Little of this, little of that....

I have no major news to report to you this week, as was the case last week also. But I can't keep my dutiful readers in the dark so I figured I'd better post something. So here's a little catch up.

I finally have a picture of our rain barrel. It's been seeing a lot of good use lately!
For $30, it's not too shabby. One of our neighbors even remarked how clever we are and wants Travis to make one for her too. Although she has a garden, which makes even more sense for a rain barrel. You know, instead of a crack in your foundation....but I digress.

We went out on the town Thursday night for Hibbing's 18th Annual Gallery Hop. What fun! Basically a lot of merchants on our main street downtown open their stores to an artist or two who set up mini "galleries" of their artwork. People stroll around going from store to store to view the galleries, and of course you can buy if you feel so inclined. I often am inclined because I love to support local artists. This particular time we only bought a small Christmas ornament made out of wood that has woods-y scenes engraved on each side. One with a moose - how very Minnesota.

While in Duluth with my parents a few weeks ago we picked up a print from a local artist named Kristina Nelson who does all her artwork in crayon. Her work is really amazing, you would never know it was crayon. How she creates such detail boggles the mind. We had it framed and just got it back last week.This picture does not do her work justice. In real life you can see the striations on each onion, and a little bit of fuzz coming off the tops. It's pretty cool. So now our onions hang in the kitchen. Very fitting since I do not care for onions in my food at all. But we always have some in the house!

As you may have noticed, loyal reader, the landscape of things changed a bit a few weeks ago. I should have taken my choice of library stacks as a premonition, but I never put 2 and 2 together. After many months of questioning my future career, not being able to find the right job, and some overall soul searching (how cliche, I know) I've come to a decision. I have to go back to school.

A part of me loathes this decision. When I graduated from UF, I didn't look back and was 100% ready to move on with my life. But a larger part of me realizes that there isn't a lot I can do with my degree, and I need to do something about it. So I've started the application process to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has a 100% online Master's in Library and Information Science program.

Why Library Science? Because this is where I should have been all along. Since my Dad bribed me by paying me $5 per book I read when I was young - which quickly turned into a profitable exchange for me, I've always loved reading. And I love books. I know there are such fancy contraptions as the Kindle and such, but nothing beats a book. The weight in your hands, the sound of pages turning, and the smell of a book - all creature comforts to me. I also have this thing about organization and management - maybe a little bit of OCD some might say - that makes me think working in a library would come naturally.

The next question: why UWM? There are several reasons. A) there are only so many MLIS degree programs that are accredited by the American Library Association. B) there are even fewer that offer their program 100% online. C) none of these schools are in Minnesota D) the nearest school is UWM and finally E) WI and MN schools have reciprocity, meaning that I can go to a WI school for the same instate tuition price as a MN school.

So after all that, I officially submitted my application yesterday. Now I have to apply to the MLIS program itself, get 2 letters of recommendations, have my UF transcripts sent to UWM, and probably take the GRE. Probably because UWM waves this part if your undergrad GPA was a 3.0 or higher based on their standards. I know I graduated with higher than a 3.0 GPA, but I'm not really sure how UWM will compute that so I'm not out of the woods yet. After all is said and done, we're looking at a start date of Summer 2011. A year from now. That's the worse part! Also, I'm kind of doubting myself after sending in my application with the "reason statement" required. No where on anything that I read specified a word limit, just what should be in the statement in general. So mine was short and sweet, which now I'm regretting. Oh well, if it's meant to happen, it'll happen, right? I can always reapply. Fingers crossed!

Ok, so maybe we do have some major stuff going on. I just didn't want you to get hyped up about it!