Because my apartment has zero storage, I had to go out and buy pantry. Because I am poor, said pantry needed to be put together once I got it home. I (okay, I helped...) put it together, and was feeling quite proud of myself and quite grown up once I had it all full and my apartment started to look put together and make sense.
I must admit I was feeling quite smug as I swept the remnants of Styrofoam off my floor, waxing poetic in my head about how mature and adult I was...when I smacked myself in the face with the broom handle, and immediately felt a black eye begin to sprout.
Not only is this a lesson in karma, kids, but a lesson in the fact that I am still 12-years-old, and have no idea how to move without hurting myself.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Chapter 2: Year 2...
Embarrassingly enough, this blog, meant to chronicle the life of a graduate student, sat sad, blank, and empty my entire first year of school. To be honest, I found myself completely overwhelmed. For the most part, school itself was very similar to what I experienced as an undergrad: lots of reading, lots of writing, lots of preparation for in class discussions. However, there were those exams I was worried about, and, even more time consuming, there were group projects.
It turns out, a hallmark of an SI class is at least one group project requiring multiple meetings a semester (if not multiple meetings a week), wherein we students not only have to find time in our schedules, but work around the varied and busy schedules of all of our classmates to work on some sort of project with a large deliverable at the end (i.e. a presentation to a group of professionals/a website/a 50+ page report).
Add to all of this, a 20-hours/week job, a long-distance relationship, and an attempt at a social life in AA, and well, there was very little "Natalie" time in 2011/2012.
Long story short, this blog was the first thing that got cut. However, with a new year, I have a new attitude, and think that I can get this to work again, so stay tuned!
I guess I'll give a brief summer recap:
To start the summer, I was engaged in a crazy, frantic search for a summer internship (as required by SI). Fortunately, after many failed attempts and interviews that resulted in all of nothing, I was offered 2 positions in 2 days, and I, of course, accepted both immediately. One job, working as a cataloger at a large University archive, was 30 hours a week, and the other, the collection development librarian at a patient library at a large research hospital, was for 8 hours a week, and I got my first taste working as a "full-time" lady. While it was overwhelming and made for long days (and lots of commuting between the two), I really enjoyed both experiences and can't wait until I get to do these kinds of things full time!
Even with the immense amount of work, I found a way to have some fun as well! K finished his second year of Medical School and took Step One of the NBMEs, the test that will eventually make him "board-certified,' and to celebrate, we spent a weekend on my favorite little Island in the entire world, Mackinac. This trip had been planned for 6 MONTHS (it was his Christmas gift to me), and choosing to celebrate it when we did was perfect: it turned into a celebration of him being done, my finding internships, AND it fell on our 2.5 year anniversary. It was the perfect way to begin the summer :)
We also managed a large number of trips this summer: we usually go about 3 weeks without seeing each other, but this summer, our average dropped to every other week. Of course, that's still not ideal, but I'll take what I can get for now :)
The other big trip for the summer was the family vacation Out West. Ever since I can remember, travel has been a big part of my family, but this was the first vacation with significant others/friends/other families in at least 5 years. We flew to Denver, then spent a few days at Rocky Mountain National Park, and then drove through Wyoming to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. It was an amazing vacation in so many ways, but most of all for the time I got to spend with my crazy siblings: we are all getting old, and I appreciate every minute I get to spend with them anymore!
As great as the summer was, it is now over, and it's back to SI -- first class in an hour! Bring it on, Year Two!
It turns out, a hallmark of an SI class is at least one group project requiring multiple meetings a semester (if not multiple meetings a week), wherein we students not only have to find time in our schedules, but work around the varied and busy schedules of all of our classmates to work on some sort of project with a large deliverable at the end (i.e. a presentation to a group of professionals/a website/a 50+ page report).
Add to all of this, a 20-hours/week job, a long-distance relationship, and an attempt at a social life in AA, and well, there was very little "Natalie" time in 2011/2012.
Long story short, this blog was the first thing that got cut. However, with a new year, I have a new attitude, and think that I can get this to work again, so stay tuned!
I guess I'll give a brief summer recap:
To start the summer, I was engaged in a crazy, frantic search for a summer internship (as required by SI). Fortunately, after many failed attempts and interviews that resulted in all of nothing, I was offered 2 positions in 2 days, and I, of course, accepted both immediately. One job, working as a cataloger at a large University archive, was 30 hours a week, and the other, the collection development librarian at a patient library at a large research hospital, was for 8 hours a week, and I got my first taste working as a "full-time" lady. While it was overwhelming and made for long days (and lots of commuting between the two), I really enjoyed both experiences and can't wait until I get to do these kinds of things full time!
Even with the immense amount of work, I found a way to have some fun as well! K finished his second year of Medical School and took Step One of the NBMEs, the test that will eventually make him "board-certified,' and to celebrate, we spent a weekend on my favorite little Island in the entire world, Mackinac. This trip had been planned for 6 MONTHS (it was his Christmas gift to me), and choosing to celebrate it when we did was perfect: it turned into a celebration of him being done, my finding internships, AND it fell on our 2.5 year anniversary. It was the perfect way to begin the summer :)
We also managed a large number of trips this summer: we usually go about 3 weeks without seeing each other, but this summer, our average dropped to every other week. Of course, that's still not ideal, but I'll take what I can get for now :)
The other big trip for the summer was the family vacation Out West. Ever since I can remember, travel has been a big part of my family, but this was the first vacation with significant others/friends/other families in at least 5 years. We flew to Denver, then spent a few days at Rocky Mountain National Park, and then drove through Wyoming to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. It was an amazing vacation in so many ways, but most of all for the time I got to spend with my crazy siblings: we are all getting old, and I appreciate every minute I get to spend with them anymore!
As great as the summer was, it is now over, and it's back to SI -- first class in an hour! Bring it on, Year Two!
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Chapter One: The Beginning
Like every good book, let's begin with our cast of characters and establish the setting, shall we?
Natalie: The author of the blog, and lover of all things museums, libraries, archives, blogs, weddings, Bones, food, beer, The University of Michigan, football, fall, and a dear boy forevermore known as K.
Place: The wonderful city of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Home of the Wolverines, hippies, academics (aka nerds of all kinds), trees and bums everywhere, and more delicious restaurants than a broke graduate student knows what to do with!
Point of the blog: I'll mostly just be rambling. After recently graduating with a degree in Anthropology and Museum Studies, I decided that I would try my hand at a MSI-A Master's of Science in Information, aka the degree needed for me to find job in a library or archive. I'll be moving from a purely liberal arts education (where I specialized in writing papers much longer than necessary and using big words whenever I could, avoiding finals and other exams like a champion) to classes where I'll be asked to do things like program and actual take exams, multiple times a semester! With this life change comes others, mainly living on my own for the first time in my life. I'll be writing about my small new studio, my attempts to make new friends that I don't live with, becoming a foodie and learning how to be a domestic goddess--and I might even try my hand at some DIY. OH and all of this will be done on my new graduate student budget.
I hope you'll follow this crazy journey, celebrating, laughing, crying, learning, and dancing along this journey with me!
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