two sides to every story

maura @ 10:52 pm

I’m so grateful that the mornings are brighter now that daylight savings is past. We have to get up at 6:15am this year to get Gus to the schoolbus on time, and those cold dark mornings were tough.

On the other hand, it always makes me tired when it’s so super post-falling-back dark in the evenings when I’m heading home. I’m finding that the older I get, the more I value sunshine (and the more awake I feel in the daytime).

Sometimes I think it would be cool to do the seasonal sleeping thing and sleep more in winter and less in summer. But the eXtreme busy of the fall semester doesn’t really support that, you stinky hippie.

he’s crafty

maura @ 9:54 pm

Okay, I know it’s a cop out to post a photo on day 7, but I’ve got a bunch of stuff I want to finish up before bed tonight and unfortunately a lengthy blag post isn’t one of them.

Instead, take a look at what Gus made today:

It’s a waddle dee from the Kirby videogames. More specifically it’s from the new game which is called Kirby’s Epic Yarn. All of the characters are outlined in yarn and the background is all fabricy — it’s really pretty. He’s in the obsessive mode he sometimes gets into and is utterly unable to want to do anything other than watch videos on YouTube of folks playing this video game. (Except when he’s reading those Gahoole owly books, which he’s also totally into.) And today he spent a couple of hours sewing little characters from the game, like this guy.

His birthday’s in a couple of weeks and doubtless he’ll get the game. Here’s hoping he hasn’t burned out on it by then.

what should i wish for?

maura @ 11:04 pm

Music music music: I’m in a music rut again. It started at the end of the summer, my summer of female vocalists, when I slid into the fall (which was itself very summery, anyway) on the coattails of Janelle Monae’s first record. But the weather’s changed and I’m giving the gals a rest. The problem is that I haven’t figured out what can replace them. The past week or so I’ve been listening to Joy Division,* but sometimes they bring me down, man.**

* Except while I’m working/writing, when it’s mostly Air these days. Which led to a funny today when we were having brunch w/an old friend of mine from archaeology school and they played an Air song and I immediately had this very visceral feeling that I should be working.

** Gus is fond of watching videos of people playing videogames on YouTube, and he discovered a hilarious British guy who sounds exactly like Neil from the Young Ones narrating as he played Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It’s too much, and he keeps saying things like: “Here come the seagulls, oh no! I hope they don’t poo on me” which sends Gus into fits of giggles.

What should I listen to? The other day I was home doing some work and Jonathan was listening to some indiepoppers or another, and I felt like a hugely old lamebutt because I didn’t know who they were. And he replied “oh yeah, I downloaded some mix from some indiepop kid.” Why am I not downloading mixes from indiepop kids? If you were an indiepop kid, what would you tell me to listen to?

surprise art

maura @ 9:29 pm

I was crabby on my walk to work this morning, tired + out of sorts. It’s been a long week. Superbusy at work. Rainy and yucky yesterday. Gus went camping w/school which is always fun for him (and us!) but is also very strange (quiet house!). And I’m having weird, waking-up-before-the-alarm insomnia lately, which is just infuriating.

So there I was, grumble grumble grumble on the way to work, when I rounded the corner onto the plaza near my job only to see that new public art had been unveiled since the last time I walked to work. There are at least 3 big sculptural pieces, including one that’s a series of glass boxes w/stuff inside that sort of reminds me of Louise Bourgeois. I didn’t have time to look closely (9am meeting) or take pictures today but will soon. And now you have something to look forward to in a future post, yay for you!

It was surprising how quickly my mood lifted when I saw the art. Art in the morning, it’s a mood inoculation! Need to find a way to stumble upon art every time I am grumpy.

day 2…

maura @ 10:52 pm

…and already I am too spent to post. How did this happen? Probably my grand tour of NYC today: to the Upper West Side and then to Kips Bay for meetings, then back to work in Brooklyn (for a conference call and then a meeting a few blocks away in the other building), then back to Manhattan for dinner, then home. Rode 8 subways today. A good day, if tiring. Wish I could buy a few more hours, but doesn’t look like that’ll happen.

If I ever fail to be impressed by the view when the train goes over the Manhattan Bridge, that’s when I know it’ll be time to leave New York.

i traveled far and wide

maura @ 11:04 pm

I moved into my new office at the end of last week. New office! I’ve never ever had an office with a door all to myself. It’s pretty swell.

Want a tour?

This is right after I moved in. New chair, too!

Old wooden desk! It was here in the space, and lucky me, I get to keep it. It’s got loads of drawers and dividers and there was a little key in one of them. Mysterious!

One of my three (3!) bookshelves is small and blue with glass doors. Very nice, and the bottom shelf is perfect for my shoes. (I keep my work shoes at work so I can walk to + from in sneakers.)

Two (2!) more bookshelves, plus a table. Which right now is covered in bags with much of the contents of my old desk in it, because I haven’t had time to rearrange everything yet.

Whiteboard, file cabinet, and giant globe! Which also came with the office, and I couldn’t be happier. I love globes, so very cool.

Right now I’m only partially moved because I haven’t had a chance to move everything. I’m trying to bring a little bit over every day — it’s incredible how much I’ve accumulated in the past 2.5 yrs. Also there’s a small sticking point: my old file cabinet is legal-sized, and my new one is letter-sized (which I actually prefer). So I’ll need to get some new hanging folders, sort out the legal folders, etc. And all of Gus’s drawings and my other wall art need to come over, too.

All of which I love, seriously! Mmmm, organizing. But I just don’t have time for it right now. Which is tweaking me ever-so-slightly in an OCD way because I’m not sure where anything is (though I did find my post-it notes today, which have become my most critical office supply lately). The absurdity of filing something in my old cubicle today did not pass unrealized, too.

keep on calling me

maura @ 10:24 pm

Hey, look at that! November 1st, time for NaBloPoMo again. I know, I know, right now you’re thinking: “Maura! Don’t be an idiot! You barely have time for proper home + family maintenance, much less writing a blag post every dang day for the rest of the month!” And yeah, that’s all true.

But this year I’ve realized that there must be some kind of karmic scheduling at work, because while *every* November seems to be just insanely busy, it’s also true that this is the time in the semester when my butt is most likely to be bruised from having fallen off that ol’ writing wagon once too often. And this year’s no different. And I just emailed a journal editor about an article idea I had and got a positive response, so I really need to hoist myself back up into that saddle.

Tally ho!

(P.S. I promise no more horse-related metaphors for the rest of the month.)

the triumphant end

maura @ 8:05 pm

Today’s the last day of NaBloPoMo, and all I can think of is the stupid song that Dora the Explorer sings when she finishes her quest: “we did it, we did it, we did it, yeah!” Gus hasn’t watched that show in forever, but my nephews are still little so I’m sure that earworm took hold sometime over the long weekend while we were visiting.

So yeah, I probably should have written a few more substantive posts this month. But I think I did a decent job overall. Definitely more library-ish this year than in years past, which I guess is understandable given how much headspace I devote to my job.

And speaking of which, apparently there’s a conversation going on over at Friend Feed re: my post about the plagiarism article that I wrote last night, so I should head over and join in. Bye!

in which i write 515 words about plagiarism

maura @ 10:16 pm

Right, day 29 here and I am suffering a bit more than usual from the Sunday night gloomies. Maybe it’s a sugar crash (Jonathan made chocolate chip cookies today), or maybe a delayed tryptophan reaction. Most probably it’s the classic post-family event letdown that always hits when the chaos subsides. Silly to have gloomies tonight, anyway, since I have RT tomorrow and thus don’t even need to leave the house for 33-ish more hours.

So anyway, I have been mopey all weekend about writing my next post* for the academic library blog, which is silly, too, because it wasn’t really all that taxing. You know, finding the space + time without children playing video games at high volume, etc., etc. But tonight I finally finished it. Jonathan read it and proclaimed: “it’s dry, and you talk about nuances of academic writing,” which is pretty much spot on for my goal for that piece, so go, me!

* I don’t want the pingback, so if you want to read it click “acrlog” in the sidebar over there on the right.

natural consequences

maura @ 9:30 pm

Today we got up, got ready, and got in the car to drive back from my sister’s place in Delaware. My sister, brother in law and 2 nieces followed in their car. Along the way Gus slept for 2 hrs.

When we got back to Brooklyn we said hi to the cats, changed into fancy clothes, and hopped on the subway into the city to go see The Nutcracker. It was a great time, though Gus’s attention did fade in parts. But everyone loves champagne and gummy bears at intermission, and Lincoln Center is so fabulously retro.

After the show we headed to a fancyish restaurant in a nearby fancyish mall. Just inside there’s a big (like 10 feet tall) metal statue of a naked man, and of course the kids ran right over so they could get all Finding Nemo: “he touched the butt.”

The restaurant was lovely. We had a great seat by the window and the kids watched the city go by. All of the kids got complementary cotton candy for dessert, and Gus had ice cream too. Probably not the best idea.

We went to some sort of weird electronics showroom in the mall afterwards where nothing was for sale. When we were looking at the netbooks Gus accidentally on purpose pried up the security tag, which immediately started beeping. We hustled him out of there quick.

Once we got home the kids played Super Smash Bros Brawl for ages. Feels like we’ve only just now gotten them to bed, and I’m pooped.

Moral of the story: extra sleep + no physical activity + loads of refined sugar = crazy kid. Hope he sleeps it off.