September 13, 2014

Last night after finishing my entry I ended up not looking at case studies or reading a paper. My friend out in California called on his way home from a movie and we ended up talking for forty-five minutes. It was a good talk. We covered movies, politics, Teddy Roosevelt and William Allen White, war, school funding, and other things. Definitely a good talk but it left no time for school stuff. I was kind of okay with that.

I am aware of waking up several times throughout the night but only briefly and other than that I slept pretty well. I brought my small fan that I turn on now at night when I'm at home for the noise so that helped things considerably. It was way too quiet without it so there is no way I would have slept at all if I hadn't brought it.

This morning I got up with my alarm, got ready, and went over to the restaurant attached to the hotel for breakfast. My free meal actually included any breakfast meal or any two sides. I cheese omelet didn't sound appealing or a vegetable omelet that included onions and mushrooms, so I went with sides. A biscuit and a bowl of fruit. Kind of sad, I know. The waitress ended up bringing me two bowls of fruit because she said they looked way too small. This was true and they only contained watermelon and cantaloupe. I really don't like cantaloupe but I ate it. I should have gone with two biscuits because the one I had was really good. While I ate I also read over the case studies for class. So I made up for not doing it last night.

I got to class around 8:30AM and the professor ended up parking next to me so I got to say good morning. So he was at least aware of my existence. When I got up to the room there was still a half hour until class started so I read most of the paper the professor wrote.

We broke into groups for our small group project that will be presented during our next face-to-face weekend. They were supposed to be groups of three but I ended up in a group of two. I'm not entirely confident in my partner, the lady I met last night, but hopefully that will change. We had to sign up for a case study, we got a library needing to weed their newspaper subscriptions. We have to pick out what the dilemma is, write a newsletter/newspaper with different articles acting like different people talking about the issue, and then make a PowerPoint that will cover what we think the solution should be. The writing will be easy enough once we can fully settle on what our dilemma is and what our solution is going to be. We came up with some ideas but I want to think about it some more before making a final decision.

The guy in charge of the international trips, I think the associate dean, came and talked to us about the trips. I want to say he is originally from Ireland but I could be wrong about that. He was pretty funny and also very informative. As far as the trips go, we only have to pay for food, everything else is covered. We technically pay for the plane ticket but we get reimbursed for it, sometimes even before we buy it. The first trip we would be eligible for is Scotland next summer and Serbia and South Africa in the Fall. There is an 'S' theme there. I'm definitely interested in Scotland but not so much the other two. Next year the tentative trips include: Ireland, Northern Ireland, London, Prague, DC, and a roadtrip to several Presidential libraries. We have to apply by Wednesday for this years trips and I might go ahead and do that. We are supposed to put down first, second, and third choices but for this year it would really only be Scotland for me. Next year though they all sound interesting. I always wanted to study abroad in college and never got around to it. This would be more like the trip I took after high school, just ten days, but focused in one area (for the most part) and getting to see old libraries and archives and talk to the librarians and archivists. Very interesting.

For lunch the professor gave us an hour and a half because there was a big street thing nearby where they blocked off a big street for several blocks and there were booths selling stuff and barbecue and fancy cars and music. The professor wanted to give us time to check it out. I didn't want to trust my chances with vegetarian friendly street food so I first stopped at Subway to get a sandwich. Then after eating I walked over to the street to see the sights. I ended up walking about six blocks (and there were still at least two or three blocks beyond that, before turning around and heading back. On my way back I ended up passing the professor and we exchanged some brief words about the weather. This morning it had been around 36 degrees but by this afternoon it had turned into a really nice day.

This afternoon we did the case study stuff, talked about other things, and a woman came and talked to us about using the library databases remotely. It all looked vaguely familiar to the instruction I had in college. The best part was how excited this lady was about databases and searching for stuff. She kind of reminded me of Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher in Harry Potter. And that is kind of weird because I don't really remember the characteristics of that character, but it popped into my head so I'm going with it.

At the end of class we answered a couple surveys and then went out to stand on the steps as a group and get our picture taken. Then we parted ways. I headed over to Spangles for dinner before heading home. I ended up going back home the way I ended to go last time. There was a point where the road made a ninety-degree turn and you're supposed to go on side road that continues straight instead of staying on the road that is turning. I did that last time and ended up just fine but it added several miles to my trip. This time I went straight and it was an interesting ride. The pavement was alright but the road an undulated or wobbly that it felt like I was on a roller coaster because I kept getting knocked from side to side. But I made it back to town in well under an hour and a half so I will have to try it again. Maybe not when the weather is bad but I'm okay with fair weather.

When I got home I read the chapter for my research class and then came over to the old house to post my response for the week. I also replied to a couple of other people's posts, just in case we need to do that to get full participation points. We had to on the first discussion but it hasn't been mentioned since.

And it is now almost 12:45AM and I am incredibly tired. It kind of sucks that I need to drive all the way back to the new house to go to bed. But I must. Tomorrow I'm going to have lunch with my brother. He still doesn't know when his lunch time is but I am hoping to sleep in so hopefully it isn't too early because I'll probably still be asleep.