise my baby-holding privileges as soon as possible. My brother and sister-in-law are doing well and are definitely going to be great parents. My parents are over the moon in love with this little guy. It's hard to believe they're grandparents.

Wu are you?

Hello, friends. Out of nostalgia, I visited the Wu Name Generator during my reference shift. My name is Excitable Misunderstood Genius. Yes, I live in 2002.

I'm semi-freshly back from Midwinter and I'm still kind of thinking over the sessions I attended. OCLC had a bunch of social networking stuff which got me excited to try to implement some at my library. It's always nice to hear from other academic librarians and find out what works for them and what doesn't. I'm trying to formulate a post on the subject for Library Talk. Speaking of LT, I don't think I ever mentioned it here. Jessica started LT recently as a place to talk about library issues. Even though I've been a little lax about my participation during my vacation and during ALA, I think it's awesome. I tend to stay inside my academic librarian mindset, so widening my professional circle is a good thing.

I want to leave you with the coolest thing I've found in a while. iConcertCal is a plug-in for iTunes that searches the web for live shows that match the bands in your library. I'm on upcoming, but I'm more interested in finding events than adding my own. I'm lazy. I was telling Cass today that I wish there was a mashup of upcoming and iConcertCal that would combine the web-searching and music library matching with the social networking aspect of upcoming. She thought it would be cool if the MySpace events function worked like upcoming, too. Yes, please.