It's not that I've been avoiding you, oh my public! Or that I've forgotten. Or that I've had nothing to say.

None of that is true.

Vacation doesn't lend itself to keeping in touch very well, especially when all you do is stay up late, sleep in late, eat bountiful meals and snacks, and play with a baby. Oh, we've watched movies, too.

I'm including here a couple of pictures to make up for the days of no posting.
Hope everyone is well and happy!

Last, but not least, a short video of Katie last night. She's too cute!

http://s125.photobucket.com/albums/p60/lanagottschalk/?action=view&current=katie-dinner2.flv

PIECES DONE!

All pieces are cut and laid out on the living room floor. Despite a minor setback of my complete idiocy with numbers and geometric shapes, we're going to have an amazing piece of work here. The picture follows:

This is going to be a pillow for my bed. Matchy-matchy.

This is my old quilt on my new bed. I can't wait to see what my room looks like with the new quilt!

UPDATE! UPDATE!

This just in....

I found my old t-shirts - my absolute favorite from 7th grade that I wore until I went to grad school last year; and the replacement Mr. Bubble shirt for the original Mr. Bubble shirt from freshman year of high school (the first had to be pitched because it was so thread-bare). The best news, of course, was that I found a 3rd shirt with them. The green American Eagle one with a dragonfly on it that I have loved and also wore for many, many years. I had a senior picture taken in both the one from 7th grade and the green one. My favorite senior pic was in that green shirt, despite the fact that I was basically hanging out in a tree (to match the green) in a long-sleeved knit shirt and khakis in the middle of July.

In other news, Casino Royale is definitely worth seeing, and this from a girl who doesn't like Bond movies at all.

Also, the Bruschetta Chicken Pasta at T.G.I. Friday's is phenom. Eat it.

I APOLOGIZE FOR MY NEGLIGENCE

But it has been a crazy couple of weeks.

I graduated from college - went through the ceremony and everything. Here I am in my garb.

I moved into my own apartment and with the help of my parents, Cat, and Simon, it looks pretty amazing. Here are some preliminary shots (kitchen and guest bedroom).

I entertained for the first 2 1/2 days while living in my new apartment - being with Cat is always amazing!

I was invited over for my first neighborly dinner at Liz & Chalupa's. Waffles with blueberries are lovely!

I arranged for cable, Internet, insurances, etc. to all happen after I return from my Christmas extravaganza with the fam in The Zone (short for Arizona). That felt like a very grown-up thing to do.

Now I'm at my parents for the next few days--seeing old friends, hanging out with the 'rents, and, to everyone's surprise, making a t-shirt quilt of all my old fav's. This quilt is going to be amazing, despite the fact that I've misplaced my two favorite shirts of all time (they were the original inspiration for this crazy crafty project). I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but will within a day or two. You should be expecting something spectacular; I sure am. But we'll see.

Off to see a movie or something fun, at least.

SORELY BORED

I'm so bored at work this week. Students don't bring many reference questions during finals week. The depth of their questions remain along the lines of - transfer me to the people who deal with fines, where can I rent movies, can I see the citation manual? Most requests they make for books end in fruitless searches, as their fellow students who don't procrastinate have already checked out ALL of the books on any particular topic.

Easy questions. No thought necessary. But makes for slow and extremely mind-numbing 3 to 3 1/2 hour shifts. I also picked up a couple of shifts this week for a friend who moved away on Monday. So here I am, working for the 4th day in a row with 2 more ahead of me. Langourous.

I waste the time here by chatting with friends, emailing everyone I can think of, and talking with my coworkers. One of them, my favorite librarian to work with, ceaselessly makes fun of me for always being on Gmail when he walks by. Today he said, "What're you going to do when you don't get paid to email people any more?", referring to the upcoming end of my tenure here. "Oh, I guess you don't have that long to wait before you begin your new job and can get paid there." He grinned somewhat maniacally as he walked away.

BEST WORD OF THE DAY!

Swime n.
Dizziness, giddiness, or a fit of this; swooning, a swoon.

I love this.

ALMOST FAMOUS

In the lobby of the library this morning, I saw Christina Aguilera.
At least, I thought it was her. It looked like her circa this time period




The girl was not, however, wearing that outfit, but the cute pink and black fleecy-weecy outfits that you see all over college campuses.

The hair was that fake looking. The make-up was that dark (and it was 10am, not 11pm).

All I could think was WHY?