I made it!!!!

So I made it here, safe n’ sound.

Sarah got me to the airport in plenty of time, and the LAX gods were smiling upon me as there was hardly any security line. The flight was long, but uneventful except for the following exchange:

Man sitting behind me who snored most of the time (MSBMWSMOTT): What state is Chicago in?
Annoying woman with him (AWWH): I don’t know. Idaho?
MSBMWSMOTT: No, I think it’s Iowa. I think we’re in Iowa.
Smart person near them: You’re in Illinois.

Yes, that really happened.

I then successfully navigated my way to the bus that would take me to campus. While waiting, I met Jenn, another UIUC student that was waiting for the same shuttle. She was a very nice, very chatty Kinesiology Masters student. Between Jenn, the constant rattling of the really old bus (which had a “Fasten Your Seat Belts” sign but no seat belts) on bumpy roads and the woman who kept hacking up her lungs, it wasn’t a quiet trip for most of the 3 + hours it took to get here. That’s okay because the shuttle was cheap.

I got to my dorm and discovered that:
a) It’s uglier than I thought.
b) They gave me sheets, a blanket and towels despite saying they wouldn’t. I’m gonna use mine anyway since they’re nicer. I’m using the washcloth they gave me as a napkin because for some odd reason there are no paper towels in the womens’ bathroom.
c) My internet connection wasn’t working so I had to call Sarah to look up the UIUC Housing web site only to discover in a random doc that I had to have a non-standard cable. I retrieved said cable from the front desk.
d) My room is right next to the lounge. Some from the first LEEP group (who leaves on Sunday) have decided to have a meeting in there which apparently involves a lot of laughing and clapping.

After I unpacked and called everyone to check in, it was 8pm. I decided I wanted to find food before dark so out I went. Guess what? Nearly every place on my “Restaurants in C-U” list closes at 8 during the summer. Only the “Chocolate Cafe” was open, and tempting as that sounds, I kinda wanted real food. Oh well. I got a nice walk after all that sitting today.

So here I sit. My risotto in a cup is cooking, and I’m munching on olives. Thank you, Sarah, for making me get food that I could make with my tea kettle.

I’m also enjoying the air-conditioning. It’s so humid outside that there are signs up asking us not to open our windows as the humidity will set off the fire alarm. Really.

I’ll go to bed in about an hour n’ a half so I can get up bright n’ early for class n’ stuff. Whoa, that was a lot of n’s.

Anyway, a slap dash page of photos can be found here until I get a nice gallery going. Oh, and I guess I should get the date on the digital camera fixed, huh?

A Monster Thank You

I woke up today feeling a little less panicked about school. While I’m still excited and nervous, I’m also eager to just get this started.

I wanna thank those of you who have been so awesome and supportive of me – especially y’all who sent me nice little notes of encouragement:

Sarah and Phil – who had to deal with my “ack!”s in person and keep telling me that I’ll be the best librarian ever.

Dad, Mom and Stephen – I can’t believe y’all posted comments. Thank you so much! I love y’all, and I’ll see y’all at the end of the month. Tell baby Tre that when he gets older, his super nice librarian auntie will help him do research for his schoolwork.

Deborah – thanks for your really nice email today. Knowing that everyone else will probably have pasty thighs helps. Words of encouragement from someone who has already done grad school help too.

Melanie – My librarian hero. Thank you for writing yet another letter of recommendation for me (on top of the 6,000 you already wrote) and for giving me my new mantra: “I am better than everyone else.”

And to all of you who read this silly blog and think kind thoughts, thank you too.

Library Humor

Eventually I’ll get around to putting a list of links in the sidebar – once I figure out exactly how I want to do that. When I do, I will put Unshelved on that list. You’ll just have to click on the link in the previous sentence for now.

Panic update

I have finished ALL – yes ALL – of my reading for school. It helps that doing my laundry took for-frickin’-ever, but I slaved through all those articles. Whether or not I retain the content in those articles remains to be seen.

My new panic is that I’m not going to be able to fit all my stuff into my monster suitcase and that I’ll starve during the 10 days. Being out of my element and being forced to forage for food in a town without a Trader Joe’s or Ralphs strikes fear in my heart. Thankfully Sarah is sending me off with 20 granola bars and 4 packs of vacuum-packed olives.

Oh, I’m still panicking about writing a paper again after all these years. I didn’t want you to think that I’ve let that one slip.

The mild panic attack continues….

So I’m still struggling to get through a 47 page article and I have 9 more after that to read after I’m done with that one.

I’m worried that I won’t pack enough or I’ll pack too much.

I’m vaguely disturbed by the fact that the two week thingie I’m going to is affectionately called “Bootcamp” all over the school’s internal web site.

In a weird, stupid moment where I worried that I wouldn’t know how to write a research paper anymore, I cracked open my new MLA Handbook and highlighted sections of it and even put post-it flags on chapters I felt were important. Sarah and Phil should be relieved to know that the chapter on commas and comma usage was one of them.

Shortly I’m going to Phil’s house to do laundry and attempt to finish the monster article.

Yeah, I know I’ll be fine: this is just the standard, pre-trip Lynn freak-out that I get. I just had to share.

The Lead Up

I leave for Champaign-Urbana on Wednesday morning – a week from today. It’s kinda freaking me out.

During 10 days in CU, I will go through an orientation and fit in my first, complete, 2-unit class – paper, project and final. Needless to say, in order to pull this all off we students are expected to have all our reading done before we arrive. This is library school: there’s a lot of reading.

I’m slightly wigged about completing all my reading. I’m very wigged about writing a real, non-“please admit me” essay for the first time in 10 years. I’m also mildly wigged about the fact that I still haven’t dropped the 10lbs I’ve gained since last year and that the weather in CU will demand shorts. Everyone will see my thighs – my white, pasty, jiggly thighs. Okay, that’s a very non-scholarly fear, but I have it nonetheless.

I’ll also be staying in a dorm room while I’m at school. They’ll be supplying me with a pillow, but that’s about it. I’m having to gather sheets, a blanket, “shower shoes,” a towel and a bunch of other crap I haven’t had to pack since college. Sarah is making me pack granola bars so she’ll “know that I’ll eat breakfast.”

It’s all so familiar yet strange, ya know?

So just in case you thought I was just hanging out, waiting for school to start, there you go. There’s a lot of crap to be done. Now it’s back to my digital library article.

The Wind Beneath My Wings…

As stated in a previous post, my bestest friend, Sarah, and dearest boyfriend, Phil, read many the long, dull grad school application essay for me. Without their support, I probably would not have gotten in or at least had the nerve to go through with taking the GRE. Because seriously, folks, I was a wreck studying for that dumbass test.

Anyway the support has not stopped. Phil has helped me with this blog and now Sarah, eager to help me make this new blog house a home, has created an image for me:

Note especially the beer and the sassy top with coordinating skirt. Sarah is definitely one for detail. Thanks, Sarah.

Housekeeping

Oh. I should tell y’all that I’m still new to this fancy blogging software, so expect things to be tweaked/updated/changed frequently. I swear I’m not trying to mess with your minds.

The Background Story

So I had to write a lot of essays this winter about why I wanted to be a librarian while I was applying to schools. I will not subject you to those essays. I imagine, however, if you’ve managed to find this blog and you aren’t my roommate or my boyfriend (the ever patient editors of those countless essays), you might wonder why I’d want to be a librarian.

First, I’m a nerd. I like nerdy and academic things. I love school and I love finding, learning and retaining even the most useless bits of information. This is evidenced by my near-obsessive love for Trivial Pursuit. The idea of going to school and learning how to help people learn and find facts just sounds so up my alley.

Secondly, I really believe, having worked in the computing and academic environments so long, in freedom of information, freedom of expression and freedom of learning. These are all things that librarians hold dear. Again, right up my alley.

Thirdly, it’s time for a career update/change. I’ve realized, nearly 10 years after graduating from college, that I really do like working in academia. Yes, the politics and, yes, the students can be really annoying, but I like working in an environment where learning and research are the primary goals at the end of the day. What I don’t like is that in my current job, I’m not very closely attached to that learning and research. I want to be closer to them, more supportive of them and even participate in them. Librarianship would let me do that.

Fourthly, I would become a Classicist, but I enjoy eating (I left this part out of all my grad school apps).

Lastly, I really dig it. I know librarians and work with them. While I don’t like all the librarians I’ve met personally, I do like what they do.

So there. I hope that answers your questions.

Hi.

Hi.

So, um, yeah. My dear, darling boyfriend set this up for me long, long ago (okay, it was November), but I didn’t use it. Because I’m bad. And sorta lazy. Fortunately, he still loves me.

Anyway, I’m using it now to document my 6 semester journey through library school. Hopefully it will only take 6 semesters. Gosh. I really, really hope it only takes 6 semesters.

I start this month by flying out to glamorous Champaign-Urbana for 10 days. If all goes well, you can expect some posts and pictures from that trip as well as posts over the next two years about how I’m surviving the distance-ed program I’m enrolled in. Then you can celebrate with me when (if?) I get my Masters in Library and Information Science in August of 2007.

Yeah. So. Um. Here’s to Library School, y’all.