I'm home but where are my parents?

I guess I should be used to the fact that my parents are never home, particularly right before Christmas, but it's a little weird for me to travel all this way home - to sit alone at the house! I could do that just fine back in Syracuse.

During the day, I ran some errands for my mom; namely, I bought Christmas presents for my dad. Pretty uneventful but I admit that I forgot what it's like to take about 20 minutes to go 6 miles because there is a lot of traffic. In Syracuse, that doesn't usually happen.

When I got home, I decorated our Christmas tree. I remember a time when my parents talked about getting two trees to decorate and now we barely decorate one. The tree is, as usual, gigantic and is kind of a pain in the ass to decorate, but it is pretty. They should be happy to see it decorated, I'm guessing. I'm trying to be nice and helpful in whatever ways I can while I'm home. While I decorated, I of course listened to some of my parents' Christmas tunes. That's a prerequisite for tree decorating, as far as I'm concerned. Luckily, they have some Christmas CDs because I did such a bad job of providing traveling music for myself. I spent time yesterday morning burning a CD of various music and then when I got in the car, it didn't even work. Also, I somehow forgot to bring home my Gavin DeGraw CD, which I about have memorized because I listen to it and love it so much. However, as I was going through my parents' Christmas music, I came across a CD with 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' sung by Gavin!! So that will have to make do this next week. And maybe my brother will let me burn a CD while I'm over at their house this week. Or not.

While I was driving around this afternoon, I remembered some of the restaurants that I take for granted here that aren't in Syracuse. Some, like Steak 'n Shake, do not make me too sad. I barely like Steak 'n Shake. However, I do like Donatos, Dairy Queen and Chipotle, none of which have made it to the 'Cuse. It's a travesty, it really is.

Home!!

Yep, I made it back safe and sound to Cleveland in the typical 5-5 1/2 hours. Thank God there were no traffic or weather problems. I was originally going to leave at like 11 am but as we all knew, that wasn't really going to happen, so I sort of figured 1pm was a better plan and I would therefore avoid rush hour traffic when I hit Cleveland. As it turned out, I left at about 1:30pm. And got to my parents' house at about 7pm. On the way, I made my obligatory stop at the last rest stop before Buffalo where they have a Pizza Hut so I could buy a personal pan pizza. I love love love personal pan pizzas, you have no idea. However, this one was lacking a little something. I don't know what, but perhaps it is good if my love for the personal pan pizza diminishes.

I was super psyched to pay $1.99 for gas. Less than two dollars for a gallon of gas?!? How I love Ashtabula, Ohio. Syracuse is pretty much $2.35 all over and while Ohio is typically cheaper, that is a huge difference! More importantly, I was able to fill up my tank for less than $30, something I haven't done in a long, long time. Ah, the small joys.

Cleveland seems to be the same. Except not. It's weird to see Gund Arena now referred to as "The Q" Arena. I'm sorry but that's just stupid. Call it Quicken Loans Arena; don't call it "The Q." Also, it seems that all the stores at Crocker Park are now open, which was not the case the last time I was here, or at least not the last time I was here for more than two days. Umm, I'm sure there are many more small differences but overall, I love being back here and knowing where I'm going at all times!!

Blown off

Yesterday, the internship supervisor was supposed to come visit me at the med school library but he bailed and decided to just do the interview over the phone, which I guess is okay. However, imagine the uncomfortableness that can be an in-person conversation with someone you don't especially like and then triple it by having to converse with that man over the phone. Ugh. It sucked. But the best part was that it was only about five minutes long. At least he remembered me from the first time we met (oh, two weeks ago)...

Also, because it was the last day of the semester for Upstate, it was supposed to be "slow" at the library and they made reference on-call all day - meaning that no one was assigned time at the reference desk and librarian aid would only be sought if someone showed up with a question and specifically demanded help, yet because I was there, they figured I could sit at the desk anyway. So I did and it was by far the busiest of any days I've ever been there. I must have had eight phone calls over the five hours I was there and while that may not seem like much, typically I am lucky to get one phone call! I am happy to be gone from there for two weeks, I have to tell you, although being away for two weeks just prolongs the whole experience.

Before heading home, I got to see some of my friends last night. My friend Brian & I went to get something to eat at Friendly's, which was his idea but enabled me to try to play matchmaker with him and this friend of mine (Khris) who works there. Brian agreed that Khris is a nice guy but wasn't interested. That's fine; I wasn't that convinced there would be a love match. After Brian left, I called some friends to see if they were at the bar and they were so I headed there to hang out with them. That was nice!

More movies

I watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith yesterday, as I again pretty much did nothing all day. It was an okay movie, improved by the fact that Vince Vaughn was in it. How I love Vince! But then I started to think about how creepy and incestuous the whole Hollywood community is... with Vince now supposedly dating Jennifer Aniston and Brad & Angelina dating after making that movie together.

Today, I'm feeling a little better but I don't know, I still don't feel like doing anything. I'm currently finishing up my hours at my internship, where I had to work from 1-6. It's been a little busier than what I'm used to and I am happy to actually help some patrons. I almost called off sick but it just would have meant that I would have had to make up the time, so I'm glad I didn't do that. I am breathing a little easier, just coughing a bit.

I have two more movies from the library to watch - Batman Begins and War of the Worlds (yes, that would be Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise, respectively, another gaggy Hollywood couple). So maybe I will just stay in and do that instead of heading to the bar to hang out with a couple friends.

Stuffed up and sniffling

Ugh, I have a cold and the worst part is the stuffed nose and the sneezing and sniffling. I despise that. So far, it's not that bad of a cold but anything that prevents me from breathing easily is not good by any stretch of the imagination.

As a result of me being sick, I've basically done nothing this weekend. I did manage to sit at work (my internship) for five hours yesterday, although I kind of don't even remember how the time passed since I was kind of out of it. After getting home last night and then all day today, all I did was sit on the couch and watch movies. I've got a bunch of movies taped from cable and a couple on DVD that I've never seen so I'm trying to go through those. I finally watched Road to Perdition, which was one I wanted to see since it came out and just had never gotten around to it. It was really good. I also watched My Life Without Me, Gigli (yeah, I know, it wasn't really THAT bad), Alfie (now that one was bad), and I don't remember what else. Nothing too fantastic. I'm sure I'll watch more tomorrow, although I do want to get some resumes sent out, too.

Bye-bye Megan

My roommate moved out today and I've been so sad about it. Don't get me wrong, part of me is thrilled to have the place to myself and to not have to pick up after her (not that I really picked up after her but she is definitely more messy than I am, particularly when it comes to doing dishes) but it was so nice to have the companionship and as soon as I had my first afternoon without her, it made me realize that I really have nothing else here. I only really have one other good friend here and he works a lot so we don't see each other much. The only other person I feel any sort of close kinship with is the guy I used to date, and I honestly think that is completely one-sided, that he really can barely tolerate me and is just too nice of a guy to say that to my face. There are a couple other people who I really, really like but we are really different and sometimes it's hard not to notice that.

Anyway, I don't mean to feel sorry for myself or anything, it's just that with Megan leaving and the semester ending and me officially graduating (although I still have 30 hours of my internship to finish up), it's like the end of an era and it's an era I'm not entirely sure I want to end yet. Maybe if I had even the slightest idea where I was headed next then it would be more exciting than sad but right now I only feel sad. I hate getting close to people only to have them walk out of your life to possibly never see them again.

Interview!!

I had my first official librarian interview today at a local, suburban public library. I was SO nervous about it all, but luckily one of my best friends here works at the circulation desk and was on duty when I came in so he calmed my nerves a little and then I talked to another sort of friend who works there so that helped too. She gave me some tips. Overall, I thought the interview went well and I think the director really liked me, but I have no idea who else she has talked to or how those interviews have gone. She is very chatty and so I felt like I didn't get much time to talk. But I think I said a lot of the right things.

Anyway, would I even want this job? I don't know. It's only part-time, but I guess that means at least 30 hours a week so that isn't bad and she's in the process of seeing about getting health care benefits for all employees who work over 15 hours so that would be pretty sweet, too. It involves sitting at the reference desk all day, though, so I don't know, that kind of sucks. Like, doing nothing but sitting at the reference desk. Which is something that I really don't like doing at my internship - just sitting there waiting for customers to come. And if they don't, then you just sit there. But, the director seems really open to ideas and if I can get some good ideas about how to improve things, which I think I might be able to do, then it might actually be a really awesome opportunity. At least for a year or so, where I can get some experience and then maybe be ready for another move somewhere. I don't know. We'll see. Second interviews will start after the first of the year.

The new internship I hate

I don't 'hate' it quite yet but it's losing its shine a bit. Everyone there is apparently divided into one of two factions and the one side feels like they are being edged out and forced to leave and all this drama. Hearing the other side makes me think that they really aren't paranoid and that this is truly happening. However, I just want to go in, put in my time and leave and not get mixed up in all the melodrama.

There is this older librarian there who I was warned about - warned that she was bossy and pushy and that I shouldn't listen to her, that she has no authority over me and all that - and she's been nothing but nice to me! She thinks I'm being taken advantage of, though, and I have to say that I kind of agree. Today I was only scheduled to work the reference desk from 5-6pm and ended up working it from 2-6pm because the one librarian suddenly had to run to the bank and the other librarian had to go to a meeting. What would they have done if I hadn't been here to sub for them? But then again, why else am I here as an intern if it isn't to sort of be taken advantage of. I mean, it's not like they are asking me to murder people or work myself to the bone. It's just sitting at the reference desk, waiting for questions. All day I probably had like four questions. And at least if I get to sit at the reference desk, I have a computer in front of me and therefore can surf the Web if I need to.

I am a little worried about Saturday when I'll be all alone without any other reference person here. Hopefully it will be really, really dead.

Last big assignment

I've been in the computer lab on campus for approximately 8 hours today working on this big usability test paper. I have more than enough pages but it's just not the right pages, if that makes sense. I am looking at a couple more hours here, at least, probably. Although I should get dinner at some point. Anyway, once this is done, I'm basically finished with all of my assignments and - quite possibly - my academic career!

Usability testing

I got two of my friends to do usability tests on my library Web site - well, not my library Web site but the one that I'm testing. That was kind of fun! It's fascinating to see how other people approach things. Although Mark said I made him nervous by watching him...

Other than that, Mark made me sign up for MySpace so I now have an account there. We'll see how that works out.

Oh yeah, and I listed some things on eBay. More to come on that front...

Internship winding down

The faculty advisor, who I haven't heard a lot of great things about, had to come visit my internship today so that was interesting. I wore a short skirt because I hear he only hires pretty gals. In other words, he's kind of a pig. Anyhow, it all ended up being fine and my site supervisor, Fred, apparently talked me up and all that. In fact, he didn't stop talking. He went on and on and on and it was kind of crazy because he's not very talkative when we are alone. I can't tell you how many times he doesn't answer my questions.

I only have one more day there and I am so excited, you just don't know!

I do have a TON of homework over the next few days, though, so ugh.

Cranky

Today was not that good of a day. First of all, my left leg is so sore from those huge bruises I mentioned yesterday. Then, on my way to work, I totally fell on the ice and now my left butt cheek hurts like hell, too. I don't even want to see the bruise for that one.

At work, we finally figured out the rest of my schedule. I need 60 more hours to finish up my internship and although I was told I could finish in ten weeks, it's going to end up being twelve... although even finagling that was a bit of trouble. I said I would work some Saturdays; however, during the holidays and around this time of year, many Saturdays do not have reference service. Instead of letting me make up time on other days, my supervisor wanted me to keep working until I can do Saturdays. Umm, I don't want to be at this internship until March just so I can get a few Saturdays in. Luckily, I talked her into letting me work some Tuesdays and now my last day is scheduled for January 21st. It's just really frustrating to me. I was really hoping to be finished by January 14th... I guess one week doesn't make a big difference.

Finally, immediately after work and before class, I had to meet with a group for a presentation for class tonight. The meeting went all right - as good as can be expected for the hell that is group work - and our presentation went off fine, too, but this presentation was only the first step in a major final project that is due Dec. 16th. Now, with people leaving for winter break and whatnot, we basically decided we need to get it done by Dec. 11th. So we had to set up a meeting time when everyone could show up. Catherine suggested Saturday. I said I had to work until 5pm. Everyone seemed to agree that meeting at 5pm would work well. Well, maybe a half hour later, group member Michelle suddenly remembered she had to work from 4:45 to 8pm on Saturday. So, Catherine decided that it would make more sense to accommodate Michelle (yes, she would be the group member who does nothing in the group because there is always a coattail-rider) than to accommodate me and the meeting was moved to 3pm, with me being able to join them like at 5:30ish or whenever I could. Provided everything was not finished by then, of course. Which it very well might be. This had me slightly miffed at first, but then, the more I thought about it, I remembered how we all agreed to meet at 9:30pm on Monday night to accommodate Catherine. We all were willing to meet up at a totally inconvenient time just so she could join us. Why do I not get the same treatment? It's just really frustrating for me. ESPECIALLY because I volunteered to do the 'executive summary' - something that would be a whole lot easier to write if I actually get to hear what everyone has to say about their parts. And ESPECIALLY because the only reason Catherine wants to meet earlier is so that it doesn't cut into her drinking time. I am not sure how to say all this stuff without coming across as a bitch.

The good, the bad, the ugly...

The good - Today I got a call from a nearby public library that I had sent my resume today and I am going to meet with the director next Thursday. Yay! My first official library interview. It's only a part-time opening and I'm not sure if I should even consider taking something like that if I am only going to continue to look for something full-time but everyone I talk to seems to agree that it's not horrible to do that. We'll see. The best part of that job is that I have friends who work there.

The bad - Actually, nothing really is bad, but I did have a LONG day on Monday, starting with my third-to-last day at the engineering firm, where I actually kind of enjoyed my time for once. I had to try to find a bunch of articles and that involved searching WorldCat, Google, various government Web sites and more. I was impressed with my ability to think of ways to find things. After that, I stopped home briefly to grab a change of clothes for later and headed to campus to attend the IST holiday party with my roommate and her GA friends. It was fun! There was ample free wine that I took advantage of... I stayed at the party to the bitter end, where I then persuaded Dan that we should hang out at his house between the end of the party and when we needed to meet with our group. That evolved into actually conducting the group meeting at Dan's house... until midnight. It was just a long day. I was definitely ready to go to bed by the end of it.

The ugly - I had difficulty sleeping last night (which I often do after consuming alcohol) partly because every time I tried to sleep on my left side, my leg was in a lot of pain. I could tell I had a bruise there but only this evening did I realize the extent of the bruises. Yes, there is more than one. They are nasty, quite colorful ones that I have NO idea how I got. Am I the only one who is constantly finding bruises on her body and having NO clue where they came from? You would think I would remember something causing such damage, but nope.

Start of hell week

I realized today that I kind of have a LOT to do and going on this week and it will pretty much suck but I guess after it's done, I will be totally free of schoolwork for possibly forever.

I went to campus to use their high-speed Internet and ran into friends in the computer lab so I don't think I necessarily got as much done as I could have. I did find some articles that relate to my reference class final project, though, and I pretty much decided on a subject, too. So yay!

Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day.

I helped a patron!

So, yeah, what do you know, at my internship today, I actually helped a patron. I kind of helped more than one, but there was one guy who I solely helped all by myself. Yay! I can do it! Of course, do I have any idea if I actually did help him after he walked away from the desk? Nope. But he didn't come back so I'm thinking positively!

After work, I washed dishes, made dinner, watched Serendipity and worked on ranking bed & breakfast Web sites for my Information Architecture class. My friend Dan helped me with that, which was so incredibly nice of him because it probably doubled his time commitment to that project, but at least he helped me to kind of understand what I was doing.

Snow snow snow

Today we had a pretty good snowfall. I only went out for a brief time and the roads were getting a little bad - so I went back home! Ha! Winter is not my favorite season.

I applied for a job at a local public library, though. The more I think about it, the more I actually think I might like working for a public library. But it probably depends on the situation. While I sent my info out to be rejected, I also talked to the manager(?) at Borders, who told me I was too late for a job, that he already filled up all the interview slots. He sounded like kind of a dick, to be honest. I've never heard of the job interviewing tactic that consists of giving out interviews to the people who call back first. I mean, usually isn't there some sort of preliminary ranking order of people you want to interview or, at least, the number of phone calls match the number of interview slots or something? He only called me on Thursday; I tried to call him back unsuccessfully Thursday afternoon and evening and then Friday morning, when I did get ahold of him, it was too late. Although, he might call me Monday if one of the interviews didn't work out apparently. Oh joy! Lucky me! I can't wait!

I got this DVD from the library on the Amish rite of rumspringa. It was kind of interesting. I'm determined to find a blog by an Amish person tomorrow while I'm at work, sitting at the reference desk. There has to be one, right?

Thursday

My internship at the engineering firm is down to only about 14 hours or so. Three more days of work, as I see it. Next week, the internship faculty advisor from school is coming to interview us, so I'm so dreading that. Today, Fred had me work on a Dialog search, although I couldn't for the life of me tell you what exactly I was doing since he simply had me type in the commands and hit enter.

Other than that, I turned in some paperwork to allow me to continue my education next semester (and therefore get more government financial aid) and also tried to write the perfect cover letter for a local job. I don't even know if I want the job, but I figured I should at least apply for it, right?

Also, Borders finally called me about a job there, after I turned in the application about ten days ago. I couldn't get ahold of them, though, as it seems to be Borders policy that phone answering is the lowest priority. When the phone did finally get answered, I was told that "Mark" was not available and that I could not leave a message. Nice. So I have to just keep trying back?