Category: General

<big yawn>  Has it really been so long…again? Lately, I’ve been thinking about writing a fashion-focused blog, but every time I begin to plan it out, I also begin to break out in hives. I’ll run out of things to say about clothes, I’m certain of it. I love getting dressed, but it’s not that interesting.

Here are a few things I’ve done since September 2014, and even though my twitter feed is still far superior to my memory, this time I’ll rely on memory so I don’t barrage you with minutiae:

• I graduated my Master’s program and promptly got a job as a librarian at a small subscription library founded in 1854. I’ve been there since August and I love going to work every day — well, almost every day. Which is not bad when you consider how hard I dreaded going to work every day when I worked in finance just seven short years ago.
• An award for writing excellence from LITA & Ex Libris was presented to me at ALA conference in San Francisco, and the paper I submitted will be published in a peer-reviewed library science journal in December. It’s not the Paris Review or anything, but I’m pretty proud of my first publication.
• After finishing the initial draft of a new novella (163 pages) in 6 months flat, I drank some champagne with my fiction critique group-mates last week to celebrate. Don’t rush me; I’ll start revisions next month.
• Races have continued to be a fixture: one every few months, all of them of the nice & easy 5K persuasion. I like to think of myself as a hedonist when it comes to athleticism: run only as long as it feels good. And eat a cupcake afterward.
• I went to a couple of professional library conferences this year, as well as a writing conference in Minneapolis, where I dined solo at a James Beard Award-winning restaurant. I highly recommend both La Belle Vie’s elegant food and ambience, and the experience of luxury dining à soi-même, if you have the inclination and don’t mind breaking your piggy bank for the splurge. Donna Meagle & Tom Haverford would approve.
• And, oh yeah, I’m a blonde now. It’s even on my driver’s license, so it’s true. I can confirm that blondes don’t necessarily have more fun, but more people do stare at them, which I assume is because the brightness is blinding, yet captivating, like a solar eclipse.

<dust> <dust> The bricolagerie is back in business. Again…

<big yawn>  Has it really been so long? Flirting with a blog dedicated to reading and reading alone has kept me occupied for awhile, when I wasn’t spending 30 hours a week learning JavaScript anyway, but I got bored, i.e., I deleted it. It’s no fun to write lit crit on a constant basis. I’d rather just enjoy what I’m reading, and only pick it apart into little bits when I’m in conversation with some other book nerd who loves/hates the book I hate/love.

Here are a few things I’ve done since September 2013, according to my twitter feed (which is far superior to my memory):

• Road trip to a) Disneyland for a shot of pure blissed-out, kid-again stuff, b) Grand Canyon for stellar (get it) stargazing and camping surrounded by mating elk, c) Vegas up-til-morning gaming debauchery, and d) back home magically in one piece.
• Continued revision on my novel-in-progress.
• Ran two races: terrible timing because I quit running in earnest to write term papers for grad school, but a great time because running is fun.
• Batkid came to our fair city and saved the day!
• Adopted an orchid for my birthday, which it took me a full three months to kill: a record for me.
• “Birthday” has officially become my go-to Beatles Karaoke Night song.
• Got my wisdom teeth removed. Tweet from the third day after the surgery: “I’m tired of pudding.”
• A person I love and helped take care of as a newborn (my nephew) graduated from high school — Magna Cum Laude! So proud I could burst, it goes without saying.

<dust> <dust> The bricolagerie is back in business!