and scene

Well, I am done with my first year. I went out celebrating last night, and came home to hear very bad, very sad news: my best friend’s father passed away. We talked and cried together and I can’t imagine what it’s like. I have been thinking about my own parents all day.

It is also strange because I feel incredibly far away from it all. And my celebrating and my worries over my paper felt foolish in comparison. There’s always time to put perspective on things, I suppose.

I finished my first year with three large papers under my belt, lots of projects, a low opinion of introduction courses, a great many new friends who are wonderful wonderful wonderful people, the ability to say I completely & easily made it through an warm Midwest winter, many achievements, and many plans. I created a podcast with the help of fantastic and creative people (we are recording our next one tomorrow!). I got to work at the Wisconsin Historical Society with extremely fascinating serials of all sorts — have you ever read a magazine all about dolls? Or jukebox collectors? Or the Harden-in-ing family? I began planning to volunteer at Circus World, which is just … not anywhere I ever imagined working and I love it. I landed a TAship, a job in archives public services, and an amazing internship opportunity at WPR. I’m proud of myself and I love who I’m at school with (for the most part). Mostly, I made it.

And thank you Mom, and sometimes Dad, for letting me ramble on the phone, either completely upset over my assignment or completely bragging. And thank you Cally the cat for often walking by meowing while Mom was on the phone so I could hear your adorable voice again.

Rest in peace, Ray Sousa.

puzzles and pieces coming together

I am BRIMMING and BEAMING with good news right now. This is almost a problem because a few hours of today were meant to deal with the ending bits of my appraisal paper, but now of course all I want to focus on is celebrating!

I’ve been feeling “off” lately, with stomach aches and headaches, so I took a break from my paper to lay down for 20 minutes. In that 20 minutes, I got a call: the position I just interviewed for this morning in the Archives Research Room of WHS? It’s mine! I’ll be working part-time with one or two other student workers. It’s going to be so great! I love public services, and reference, and orienting patrons to the archives to make them feel welcome and cared for, so with this news I was already in a celebratory mood.

I called my dad at work, but he was busy. Pouting, I checked my email. And there was an offer to be a TA for a class next fall. Ohmygoodness!!!! I couldn’t wait for my dad, so I called my mom, because what else do you do after jumping around with happiness? (by the way, my dad finally got back to me — and my parents are pleased as peaches, just like Derek and I!) In the matter of an hour, life just changed for the better.

Needless to say, now this paper needs to be finished and submitted PRONTO so we can go celebrate! Oh, if only this stomach ache would go away. More ginger tea.

 

(oh, and, I’ll be volunteering at Circus World and I got my practicum placement at … drumroll … Wisconsin Public Radio. And what have I been saying my dream job would be? Being the archivist of NPR.)

spring break was not actually a break, just sayin’

I am currently very unmotivated to work on a draft of a big paper that is due in a week (at 7am — isn’t that a funny time?). I sent out an SOS text to my friends and now I would like to share some of their wise words. Please notice how much books and food figure into our salvation:

• Think of all the starving kids in Africa that can’t get a decent education. They just wish they could write huge papers. But they can’t … so do it for them.
• Start now – do 2 hours. Take a break. Repeat.
• Promise yourself a giant pbj when done. (note: Ah, a girl after my own heart) Block the Internet, or go work in a cafe without access. Make tea. Promise yourself a drink when done. Give yourself 20 pages of a pleasure book for every one written of paper.
• You can do it!
• Join the club. Though mine is sort of going ok at the moment. The sooner it’s done, the sooner you can stop worrying about it? That’s good motivation for me.
• You can do it!!!!!!!! You’ll feel so good about yourself!!!!!!!! Work for an hour and then reward yourself with a break!
• Hmm. I did it so that I 1) allowed myself a half-hour of TV for every five pages and 2) Put a fun book or magazine in the bathroom. I also promised myself mochi and a glass of wine at the end.
• You can do it!!!!! :D
• Weeelll … I’m completely free this evening and would LOVE to have some funcraftingtime and/or other activities with you … BUT only if you get some work done!
• Pretend they’re gonna hurt Elijah Wood unless you give them what they want !!111

I love my friends.

Here is what I’ve decided to do: For every 5 good quotes I find for the paper, I get a dance party (to probably “Super Bass” or “Blame it on the Girls”). For every hour of work, I get to read 20 pages of a pleasure book or magazine. For every 5 pages completed, I can watch an episode of Mad Men. The Internet, including email and Words with Friends, will be completely blocked by LeechBlock. And if I stick to this, I can craft tonight after dinner!

What motivates you?

Post-Thanksgiving

I’m happy to report that I am at home and not taking part in Black Friday — actually, I think I am going to try and make all of my gifts this year! This coming from someone who in the past has not been very crafty, save for that stint in art class before middle school …

Unhappily, I am home instead writing an Issue Briefing. Maybe I should become a consumerist American.

The real reason I’m here open to this particular page, though: HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Derek and I spent the holiday together … Our first one when it was just us. We both missed our families and California, but we’re very thankful to spend it together. We played board games for most of the day and took a walk post-dinner, pre-dessert. (It’s really not that cold outside yet; the Midwest is lulling me into false temperature comfort)

We had a really wonderful meal. I didn’t want to cook anything from scratch this year because I just didn’t have time, but we still did a great job! We actually bought everything from Trader Joe’s. To start, we had cinnamon buns. Then while playing a board game called Elfenland (and we dearly missed playing with our friends Nicole and Daniel) we ate tons of crackers and goat cheese with pistachios. I also had a banana for good measure. Haha. Then we drank some wine while playing the Game of Life. For dinner, we had a stuffed tofurky roast! Both of us really liked it — and Derek isn’t even vegetarian. For sides, we had salad and garlic mashed potatoes covered in gravy. For dessert, we had delicious pecan pie. This might be my first time not having pumpkin pie, which I LOVE, but we also bought a pumpkin spice cake to have over the weekend. Oh, and we also played Monopoly on my computer, but the AI was beating us to a pulp, so we surrendered by turning off the game and forcing the AI into bleak nothingness of cyberspace.

We both got to chat with our parents on the phone. I sent out some messages to my friends. It was warm inside our apartment and smelled so good. It was perfect. :)

I am thankful, as always, for my friends and family. I am thankful for the chance to attend graduate school. I am thankful for our shelter and for our food. I am thankful for how hard Derek is trying in this very new land. I am thankful, as always.

Validation

Today was such a nice day for me because I was validated by a professor in my program that I respect. There’s been two ideas swimming in my head lately — one for maybe 5 years? (Sarah will have to tell me if she remembers when I first told her this!) and the other for the last 2 or 3 months.

The first I’ve kept secret mostly because I didn’t want to be laughed out of the archive community, but today I went into my professor’s office hours and she gave me a name for my idea!: community-based archives. Mine would just be on a wide scale, I suppose. The very unofficial name is the People’s Archives, but I don’t like it because it sounds too Soviet and/or wishy-washy (it’s pretty funny that those can be in the same sentence). I wanted to save the things of everyone, I wanted to save them without having a person make a case to me why they were special enough to be saved in memory for the future. I never imagined it centered around one particular community, like the archives of farmers in Indiana, but as a private, nonprofit repository for all of the public. They would be charged a fee — preferably on a sliding scale so it is accessible to everyone — that would only be used for maintenance of the facility and of the collections. I could give each donor/giver their own archivist or grad student intern to work with him or her (or the whole family) one-on-one to process the collection.

A classmate and friend of mine gave a presentation a few weeks ago on an article in the news that related to archives. The article looped back to a personal connection for her, because this classmate’s grandmother sent her the article to read. My classmate has always received articles from her grandma whenever she’s away. She’d highlighted the article, and our professor joked that that was now part of the articles’ provenance. If this classmate grew up to do something big enough to get her archives in an institution, that institution would probably see newspaper clippings as dispensible. They can be found elsewhere. But the newspaper clippings are specifically meaningful for her, and only her, and that forms the narrative of her, and therefore her archives. If she were given that special attention from the archivist, to collaborate together, those clippings would be saved.

Items would be digitized as well as saved, and put up on the Internet for the family or person to see from wherever they live. And most importantly, every person who gave us their papers would tell us whether or not we could make their records open for public use. We could open up the digitized items for tagging and research usage and all the like.

I have sat on this idea for a long time, and I still find it just as exciting as the first time I wanted it. My professor validated me by saying it definitely wasn’t too out there and I wouldn’t be laughed at. It would just take a lot of hard work and dedication — even to just become a nonprofit, much less raise the initial capital!

I think I need to start brainstorming more concretely about this now that I finally let my secret out to a professional in the field. It doesn’t have to be a big jumbled puzzle in my head, I hope. My professor also gave me a few articles focused on community-based archives — which actually has much more literature in the UK, so obviously I have more fodder now to convince my dad I should study abroad in London — so I can start to truly research and plan this. It would be really exciting if I could make this an independent study project and eventually get published. I will have to talk to some people …

Feeling invigorated by her enthusiasm, I told her another idea that had been effectively shut down by my peers’ attitudes towards it: a podcast. A podcast focused on archives. My professor said, flat out, that it was a brilliant idea! And there’s a lot of places I could take it. The few times I mentioned it to classmates, none of their faces brightened and they just kind of said “ehh” like it’d never be interesting. It discouraged me because I figured that meant no one be interested, if especially my classmates in a SLIS program aren’t. I shouldn’t have listened. Now I just have something else to think about.

Of course, I walked out of the meeting glowing, and called my mom to gush. :)

What’s the last big idea you had that felt like it could change the direction of your life?

3000 miles, check.

Warning: This is a long post, but it is picture heavy, so those of you with adult onset ADD due to too much Internet and technology should be okay.

I am very happy to report that we made it all the way across the country (and not straight across, since we made some weird dips) without dying. Or, for that matter, injuring ourselves anywhere beyond more than a few VERY ANNOYING mosquito bites. The only problem with our rental car was this malfunction indicator light that came on while we were in the winding mountain roads of Yellowstone … We called Hertz, they said it’s basically nothing. So, we ignored it! It’s a fine coping mechanism.

For those who don’t know, our trip was our way of getting from Point A (California) to Point B (Wisconsin). I am attending school in Madison for Library Science, and Derek is the brave soul who is following me. He left his job, his family, and his life just to come with me. That is dedication. We make a pretty good team.

Our first part of the trip, once I left my parents’ home town, was to go to the wedding of two dear friends, Nicole and Daniel. Nicole’s blog is here: The Princess Bride. And she really was a princess, and Daniel her handsome prince! It was a gorgeous ceremony that actually made me cry followed by a loud, good time under the full moon.

I gave a speech!

The next day, August 14th — which feels like a century ago now — was our last day in California. We saw the newlyweds off at a brunch.

It is a difficult moment to realize, Yes, this is it — so long for now.

We did get to see one more couple before we left California, Heather and Harrison. They took us out to a great place that was full of lots of different kinds of cuisine, which is a PERFECT way to say goodbye to California. However, I got a veggie burger, and while it was the best veggie burger I had on our 10-day journey, I wish I had started off with something other than a veggie burger. It is the only thing the middle of the country knows to do with vegetarians.

The biggest thing that surprised us about this trip was the distinct lack of kitsch. It was actually a bit disappointing. I never saw a sign for the world’s biggest ball of yarn or the largest frying pan, and these are important Americana artifacts, are they not?

However, we did arrive in Lovelock, Nevada on our first day, and found a sweet little park that had a place for lovers to put a lock on the chain. They said that it was a Chinese custom adopted in Nevada, but I’ve also heard it done in parts of Russia.

From Lovelock, we went to Winnemucca, which has a W for itself on the mountainside. Classy. The most difficult part of the drive was through Oregon, because it went from reckless 80 mph Nevada to safe, caring 55 mph Oregon. 55 mpg in the middle of nothing. We got out on the highway just because we were able to hear what true silence sounds like.

From there, we went on to Nampa, Idaho, of all places. Reason? Derek’s wonderful aunt and uncle live there, plus some other family. Derek met one of his favorite kind of family members.

Nampa to Yellowstone was a very long drive. But oh, Yellowstone is worth it! We stayed the night in West Yellowstone, had delicious pizza, a bottle of wine to relax, and got to try huckleberries for the very first time. It was a good season this year.

One of the best barns we saw. ;)

Yellowstone's canyon. Breathtaking!

From Yellowstone, we visited my aunt, new uncle, and cousin. It had been especially a long time I saw my cousin! We met them in Bozeman, Montana. My aunt manages Squaw Creek Cabins up in a beautiful part of the state. They ominously call it the canyon. We spent the night, without cell phone service, or electricity, and only the sound of the creek and the bells on the horses, for a mere $40. It was the best $40 we spent the whole trip, I think! The stars were astounding. Derek, who has never been camping or anywhere so remotely, could not stop looking up. We also tried out archery for a while. It was such great fun. Stay at Squaw Creek!

Squaw Creek Cabins, Montana

A natural! Anyone know of archery clubs in Madison ...?

We rode out on an ATV to capture this shot.

The stars, bells, and s’mores tried to entice us to stay forever, but after a day with the mosquitos, we were ready for a little less wilderness. We really have to get over that.

Then we went to go see Old Faithful. I didn’t want just another picture of the same geyser, so I went 8 seconds of licking an ice cream cone in front of it as it spouted. Since I am too poor right now to afford the video upgrade, please imagine.

Then we got to see the sun behind the clouds, a scary pool of unknown things, and an elk! We stayed at Flagg Ranch Resort, which is an overpriced hotel room posing as a cabin — and we are experts on cabins now. The night also included more veggie burgers and generalized bland food masking itself as good ole’ country fare.

DON'T JUMP IN

So many cars were stopped on the road to see an animal eating.

After our night in Flagg Ranch, we were worried that the Grand Tetons (which according to my mother means something like “grand breasts” in French. True or false? Internet users, I rely on you.) would be not as wonderful as Yellowstone.

WRONG.

I will grace you with some images of the beauty that big pieces of dirt and stuff do when they run into each other.

We thought these were the Hidden Falls. They weren't.

What can beat that? Certainly not Jackson Hole, which has strange arches made out of elk antlers and Mexican restaurants that don’t know what “horchata” is. So, let’s move on to Pinedale, Wyoming, where the B&B Pole Creek Ranch is located. We had a very strange time arriving because the only directions we were given for the long rural road is on were to look for the “log cabin surrounded by trees.” We saw like six. Finally, we found the one that did, in fact, title itself. When we drove up to the cabins, though, our car was attacked by three German Shepherds — one which lacked a leg! No one came out to greet us. We used the power of technology to call my parents and ask, WHAT IS GOING ON IS THERE ANYWHERE ELSE NEARBY TO STAY?, and then finally a woman came back from mowing the lawn to show us to our cabin. We spent a lovely night. The next morning, we ate homemade cinnamon buns for breakfast.

The Sunset in Wyoming

From there, we battled rain and scary looking tornado-perhaps sky to make our long journey to Boulder, Colorado. After a spirited and fantastic night with family friends and wine, we spent a HOT, cloudless day in downtown Boulder. Great town you got there!

After California fig and toasted almond gelato (mmmmmmmmm), we embarked onto … CELESTIAL SEASONINGS FACTORY. The place where most tea that Americans drink comes from. They did not allow pictures, but let us recommend the mint room: it is a trip!

Boulder marked the end of our planned trip. Boulder to Madison is around 1000 miles. We left Boulder the afternoon of the 23rd and had to be in Madison by at least August 25th at 10am to return our rental car, Krasnyka. We made it with time to spare and numb behinds!

The main thing was we stopped in Dubuque, Iowa, which was a must for me, an avid New Yorker reader who wrote her senior thesis on how the New Yorker captured the Soviet Union during the Stagnation Period. Nerd.

"THE NEW YORKER will be the magazine which is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque." - Harold Ross

Why is that quote not on the welcome sign to such a magical city?

Finally, after 3000 miles, and a lot of night driving on the creepy 151, we arrived to our new home.

Hello, Madison.

Tell me about your roadtrip adventures!

Onward, Madison!

I nearly named this blog “Onward, Madison!” which was the name of the email Derek and I made up to have people RSVP to our going away party. The reason I decided NOT to name it was mostly because … soon I would simply be in Madison, and probably moving on somewhere else after that. If all goes well, I will still be writing after that!

Tonight is my last night in my parents’ home until … well, probably Christmas. In the morning, it is onward to the wedding of two good friends, and then! … Onward, Madison!

My heart’s going quickly. I am so happy to see my friends wed on Saturday. Nicole has been wonderful support to me, and Daniel has been such a good friend to Derek in such a short time. (Derek is really going to miss him) … I am currently writing the toast to these two great friends; right now, it feels very stiff, so I had a lot of rum to loosen that tongue up. ;)

I hope mere logistical issues do not get in the way of our roadtrip, on the way to Madison.

We will be visiting: Winnemucca, Nevada (rest stop); Nampa, Idaho (family); Bozeman, Montana (family); Grand Teton National Forest; Pinedale, Wyoming (staying at a family farm!); Boulder, Colorado (family friend); after Boulder, we will simply drive on through Nebraska and such until we reach Madison. We need to go that last 1000 miles in less than two days. The only place I really want to visit is Dubuque, because of the New Yorker magazine.

I hope I will be able to update, with some photos, from the road.

Here we go!

a week and a half at home

I hope this isn’t a common thing … I wrote a few paragraphs, pressed Save Draft, and it all disappeared.

My dad is currently opening a bottle of champagne just for me. :) His plan for the night was for all of us to get giddy and giggly while watching Modern Family, which I’ve never seen before. Although right now Fiesta Live is on, so maybe we won’t be having a family giggle-fest…

Today my mom also told me it’s too bad that I leave the state as I become a grown up, interesting person. I think it’s safe to say that my mom never wanted to play Barbies with me.

Leaving Berkeley was a very difficult thing to do (I shed a few tears and lamely took a video of the downtown while we drove out of it). We spent Saturday at Derek’s parents’ house going through our things. We’ll be able to easily fit our stuff in a small pod because we really don’t have a lot. When we first moved from our apartment in June, we had to separate boxes into four different categories, including one going to the sublet we stayed in for two months. Saturday was the fun job of integrating our life into a smaller amount of boxes.

I like being able to live easily without the things that are boxed up. In the two months that we lived in the sublet, I didn’t really miss our stuff. I missed having a place of our own, with more space to move around. Living without has been such a breath of fresh air. I hope that when we do arrive in Madison, after our road trip, we can just get rid of more!

One of our big projects this week, while being home, is to purge our storage room. I wanted to do it today, but found myself very sleepy because of my bedroom. My mom recently re-did it, and I love it so much. It’s a light lavender, with white walls, a white comforter, a soft silver carpet … It’s lovely to sleep in. I am so thankful for this week to have long, sleepy, comfortable mornings. Mom and Dad also re-did the hallway with bookshelves right into the wall! It’s gorgeous. The only clutter I don’t mind is books. :)

the first

My father has just told me, again, as he saw me playing with this, that he still believes my first talent was (and is) writing. That may have been so once, but as I completed my undergraduate years, my writing talents transferred away from personal into the academic, and I’m hoping I can gain the personal ones back through this blog.

There are so many new, exciting, and absolutely anxiety-inducing things happening to me in the next month. I left Berkeley, where I went to school and lived for 6 years. I fell in love there in more ways than one … with the city, with my friends, with myself, with my life, and with Derek. I learned more than Russian history — though that is what I studied the most! Now I am staying with my parents on the central coast, in a small town that’s expanded its borders whilst the buildings keep emptying out. The town I grew up in is not the same anymore. In a little more than a week, I’m on my way to Madison.

So, this is what I want this blog for: to document the changes. To organize my thoughts. To form better-crafted opinions. And most of all, to connect. I want to stay connected with my friends and family back in California, hopefully make lots of new friends in Madison (and I found out I have family in Madison too!), and make new friends in the blogosphere.

I plan to write more about my library studies in a thoughtful way, examining my assignments and the future of the libraries. In that way, this blog is a professional one. Some folks I spoke to recommended keeping professional and personal extremely separated. I understand that very well, but after a long think, decided that I can’t just separate my personal life from my professional one. I do not take off a Work Costume when I enter my house. I do not put on a mask when I enter the workplace. They are completely intertwined. If I hated my field and wasn’t passionate about it, then yes, I could separate the two, but I cannot with something like archives and libraries.

And so, in that way, this blog is also a personal one. Learning about Madison is going to be as thrilling of a process as learning about librarianship. I’m at a point in my life when I can gather all I’ve known and done, and evaluate it, and see a future that I can shape. Being an undergraduate in college was great, and fun, and stressful, but it was also one of those steps in my life I just knew I’d do since I was very young (thanks to my parents high expectations). Moving forward with Derek to Madison for library school is something I determined myself, and want to keep up with that.

I hope you’ll join me!