Bon Voyage, Books!

I did it! I made it to the end of my fourteen-unit semester! Still waiting on some grades, but today Elizabeth and I packed up the books for good.

Christmas Vacation, here I come!

Only One More Week to Go!

This Week in Children's Literature: Poetry

This has probably been one of the most enjoyable weeks of learning for my children's lit. class, partly because we didn't have a quiz in honor of Thanksgiving. It was about poetry, a subject I've always loved but have sadly neglected in recent years.

What is poetry anyway?

Poetry, at it's most basic, is a short, lyrical response to the world. It is emotion under extreme pressure or recollection in a small space. It is the coal of experience so compressed it becomes a diamond. 

 -Jane Nolan

It is time to make some diamonds again.

Here is a sample poem from my textbook:

Great, Good, Bad

A great book is a homing device

For navigating paradise.

A good book somehow makes you care

About the comfort of a chair.

A bad book owes to many trees 

A forest of apologies. 

-From Please Bury Me in the Library by J. Patrick Lewis  

Who You Gonna Call?

Stress Busters!! Another gem from Library Teamwork and Supervisory Skills, which has quickly become a more enjoyable class.

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/Stress-busters

Take a Deep Breath....

Looks like I'm back, in spite of being so very busy. Six classes and all their accompanying homework, plus the housework that never ends, keep me pretty busy. But we must not forget the ever important down-time. Down-time for me is usually first thing in the morning with toast, a hot cup of tea, and a good book (more often than not Harry Potter.) Unfortunately, my foolish brain cannot help making me feel guilty about the down-time I am taking, telling me that I'm subtracting valuable minutes from my day that could be used getting homework or laundry done. 

Long story short, life is full of stress! Surprisingly, today I found encouragement in one of my least favorite classes, Library Teamwork and Supervisory Skills. This week my teacher assigned some articles for us to read on stress and how to reduce it. Here are links to two articles that really helped me:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037?reDate=13112016

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/positive-thinking/art-20043950?reDate=13112016

Let's all hope for a more relaxed week.

Sleepy Blog

Hi Everyone,

The fourth week of my school semester is nearly complete. School can be a bit exhausting, even when it's all online. I do miss the classroom sometimes. I would often get a nice pick-me-up from having an enthusiastic teacher lecture about Shakespeare or the French language.

School is temporary. That's what I keep telling myself every time I think I can't go on. It's only for the next three months. Then comes Christmas break followed by the spring semester, which, if all goes as planned, will be easier than this semester and the last one for this Library Information Technology certificate program. I'll be a certified library technician!

Until then, though, I just keep plugging away at school, each assignment turned in bringing me one step closer to a successful ending.

I'm afraid that this blog is going to be rather inactive for the next three months. School comes first, well, maybe school comes second after my personal sanity. So this blog is going to rest for a while, and I bid it sweet dreams.

Promised Pictures

A new bedspread for a new look.

Inspirational quotes over my bed, encouraging sweet dreams.

Instead of a night stand, eternally gathering clutter, I now keep my nightly necessities on a slim and tidy bookshelf. 

 

 New curtains for the closet...

...and the window.

 

 

And two more quotes from Audrey, sending me off to school in high spirits.

 

 

 

Between Semesters

Dear Blog,

So much for "I hope to find time to blog during the busy school schedule." Summer school has been over for two weeks and the fall semester will begin for Cuesta in about a week and a half. My textbooks, turquoise five-subject notebook, and I are all set to begin!

I made myself a small to-do list a while ago for the short vacation between semesters including "Update Blog." However, I wanted this update to include pictures of my recently redecorated room. With Elizabeth's help I have gone from the Fanciful Fairy theme I've had for nearly ten years to Audrey Hepburn inspired Paris Chic. Because, as Audrey says, "Paris is always a good idea." Maybe within the next week I will track down a camera and take some photos of my new bedroom/school room.

In a way I am going to miss the school room setting this fall, and I've already been missing the face-to-face interaction with a teacher when I have a question. Asking questions in class is easier than typing messages back and forth with hundreds of miles between us. But there is a tremendous amount of freedom in knowing that I don't have to be in a classroom at a specific time. It's almost like being home-schooled again.

Well, tomorrow is Friday, the day I go to the library for book processing so I should get to sleep. Good night, whoever is reading this.

--Lydia

Long Time No See

Hello again, my friends. Has it really been eleven months since we last met? Nearly a whole year. So much has happened I feel like I should re-introduce myself.

My name is Lydia, obviously, I am twenty years old and someday I want to be a library technician. This dream came to me nearly a year ago when I began volunteering at the Madeline Helling Library in Nevada City. I began as a shelver in the children's section of the library and quickly became adept at putting each picture book and novel exactly where it needed to be, sorting the series so they were in the correct order, and even giving book recommendations to some of the young readers.

Over last Christmas break, I moved to a new department of the library: the book processing. In processing my job is to take the new books, the ones still unread by library patrons, and stamp them with the date and name "Nevada County Library." I also place stickers on the binding if they belong in a certain category. For example, the biographies get a sticker on the binding that says "Biography" in bold, red letters.

And that is where I've been ever since. It must have been about five months ago when I decided that I wanted to work in a library. So I asked my library mentor, Cindy, what qualifications are required to work in a public library, and she helped me find Cuesta College which teaches the library information technology program that I need to pursue my dream career. In a mere two days time Cuesta's summer semester shall commence and I will be attending it online. I am hoping to have my certificate in library information technology within one year, and then it's on to the library!

Care to see the place that started it all, aside from my own book-filled home that is?