Thoughts on the Journey

Today has started off oddly and so as I look for threadbrain, I'm going to do this lovely 5 topics meme. Last night I dreamed that a friend from high school was trying to kill me as in the dark of my room, it was a disturbing dream. Then I woke up to find out I'd missed the call from the movers, called back and left a message saying, please I want more information.

Also the bandage on my ear lobe is about to fall off and I think its all healed but its hard to tell. I need to go to the university health center and get it looked at. I have this bad habit of reaching up and playing with my ear lobe and I'm worrying that maybe I've made it heal badly. I need to stop fretting over it and get it looked at. Basically I'm feeling like there are a few too many thoughts going around in my head.

This meme I think will help sort them out. I'm going to tackle the library/job topics and then come back for the other ones.

Comment to this post saying "FIVE!" and I will pick five things I would like you to talk about. They might make sense or be totally random.

Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself, hopefully for the rest of eternity!

(I don't really care if you say "FIVE" or let me know some other way. Just for the record.)

in_the_blue gave me:

1. ( libraries )
2. travel
3. ( job hunting )
4. your very favorite fictional character
5. ( where you see yourself in ten years )

My break is off to a quite good start. The two days of driving went without too many problems; lots of roadwork but the weather wasn't too bad. First night I arrived, I watched mysteries with my mother and ate leftovers. Last night an old medical school friend of my father and his wife came over and we had dinner and talked. It was wonderful to realize how sure I am of myself and able to say this is what I want to do.

This morning we went out to buy plants and wine before heading back. Currently its a little chilly here and I'm having tea. Though the amazing thing is that another school wants to do a phone interview with me. What I love is that both of these schools in their emails saying they want to do an interview mentioned my impressive credentials which makes me beam. I did the right thing getting my MSI and am going to find where I fit.

RP is also making me grin as Charles and Iris are being wonderfully complicated and a little hot. I love the completely unexpected couples that can appear in Milliways and how they work.

My ear is bandaged at the moment as we're trying to see if it will heal on its own but my feeling is that we're going to have to find another doctor to look at it. Its not hurting which is good, but its weird. I've gotten so used to wearing my lovely dangly earrings, that it's kind of bizarre to have bandage on one ear and stud in the other. I feel like I'm not fully dressed.

I always find it interesting to do this year in review meme so I'm going to post it as my sister in law and nieces play hearts. Life is feeling pretty good at this point. My banking stuff is finally sorted after another phone call where someone reversed the overdraft charges and sped up my credit for stolen money. It's progress which I'm grateful for.

Also I've created mirror journals for all of my RP ones though the only differences is that Tiwa and Jane's journals don't have their underscores. I started some of the imports but then realized that honestly those can wait as with some of them that will be a project. Today was wonderful, our family went for a walk out by Cape Henlopen and I split off at one point and had a nice quiet second half of the walk and took some gorgeous pictures along with having an idea for a fic. The afternoon has been lazy and since the weather in Delaware is amazingly good, my father set up the chiminea we have outside so the girls could have s'mores.

We spent some nice time being chilly, drinking wine and eating sugar, I also took some good pictures. I love having my family close and discovering my brother and I have very similar music tastes as he gave me a playlist full of Ryan Adams. Currently there's lamb cooking in the oven and lots of delicious wine. I hope everyone's New Year is wonderful. I feel blessed to have spent this year with all of you and hopefully next year I can meet more of you.

( Looking back on 2011 )

Today's been a good day, my present shopping is going well and work went quickly. I've been having lots of wonderful RP threads and I'm just feeling hopeful. Here's the five word meme that appeared on kit_the_brave's journal.

Comment to this post, and I will list five things I associate with you, They might make sense or they might be totally random. Then post that list, with your commentary, to your LJ (or just add a reply back to me). Other people (including me) can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.

Library school
I just finished my masters' degree at the University of Michigan School of Information and I feel like I keep coming up for breath. It was an amazing two years full of so many projects and long nights and hope. As I'm still working on campus as a librarian, I keep expecting to have a paper due and it's weird but nice not to. Now I'm trying to find a job but I know that I'm in the right profession.

Narnia
I think the Narnia books were the first series that I really went head first into as a little kid. They're still some of my favorite books and I've enjoyed the movie adaptations. I grew up with the BBC ones and liked the newer ones though I've yet to see Dawn Treader. It's not the most complex world building but Narnia feels true and I love that about it. My confession is that even though I own it, I have yet to actually read The Last Battle since I don't want the series to end. I've felt that way since I think I was about twelve when I decided that I wouldn't read it. And another odd story is that I didn't know about the Christian allegory element until I went to college and a friend told me about it. I admit I felt a bit stupid about it but they're beautiful fantasy first for me. Using the icon because it's a Narnian one I don't use a lot and the casting for Kirke just felt right for me.

Milliways
This coming February will be my fifth year at Milliways and it's one of my favorite communities to ever be a member of. I've found friends, improved my writing and seen my life and circles grow. Somehow I've gone from just playing Will Scarlett to having a roster of eight pups and then two that live over at Mixed Muses.

East Coast
I grew up in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania and I consider Philadelphia to be my city. I love the variety of the East Coast and it's one of my favorite places. In terms of what I like to eat and some of my ideas, I know my East Coastness really comes through at times. One of the weird ways it does is my religion as I was raised a Quaker. In Pennsylvania, that's fairly normal but getting farther out and people look confused.

Vorkosigans
I love this series so much. It's how to do character and plot and world building right. The friend who told me about the Christian allegories in Narnia also hooked me on the Vorkosigan books. Basically she had all of them and just kept giving them to me and I read and read. I own almost all of them and they're a series I constantly go back and reread, which I only do with the ones I really love.

Today is part of Fall Break at Michigan which means I don't work online but I did a shift in the undergraduate library this afternoon. Since work was actually fairly quiet, I figured that I'd get myself out of the sag I've been in lately and write a librarian post that's been going around in my head. Its about roleplaying and research and is me trying to bring together all the parts of what make me love my career and how what I do in my down time connects so well. Some of you have probably already seen it as I posted the link all over the place but I want to post it here for those who don't follow me on Twitter, here on Nurturing Stories.

In terms of the rest of my life, things are going well. On Thursday, I went to a talk about a new biography with Rick and then we went to see Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame, which is a fantastic movie. Its beautiful, thoughtful and worth seeing on a big screen if its playing anywhere near you. Then we got soaked as the weather decided and now I will be Fall again, which I enjoy. When its October, I like wearing sweaters and drinking lots of tea. It also gave me an excuse to make one of my favorite cozy recipes, sweet potato soup and I just posted the recipe on collected_fudz, its simple and has lots of space to add flavors you like. The only sad thing that happened was my diploma was sent to my parent's house but they've been traveling for a while. It turns out the mail wasn't held like it was supposed to be and my diploma ended up bent and rained on in their mailbox. The company that prints the diploma's will give me one for free as long as I buy a frame. My parents say that they're willing to pay for it so soon I'll have two beautifully framed diplomas, somewhere in a box, I have my framed undergrad one and in my next place I might hang them up. Just as a reminder that I've done these things and also because diplomas are rather pretty. I'm considering what to do for Halloween and I think I need to go and poke in vintage stores and craft stores so I can figure out something fun and cool.

Writing this post is part of my plan to get back on the Monday to Monday idea and so below I'm putting my list for the week. You're welcome to skip this as I've discovered if I write things out, I'm more willing to do them.

Monday to Monday
-Do something for job search daily
-Write something daily
-Take a walk each day
-Bake or cook something-try for something new
-Do something social

This week has been a bit of a rollercoaster for me, but mainly with good things. I worked a lot of extra shifts to help with the transition into the new semester and its always nice to see Ann Arbor busy with students. Though I do admit to having moments of wanting to facepalm at some of the questions people ask and I have to remind myself that they're new, they don't know that what they're doing doesn't make any sense. And then there's the fact that on Wednesday night, there was a major tech problem that struck during my shift so I was trying to make sense of it while talking to many patrons. Luckily the people I work with are awesome and pinged me to ask if I knew and then we figured it out so I could tell the patrons what was happening. I've also been sending out resumes to various jobs and will be doing even more of that this coming week and onward until I find the right job.

Two fantastic things happened as well this week, I got an email saying that my masters is in the mail. At some point I have a rather long post to write about my long and strange journey to get here and the almost masters from New Zealand and the feeling of relief and promise I have now.

The other great thing was that I participated in a small but wonderful fic exchange called ineedmyfics. All of the fics written for the challenge are great reads, the one I received Under Construction about Sameth and Sabriel post canon made me incredibly happy. So if you're looking for some wonderful fiction in some well known and not as well known canons take a look, there's Harry Potter, Divergent, X-Men(many continuities), True Blood, BSG, Abhorsen Chronicles, Arthurian myth, Dragon Age II and I wrote an Inception one. They're all beautifully written and helped me get over the bad tech stuff that happened during work on Wednesday.

I feel so happy to be writing more as my time is my own and I haven't forgotten the prompt meme, which is still open.

Also on my list of things to post are lots and lots of pictures, which will probably be broken into a few posts. Fall is in the air and life is feeling good and hopeful and I started One Salt Sea today and as always seanan_mcguire's writing pulls me. I recommend looking over at her journal if you haven't before. She's recently written two amazing posts, one about GayYA and another about the Digital Divide.

My flight yesterday worked out fine and I met my parents in San Francisco. We then followed the directions into the beautiful hills of the Sonoma Valley where there was dinner put on by my brother and new sister-in-law. It was fantastic, this is a kind of home for me. I love California so much though it also makes me homesick for Wellington, which is rather odd. I grew up mainly on the East Coast but my mom's family is from Carmel so I spent a lot of summers in Northern California. Its one of those places that defines me.

I just got an email that confirms, yes, I am graduating saying that my Michigan email and things might be stopped at some point. I don't think they will as I'll still be working for the library but it was a moment of oh yes, not a student anymore.

For the next three days there are going to be parties and celebrations of my brother and me. Life is wonderful.

Also I've been reading some great books and wanting more. I read Kevin Hearne's Hounded on the plane and need to find the next two books of the trilogy as he knows how to do urban fantasy. His style is rather like Seanan McGuire's just with a different sort of hero. Tales of the Ur-Bar is a wonderful mix of stories of things that happen at a Bar that goes through time. If you play or love milliways_bar, I recommend it. The stories range from funny to touching to creepy with some explosions tossed in.

I'm two days out from my last assignment and I already feel so much lighter and tired. This is the feeling I'm used to at breaks as my body goes, no more classes and then I fall over. I don't think the realization that I'm fully done will feel real for a while yet. My plans for doing things are slowly progressing.

I have ideas of yummy dishes to make from the neglected vegetables in my fridge and plans for tidying my flat and getting some new clothes. Does anyone know good pea dishes? I know what I want to do with the cabbage and sweet potatoes but I'm stuck on the peas.

On my way to work today I stopped into a local martial arts place to pick up a sheet about Tai Chi classes. This is part of idea to finally take a dance or something class to get moving again as there's such choice in Ann Arbor. It should be much more possible as I won't have classes just work and job searching and I know I'll enjoy it.

Also in terms of fun things I get to play with, I have a hundred dollars to play with at the app store and on iTunes from my new computer. So far I've bought one rather silly game but I'm not sure what else, there are so many things. Oh and with the caveat that I don't have a smartphone of any sort just my MacBook. For those of you with Macs, what are you favorite apps and why?

Also my mother sent me a generous gift card to Lush, which I'm having lots of fun playing with. I'm thinking that I'm also going to send some books back to amazon for some spending money on there and maybe finally get around to selling the bags of books in my hallway. If I get really productive, I might even clean out my closet too.

One of my other plots for this week is to pick the next round of jobs to apply for and send some more hopes out there.

This is the second night in a row that I've had trouble sleeping. I just can't seem to stop my thoughts and my back hurts so its hard to get comfortable. Its probably helpful that I know why I'm so stressed and that part of that will be over soon, hopefully, but at the moment it doesn't feel it.

Today I got an email saying that a credit that had shown up before wasn't and now I'm worrying about graduation again. I was really wanting to spend this week working on writing my grant and enjoying the process of fleshing out this amazing program I have in my head and putting it into the grant structure.

Instead last night, I stayed up reading far too late, a fantastic book that ashen_key recommended called Green Monkey Dreams by Isobelle Carmody, but its not a good book before bed. It pulled me in and suddenly it was light out, so I slept until late into the afternoon.

Then livejournal was still down so I did some more writing as my various fics are coming together, which is nice. The high point of my day was the dinner I went to where I talked about the LIS program with alums and profs and realized how much I do know about being a librarian. It made me quite hopeful that I can get the kind of job I want. I wish I'd been able to stay until the end but work called.

Work then was incredibly quiet and I had the fun of walking home in a exciting and at moments terrifying thunderstorm. By the time I got home, my clothes were completely drenched and they're now drying.

My plan was to go to bed early and I did that but I just spent the last hour or so tossing and turning as I couldn't get comfortable. I tried counting backwards but it didn't work and my body is now reminding me that I haven't actually eaten that well today. I had a good proper dinner but that was it. Tomorrow is mine and I sent an email about graduation, I think things should be okay and hopefully its just the computer system being a pain, but its another worry I didn't need.

I'd just like to feel done. I've yet to get that. I know I've accomplished a lot of things and I'm close but all the bureaucracy keeps making me worry again. And I can't even focus my worry on that because my grant is due on Monday. When I next have the money, I'm getting a proper massage because I can feel how tense I am and it hurts.

I'd rather not give up fully on sleeping tonight, but I feel far too awake to lie in bed and toss and turn again.

I think I missed the parade and everything again due to sleeping but its so nice to not have to wake up for class.

Happy Fourth of July!

This is one of my favorite holidays because I've been able to experience a great range of celebrations for it mainly small towns in different places. America isn't always an easy country to love but its home for me and while I love living abroad, this is where my family is.

Soon I'm going to walk up to downtown and see if anything's still going on and grab some food before enjoying the rest of this beautiful day.

Oh and I completely forgot to mention that on Friday, my proper diploma from Victoria University arrived.

My computer transfer is going very well, I love Dropbox. I still haven't sorted out how to get all my playlists but that's doable and I need to actually fix my wireless. I get lazy since its so simple to just hook my computer to the wifi.