Hey, guys. 
First off, I know I haven't posted much this year, and there's a good reason for that. Not much of what happened this year was all that great and, while this blog is never what anyone would call "uplifting", I'm trying not to just whine all over the internet about how much my life sucks. This year's been hard, but for good reasons. This was a transition year as I left school and tried to make it as an adult. I pretty much fell flat on my face and just kinda laid there and took a beating for a while, but I'm working on getting back on my feet. To help explain the year, I give you my annual Top Ten in slightly different format. We're going chronological this year to try and explain start to finish what happened.

10. Chicago with Vanessa
Valentine's Day weekend, Vanessa and I went on a trip to Chicago. We really didn't have much of a plan other than we wanted to see the city. I'd been a few times before, but we both really wanted to just go goof around...so we did! We met up with the fabulous Ceara and stayed at her place when we weren't riding the L, walking through the art museum, and eating AMAZING bar food.





9. The Navy
By February I had been out of school a few months and really starting to panic about my life and what I was doing and how I was going to take care of myself. I was having trouble finding a job and working part time trying to pay rent and just generally having a terrible time of it all. And there was an Armed Forces Career Center next to the grocery store in town. I did all the right things talking to my recruiters, but in the end the decision wasn't for me. Unfortunately, by the time I figured that out I had already moved back in with Papaw and given away or sold all my stuff in preparation for my ship date. Oh well...

8. June Yellow Springs Street Fair
And so in June I was back home living with Papaw in Jamestown, trying to find part time work in preparation for my "ship date", and feeling pretty lonely... So the coolest people in the world piled into a car and drove from Kent to Jamestown to spend the day with me! We went to the Yellow Springs Street Fair, which happens to be one of the coolest events EVER, and had a BLAST! I love my friends!




7. Lorna's First Birthday
August brought Lorna Grace Hotain's 1st Birthday! We had quite the party going at the local park complete with balloons, presents, cake, and friends! Like last year's Top Ten, I'm still in awe of watching this little person grow up. She becomes more and more awesome by the day and I just feel so privileged to be able to be around to watch her develop er own personality and way of doing things. It's just awesome. 



6. Milwaukee Irish Festival
The Milwaukee Irish Festival never fails to deliver. The music is choice, the grounds are awesome, and the parties are EPIC. This year was definitely different because the host hotel was out at the airport, rather than being downtown like normal. This led to longer shuttle rides and less opportunity for exploration, but at the same time we were all kind of stuck together. There was 1 restaurant within walking distance, a Denny's that you couldn't go into all weekend without seeing a familiar face, and only the bar hotel for partying. Ceara, Julie, Whitney, and I had a blast! We met up with bunches of friends from past fests and, all in all, it was a good time.




5. Kansas City Irish Festival
After the awesome of Milwaukee, Whitney and I decided to throw caution to the wind, scrounge up out pennies, and head of west. It took us 10 hours of driving each way, but we made it to what was definitely my favorite fest this year, the Kansas City Irish Festival! While it wasn't as big as Milwaukee in terms of stages, there was enough quality there to blow anyone away. We made bunches of new friends at this fest and spent a lot of time just wandering around and being n00bs, which is great! Wish it was closer, but I think the plan is to go again in 2012. (Right, Whitney? Is that the plan?..)

4. Wonderful Whitney
Speaking of Whitney, she earns a spot on this year's Top Ten. I've known Whit for as long as I've known about Gaelic Storm. We met at Indianapolis Irish Festival in 2006 and have been going to fests and events together ever since. We were at Wright State in the English Department at the same time and got to take a couple classes together (those poor proffs didn't even know what was going on) and now that we're in the same city again, we're getting together pretty regularly to hang out. I love you, Whitney!! For realz, girl, you keep me sane, lmao!!



3. Song of Ice and Fire
It might be a little silly to put books on a list of things that formed a year of your life, but these books are special. I read over 100 books in 2010. When 2011 started, I was a little burned out on reading and decided to take a short break before starting a new book. That break lasted months. When I finally started reading again, it was short little books to just kinda get back in the habit. Nothing too big. Then I heard about this new show on HBO called Game of Thrones and, OMG, it had Sean Bean in it! Automatic watch, no questions asked. And, of course, I got hooked. I mean, come on, it's Sean Bean! I was more than halfway through the first season before I even heard it was a series of books. (I know, I fail. Whatevs.) After finishing the season (Come on, I was already halfway through!) I got the books on my Kindle and have been reading them non stop. I'm on the 4th one now and they are soooo goooooood. These book have reminded me of why I like to read. When I'm not reading them, I'm wondering what's going to happen next. Honestly, as I sit here writing this my Kindle is on my desk and it's taking all my will power to finish this post before I turn it on. Good. Books. The End. 

2. Gatlinburg, TN
Because I hadn't seen her in 2 years and she had been saving up for a trip to a boot camp graduation that wasn't happening, my mom decided to come for a visit in November. We decided that, along with the typical Ohio running, we would take a special trip down to Gatlinburg, TN just the 2 of us. I hadn't been to Gatlinburg since 2005 and mom hadn't been since high school, so it was a lot of fun to see how it had changed and stayed the same. We got to sample moonshine, feed black bears, get lost in Knoxville, go to the Aquarium of the Smokies, and generally have a good time. We did a good bit of shopping while we were down there too. All in all, it was an awesome trip.

1. Tomorrow
So, the number one thing about this year? The fact that there's a next year. I learned a lot about myself and what I can do this year, but generally I didn't like how this year turned out. It's ending on a good note, though, as I get ready to leave my job at the gas station for a job at a call center. It's a step, and right now that's all I ask for. Just keep moving forward in little steps.

Happy New Year

It's been a long year and, as anyone that's been around me lately can attest, it hasn't all been fun and games. I've had a lot of ups and downs this year, but this list is about the ups, so let's get to it!

#10- The Virginia Hamilton Conference, April 9th
I went to the Virginia Hamilton Conference at my school, Kent State, this year and it was AWESOME! I got to meet Laurie Halse Anderson and she recognized me from Twitter and tweeted about it and it was awesome :D. There were also some really awesome presentations about Multi-Cultural Literature for Young Adults, so that was fantastic. Great time, seriously.
#9- Sickie Chicago Trip, March 11-14
I went to a bunch of show on Gaelic Storm's March Midwest run and they were fantastic!...except that I was pretty sick and couldn't stop coughing! I started out in Cleveland with The Merch Mommy, then she drove me to Chicago where I met up with Ceara and went to 2 nights of Chicago House of Blues shows with her. I sold merch every night, in Cleveland with Cindy and in Chicago with Ceara, and it was just really awesome to get back to Chicago. I love the city and this was the trip when I decided that I needed to move there. (On a side note, I took the bus back to Cleveland and had to promise the girl next to me that I wasn't dying or contagious. :D)
#8- Hair Dye!
Some of you may have noticed that this year has marked an insane number of hair changes on my part. This is mostly because I realized I can dye my own hair pretty well and have spent the year messing with it. I dyed it black with Danny, then put in the blond streak, then did brown and the streak, then red with the streak, and now it's back to a basic brown, but you can still see where the bleach was and the red still comes through. It's definitely become a new hobby, seeing what I can do with box hair dye, but I'm laying off it for a bit till my hair recovers. Either way, it was a fun year!
#7- YouTube
I started a YouTube page. Ok, I know I had one before, but this one is actually me just talking and stuff rather than posting concert videos. I made it mostly as a way to respond in the YouTube Nerdfighter community and it's definitely helped with that. I love when I'm bored and can just make a video. Awesome times. Also, I met the German Nerds through all this madness, so that's awesome too!

#6- My Apartment
In May of this year, I moved into an apartment with Danny. This is the first time I've ever lived in my own place, or anywhere where I had to pay rent and utilities and stuff. It was a big step, but it has proven to be quite nice. Danny had to move home and couldn't stay with me in our lovely little apartment, but it worked out because I got...


#4- Dublin Irish Festival, August 6-8
Dublin has always been my favorite fest and this year was just all out insanity. Gaelic Storm, Enter The Haggis, Young Dubs, Scythian, SO MANY BANDS!!! Of course this coming year looks pretty awesome as well as far as the bands go :D. Friends and I had a lot of fun at this one. Ceara and Julie brought along Jay and it's just always more fun when there's a n00b around experiencing it all for the first time. Awesome times were had, but not as awesome as...
#3- Milwaukee Irish Festival, August 20-21
Omg, Milwaukee. This year was crazy. We didn't come in as early as last year (we came on Thursday last year), arriving at the park the first night just in time to experience HURRICANE KINTRA! We were waiting for Scythian, watching this band, going "man! they're good!" when the most horrifying rain imaginable came upon us. Ceara and Julie had gone to see a friend in another tent, which left Anna, Jenna, and I huddled together against a pole, our umbrella long destroyed by the gale force winds, while bagpipes play in the background. It was surreal. The band played as long as they could before the rain drove them offstage and us the the nice, dry bathrooms. It was ridiculous. (Of course Ceara and Julie came back later completely dry from hanging out under a tent...) We made bunches of new friends, got lots of new stories ("Party at the bus!"), and became just a little more seasoned and experienced with the entire event. Can't wait till next year!!#2- Books!
I've read 92 books so far this year. That's already 10 more than last year and I'm pretty sure I can complete my 100 Book challenge this year...which would be awesome!

#1- Lorna Grace Hotain, August 27th
My bff, Brandi, had a baby, Lorna Grace Hotain, on August 27th. I know it's kinda odd that my #1 Top Ten is my friend having a baby, but it's true and I kinda wanna explain it a little if I can. I've been babysitting Brandi's other daughter, Iris, since she was 3. I don't notice myself growing up day to day so much as I see her growing up. And I know that most 25-year-olds don't talk about still growing up, but for me it's true. And that's what a lot of this year has been for me. Growing up in different ways. I love Brandi and Iris so much that it was hard to imagine being able to have some new little life coming in and love it just as much. I have little brothers, but I was very little when they were born. I have tons of friends that are actively procreating, but this was the first time it was a family I was so close to. I took care of Iris while Brandi was at the hospital and brought her over in the evening when everything was done. I was scared to hold Lorna because I have this irrational fear of newborns and their floppy necks, but Brandi insisted I hold her and it was pretty amazing. Babies are cool. And now it's this whole new thing where everytime I go home I have to see her and how big she's getting because I saw her when she was just this little wrinkled newborn and now she's all smiley and expressive and everything. And I'll get to watch her grow, just like I did Iris, and Iris will watch her too. And it's this huge deep thing that I can't express, but it's awesome. I love kids.

I've recently reflected upon one of my all-time greatest fears: academic men in suits. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out. Setting aside the entire feminist movement, I'm inevitably more intimidated by men in academia than women. It could be the fact that most men in academia are in higher positions of power while women are just professors, but I think a lot can be said for the suit.

Take my first example, Dr. Tall (In the interest of good taste, all names have been changed for this blog post.). Dr. Tall was one of the many Deans I've encountered over my 8 year stint in Higher Education. The man was somewhere in the neighborhood of 7' tall, meaning I was usually eye level with the lower section of his tie. He was always impeccably dressed with hair that you could tell he spent a good deal of time on in the morning. All the same, he was intimidating not just because of his suit and height, but also because of his voice. As the Dean of a School of Music, the man had a booming, resonant bass voice that could be heard across campus. I only met with him one-on-one once, but I remember being absolutely terrified the entire time.

Another example would be Dr. Smiley. Dr. Smiley also had a high position in a school's Music Department, but he also taught one of my classes. He was an older, smaller man that Dr. Tall, but always wore suits and an ear to ear grin. What was so intimidating about this professor (aside from his authority as a professor and his suits) was my complete inability to read him. He never showed any emotion aside from his trademark grin. In fact, I remember one specific instance of him reprimanding our class for not preparing properly, during which he never once stopped smiling. It was scary to be that completely unaware of what someone was thinking, especially someone in power that holds your academic future in his hands.

My last example is Dr. Beard. Dr. Beard had a magnificent, well, beard. He was also abnormally tall, but rather than having Dr. Tall's powerful build, he reminded me a lot of Abe Lincoln without the hat, ie. lots of limbs. Dr. Beard was a Dean as well as teaching Shakespeare classes. While his were some of the most fun and rewarding classes I've ever taken, I was never the less terrified every day of class because of the prospect of earning his disapproval in some way. I was able to loosen up around him a little, however, after I was in my car and saw him jogging around campus during his lunch break in a tank top and running shorts. 

Ok, so what's the point? I'm easily intimidated, that's not news. It's more me trying to decide which I found more intimidating about these men: the reality that they had the power to drastically impact my life by destroying my academic career in some way, or the fact that they were physically intimidating, mysterious men in suits. I'd like to think my intimidation was at least rationally based on my fear of academic failure, but the fact remains that when I reflect on my fear of these men, I only see their suits.

 I went down to Dayton this past week to spend Thanksgiving with my family and brought my friend Chelsea with me since she couldn't make it home to California. My car, AKA The Beast, was fine going down there and we had a great time eating insane amounts of food with the family. On Black Friday, my friend Joe was working at Best Buy and asked us to come visit him and witness the carnage of hundreds of people storming the doors for cheap electronics. On the way there, we stopped and had lunch with some friends of mine. After lunch, my car battery was dead. I asked someone to jump it and it started right up, so we drove off. 3 blocks later, the car stalls out in motion and we push it into the nearest parking lot, which just happened to be at The Greene. For those not familiar with the greater Dayton area, The Greene is one of those pretentious, although entertaining, outdoor shopping malls that resembles a small downtown completely made up of the best retail has to offer. And now, on Black Friday, Chelsea and I are stuck blocking traffic into and out of the center's main parking lot. Let the fun begin!

I had the hood popped and my hazard lights on. I was pretty sure it was the battery again, but since the car had stalled out while I was driving it, I wasn't confident that just getting another jump and driving away was the answer. Papaw was called and on his way, but it would take him at least half an hour to get to us.

So we waited.

And waited.

And then we started to get frustrated. See, in the other parking lot where the car had failed us, it had taken less than a minute for someone to come and ask if we were alright or needed help. That parking lot was small and in a rather shabby shopping center. Here we were in one of the largest shopping centers in the tri-state area with hundreds of people streaming by us on foot and in cars and all people did was stare. All of them. Old men, little kids, middle aged house wives, college kids, all of them. I was sure that eventually someone, at least a security guard, would come to ask us to move or see if we were alright, but no. All they did was stare. We did see a security guard on a bike riding around the parking lot. He stopped and stared for a second, watching us block traffic for everyone trying to come in and out of the lot, before he biked away down one of the aisles. 

It was 40 minutes before a group of middle aged men came and helped us maneuver the car into a space.

40 minutes.

I thanked them profusely and made sure they knew that they were better than any of the hundreds of people that had walked by before them. I mean seriously, even if you have a bad back or are juggling three kids, how hard is it to ask if the people in the broken down car are alright? Or need help? What if Papaw hadn't been on his way? We would probably still be sitting there while the upper class of the area went around us, staring as they hauled their holiday shopping to the car.

I know it's corny and cheesy, and it's been said in every Christmas special since the dawn of time, but really what's the use in spending hundreds of dollars on gifts for everyone you know when you can't spend 5 minutes helping out a stranger? Why do we gorge ourselves on food over the holidays to the point of being uncomfortable when there are people down the street hoping the food pantry doesn't run out of turkeys this year?

I'm not saying we can end world hunger, because that's just foolish. What I am saying is that if you see some clueless college kids in a broken down car on the side of the highway, please stop and say hey because it might be me. 

Note: The car is all fixed now. The battery bolt/cable thingies were corroded. Papaw cleaned them. We made it back to Kent with no problems what so ever. 

Why haven't we heard from extraterrestrial life? I mean, you look at the stars and each of those stars are a solar system. You see the images of deep space that various satellites and telescopes are giving us, and all those little smudges are hundreds of thousands of stars, each with planets orbiting it. So what's the deal?

Hank Green (my main source of enlightenment on this subject) talks about it here:


Then talks about it some more:



And finally sings a song about it here:


So yeah, where are the aliens?
Are there cultures that would rather hide? Have they not evolved to the point where they can transmit messages? Are they scared of us? (I wouldn't blame them, especially if all they're picking up is Fox News.) It's just so weird to think of.

We used to think that the data we sent into space went on forever and ever (which would kinda suck 'cause the first visual transmissions to head into orbit were of Hitler...), but I read an article a while back that argued that this is, in fact, complete bull. The transmitions we send out would actually degrade to nothing before it even reached the end of our solar system. So is that it? They just don't know we're here?

Of maybe it's Star Trek style where they have to wait for us to make some special technological advancement and then Vulcans will swoop down and save us from ourselves. It's possible, but I find it hard to believe the Romulans of the solar system would actually obey those rules.

Or maybe it's Dr. Who style where the aliens are here and always have been, but there are super hero aliens walking around that look like us and keep us from constantly being invaded, enslaved, zombified, or wiped out. I mean, that'd be kinda awesome because then Torchwood could be real and I'd have one more job opportunity for after graduation...

I just can't believe that we're alone. I'm not saying they're friendly, or hostile, or have been here or even know we exist, but...they have to be out there, right? I kinda hope so... 

 This summer has been epic in it's lack of blog-able material. Oh don't get me wrong, stuff happened, just nothing I really wanted to blog about. The festivals were awesome and full of stories that you may get to hear someday...just not here, and not now. How's that for vague? So school started yesterday and I didn't have class, so I got to watch all the little freshies run around like scared little chipmunks looking for their classes and books. It was fun, lol. I also ran a ton of errands, like paying my rent and arguing with the BMV about appropriate documents to prove residency, that made me feel even more like a grown up and less like...well, a chipmunk freshie. Damn.

I've been arguing with Windows Media Player for about 2 weeks now and this morning I finally gave up and started the transition to iTunes. It's still a work in progress as my entire library has to be converted from .wma to .mp3 format, but I'm hoping for a more enjoyable media experience...and society tells me that iTunes delivers, though I still generally distrust all things Apple. We'll see, maybe this small change will alter my way of thinking about that particular evil monopoly.

This summer I worked 40 hour weeks, so my body got into this really nice pattern that, though thoroughly destroyed during the festivals, it has continually returned to. My new work schedule, starting tonight, includes me once again sitting at the Library Circulation Desk until 2am. In preparation, I stayed up till 1:30am this morning. Despite this, my body still decided that 9am was sleeping in, and so I've been awake for 2 hours when I have no where to be and nothing to do for another hour. Oh well, got some GameBoy and Computer time, lol!

This semester I'm taking Management of Library and Information Centers, Library Materials for School Aged Children, and Marketing the Library. I was supposed to be taking Reader's Advisory Services, but the class was cancelled due to low registration. It doesn't matter that I spent the summer reading all the uber boring novels on the reading list...no, it's ok, I'm not bitter (LIES!). But it worked out now. Two of my classes are online (which I hate), but I've spent the last two days developing an elaborate organizational system that will (hopefully) keep me from forgetting assignments and generally losing my mind...we shall see. 

Well, I should get moving at least a little bit. My friend Chelsea somehow coerced me into going to the gym with her this morning. I haven't been to the gym since...2004? Yeah. It's been a while. I don't see this being fun...but we'll see. Ciao!

I was on Facebook today when one of my friends posted the following: "________________ is wondering what the appropriate, biblical response to crabgrass should be...." I actually stopped to think about it because it dumbfounded me that someone with any real knowledge of Christianity would have to think about this.

According to the Bible, God created grass. All grass. Why would He want us to systematically destroy one race of grass that He created? (Sidenote: Is a hatred of crab grass a kind of racism?) There is also the environmental impact of most chemicals used to get rid of crab grass. The chemicals runoff into the natural water supply and kill the life therein. Not just fish, but the natural algaes too. So in using these chemicals to commit agricultural genocide, you are also destroying an eco-system that He created.

Now we can move on to the money one spends buying the killing chemicals. The Bible charges us to be frugal and wise in our spending and to be "Good Stewards". Most Evangelicals interpret this to mean that God is responsible for everything we get in this life, including our money. He gets us jobs, gives us the energy to go to those jobs, and thus provides us with a paycheck that we are then expected to use responsibly to glorify Him, both through consistent tithing and philanthropic works. Money used to kill crab grass does not glorify the Lord, but is rather a sign of one's vanity.

So what would be the Biblical responce to crabgrass? Leave it alone! It's not doing anything to hurt you or the people around you, and getting rid of it is a waste of money AND is harmful to the environment.

PS, this is just me ranting, feel free to ignore. :D

The end of the semester is upon us. I've dealt with the end-of-term anxiety so many times now that it's more routine than trauma, but this is the first time I've ever been on the involved spectator side of things. As a grad student classes are only 10 weeks long, meaning I had my end-of-term panic episode a little over a month ago. Now I get to sit back and watch all the little underlings freak out about finals and graduation. I have to say, it's quite entertaining. :D

Working in the library has been something of an experience at this time in the semester. All of the seniors have received threatening letters telling them to return their books or else, so the circulation desk is FLOODED with returns. We're equally overwhelmned by various patrons coming in to pay fines so they won't be charged to their Busar's Account where Mommy and Daddy can see what bad library users they are. Loads of freshman have been putting off reading for their finals and are now coming in the night before demanding materials they should have requested weeks ago in order to get in time, and are now freaking out because they can't get ahold of them. All of this is coupled with the approaching library remodel in which the entire first floor of the library (including the Circulation Department) will be gutted in order for it to be upgraded to a newer, spiffy, cleaner finish. This means every piece of furniture in the department has sticky notes on it so the movers will know where it goes, library workers are frantically trying to keep up with the returns so that the downstairs sorting shelves can be moved, and the department's vending machines have been taken (for which I am most sad).

I haven't been reading as much lately because I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got up to season 4 and reached a roadblock. This is the season when Angel started and the stories overlap quite a bit, so I had to go back and watch Angel's season 1 from the beginning...which is slowly killing me. Can we go back to Sunnydale now??

I'm getting my hair cut at 3pm, when I get off my first shift. I work noon-3pm, then again from 7pm-3am. Long day, but we persevere.

The apartment is pretty stellar. Roomie and I are having a lot of fun getting settled in and everything. He is also becoming accustomed to me sitting in my room alone talking to my computer a lot, which is good because for the first couple days he kept checking on me when I was vlogging or talking to the Germans on Skype.

Danny: You ok in there?
Me: Oh yeah, just talking to the computer!
Danny: Uh huh...Need anything?
Me: Nope, I'm good!

It was awkward. But all that is changing now because Danny is gonna start vlogging! Wheee! We made a video last night so I could teech him some basic editing, then he went into his room and talked to his computer for a couple of hours. They grow up so fast... Anyway, that's what's new here. Ciao!