I Have Senioritis

Whenever I am about to graduate from school of some kind, the last year or so is super difficult. Not necessarily in terms of coursework but more along the lines of "I have no desire to do any work, and I cannot focus on anything that has to do with school." It can get bad; my last semester of undergrad I seriously considered showing up to the final presentation for my Latin American Plays of Protest class and saying, "No tengo un presentacion hoy. Estoy aburrido con mi vida." 


However, I didn't know that this was an affliction that was going to hit me in grad school too.


Senioritis can cause one to do things that they might never normally do. Even the most dedicated student is prone to it. Some side effects include:

• Realizing that spacing and margins on your papers are extremely important. (More important that the paper itself sometimes);  
• Deciding to write a blog post....or seven;
• Getting sucked into watching the entire second season of Bored to Death in 4 episode increments;
• Looking at all of your old photos for hours and wondering why the hell haven't I bought a photo printer yet;
• Realizing that your computer could get a cold and accidentally erase everything; and running out to buy an external hard drive because your old one is formatted for a PC and you're now using a mac;
• It suddenly becomes important to do freakishly detailed cleaning projects that you would normally hate to do- such as cleaning your keyboard....or the oven;
• Cooking like the Barefoot Contessa moves from a distant life goal into something that must happen immediately;
• Cursing yourself because your recipe box is already in alphabetical order (a project you completed the last time you procrastinated);
• Cleaning the bathroom until it is super clean...and we're talking on the level of "it's never this clean unless a boy is coming over."

Sometimes procrastination is more exhausting then just doing the work you're meant to be doing in the first place.

Last Days of Freedom

With the end of my Christmas break approaching, I just can't seem to find the motivation to begin my final year of grad school. I never really thought it would be harder to work full time and go to school part time, and I miss stress free weekends when I'm deep in the midst of a semester.

So lately, I've been running around the house trying to complete all the projects and rearranging that I can never get to when I have homework looming over my head. I cleaned up the floor by my desk, cleaned out and rearranged my bureau drawers, cleaned like a madwoman, and filed away photos, bills, etc. Next I knitted myself a new pair of gloves, a couple preemie hats for the hospital, and am starting another crafty project or three. My cousin is having another baby so here comes another birth announcement and baby blanket (though the blanket can wait a tiny while...I'm still not thrilled about knitting those squares yet....maybe I need a new pattern for something different?)

My cousin Dan (who has his Ph.D.), says that halfway through grad school, you sit back and wonder, "why am I doing this to myself?" I know why I'm doing this, but some days, I'd rather knit a hat and watch Gilmore Girls.

But for now a HUGE congratulations to my friend Becca who recently finished her MFA!!! You are inspiring me to keep on going. :-)

NPR Gets It

My sister recently showed me a fake Twitter page of famous events in history (which I can't find anymore). It was hilarious especially since

1.) I think of Twitter as kind of a waste of time

2.) I enjoy snarky humour
and

3.) Tweets were along the lines of: "Thomas Jefferson posted 7/4/1776: Declaration signed! Suck it Britain!"

Today one of the students in my class posted the following article from NPR on Facebook Statuses from Hamlet:

Something Rotten in the Facebook Statuses

Oh NPR....I love it.

Shopper's Dilemma

When online shopping first showed up, I was skeptical. "What is the fun in this?" I thought. But after years of living in remote areas coupled with my dislike of driving, online shopping has become kind of fun. Am I lazy? Maybe not; I think I just don't have time (can I blame grad school for this too?). And many online shops have a better selection.

Example: My little sister LOVES Stephen Colbert. For Christmas I wanted to get her something fun and cool. When I found a Stephen Colbert tote, I knew it was perfect. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it in any of the Barnes and Noble shops nearby. Solution: B&N online. You can see the result below:

Lately, I'm becoming more aware of Etsy...I think it might be perfect for the Christmas shopping that always sneaks up on me. A few friends bought me some Etsy gifts Christmas past, and they were really cute. Plus, it would help me avoid the crowds that clog up every mall and department store from Thanksgiving to mid-January.

Here are some Etsy shops that I recently discovered; they've gotten me excited about gift giving. I'm sure the more I look around, the more I'll find....

Art: AshleyG
Miscellaneous: MadisonCraft
Really fab guitar pics here (I might be a bit partial to the Beatles lyrics, tho.)
Lovely Notebooks from London.

Where's My Book?

As I may have mentioned, I am in the midst of grad school; I'm currently working on my master's degree in Library and Information Science.Today is the first day of the fall term, and we've all been asked to do the obligatory "introduce yourself" posts on the discussion boards (have I also mentioned that my grad school program is completely online? Well, it is.) One instructor asked us to talk about something we collect and how it's organized, and a lot of people chose to talk about their book collection.

For someone who wants to be a librarian, my books are not organized at all. Well, maybe not at all; I do group them together by author. But the Steinbeck is sitting next to Bridget Jones's Diary; Gertrude Stein sits next to Jonathan Safran Foer, and David Sedaris stretches out on top of everything because I have no room on the bookshelf, yet I can't get enough of him.

So I wonder if maybe I should re-organize them.... Fiction together over here, memoir on the shelf in my bedroom, super heavy books like The Complete Works of William Shakespeare on the bottom shelf of the super sturdy bookcase...but if I did all that, would I know where things were? Or would I just be shooting myself in the foot when a friend asks to borrow Jane Eyre (because so many friends do ask for that particular book).

I think there are just way too many options; which might be why I've never really had a problem with my current system. And it may be nice for someone working in an ordered library to come home to a bit of comfortable dysfunction. Otherwise I could be like John Cusack's character from High Fidelity and arrange my books-wait for it- autobiographically.