Busy, Busy, Busy

I haven't posted anything in the past couple of weeks. I'm still here. I'm just busy. The end of the semester is quickly coming to an end. My final in my last class is Monday. Hooray for me! It's a great feeling. This is the last final I will EVER take! Anyway, it's study time. I also have my last presentation to do on Monday also.

We've been busy at the library. In the past month, I have helped with the Seussabration (Dr. Seuss's birthday), our first ever gaming activity for teens, and the teen art contest. I must say, I was quite impressed by the vast amount of artistic talent that teens possess. The piece that won was an etching of Little Miss Muffet with a giant, hairy spider coming down in the foreground. It was really unbelievably good. (As a person who has attempted to make etchings in one of my art classes, I can say they are difficult to do.) There were almost 200 entries. I'm glad I wasn't involved in the process to choose the winner. We had a local artist come in and do that. The winner got a gift certificate to take a summer class at CCAD (Columbus College of Art and Design) - a very cool prize, if you ask me. Second, Third, and Honorable Mention placers got gift certificates to Dick Blick's (an art supplies store).

My birthday is coming up. I'm glad I've been busy. It keeps me preoccupied. I haven't gotten bummed out about turning a year older because I haven't really had much time to think about it. Of course, I've been trying to decide what to do to celebrate. Last year I was in Florida for my birthday. I went to Jelly Rolls with my parents, Drew, and Marquesas. The year before that, Anna, Karen, Hi-D, Val, and I went to GameWorks. That was a lot of fun. I wouldn't mind doing that again, but we just did that at the beginning of the month for Anna's birthday. Anyone got any ideas?

Anna's Birthday

So, Anna celebrated her "22nd" birthday last Friday. Mark had Guard that weekend, so he was off jumping out of planes or something in Indiana. Karen and I decided to take Anna out to have some fun. Beth Butters (that's Karen's Mom, whom we've known since we were tweenagers) came along also. We went to BD's Mongolian BBQ for dinner. (YUMMY!) Then we went to Game Works -- a large arcade.

The food was so delicious. Since it was a birthday, we saved room for dessert. Although it turned out that we did not save enough room. You can see from the picture that the desserts were ginormous. Is that a word? It should be. That's how big our yummy ice cream things were.

Then, of course, we had a total blast at Game Works. You see, two years ago, for my "22nd" birthday, we went to Game Works. That was a few months after Anna had major spine surgery, so she couldn't really participate in anything. When I asked her what she wanted to do this year on her birthday, she told me that she really wanted to go back so that she could play too. So, we went. We even talked Beth Butters into coming. She was planning on leaving after dinner, but we convinced her to stay and play. There is a game there that is a hot air balloon race. That's the picture below of Anna, Beth Butters, and Karen strapped into those strange-looking chairs. It bounces you up and down in front of a 2-story screen, on which you watch your balloon fly. I took a pass at playing this game, as I was worried that my ginormous dessert would make an unwelcome reaapearance if I bounced around too much.

Karen and I played the Jurassic Park game for almost an hour! Neither one of us realized that we played for so long until Anna stuck her head in the booth and told us. I guess time flies when you're shooting T-Rex's and Raptors. Who knew?

We also raced in the Indy 500, where, I'm proud to say, I came in 6th out of 6 racers. Go me!

The night was really fun, and Anna did quite well, considering she left Matt with a teenage babysitter for the first time ever that night. She was nervous at the beginning of the evening, but I think time and fun lessened her anxiety. (Anna, I know you're reading this. You can correct me if I'm wrong, and I will print a retraction.)


Here we are at the Mongolian BBQ. We're eating, eating, eating!


And here is me with my GINORMOUS dessert. I have to tell you, though, that it was divine! It was hot apple crisp with ice cream and caramel on top.


Anna, Beth Butters, and Karen are strapped into their "hot air balloon" chairs. I forgot who won. I think it was Karen.


This is Karen and me shooting dinosaurs. We made it all the way to the end of the game. Karen was much better than I was. I think my favorite part was when we were standing on a dock over the water, and this big alligator dinosaur kept swimming under us, jumping up, and trying to eat us.

What a cutie!

I just had to post this picture. I think it is so cute. This is my newest niece Devyn, who is now about 7 weeks old. She is my sister Jill's first baby. I still have yet to meet her in person. This picture is one that my other sister Valarie sent to me. According to Val, Devyn smiles like this all the time.

The Visitors

Val and her family came to visit me a couple of weeks ago, but I am just now getting around to uploading a picture from their trip. We had a really good time. Jason had to come to Columbus for business, so Val and the kids decided to come along also. This picture is of me and Evan. The hotel where they stayed had an indoor pool. Swimming was a popular activity with the kids. Wow! My hair looks pretty dissheveled in this picture.

A Quick Update

Just a quick update...

Let's start with the weather. As I mentioned in my last post, winter came late to Ohio, but it came with a big bang. We had a big snow/ice storm hit this week. OSU shut down (which NEVER happens), so I had the last two days off. Usually I enjoy having a day or two where I can just sit at home, get some stuff done, watch tv, read, etc. BUT I was not prepared to be trapped at home. So I had no books to read and no movies to watch. That's why they call it stir crazy! But today the world went back to normal. School is in; work is expected; phones are ringing.

Valentines Day was yesterday. Because of the snowstorm, it almost passed by unnoticed. Late in the afternoon, I ventured out of the house with Anna to go rent a movie and buy some milk at Giant Eagle. After a short stint of being stuck in the deep snow (no thanks to Anna who got us stuck in the first place, but thanks to the handsome stranger who pushed us out), we made it to the grocery store where I remembered the Valentine occasian as I was greeted with many pink and red decorations. (The floral department is immediately inside the front door.) So, happy Valentines Day to everyone!

My sister Valarie just found out this week that her 4th baby, who is due this June, is a little girl. She was very excited, and my niece Mikaily was REALLY excited that she will not have ANOTHER brother.

I'm still working at the Hilliard Library. I'm about half way through the amount of hours required for my practicum. I think my favorite tasks I've done so far have been helping with family storytime, sitting in on the teen advisory board meeting, and designing displays for various areas in the library.

Life is good. It's not always that exciting, but it's good.

Winter Wonderland

So, winter finally came to Ohio this weekend. It took it's time about it, but it did make an appearance. So far, we've had a pretty mild season. This is the third day in a row that school has been cancelled. Monday and Tuesday it was cancelled because of the dangerously low temperatures. (I think they were concerned with the little kids standing at the bus stop for too long.) Today school was cancelled because of all the snow we got last night. The snow began yesterday afternoon. It doubled the time it usually takes me to get home from work, but it was so pretty. It was the dry, powdery kind rather than the sticky stuff that's good for making snowmen.



This is a picture from my office window. I love the snow!

eBay... A Place for Everything!

Have you ever just searched eBay to see what strange things people are selling? Or maybe it's more interesting that people are actually buying those strange things. Are you looking for a bullet proof vest? You can get it on eBay! Do you want to buy an antique watch? Guess what! Someone is selling one on eBay! You can even buy Campbells Soup labels to donate to your kid's school!

I was bored, so I started browsing around eBay to find some weird things. Here were some strange items I came across:

1. A man who was selling his soul. Well, apparently he tried to sell his soul, but eBay stopped him from doing so, saying the item he sold had to be more tangible. So, he is selling a certificate that states the highest bidder is the owner of his soul for 1 year. He is also willing to practice whatever religion the bidder wants him to for that year, and he is willing to follow the bidder's life advice for one year. Kind of creepy, don't you think? Last I checked, the bidding was up to $15.50 cents with 4 days left to go.

2. A face on the stairs.












Apparently, this face just appeared one day after they washed their stairs. Who does this miracle picture depict? The seller's guess... it must be Jesus, unless, of course it's Abraham Lincoln! Bidding starts at $50,000.

3. A bottle of Coke with a dead mouse in it. The bottle was bought from a vending machine on a college campus in California. There is a dead mouse floating at the top of the bottle. It is guaranteed that the seal is not broken on the bottle. Of course, the seller recommends that you don't drink it since there is a dead mouse in it. At this point, bidding is up to $5.51.

I could go on and on describing some of the truly strange things that people sell and buy on eBay. If you're ever bored enough, then you should check and see for yourself what you can find. It's funny.. and a little frightening.

Riddle Me This

Okay... here's one of my favorite riddles:

Three men go into a motel. The clerk tells them the room will be $30. Each man pays $10 before going to the room. The clerk then realizes that he made a mistake and should have only charged them $25 for the room. He gives $5 to the bellhop and asks him to take the change to the men in their room. The bellhop takes the $5 but pockets $2 of it. (He's not an honest bellboy.) He gives each of the 3 men $1 back as their change. After their refunds, each man ended up paying $9 for the room. Three times $9 is $27. With the $2 the bellhop kept, that's only $29. Where's the missing dollar?

I like this riddle because it's a math riddle, and math is not my strongest talent. The first time I heard this riddle, I was so confused. I could not figure it out. Even after I heard the answer, I still didn't get it. Now, in my defense, when I first heard this particular riddle, I was much younger than I am now. I'd like to think that if I heard it for the first time today, I would at least understand the answer when it's given to me if I couldn't figure it out on my own first.

Think about it for awhile, and try to figure it out. Read on for the answer...

ANSWER:
The $2 that the bellhop kept should not be added; it should be subtracted from the total paid ($27) to obtain the price of the room ($25).

The wording of the riddle tricks you into trying to do the wrong math problem, and that never comes out the way you think it should. Of course, by definition, that is what riddles do. They trick you with their ambiguous wording.

Here's what I REALLY don't understand about the riddle: What kind of motel that only charges $25 a night for a room has a bellhop?

The Sad Saturday

This past weekend, despite being 3-day, was kind of a bummer. Well, Saturday was a bummer. I have to start with a short background story to set the stage. My boss gets season tickets to all of the OSU sporting events. There was a basketball game on Saturday that he was not able to attend, so he gave the tickets to me. I was really looking forward to going to the game. I invited my friend Karen to come with me. Of course, on Saturday morning about an hour before we were supposed to leave, Karen called me. She started the conversation by saying "Please don't be mad at me." That's never a good sign. She woke up that morning with her left eye swollen shut and her right eye not quite swollen shut. Needless to say, she could not go to the game. So, I quickly called a few other friends to see if they wanted to go with me. Unfortunately, I could not find anyone who could go with me at the last minute. I ended up giving the tickets to Mark. Not only did I give him the tickets, but I babysat so he could go and let him use my car since Anna was working that day and had their car. Talk about a bummer!

When Mark got home, he told me all about how great the game was. OSU won by getting a 3-point shot in during the final seconds of the game. The seats were fantastic. They were in the third row right behind Tennessee's team. Man, I was disappointed.

That was my sad Saturday.

I'm an Aunt... Again!

Last Friday, January 5th, my sister Jill had her baby. Devyn Leigh was born at 1:32 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She is the newest edition to our family! Isn't she cute?

Merry Christmas!!

This year for Christmas, my whole family gathered together at my parents' house in Florida. This was the first time since before Drew's mission that all of us have been together at the same time. We had so much fun! I really enjoyed getting to see all of my nieces and nephews. Of course, we were hoping that Devyn would make an appearance. That's my sister Jill's little girl who is due to be born on January 2nd. We all kind of wanted her to be born a week early so that we could all meet her, but it didn't happen.

My parents bought a karaoke machine, which was a hit among the adults and children. The kids loved to sing "Beauty and the Beast" and "Jingle Bells," which went something like this... "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Old MacDonald had a farm E I E I O." That was Evan's version that all the other kids adopted because they thought it was funny. My Mom also got kits to build gingerbread houses. That turned out to be very fun. We went to the zoo; made cookies and candy; did a little swimming (in VERY cold water); and had a small baby shower for Jill.

I created a montage with lots of pictures taken during our visit together. Push "play" to watch the slide show.

Make video montages at onetruemedia.com

Tracy, The Super Librarian

Well, I have officially begun working on my practicum. Basically, a practicum is an internship. I started working at the beginning of this month at the Hilliard library. So far, I have supervised a craft station where I helped kids make reindeer masks; I have helped pass supplies out at the cookie decorating storytime; I have observed a Nutcracker-themed storytime that was done for the library by people from BalletMet; I have also observed another storytime that was done by the librarians, which is what I will get to do eventually. I'll get to do storytimes and go into schools to do booktalks. For those who don't know, a booktalk is basically a 1-2 minute skit about a particular book. I have done them before for school assignments. For example, I did one once on The Princess Diaries. I pretended like I was Princess Mia, the main character from the book, and that I was writing in my diary. So I said things like "Dear diary, today was an awful day! I found out I was a princess! Can you imagine that? Me? With my frizzy hair and glasses! How am I supposed to know how to run a country? I can't even get my cat, Fat Louis, to do what I tell him!" Blah, blah, blah... You go on like that for awhile and then you say something to the effect of "If you want to know what happens to Princess Mia, then you need to read her book The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot." That's a booktalk in a nutshell.

So far I have really enjoyed the things I have gotten to help with. I'm on a short hiatus now from the library until after the holidays are over and my next semester officially begins. But I think I'm really going to like my practicum! Hooray!

Wild Lights!

This weekend I went with some friends to the Columbus Zoo, where they are doing their annual "Wild Lights" show. Basically, as you can guess, they hang Christmas lights EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING! It was very pretty. I love Christmas lights. It was VERY cold outside, so we bundled up. I was wearing several layers of clothing plus coat, hat, gloves, and scarf. The problem was that I was comfortable outside in the cold air, but when we went into the buildings to see the animals it was really hot! Between all the layers of clothings, the heated building, and the scads of people, it was like a sauna inside the reptile house. I don't know if there's anyway to solve this problem. It's just something you have to decide before you leave your house -- be colder outside and comfortable inside or hotter inside and comfortable outside.

We had a good time.

Here's me with a GIANT snake who was very much asleep (and behind a glass wall, of course). I'm not a big fan of snakes, especially the GIANT kind. But he was very pretty if "pretty" is a word you can use to describe a snake.

This is me and my friend David. Bylle took this picture for me, and she moved the camera too soon. She ended up cutting off the top of our heads, and David's face is a blur of lights. I think it's kind of cool, but not as cool as the weirdness that happened in this next picture...



These are some of my friends who were there. From left to right it's Bylle, Brandi, David (not the same David as in the previous picture with me), and Benjamin. Look at the guy in the background. He's headless! I thought this picture was so weird because of that. I'm sure it was just because the setting I had my camera on and all the strange lights in the darkness that just made my camera cut this guy's head off for some reason. I promise you that there was no headless man standing behind them. I definitely would have noticed that.

O, Christmas Tree!

Last night for Family Home Evening, we decorated our Christmas tree. Well, I should say I decorated our Christmas tree. Anna and Mark just kind of watched. Matt was interested in looking through the boxes of ornaments, but he kept bumping his head on the edge of the box, which made him mad. It's a very eclectic tree because I had my decorations (which are all red and purple), and Anna had hers (which are all animals). We pulled stuff out of our boxes and laughed because our styles don't really match at all. We've had this discussion several times before, usually in reference to clothing. If you peek into my closet, you will see clothes of every color while her closet is filled with grays and blacks. Her taste is much more subdued than mine is. So, when I pulled out my oversized glass bulb ornament that is bright purple and decorated with feathers, and she pulled out her little glass figurine of a bear dressed as a soldier, we both had to laugh. Anyway, here's what the finished product looks like:

My Piano

I love my piano! My piano was given to me by someone from my old ward at church. I was called to be the choir pianist. Since I didn't have a piano to practice the songs on, I was given a key to the church building so I could go over there to practice whenever I could. After doing that for several months, one of the ladies in the choir approached me after practice one Sunday and told me that her family was inheriting a new piano and if I wanted their old one I could have it. Well, of course I wanted it! This happened a couple of years ago, and my piano has now lived with me in three different homes.

When I moved in with Anna and Mark, they happily made room for the piano. (You can tell from the picture that it is a monster piano! It's an old fashioned upright, which means it's VERY big and VERY heavy.) Well, it turns out that Matt loves to play the piano. He crawls over to it, pulls himself up and goes to town. It's so cute. He also loves when I play the piano. He either crawls underneath to watch my feet work the pedals or else he just sits there and stares at my fingers.

Black Friday

I went shopping last Friday (a.k.a. "Black Friday" in the retail business). I don't know why, but I love to fight the crowds, throw a few elbows, and buy things I don't really need simply because it's such a good deal. It gives me such a rush! Here's a breakdown of how my morning went:

3:00 am -- Alarm rings for the first time; I hit snooze and go back to sleep.
3:09 am -- Alarm rings again. I think "Why did I set my alarm so early?" I hit
snooze and go back to sleep.
3:18 am -- Alarm rings again. I can hear Anna moving around, so I figure I should get up.
3:35 am -- I'm standing outside, scraping ice off my car windows, wondering if I have lost my mind and thinking I should just go back inside to bed.
4:00 am -- I arrive at Best Buy where there is a line of people that already stretches around the building and into the black abyss of the dirty, stinky, alley behind the store.
4:02 am -- While walking across the parking lot to the end of the line, I notice a group of young 20-something males who are obviously drunk. They are yelling something like "Rebates! We don't want any rebates!"
4:03 am -- I find Anna and join her in line. Right away, we make friends with the people immediately in front and behind us.
4:05 am -- The deep freeze sets in.
4:15 am -- A nice man with a large box of donuts comes down the line. Anna and I both take one. They are plain glazed. Yum!
4:30 am -- I am slowly freezing from the outside in. I take my thick red knit hat out of my purse and pull it way down over my ears.
4:45 am -- A store employee (who is wearing a t-shirt with no coat) passes out a list of rules such as "no line jumping" and a map of the store so that you can find what you're looking for once you get inside.
5:00 am -- The doors open, and we go in.
5:18 am -- I am in the checkout line with everything I came to get.
5:23 am -- I'm in my car headed to Target to start the whole process over again...

I must express how impressed I was with Best Buy. I do the early morning shopping thing every year on the day after Thanksgiving, and no other store has been so organized as Best Buy was this year.

Target was much less organized than Best Buy. A brawl almost broke out when they opened the doors at 6:00 and a whole bunch of people tried to line jump. There was yelling, pushing, and police involvement, but it never came to blows.

Kohls was next on my list, but it had opened at 5:00, and by the time I got there it was already after 6:30. I went in, but one look at the line, which wrapped completely around the store, sent me on my way. I got back home a little after 7:00 and was back in bed.

I don't know why, but I look forward to doing this every year. I did kind of miss Valarie this time because the last few years we have done this together. But she did call me when I was on my way home from Kohls. She was shopping in Florida, where she said the weather is much nicer and the crowds are much smaller than in Ohio.

Now the Christmas season has officially begun!

Thanksgiving

I had a great Thanksgiving. I was a little nervous in the days leading up to it because this year I have no family nearby, so I thought it would just be depressing. It wasn't. Anna, of course, invited me to her family's get together, but I declined. I was also invited to my friend Karen's apartment to have dinner with a small group of people. I opted not to go there either. Instead I stayed home alone, watched Legally Blonde and cooked myself a steak. That was my Thanksgiving dinner. As most of you probably know, I'm not the biggest fan of turkey, stuffing, and all the other traditional Thanksgiving food, and my steak was really yummy! I had a really great day. It was totally relaxing!

The end of an era!!!

Can I just say how exciting it is to be so close to graduating? I registered for next semester's classes, and I was like "I just registered for the last time ever!" In about 3 weeks I'll get to apply for graduation. I can't wait! I had a little scare there for a minute when my practicum (which is basically an internship) wasn't set yet, and I only had 2 days until the deadline. But I got that worked out. I'll be working with the children's librarian at the Hilliard branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Hooray! Plus, I just finished one of my classes this semester; the other one will be done in about 5 weeks. It truly is the end of an era. The "era" being my educational career. I have been in school since I was five years old! That means I have been going to school for more years than I am willing to admit. In approximately 5 months time, I will be Master Tracy. How exciting! (At least for me, if not for the rest of the world.)

This year's first snow!

Just another quick note... It's snowing right now! This is the first snow of the season. Sadly, it's happening on October 23rd. I don't know if that bodes well for the rest of the winter.

Circleville Pumpkin Festival

Hello! This past weekend, I talked Anna and Mark into going down to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival. Circleville is this small town about 30 miles south of Columbus. Every year they have their pumkin festival, and it's quite a big production. It has all the charms of a small town festival (including deep fried Oreos and elephant ears) as well as GIANT pumpkins. When I say GIANT... I mean GIANT. The pumpkin that took first price weighed in at 1,362 pounds! Anyway, we went, we saw, we had a great time.

Towards the end of the evening, we passed a booth that said "Oriental Palm Reader." So we said "Why not?" It was kind of funny. Apparently "Oriental" just means a machine made in Japan. All we had to do was place our palm down on a scanner and then this printout with our "future" was generated. If anyone cares, there is romance in my future. Plus, I need to take care of my fair skin in the upcoming winter months so I don't get premature wrinkles.

Also, I got to see the strangest thing in the world! There was a mysterious booth with all these signs saying things like "What is this strange thing?" and "See the strangest thing in the world!" I took a look at it. Do you want to know what the strangest thing is? It's a little dead half man-half animal with wild hair, fangs, and claws. I agree that it was strange, but really I think the stranger thing is that I paid $1 to look at it!