Thursday, April 24, 2014

A little advice please

A little background first. I work my city library, I've been there about 5 years. I LOVE my job. At the moment I'm hourly. There was an opening for 3 salaried positions (all the same position), so I applied. Tomorrow I have my interview, I'm trying to figure out what to wear.
This was my first idea:
 And then I thought, I wonder what this looks like with dress pants:
I'm leaning toward the dress pants. Most of the time I wear jeans to work. Now that it's getting warm out, I'll be wearing more skirts. I just feel I wear skirts a lot too. I never wear dress pants to work. At least, not this job (the pants are part of my uniform for my other job).

I'd love to know what you all think.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Wednesday Hodgepodge

It's time for Wednesday Hodgepodge again.

1. April 22nd is Earth Day. Are you inspired by nature? In what way? I enjoy wandering around in nature. My favorite day in the spring and summer would be to be out walking in the woods. I'm not sure I'm really inspired by it.

2. Down to earth, four corners of the earth, move heaven and earth, not have an earthly chance, or salt of the earth...which earthly idiom have you most recently encountered? Explain.

3. Share one piece of advice you might give a newly engaged couple. Have fun every day. I'm not married, so I don't know what it's like to be married, but when I was with my ex, the best days were when we had fun. I think if there were more of those, we might still be together.

4. When did you last engage someone to perform a job, task, service, home repair, or improvement? On a scale of 1-10 (ten being the best) how would you rate their work and/or your satisfaction with the job or service provided? Honestly it's been so long, I have no idea.

5. When did you last find yourself engaged in small talk? Are you awkward or an expert or somewhere in between? I'm not good with small talk. If I don't know a person very well, I find it very hard to relate to them.

6.  What was the last historic place you visited? My house is historic, does that count? Probably not. A few years ago, We went to an old fort in Dubuque, IA. Unfortunately most of the buildings were gone, and it was Memorial Day weekend so the museum wasn't open. It was still cool to look around.


7. The world would be a better place if we just weren't so lazy.

8.  Insert your own random thought here. I'm ready for garage sales. I know I'm supposed to be downsizing, but I love the thrill of the hunt. I love planning my weekend jaunts, seeing what each sale will have that I find interesting. I love getting out and walking places. I don't have to buy anything, and I'm going to try very hard this year not to buy much. I do have a couple things I'm looking for.
Last weekend, I set out for a garage sale, when I got there it didn't have as much as they advertised, so I ended up wandering around and taking pictures of for rent signs.

When I go out for garage sales, I start my list on Wednesdays, when the sales are most prominent in the paper. I continue to check the online listings and Craigslist up until I leave on Friday and Saturday. I go through the listings and write down the addresses, times and what sounds good in their listings in my notebook. Once I've got all the ones down for a certain day, I plan out my route (I walk to all my sales, so having them close together makes sense), and I start out on that route, if I happen to notice more while I'm out, I generally stop. I bring a bag, lots of ones, and some water so I'm ready for most anything. I also have my MP3 player to listen to while I'm walking.
Every winter, I start saving my garage sale money, or even at the end of the season. When I'm paying in cash, every $1 I get back, I stick in a book and then count them out when garage sale season starts next time. It seems to work great for me.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Favorite Color Swap

I joined the Favorite Color Swap hosted by Chaotic Goddess Swaps


Favorite Color Swap

Basically, I'm filling a package with five items in my partner's favorite color.
I have to pick items out that my partner would like, they are to cost $20-$30, and to be mailed out by or before May 9th.

I'm looking forward to this swap. I joined a swap a few years ago that was about the same, send a partner items in their favorite color and get some back in return. I had a lot of fun with that swap. I hope to have as much fun learning about my partner and sending them some fun items.

I just realized I have no idea what I put down as my favorite color. I don't have a favorite color all the time. It used to be green because I collected frogs and green is bright, and then I switched to blue because I have a lot of blue in my wardrobe. When I did the other color swap, I said pink because I wanted more pink in my house, my partner did great, I remember getting candlesticks, bath supplies, scarfs, candles and some jewelry. I think I may have put down purple mostly because I want more of that in my house.
I love getting to know new people and finding things that will make them happy. That's basically the reason I do swaps, that and getting something cool in the mail

If you'd like to participate, click on the button above, sign-up's are open until Monday.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Friday Confessional

It's Friday, and I'm playing along with Vandy at The Testosterone Three and Me for some Friday Confessions. She told me once, we all need to confess sometimes, so here goes...
  • I confess...It was a beautiful day today, but I just sat inside all day and read a book. I just didn't feel like going outside.
  • I confess...it's been a very trying week. I really just needed a day to myself.
  • I confess...I have a very bad night on Monday. I got some very troubling news at my job that afternoon and my way of coping is not very constructive. It was a long and hard night.
  • I confess...I wish I had someone to talk to sometimes. Almost all my friends work at the library, sometimes it would just be nice to chat with someone who didn't know me.
  • I confess...I really can't make popcorn, I have mastered cheesecake, but I can't figure out popcorn
  • I confess...I don't know why I even eat popcorn, after the first piece it's stuck in my teeth and it feels like I spend forever picking it out.
  • I confess...after watching Hugh Jackman in Prisoners, I had to watch an X-Men movie to get the not so nice image of his character from Prisoners out of my head.
  • I confess...I watch a lot of violent movies, but Prisoners was disturbing. I believe someone can get pushed that far, but it's still sad and disturbing.
  • I confess...it was nice watching Jake Gylenhall and Hugh Jackman in Prisoners. Jake looked like he added some weight for his character, but the mountain man look for Hugh didn't really do much for me
  • I confess...I always make an Easter basket for myself, but lately I haven't found much besides candy to put in it. I feel bad about it, but if nothing is interesting enough to buy, I don't see wasting my money.
  • I confess...I'm supposed to be downsizing, but I want to keep buying things, it makes me happy. I want to find that one really cool thing for my Easter basket.
  • I confess...I'm tired of looking for apartments, it totally drains me. I wish I could just wake up some morning and someone would offer me the perfect apartment, but when does life ever work out for me?
  • I confess...I'm more than a little annoyed that the students are acting like babies and have gotten VEISHEA cancelled for the year. I had plans to attend the International Food Festival tomorrow. I was so excited to go.
  • I confess...I think they should cancel VEISHEA permanently. It seems every year there's something. Obviously not as bad as the riots we've had in the past and the other night, but it's getting to be annoying. The students act like babies, the university cancels it the next year, or changes something, the students are better the next year, and a few years along something else happens, it seems to be a never-ending cycle.
  • I confess...I really wanted some new, different food this weekend, that's why I was so excited about the food fair.
  • I confess...I've been really bored with my life lately.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Hodgepodge

Well, I'm certainly sucking at posting lately. I've been busy, we had our garage sale, didn't sell very many books, most sales were on my jewelry and art stuff. There is a new job posting at my job, and I've been getting things together to apply for that. Plus, still cleaning and hunting for an apartment.
It's totally time for Hodgepodge, check out Joyce's blog to see what other people said.
1. April showers bring May flowers, or so the saying goes. When did you last 'shower' attention on someone or have attention 'showered' on you? Did you love it, or did all that attention make you squirm? My friend had a birthday not so long ago, I got her a lot of stuff, I believe she appreciated it. I haven't had anyone shower me with attention for awhile, I miss that.

2. Share a favorite 'spring break' memory. Not talking about just the 'college spring break' thing, but any favorite spring break memory you'd like to share. Keep it family friendly please! When I was a kid, my mom was on the city council and sometimes her conference in Washington, D.C. lined up with our spring break, so we'd go with her. I loved those. We got to visit so many things, the zoo, the Smithsonian, National Archives, the Engraving and Printing building, the FBI building, lots of cool restaurants, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the old capitol, and many more. I loved those trips.

3. It's National Pecan Month...are you a fan? If so, what's your favorite dish that calls for pecans? I'm not a huge pecan fan, every once in awhile I like pecan pie

4. 'Put all your eggs in one basket', 'egg on your face', 'rotten egg', 'walk on eggshells', or 'a good egg'...which egg-spression could most recently be applied to your own life? I'm walking on eggshells around a lot of people in things. That's all I'm going to say on it.

5. In my experience life really likes to hit you and keep pushing you down.

6. What's a favorite song with the word rain in its title or lyrics? Like the Rain by Clint Black, or Songs About Rain by Gary Allan.

7. What does the word hope mean to you? Something to look forward to, I'm always 'hoping' things get better. Shortly after my ex broke up with me, I adopted the word 'hope' as my word, it still is, I keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.

8. Insert your own random thought here. As I said above, there's a new job opening at my work. I'm getting things together so I can apply for it. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to put in my cover letter. I want this job soo much.

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Hodgepodge

It's Hodgepodge time again, check out Joyce's blog for other people's answers.



1. Since these questions are posting on the first day of April it seems only right to ask-when was the last time you did something foolish? If you can't answer that one, try this one-when was the last time someone fooled you? I don't know, I know my brother used to love playing tricks on me as a kid.

2. What's the last biography or non-fiction book you've read? Was it any good? Non-fiction is about all I read. I'm reading The Invention of Murder right now, it's pretty interesting. Apparently, the first murder happened in England.

3. Garlic-friend or foe? What's your favorite dish made with garlic? I don't really use garlic when I cook, but I do like Chinese garlic chicken.

4. Several Spring flower festivals happen in the US during the month of April. Of those listed, which would you most like to see in person...The Skagit Tulip Festival in Skagit Washington, The Dogwood Arts Festival in Knoxville Tennessee, The North Carolina Azalea Festival in Wilmington North Carolina or the Daffodil Festival Weekend on Nantucket Island, Massachussets? Daffodils always mean the start of spring to me, so I'd have to go with the Daffodil Festival in Massachusetts, plus you'd be on an island near the sea. What's not to like?

5. How do you choose which blogs to read?  What is something that will make you stop and read every time? Something that makes you say, 'eh, think I'll skip this one and move on to the next'? It mostly depends on my mood. I love looking at other people's artwork, so if it has to do with mixed media, I'll most likely stop and look. I also find it interesting to read about other people's lives, though I don't like to spend too much time reading.
6. April is National Mathematics Education Month so tell us, when did you last use math? This morning, to balance my checkbook.
7. In honor of the A-Z challenge kicking off on April 1...choose one word beginning with the letter A to describe your yesterday. I'll get back to you.

8. Insert your own random thought here. We're having a garage sale this weekend. It was originally going to be just books, but we've added some other things to the list. We have garage sales so infrequently, I forget how much work they are. I'm looking forward to getting some of this stuff out of my apartment.