Beware of documentaries...

I have found that I am highly susceptible to documentaries. I can't seem to stop watching one once I start. As a case and point yesterday I decided to watch some tv while eating my lunch. I really meant to just watch it for a few minuetes while eating, but got sucked in. I ended up learning more than I ever expected about the storm water and sewaged systems in the US. Apparentely our infirstructure is really old and lots of people are having problems maintaining the sewage systems so that they don't contanimate our ground water supply. It was facinating, but this always happens to me. At least I learn something!

Hiking!

Now that I have some free time, I have started doing some of the things that I enjoy again. For instance, some friends and I went hiking in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park the other day. It was a long hike (around 6 miles) where with a lot of elevation shifts. It was lots of fun, but I was really glad that I was wearing my water friendly Keens that day, as the trial took us across the river that runs through the park twice. At the first crossing there wasn't even a bridge, so I had to ford the river. It was a lot easier for me, since my shoes were made for water. My friends all had to take off their shoes for the first crossing. Luckily on the second crossing there was a narrow log that they could use to get across. I didn't bother with the log and just walked across the river. It was quite a beautiful hike, even though I was really tired by the end of it. I hope to get some more hiking done while I am still jobless.

Graduation

So this is a bit late, but I have finished! I actually had a good time at my graduation as my brother and my parents came to see me walk across the stage. It was nice to see them and to show them around the city I have been living in. It is nice to be done with school and I have no desire to go back for a second master's degree anytime soon. Sadly, I didn't pick the best time to graduate as the economy is starting to affect may public services, and many libraries are cutting their budgets, which means they are not hiring new librarians.... I haven't had much success with the job hunt so far, but I am hopeful that things will turn around eventually. Anyway, it was a fun day and my parents took me out for a really nice dinner afterwords. They only thing that would have made it better was for it not to be so hot! Of all the weekends for a heat wave, why the one when I am stuck in a polyester robe! At least my graduation was indoors, so it had a/c!

Yoga

I was introduced to yoga years ago by a friend who was a fanatic believer. While I have never felt the same level of addiction that she had, I do really enjoy it. One of the perks that the university offers students is unlimited fitness classes for $10 a semester. For the last few semesters I have have been attending yoga classes at the university. At the first of the semester, I am excited and go to every class, but will admit that by the end of the semester my attendance does become a bit spotty. As this is the first part of the semester, I am shinny and new in my enthusiasm for yoga. I just got back from my class this evening and am enjoying the sense of accomplishment that I get from participating. It is a workout that I enjoy and if I am going to make any attempt at losing some of the weight that I have put on over the last few years, it is a good start. Now I just need to find the time to work out a bit more often and stop eating as much and I will be set!

Almost freaked me out!

While the trip home to visit my family has been quite enjoyable, there has been a slight hiccup. The other day I was puttering around the house listening to my iPod when suddenly the music stopped. I was fairly sure the battery wasn't low, but went to check out what had happened. When I picked it up from the desk, the screen was a bit wonky. I tried restarting it and got a battery warning. I tried to plug it in to charge it up and check to make sure a low battery was the only problem. The little apple logo would come up and I could hear the drive start to spin up, but then it would suddenly stop. The screen would go blank again and then the apple logo would reappear. It did this a couple time before I decided that the drive must have crashed. I am a bit sad about it. I loved my 30 gb iPod. It is the one that I listen to the most as I putter around my apartment as well. I still have my nano, but it has stopped working with my docking speakers, so now I am left with quite the dilemma. How will I cope without the music it would provide me...? In a last ditch effort to save my iPod I plugged into my computer to see what iTunes would do with it. By some miracle it found my iPod and I was able to reformat it to factory settings. It seems to be doing well now, but I was really annoyed for a while there. I am still contimplating getting a larger iPod, as the 30 gb isn't quite enough to hold all my music.

An Early Birthday

My roommate's birthday is the day before mine, so for the last two years we have had a joint birthday party. Due to various schedule issues, we had the party last night. Our friends took us out for sushi, which both of us love, and then we came back to the apartment for chocolate cake. I did have to make the cake myself, but such is life. I had to make sure it was the perfect chocolate cake. We had a lot of fun and my friends got me Guitar Hero World Tour for my wii. I know, I will be wasting my life playing games, but it was a fun day!

Halloween!

I had to work at my internship site this Halloween, which really wasn't that bad because the library closed at 6 pm. I did discover a week or so before Halloween that all of the youth services librarians were going to dress up on Halloween. I decided that I would as well and as I had made a Slytherin scarf not that long ago, I went about making a Hogwarts costume. Most of the clothing was stuff that I already had around, but I knew that it would look better if I had a tie and wand. The wand was easy, I picked it up at a local costume shop. The tie not so easy. I knew you could buy Hogwarts ties online, but didn't have the time, or money, to buy one. I decided to make my own tie decorating a store bought tie. First I thought I would just buy ribbon to create the stripe pattern, but while I could find a gray tie that was the right color, I couldn't find dark green ribbion. Instead of using ribbion, I decided to paint the stripes on, as I could find some cheap acrylic paint that was the right color. So using a $10 tie and $1.50 paint, I made a Slytherin tie. While it isn't perfect, it was good enjoy for the job. For the most part people recognized me, but there was one kid who asked me if I was going to dress up later that day.... not realizing that I was wearing a costume. Ah well.... it was a teenage boy. I doubt he has even seen a Harry Potter movie.