It's been 10 days!

Wow! So, it's been 10 days since I last posted anything. It's not that I've been really busy or anything. I just don't really have anything to report. I had a really good weekend. It began on Friday afternoon, when I left work early to come home and have a phone interview for a job at a library down in Florida. The interview went really well. I'm flying down there in a few weeks for part 2: the face-to-face. I'm a little nervous. I really want this job, and I will be very disappointed if it doesn't come through for me. I would get over it though.

On Friday night I helped out with our ward's Young Women fundraiser for girls' camp. (Anna is the ward's camp specialist, so she recruited me.) That actually turned out to be a lot of fun. I got to work in the kitchen dishing out lasagna with a bunch of the young women. It made me miss my old calling as the Beehive advisor back when I was in the Pickerington Ward. And we raised enough money to pay for all the girls to go to camp. Hooray!

On Saturday I went to a big scrapbooking extravaganza. I worked on my scrapbook and got a lot done. It was quite productive. Plus, I won the hourly drawing twice. Free stuff always rocks!

That's my weekend in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to when I move (on June 1st), and I panic a little when I think about all of the things I need to get done before I can go. Plus, I've made a little mental list of all the things in Ohio I want to do one more time before I leave because who knows when I'll ever be back.

Booktalking

Okay. So, you get two posts in one day today. In addition to my excitement about the upcoming Pirates movie, I also want to share a little about a recent experience I had. As you all know, I have been in graduate school for the past 2 1/2 years working toward my Master's in library science. This semester I had to do a practicum, what is called a "culminating experience." Basically, it's an internship in a library. I did mine at the Hilliard Library in the Youth Services department. As part of the practicum, it is required that you spend 100 hours working at the library, and then you have to spend an extra 50 hours on a special project. My project was a community outreach experience. I went into the two sixth grade schools in Hilliard. (Yes, the sixth graders get their very own schools here with no other grades in them.) I performed booktalks. For those of you who don't know what a booktalk is, I will try to explain it. Basically, it's a little skit about a book. Each booktalk is maybe 2 or 3 minutes long. They're kind of like movie trailers, except they're done live, and they're about books instead of movies. Anyway, I had so much fun doing them. At first I was really nervous. I didn't know what to expect from the kids. I was afraid that I would get up there, make a fool of myself, and the kids would just laugh at me and maybe even heckle a little. I was wrong! The first class I went to was the advanced reading class. That one was a good ice breaker. Those kids were totally interested. They participated when I called on them. They laughed at all the right spots. They got grossed out at the right times, etc. After that, I became much more relaxed. It helped that I was there with one of the librarians who is young and cool and very funny. He talked to them first about the upcoming summer reading club at the library and got them all riled up. Then I swooped in with the booktalks to give them some ideas of what books to read. It went really well, and I feel like I got some good experience for the future when I'm working in a library, and I have to go do booktalks again.

I am now officially done with school. I'm just waiting for the official ceremony, which is in a few weeks. Now I'm just looking for a job. Of course, I want to live in Florida to be closer to my family. I have sent my resume out to a few places, and I have my first interview next week. Wish me luck with that! I'm starting a new chapter in my life, and it's very exciting and a little bit scary. (But a little more exciting than scary.)

Have you seen this?

Have you seen the trailer for the next Pirates of the Carribean movie? I'm excited to see the movie. I'm a big fan of both Johnny Depp and Chow Yun-Fat. The special effects look so cool, especially the giant whirlpool in the ocean.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

To celebrate my "22nd" birthday this year, my good friends Anna, Karen, and Sally came with me to have dinner at Max & Erma's. We had dessert first, which was delicious. Most of us had the all you can eat sundae bar, but Sally was different. She had the chocolate chip cookies.

After dinner we went to Game Works. (As is our birthday tradition.) Sally didn't get to go seeing that she has four kids now. She finds it hard to stay out too long or too late. At Game Works, Karen and I were pretty psyched to play Mario Kart. I don't think I've played that since BYU at Sparks in Apartment 30 (FHE brothers). We used to play Mario Kart and 007 for hours on end. I was pretty good back in the day. I am not very good anymore. Plus, the button on my machine that was supposed to shoot people and drop the banana peels and stuff wasn't working. Karen's was, so she kept shooting me every time I got in front of her. Anna sat down to play Crazy Taxi -- another old school game that is very fun. She hadn't ever played it before, and she discovered that she really likes it.

I love this picture of Karen. This game was a car racing game. You had to climb into this pod thing and buckle your seat belt because the whole thing moved around as you drove. I thought it was really fun; Karen thought it was really fun; it made Anna motion sick.

Another game Anna liked was the skiing simulator. Karen and I laughed at her as she played this one becuase she stuck her booty out so far.

At the end of the night, we played some of the really old school games where you win tickets. We didn't win that many, but we got enough to get these stretchy springy bracelets. We call them our "BFF" bracelets. BFF Power Unite!

Hooray!!!

Well, last night I took the final final! No more exams for me! It's a good feeling, considering I've been going to school off and on since I was five years old. I'm excited (and quite nervous) about my impending graduation. I really couldn't have done it without the help of many other people, but I'm not going to go and get all mushy right now. I'm not totally done yet. I still have to go to the 6th grade schools and perform my booktalks. That's next week. I imagine I'll be REALLY excited by next Friday, when I have finished with that also. (Not to mention next Friday is also my birthday. What a happy day!)