End of Summer Week Off

While everyone else in the academic world is starting their fall semester, we are just finishing the summer session. We are now in intersession; fall classes start the end of September.

I normally take a week off in September. This is when I head back to the Midwest for beer and football, but I'm not going this year. Why? The Packers are playing in Seattle so my football-going friend from Wisconsin is coming out here and we, along with another friend, are going to the Monday Night Football game in Seattle next month. Look for me on TV.

But, I still wanted a week off. It's been a busy summer and it will be an even busier fall. I wanted a week off for doing my favorite thing: Whatever I want.

What did I do? Not much of anything.

• I slept in. I stayed up late. 
• I knit.
• I did do some catch-up work. I really didn't want to, but I needed to get some things done because, well, it needed to get done. But I did it in a coffee shop at my own speed. 
• I saw The Campaign. It was okay. I expected more. 
• I saw Moonrise Kingdom. It was spectacular. It was so weirdly sweet and endearing and wonderful that I just wanted to give it a big hug. I loved it.
• I read Andy Cohen's book Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture. I cried when he talked about coming out. It reminded me of when one of my best friends came out to me while we were in college. 

While killing time before seeing The Campaign, a friend and I spent some time in a Tuesday Morning. I haven't been to one since I left Ye Olde College Town, where, until a Belk moved in, it was the only decent place in town to shop that wasn't WalMart. And at Tuesday Morning I bought two mugs that just made my entire week:

"Vintage" Kermit and Fozzy mugs.
"Vintage" because they're marked with the Disney logo on the bottom. 

I bought these with the intention of sending one to BFF, since we both love The Muppets. I texted her the picture, and I got the equivalent of a squeal via text (including an "OMFG"). I realized they were pretty much a set. This morning I went back to Tuesday Morning and bought two more for BFF.

I have to admit, one of my favorite things this week was simply cuddling with the cat. I suppose that makes me, well, a librarian, but he's become such a wonderfully cuddly cat with a surprising amount of energy. I did take the cat to the vet for his semi-annual check up (I guess they go in every six months once they hit a certain age) and he he needed some vaccine boosters. He's fine. Fat and surprisingly healthy. He has a bump on his head, but the vet said just to watch it. However, she said most bumps on cats are benign. Then he bit the vet when she gave him a shot.

So, really, other than working for a day and a half, I spent my week doing nothing. Thing is, I could really use another week of doing nothing. I really kind of like it.

And then someone farted.

Someone farted in a meeting today. And by farted, I mean an ongoing serious of farts with one long fart. I wondered for a bit if it was something that sounded like a fart but wasn't. But it was. No one said anything. No one flinched. Everyone acted like nothing happened. I'm guessing it was due to a medical condition which makes it almost more awkward and uncomfortable.

But, yeah. Someone farted during a meeting. A lot.

Because I am an 8th grader at heart, I just had to tell someone.

So I'm telling my blog.

Still here...

...but busy. And recovering.

I spent a week at Library Sleep-Away Camp in New England. It's crazy. It's bootcamp. It's intense. You go from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm. You sleep, if you are lucky, four hours a night. You work. Hard. You drink. You spend four days in one room with the same thirty people. And then you drink some more. You drink coffee all day to keep you going and you drink alcohol at night to de-stress and socialize. Oh, and there was crying. Basically, it's college crammed into 4.5 days. And on the last half day, when you keep thinking, "Oh my god, it's over," you realize you are leaving the people you have bonded with over the 4.5 days. There are lots of hugs. And then despite being pushed (professionally) harder than you have ever been pushed, you think, "I would totally do that again."

Surrounding that, there was lots of traveling which means observations and stories.

So, here we go:

I upgraded to first class on the way there. I decided it was worth it because I was flying the red-eye so it would be more comfortable. I would have access to the first class lounge and since I had a four-hour early morning layover in O'Hare, the lounge access would be really nice. So that along with the cost of checking my bag, it seemed worth the extra money. Until I got to the airport and found out that on United, only international first class has access to the lounge. That's not what I got from their website, but that's their rule. Their stupid, stupid rule. Suck it, United.

On first class, a "snack" is a full blown meal. Most of it I couldn't eat. So instead I drank almost an entire bottle of wine. The flight attendent told me the wine was about one step above Three Buck Chuck. and I replied, "So it's one step above what I normally drink."

In O'Hare I spent close to fifteen minutes in line at a Starbucks kiosk for coffee. The guy in front of me went off in a huff. The guy behind me was all, "Whatever, dude. I'm invested in this line. I'm getting my damn coffee." I felt the same way. And once again, the phrase "no room" when talking drip coffee carries no meaning outside of the Pacific Northwest, because there was an inch of room left at the top.

I ended up in the same bus-terminal-like gate area I was when I spent ten hours in O'Hare a few years ago. It was still crowded and gross. Then my gate was moved. Thankfully.

I found a lovely vegan cupcake during Library Sleep-Away Camp when several of us wandered off during a break to get coffee that was stronger than warm colored water. The people hosting this thing had no clue how much coffee librarians drink. The first morning we emptied every vat they had in less than 20 minutes. There was almost a librarian riot. The next morning they had the normal amount plus two sets of backups. But the cupcake? It was the envy of all, even though it was vegan.

At Library Sleep-Away Camp, they feed you all day. Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner. All food, all the time. But the caterers didn't seem to get that we wanted--and needed--coffee in the afternoon. Eventually, they started brewing more coffee for our afternoon snack.

Seriously, y'all, if we had mats for a mid-afternoon nap, it would be like all-day kindergarten.

At one point we were bused to a local establishment for, you guessed it, food. And liquor. They had hard cider on tap. Holy shit it was good. And I remembered why I stopped drinking it while I was in library school: Because it is liquid crack. I had hard cider (on tap) sweetened with local blueberries. *drooooool*  (And they were prepared for vegans with spinach risotto, salad and all kind of good stuff.)

After the Library-Sleep Away camp ended and I wasted time before my flight left, I had a lovely vegan reuben with this amazing apple and some-other-fruit cobbler. Seriously, it was awesome.

I flew Jet Blue on the way home. I was excited since I had never flown Jet Blue. Let me say this: Jet Blue has got it going on. TVs in the seats with live TV and seats with adequate butt and leg room. The Jet Blue terminal in JFK? Full-blown shopping experience with a CIBO Express every ten feet (CIBO carries vegan food from Chicago's Soul Gourmet). Most gates have a counter with food and a full bar. (There are also several CIBOs in O'Hare that I always seek out when I am there. On both my departure and return trip, I had a vegan Jerusalem beef sandwich, and holy shit, it was so amazingly good.)

Also, in the Jet Blue terminal I stumbled on the MUJI store. I wanted to buy every single item. They said they were opening a store on the West coast. I asked, hopefully, if it would be in Seattle. Nope. San Francisco. Damn.

But my flight? It was fine as flights go, but I was sitting next to five young men who were either current Georgetown business students or former Georgetown business students. There was a sixth, but she was in a different row. She asked if I would trade my window seat for her middle seat so she could sit with her friends. I said no. Thank god for live TV and noise-canceling headphones so I could ignore them for 6.5 hours.

After I got home I slept for two days. I'm not joking. I got up the next day, bailed on a wedding reception because after buying groceries and doing laundry, every time I stood up, my entire world began to spin. I can't remember the last time I was that physically exhausted. So, yes, I slept. I spent last week at work trying to clean up some damage from the week I was gone. Hopefully, all is good.

And this weekend? More sleeping.