Lists

I'm sure that everyone is relieved to hear that yes, I was able to get myself up at 5:30 AM so that I could start the packing that should have been done last night. Mornin', Daniel!

My flight is at 9:30 out of LaGuardia (woo!), and that makes me happy indeed. When JFK is my outgoing airport, the trip to get there is longer than the flight itself. Let's hear what it takes, eh?

1) Roll wheely suitcases down to the 1 station at 103rd Street.
2) Heave wheely suitcases down a flight of stairs.
3) Scootch wheely suitcases under rotating gate.
4) Heave wheely suitcases down another flight of stairs.
5) Pray that I get a seat on the train.
6) Transfer to the downtown A train at 59th Street. Heaving of suitcases is involved. And cursing.
7) Transfer to the uptown E train at 42nd Street. More heaving, more praying.
8) Go into a coma for about forty-five minutes.
9) Roll wheely suitcases onto the Airtrain elevator.
11) Pay an additional $5.00 for exclusive Airtrain services.
12) Wait for the Airtrain, hopefully with an obnoxious tourist family and lots of kids.
13) Inevitably, I will be at the last terminal and have to wait through that insufferable ding-dong chime and pleasant voice eight times.
14) Find elevator, continue wheeling suitcases into terminal. Throw them at closest desk attendant with tears of rage.

Total cost: $7.00, my soul.

This entire process can take hours. And you wonder how I developed such marvelously toned upper arms!

In contrast, getting to LaGuardia is almost an enjoyable activity:

1) Wheel suitcases one block away. Stand there for awhile.
2) Get them on the bus, and be spoiled for choice of seats as this is the first stop on the M60.
3) Sit down. Take up two seats. Select literature for the journey.
4) Arrive at the airport an hour later.
5) The end.

Total cost: $2.00.

Saved: $5.00, hours of my life, a throbbing artery in my head.

Latest addictive song: Wuthering Heights, by Kate Bush. I had never heard this song before a few months ago. It's like melodic crack. Hayley Westenra did a cover! So did the Decemberists, link not available!

So in early January, one of my professors asked me to team up with someone and submit an abstract for a poster competition for the ALA national conference this summer. Kelly and I cobbled together something about libraries and science (but not library science) and then I sent it in and forgot about it until the end of March, when I was like "oh, they said they'd get back to us at the end of March and they didn't", (sadeyes). Nay, they waited until freaking March 31st to send out the emails and woo, we have been asked to participate. Huzzah!

Then I was like, "geez oh man, I gotta get to Chicago, which is far and pricy and I don't know anyone there who I could freeload off of for a few days and save myself a pretty penny on accommodations." However, we had a meeting yesterday with the aforementioned professor and she informed us that each student had a professional development stipend of $1000 to be used for just these kinds of situations. Huzzah again! Secret money! Everyone else was talking about sharing rooms at the freaking Marriott and sleeping on the floor to save money and I was like, "psssh, have fun guys. I'm going to a hostel". It's like $35.00 a night compared to whatever ungodly rates the hotels are charging. My total expenditure should be in the range of $500 - $600 total, which means that I still have enough left over to go to another conference should I so desire.

But ugh, now we have to actually do the project, which involves links and resources and the NY Hall of Science, and obviously constructing a poster is also on the agenda. OH, and both of my professors are also presenting some kind of seminar about our grant and since the six of us will be there anyway, they're going to use us as poster children (heh) for how successful it's been. We get to smile and wave and circulate around the room and let people grill us on the program.

This work is now in addition to the work that is piling up which I haven't really started:

1) An original proposal for how to integrate a library system or program into a diverse population. I chose prisons. Due today.
2) An original collaborative lesson for grades 4-6 in the field of English/Language Arts. Standards are involved. Evaluations are involved. I chose a unit on scary stories, to be completed around Halloween. Due Friday.
3) A case studies analysis. I can't even begin to tell you what this is about, because I haven't even opened the file yet. Due Friday.

Obviously, my procrastination habits include making lists.

Whelp, this has been fun but now it is 6:14 and this underwear will not pack itself. Oh, if only Merlin would drop by for awhile, things would go more smoothly.