Good news! and an update

I have a job! :) I'm going to be a Library Assistant at Pflugerville Community Library in Pflugerville, Texas, a small city northeast of downtown Austin. I interviewed on Tuesday and was offered/accepted the job on Wednesday. According to the job description, I'll be shelving books, checking materials in and out, issuing library cards, answering phones, and helping computer users. It seems like a great work environment and I'm looking forward to getting started.

Been busy since the last post, as always. Last week was the first kickball victory I was present for (the other one happened at the only game I've missed). We beat the team that beat us 7-0 in our first game. Very satisfying. We've got two more games to go, so we could plausibly end the season at .500. I have faith.

I've been going to quite a few library-related things lately: a couple of things hosted by our career services office, a Romance Readers' Social, and a screening of The Hollywood Librarian, after which the director spoke with the audience. The documentary isn't, at present, commercially available, but I wish everyone I know would watch it because it captures much more eloquently than I've been able to why I want to be a librarian. Even after watching the segments on the battle to keep open the public libraries in Salinas, California, I felt confirmed in the desire to be a public librarian. It was a good feeling and a powerful documentary. And Ann Seidl, the director, is something else. She's fearless. It's inspirational, even if you don't necessarily agree with her.

Jennie was here. We went to San Antonio for the day on Sunday and did the Alamo, Market Square and the River Walk. She bought me a beautiful pashmina as an early Christmas gift. I'm wearing it right now, actually, because it's finally cold in Texas--it feels like Thanksgiving! :) Monday, she toured the Capitol while I was in class and then that night we had drinks on Sixth Street and went to Artz Rib House. Oh, and we took her to the Dog and Duck and Woodrow's while she was here. Good times.

Now the houseguests are gone and there are three weeks (and lots of homework) left of the semester. But first, Thanksgiving. Pat and I are going down to San Antonio to have dinner with some friends of mine from high school and their families. If I can pry him away from the Packers game, that is.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

November...yikes.

November's promising to be even more of a whirlwind than October, considering it's nearly half over and I still feel like it's Halloween...

I'm not even sure where the first several days went, but Mary arrived on the 6th and left on the 7th and Pat's parents showed up on the 8th and left Sunday morning. I can't believe it's already been a week since we left Mar in San Antonio. In fact, by now she's moved on from San Antonio altogether.

Seeing Mary was really wonderful. I've met a lot of great people here in Austin, but there's nothing quite like a friend that's known you for years. Her visit was really relaxing and I'm feeling a little better about not making it back East for Thanksgiving; Jennie's upcoming visit will help with that, too, I think.

Pat's parents' visit was anything but relaxing, but it was fun, and I managed to get in quite a bit of homework time this weekend, too. That was key.

The only problem with having visitors so soon after moving here is that I'm still not sure what to do with people. We took Mary to the bars and restaurants we like and showed her around campus. Then, we met up with her in San Antonio for a Spurs game, which was a lot of fun. I always forget in the off-season how much I like basketball. Although, I have to admit that the highlight of the game was the pre-game ceremony in which they gave season-ticket holder Josh Beckett a jersey and showed him on the Jumbotron. It reminded me of when Pat and I went to see the Celtics play the Bucks right after the Pats' first Super Bowl victory of the decade and Tebucky Jones was there. I kept looking at him the whole night instead of focusing on the game.

We took Pat's parents on a Tower Tour, down to Sixth Street to the Tears of Joy Hot Sauce shop (his dad loves spicy food), and to BookPeople, among other things. Oh, and we took them to the Alamo Drafthouse, where the movie we wanted to see was sold out, so we ended up seeing Lions for Lambs. Ugh, it was awful. Remember when Tom Cruise used to make good movies?

I should wrap up so I can get to my last 180J class. In 3.5 hours I'll be finished with my first class at the iSchool. Admittedly, it's a one-credit pass/fail class, but finishing it puts me one step closer to the end of the semester.

One last thing: It's 81 degrees and I'm wearing shorts and flip-flops. I love Texas.

October, I hardly knew ye...Part the Second

What a busy month! November promises to be more of the same because we'll have visitors! Elmo Makes Music arrives in San Antonio this weekend, and with it, Mary! Then, the in-laws next weekend and Jennie the weekend after that. :)

Anyway, more on October. I forgot to mention in my last post the BU alumni event Pat and I went to. It was a pretty fun time at the Belmont, where they have $1 margaritas and half-priced apps on Monday evenings. One of the guys there graduated in '06 and is in UT's School of Education, which is in the same building as my school and I think I saw him the other day, but I wasn't confident about it, so I didn't say anything. Oh well. The person who organized it is talking about doing a Beanpot get-together, which would be nice. Or, considering how the team's doing thus far, maybe it won't be nice...We shall see.

This weekend was a busy one. On Saturday, I went to the Texas Clay Festival with some folks from the iSchool, one of which worked with my cousin Chelle at the Maine Historical Society. Actually, while I'm talking about what a small world it is, I'm going to digress. I finally gave into peer pressure and joined Facebook and I'm glad I did because I was able to get back in touch with two of the people from high school that I really wish I hadn't lost touch with in the first place (there aren't many of those, let me tell you) and they are both living in Texas, too. So bizarre.

Anyway, Texas Clay Festival. I'm a total bum and didn't remember my camera and I really wish I had. I'd love to go back and revisit some of the pieces I looked at during the day because I was experiencing some sensory overload and it would be nice to get a second look. We watched some really interesting demos. One was a man working on the wheel and another was a man doing a quick firing technique that I believe is called raku, but I might be making that up. I could watch people performing their craft all day, and it doesn't have to be art, either. I even get really mesmerized watching other hairdressers when I'm getting my hair cut. I like that pottery is such a tactile art. Every single thing we looked at we were aloud to touch and pick up.

On Sunday, Pat and I went to the Triple Crown Pet Festival. The proceeds went to the Austin SPCA. We saw doggie dancing, a police dog training demo, and weenie dog races! I know, I know, you're thinking, "Becca, weenie dog races? But, I know for a fact that you keep a huge soapbox in your closet for times when you need to talk about greyhound racing." These were people's pets that they brought with them to the festival and they weren't compelled to race by any means other than someone standing 50 feet away with a toy or treat. Some of them chose not to run at all; one rolled over and asked to have his tummy rubbed. It was really cute! I wish we could have a dog, but two cats is the limit in the apartment building.

In other news, I'll be on the east coast from January 1st or 2nd-ish to January 15th-ish. I'll be spending some time in Maine, some in Boston (I'll be begging for sofa space soon, friends!), and some in Philly (woo, Randi!) for ALA Midwinter.

Last but not least, a little story about why library school has its perks: I've spend the last couple of weeks working on a project about Romance fiction for my Public Libraries class. I even decided to read one of the books I talked about in my presentation. In one of the books I used, The Romance Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Love in the Stacks, the author told a story of working in her library and having an elderly man come to the reference desk whom she had difficulty understanding. He apologized to her, saying that he'd had a stroke and was learning to speak all over again. She mentioned to him that she'd just read a book about a stroke survivor learning to speak whose first words were swears; he said he'd had the same experience (drove his wife crazy) and he'd like to read that book. She gave him the book I'm reading now, Flowers from the Storm, which he then gave to his wife and recommended to his doctor, who in turn recommended it to other stroke survivors and their families. Very touching story and a pretty enjoyable novel, to boot. :)

October, I hardly knew ye...

Okay, October's not quite over, yet, but it has flown by! And, even though I was wearing shorts just a few days ago, it seems fall may finally have arrived. Right now, it's 75 degrees, but this morning it was 50 and I saw two people wearing gloves. True story. Anyway, what have I been up that's made the time go by so quickly? Well...

Kickball season started a couple of weeks ago. Yes, kickball. Pat and I are both playing on my school's team, Dublin Hardcore (it's a library joke that I haven't been here long enough to fully understand). Our player numbers are all Dewey Decimal numbers. Pat's is 621 for Applied Physics and mine is 641 for Food & Beverage. And you thought it didn't get any geekier than Theta Ballers... ;) So far, we tied in a scrimmage and lost both of our regular season games. But, we improved from scoring no runs in the first game to scoring three in the second, so I think things are looking up.

Last game, I was really awesome and ran full speed directly into the ground. It didn't hurt that much when I first stood up, but eventually several injuries surfaced: I got dirt so far under my fingernail on my right thumb that it really stung for a day and then got infected (gross, I know); I have a bottle-cap sized scab on my left shoulder and I did something that wasn't visible or disgusting but really painful to my left thigh. And that's on top of face-planting in the dirt in front of 30 people. Did I mention I'm awesome?

A couple of weeks ago, we went to this place called Threadgill's to see The Gourds. The Gourds, for those of you who don't know, are a bluegrass-y rock band that did a cover of Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice. The cover was featured on a recent episode of My Name is Earl, if you happen to watch that show. The show was, first of all, outdoors in October and I was wearing short-sleeves. It was also totally awesome. They are excellent performers.

Despite the fact that I feel like I just started school, I also had my advising appointment for next semester this month. Next semester ought to be good; I'm taking some classes that are actually library-related (this semester I'm only taking one library class and 3 core classes): Collection Management, Research, and most likely an independent study on library services for incarcerated persons.

Elsewhere in library-world, I started volunteering at the Austin Public Library and I toured the Hogg Regional Foundation Library last week. At APL, I'm shelving books. It is what it is. The RFL tour was really interesting though. It's a library of foundation information. What they do, essentially, is help grant writers. They have a large collection of resources on who offers grants and for what purposes and how to write grants. They also do grant proposal editing and a few other things. It's really a hidden gem, I think, for non-profits or grad students looking for money. I was really impressed with their operation and I kind of wish I needed to write a grant so I could spend more time there. Or that I could just work there.

Hmm...something else has been going on this month...what is it...

Oh, wait, I know. Football and Baseball. Life is good. GO SOX!

Things that are Weird about Texas

1. Every mechanic, tow truck driver, etc. that looks at my car knows it's not from here because it's got rust underneath. That only happens where it snows. PS How sad is it that the car has had enough problems that this has happened enough times to warrant mention? In fact, it was towed away today because it won't start. That's after the other shenanigans, including the the broken A/C and transmission.
   
2. The traffic lights are horizontal, not vertical. Red, Yellow, Green, from left to right. Not top to bottom.
   
3. We're starting to catch up now, but at one point, the sun was rising here an hour later than it does in Boston. And not as in, it rises at 7:00am there and 7:00am here which is obviously an hour later because we're on central time. No, as in, tomorrow, the sun will rise in Boston at 6:52 and it will rise here at 7:30, which is 8:30 in Boston. When we first got here, it was often dark when I got up. It was freakin' me out.
   
4. This apparently doesn't apply to all public transportation in Austin, but the bus I ride is totally awesome. It runs on schedule, has a rack on the front for bikes, has those little lights and vents above each seat like on airplanes, and it has wi-fi. I don't even know how that works on something that moves, but it does. A-mazing.
   
5. The place where you get your driver's license is called the Department of Public Safety, commonly referred to as the DPS. I thought RMV was weird, but at least it has "motor vehicles" in the name, giving you some indication that it's the place to go for a driver's license.

My sense of humor is 14 years old.

There's a movie theater on campus called the Dobie, which has a rather small marquee on Guadalupe (also called The Drag, Guadalupe is sort of this campus' Comm Ave...kind of). Because the marquee is small, the entire title "Someone to Eat Cheese With" won't fit on one line, so they've been forced to put "Someone to Eat" one one line and "Cheese With" on the line below. The other movie sharing these two lines? "Outsourced," which they've separated into "Out" and "Sourced," thus forming "Someone to Eat Out" on a single line. That's all I'm saying.

Speaking of campus, I found another awesome place to eat yesterday: Longhorn Po' Boys. They have the most wonderful falafel I've ever had. It's so flavorful and delicious, I want to eat it everyday. But, I won't. Because, it's on the other side of campus from everything else I need. I was only there yesterday to return something to the Public Affairs Library. Sad face. If only it this campus weren't so big or it weren't still so hot or my bag didn't regularly weigh 30 pounds...

Gee-tars

So, remember a while back when Boston had the decorated cows all around town? Austin has guitars (although, according to the Web site, they are being removed mid-2007, so they may be gone any day). These are the ones I've seen in person (and been able to photograph) so far:



You can see the rest at this Web site.

Exploring Campus

Today, I rode the UT Shuttle and went inside the Texas Memorial Museum. It's amazing how exciting the little things are; I feel like I may actually know my way around this campus by the time I graduate! Or I may not.

Ooh, I also discovered a new place to eat around campus: Veggie Heaven. It's Asian vegetarian food and it's freaking delicious. And they have Thai iced tea, which is really all I need in life. My favorite Tex Mex place we've tried so far, El Mercado, is also right near campus (and I think there may be one mear my house). They've got the best salsa. Another great place to eat on campus: Mellow Mushroom, which I first tried when I was visiting Auburn, Alabama, actually. I'm psyched they have one here. The calzones are a-freaking-mazing. (Not better or worse than BPE, totally different.)

I still miss U-Grill and BPE and BHOP and all the other yummy places to eat near BU's campus, but at least I'm starting to figure things out around here!

Turtle Power!

On Monday, completely by accident, I discovered the most wonderful thing on UT's campus: a turtle pond! It's near the bio labs and has water lilies and fish and 60+ turtles. Turtles! It's pretty much my favorite thing ever.

Acronyms

I wanted to come up with a clever acronym for the title of this post, but I couldn't even handle it. Library school has so many acronyms my head is going to explode. I'm taking Introduction to Information Studies, Information Marketing, Managing Information Services and Organizations, and Public Libraries and the shear volume of reading would be bad enough, but keeping track of all the acronyms makes some things almost incomprehensible. Public Libraries is the worst (for acronyms that is; the class is totally awesome). The ALA (itself an acronym) has so many affiliates and divisions and rountables...it's...dizzying.

I'll do another post soon with details about the classes, but I just had to get this out of my system today.

Trish in Austin

So we finally arrived at our home-sweet-home and learned about even more amenities (including a furnished guest house that will fit six comfortably for $99/night *hint hint*wink wink* and a pet sitter that has a relationship with the complex) and I got to see it for the first time. It's perhaps even better than I thought it would be. Eventually, I'll post pictures, but after six weeks (I guess it's a little weird that I'm writing in the past tense about the move but back-dating the posts, sorry 'bout that) we still aren't done moving in. Once classes started, it just dropped way down on the priority list, which has been hard to deal with. I'm the kind of person who unpacks for a trip as soon as she walks through the door. I do not like for things to be in boxes. But, I digress. Back to Trish's time here with us!

That night we ate a BBQ place picked by Trish: Artz Rib House. She picked it because the review said it had vegetarian fare. My grilled veggies were absolutely delicious, but even better was the pecan sweet potato pie we had for dessert. Hot damn.

On Tuesday, we squeezed in as much Austin goodness and touristy times as we could because Trish was leaving Wednesday while I was at Orientation. We went on a Duck Tour (I highly recommend them), ate at the Iron Cactus (where they make the guac right in front of you!), toured a little of UT's campus, and hit up the pool at our apartment complex. Then, we hit the town. Sixth Street is the bar/club/music scene in downtown Austin. We went to a bar called The Library that I actually really liked. Then we hit up B.D. Riley's and Daddy's. It was an excellent night.

Road Trip!

So, most of you have probably heard about our road trip from Boston to Austin, but here's a recap with pictures. It's been so long now, I can't even remember our exact route, but I think we did 12 states in four days (about 2,000 miles): Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas.

Day 1 was rough. We were hungover, we got a late start, there was rain, there was traffic...and there was no food in New Jersey (kind of like how there's no gas in Maryland). And we really needed it. We stayed overnight in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Honestly, it could've been anywhere. We were just so happy to get out of the cars. And, they served hard-boiled eggs at breakfast.

Day 2 was much better. It was pretty...um...interesting to drive through the Bible Belt and see the gigantic crosses stuck in the ground beside the highway. We stayed in Nashville and somehow I seem to have no pictures, but it was awesome. I thought Nashville would be kind of cheesy and hokey, but it was actually really cool. I had blast there at the Opryland Hotel and walking around the Grand Ole Opry. Plus, our hotel was wicked close to the Opry and it was the cheapest place we stayed, so if you're looking to vacation in Nashville, it can actually be done pretty cheaply. Also, thanks to the Opryland Hotel, I'm now obsessed with artisan cheeses (especially Gouda). I definitely intend to make it back there someday.

Day 3 we arrived in Texas, after driving through surprisingly scenic and beautiful Arkansas. We stayed overnight in New Boston and it was totally lame. It's in a dry county and the only things for miles are a Dominos and a Wal-Mart. Sad face.

Day 4 we arrived in Austin! I'll do a separate post about Trish's time in Texas (okay, we'd been in Texas all of Day 4, but I liked the alliteration).

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