Skipping ahead

June/July Happenings

I did my first professional paper presentation (first two, actually) and I spent a week being a tourist in London. It was really a good trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also visited my parents for their thirtieth wedding anniversary, and there was a picnic and a nice number of people came.

And now I'm still really getting caught up from all that and also have several pressing projects at work and things are getting back into swing for the fall (Adventurers and what not), so I am busy and yet still trying to figure things out.

Two weeks until I'm thirty.

April Haps

5/14/17
--
So the adventures of April were a bit more on the domestic side. There's nothing wrong with that, but April was definitely a month where I had enough going on that the semi-regular events of my life had to suffice.

• I went to the eye doctor; it turns out that my eyes have gotten worse again (and in response to my question about it the doctor said that there's no way to pull apart it getting worse due to using a computer at work from it getting worse due to me being nearly thirty with a family history of poor eyesight). Buying new glasses tanked my budget for the month, though, so I should plan better for that in the future (I wasn't out of money but if things had been even tighter I would have been in trouble). Going to the eye doctor took up most of my Fridays, which are usually the days I've been adventuring.
• I was one of the members of my local church's nominating committee. We had several evening meetings, all of which I attended. It was really fascinating because I've never been on nominating committee before, and also have never seen it work in such a large church. 
• I attended the baby shower of some friends who live in Frederick, Maryland. It was my first time in Frederick--parts of it felt very Indiana-ish. The GPS took me to the wrong spot, and then past the correct spot after I re-entered the address, so that was a tiny adventure.

March Adventure

4.11.17

My adventure in March was a trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. No, I didn't visit the battlefield, though I should put that on the list. I went because there was a MARAC MD/PA caucus meet-up at Gettysburg College, followed by a trip to the Seminary Ridge Museum.

MARAC is the "Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference", the regional archives group of which I'm a member. Logically, I am also part of the Maryland caucus of MARAC. This was my first in-person event having to do with MARAC, and it was on a Friday, which is nice because I have that day off and don't have to use vacation time to go.

Thing is, Gettysburg's a bit of a distance, about an hour and a half drive from my apartment. It's certainly the longest distance I've driven since going to Alexandria and certainly the longest distance I've driven since the drive that ended in my crash. And it was raining on my way there. So that was fun. White-knuckled fun for some parts, but fun. It's nice to see that I am gradually getting over the crash, but it sure takes a lot longer than I'd imagine it would (since it's so so fun to physically flinch when a car comes up too fast behind me, as often happens because this is Maryland).

Anyway, I made it on time to the meet-up and thoroughly enjoyed our backstage tour of the Gettysburg College Special Collections and Archives. Their storage room is SO NICE, and they have four full-time staff and eight student workers and three full-time interns! (Says the lone arranger...)

Then we ate at their specialty dining room, and then met up at the Seminary Ridge Museum. The museum has no items of its own (so everything it has, and it has quite a bit, is all on loan). On some better-weather day I'll go back and pay the extra money for the tour of the Cupola.

I'm still sorting through all the in-depth knowledge I gained about the Battle of Gettysburg from the museum, but the main thing that struck me was how a unit that was a month out from being mustered out lost over 75% of itself just behind the seminary building, basically in the same spot where a parking lot now sits. It's the same sort of feeling I got when we visited Antietam during junior history trip in high school. Not ghosts, per se, but memories.

Memories, of course, are what archivists and historians deal in, I suppose.

Anyway, it was an adventure because

1. it was a place I'd never been to before,
2. it was the longest distance I've driven since the whole car fiasco of late summer/early fall 2015,
3. I met a lot of archives/library people I had never met before (networking?),
4. I learned a lot about the Battle of Gettysburg.

It was a good day.

Adventure is out there

2.24.17

Okay, so I didn't do 'resolutions' this year, but I did set some goals, things to work toward achieving, one step at a time.

One goal that has been uppermost in my mind is "Go on one adventure a month". Or, in the words of my friend Lexy, "Get out of your damn house and do stuff".

For me, "adventure" is defined as several things:

• doing something that is outside of my normal routine
• trying something new
• learning or achieving something that I didn't before

Now, I know, lots of things could be counted as 'adventures' under that banner. But that's sort of the point. For lots of reasons I have been fairly tentative to get out of the routine, the mundane, and the safe. (Not that all adventures are terribly unsafe, per se, but there's a sense of safety in mistakenly thinking that a good routine provides yourself with a modicum of control over what happens in one's life. See, I'm learning.) Basically, if I can imagine myself as Bilbo running after the dwarves, yelling, "I'm going on an adventure", even if it's a small thing, then it's an adventure.

(On some level I think it's a mindset thing, switching up how I approach the new and/or the unknown.)

Anyway, I can't think of anything I did in January that would qualify as an adventure, but in February (which is not over yet, mind), I've done at least three things, one of which was a fulfillment of a different goal:

1. Navigated Metro to a place I'd never been (Catholic University of America), gave a professional lightning talk, and answered questions about my poster after the talks. (This is the one that fulfills another goal, which is do at least one presentation in a professional setting and capacity.)
2. Drove to Alexandria, VA, to meet up with a friend (the aforementioned Lexy). We had initially planned to go to Mount Vernon, as I'd never been there, but parking was apparently crazy so we went to Alexandria instead. Good lesson in flexibility and spontaneity for me! And instead we got to see the Apothecary Museum, the Gadsby's Tavern Museum, and watch Alexandria's Presidents' Day parade. It was a great day, and I got over 10,000 steps! (It was also the furthest I've driven in this new vehicle, as I've stuck pretty close to home because I don't want to break down. My GPS also took me straight through DC instead of navigating around it, so I got to figure out how to drive DC roundabouts, but at least the traffic was lighter than normal.)
3. Today I went on a bike ride with my roommate! I haven't been on a bike ride in, like, twenty years, for reasons I realized while riding today. I am definitely out of shape, but that's one reason why I went biking. Also, the weather was just plain gorgeous.

I wonder what adventures March holds for me.

11.5

11/5/2015

I'm attempting NaNoWriMo. I'm about a day behind, but it's the most I've written in a long while.

I am enjoying my job. I scanned another diary today. That was fun. The whole thing is a massive project that will take a while to complete, if it can ever be actually completed.

I don't think failure has to become a person's identity, that failure has to define a person.

(These thoughts aren't connected to other except that I'm thinking them.)

Eureka

1-6-14

Today I learned or had affirmed that what I'm learning in graduate school is IMMEDIATELY applicable to the real world.

Today I sat in a history conference at the General Conference (yes, that General Conference, those of you who might be wondering) and listened to great papers and interesting ideas from historians and teachers and theologians, all the while getting ideas on how I could apply what I have already learned in one semester to the current situations and try to improve what already exists.

Today I saw displays and immediately thought about light levels affecting the items and the books, asked questions about the climate around the White family library (it's ambient because they have so many daily tours) and learned about the fire suppression system. I saw the backlog in the archives and learned that the powers-that-were didn't listen to the first appointed archivist who requested a vault twice the size of the one that was built--and I saw the tiny scanners that they're using to digitize material with. I learned that the first Adventist to gain a Phd. in English (in literature, to boot) did so at the University of Michigan, the university at which I'm currently studying.

I had a discussion with a current archivist about the overwhelming fact that born-digital materials (like early emails) are already disappearing because the creators didn't think they were important, and how not many people know what to do to keep and preserves records before they reach an archives.

I'm finally in the right field and it's a great feeling.

First Impressions

8-17-13

So, arrived here on Friday. I'm not in the apartment I was expecting to be (it's not finished yet), but I still have a place to live and he's not changing the rent because it's his fault the apartment I was going to be isn't finished yet. He and his parents (who spend weekends here working on the little apartment) helped me bring most of my stuff in. The one guy thinks I have a lot of stuff, but really it's clothes and books and kitchen stuff. So I left some stuff in my truck over Sabbath because I had to get groceries.

They took the time to give me directions to Aldi, but I got lost on the way there and took a drive through Ann Arbor's neighborhoods. I eventually found it. Met a lady named Debbie who has family in my home town. I told her I'd end up seeing her a lot, because I like shopping at Aldi. Then I got lost on the way back, but eventually found the apartment again.

This morning I got up and went to church. I put extra time in my schedule in case I got lost, but my written-out-by-me instructions were excellent and I ended up arriving at church before anyone else. Like only fifteen minutes, but still. People trickled into Sabbath School, but the superintendent was like, "There's only three of us here, so pick a favorite hymn." I'm pretty sure she and I were the only ones singing for a least two songs. The Sabbath school class I attended was really good--I had never thought of the Resurrection being God's endorsement of everything Jesus had done, but that makes sense. The sermon was super on-point, full of practical advice, and yet not too long.

Then I met another UM grad student and she introduced me to a bunch of other students and I went to a yummy potluck and met the pastor and his wife and many others (whose names I'll eventually learn). Apparently the student group is rather active, and that's exciting.

Tomorrow, it's more grocery shopping and room organizing and maybe some furniture finding and maybe a walk through the neighborhood. Apparently people expect stuff sitting on the curb to be taken by people, so maybe I'll end up with some useful things.

8-15-13

I head out to Ann Arbor tomorrow!

Just fyi. More when I actually load my truck and drive the three or so hours to my new apartment.

--Ashlee

Yay!

2-19-13

Last week, I got accepted into UMSI! I'm really excited, though I'm not giving them an answer until after I find out what kind of assistance they can offer. Y'see, I'm poor, and graduate school is expensive. So I got myself a new bank account (so I could have a local account, and not just one whose closest branch is two hours away from me), and I've done my taxes. I still need to do my FAFSA, but I'm sure my expected family contribution will be what it has been for the last couple years (0000). I've also turned in all my paperwork to work as a substitute teacher in my local public school system, so now I just have to wait for phone calls in order to have work.

I appreciate the fact that SI has current students e-mail prospective students. I've exchanged e-mails with a current Archives and Record Management (ARM) student, and the most useful thing I've found out so far is that it'll be cheaper to find housing that isn't run by the university. (Where have I encountered that before?) Anyway, SI has a Prospective Student Visiting Days in March, and I plan to sign up and attend. They've got a job fair and a housing fair at the Visiting Days--it would be silly not to go, considering that I'm only a couple hours away from the school.

Yay!

Minutia

8-27-12

I'm no longer sleeping on the floor! Yay!

After all the growing I did while on Ebeye, I became willing and able to actually work at being a friend and what not. I grew past my past and got over myself, you might say. But a few days ago I realized that deep down I still secretly believed that people will pretend to like me and that they'll abandon me at a moment's notice (if that).

Well, I got myself proven wrong, and this makes me very happy. I'm not sure I can describe how excited I was to realize that I do have a group of friends who think of me when things are happening, a group of friends who actively include me. I suppose it might be a little disheartening to find that I still unknowingly expect to be left out, but I also think that's just a feeling that I'll have to keep overcoming as I continue to grow. (So, thank you, my friends, for being your wonderful selves and for being my friends.)

I got some errands done today--returned a textbook (first time I've ever needed to do so), saw some people, talked with my adviser for like an hour (that's a story for a different post, once the thoughts percolate), tried to do some scheduling. I'm also attempting to be at least a little like Hermione and read some of books ahead of time, just because I know I will be super busy during the semester itself. 

I still need to buy shelves and a desk chair. Maybe I'll find some at the Samaritan Center or Goodwill. They're too danged expensive at Wal-mart.

Oh, and I still don't know what I'll do after graduation. Fun fun.

More later.

--Ashlee 

Off-Campus

8-22-12

So I've been back in Tennessee since Monday evening. I got to go hunting for the apartment that I will be sharing with Lindsey and Tamara in the near-dark. I even ended up calling Lindsey so she could get her brother (the former occupant) to explain where he hid a key for me.

Yesterday I emptied my storage unit in one trip, which was nice. That saved gas, anyway. I carried everything upstairs (since that's where my room is) and now I'm sore. I'll probably have to bring all my kitchen stuff up as well (the kitchen is tiny and doesn't seem to have any room for my stuff). I might buy a fridge. I'm also looking for a twin bed because the one in here is like a full sized bed and it dominates the room and I don't like it. Nor do I have sheets that fit it.

Today I vacuumed my truck out and discovered that I have tiny spaces under the backseat. Nice. I also bought my textbooks (not the most expensive semester, but a lot of books; the cashier guessed that I was a history major. I'm English, but she wasn't far off). I bought some plastic drawers and some food and some school supplies.

I think I'll go out for supper.

More later.

The Continued Adventures...

2-21-12 (Hey, if I wrote this as Germans do (21-2-12), it would be a palindrome. Yay.)

of me and my truck, Grune. (And when I'm not lazy, Grune is spelled Grun with a ^ over the u.)

I'm going to be a bridesmaid in May, and the bride's asked me if it was okay if I left my truck (with my stuff in it) at someone's house down here over the few days that I'm in Virginia for the wedding. This is because she and the groom can't pay for me to fly from Indiana, so they want me to catch a ride with people from here and then drive back to Indiana after riding back from Virginia.

This is all right with me, except that I've had a busted window on my truck, and if I have valuable things in my truck, I didn't want an all-access panel made of duct tape and plastic. So last week, I prayed during my devotions that God would provide the money for fixing my truck window. Immediately, I heard You have a credit on your bill in a tone of voice that clearly said, "I was just waiting for you to ask."

So I investigated and I did have a credit on my bill--plenty, it turns out. So I withdrew money and looked for good auto glass shops. Only one that's in the area gave an online quote, so I followed up with that and discovered that the price that looked too good to be true was actually true (not counting tax). So, time to put the plan in motion.

I had to get a new battery and terminals in order to drive to the glass shop; I planned to do it on Sunday, but it poured and I figured electricity plus water was stupid, so I held off until yesterday. I got a jumpstart from Campus Safety and went to Wal-Mart. God ended up saving me about $30 because the previous owners of my truck had bought a Wal-Mart battery, so they exchanged it instead of making me pay full price. So, new battery and terminals, approximately $55 for an hour and ten minutes of work.

After that was all finished, I called the glass shop and set up an appointment for today. After Mass Media Law and Ethics, I took my truck and went out to Glass Masters, which is over by the airport. I've never driven out there, nor gone there by myself, and I did pretty well. I did turn left instead of right when coming off the highway, but I realized my error and still ended up at the shop fifteen minutes early. No one else was there, and so they got started early. 50 minutes and $278 later, I had a new back window.

Praise God! It's something that's been bugging me since April. Although it's pretty weird to look over my shoulder and see the road instead of duct tape and plastic, I'm sure I'll quickly get used to having a vehicle that has the windows it's supposed to have. This makes me very excited and I also felt very grown-up, taking care of my truck by myself like that. More later.

Beginning of the End of Break

1-6-12

Well, it was a record 10.5 hour trip down here to Tennessee on Wednesday (after a few days of weather delays). No, I didn't speed. The traffic was really light--I made it through Indiana in only five hours, but that may be because of the route I took--and the weather stayed nice and clear. So, I arrived in town at like 7:30 PM or so, EST (I left at 8:00 AM CST), and decided to check my P.O. Box (yay! mail!) and get dinner at the Village Market (just because I COULD because it was still OPEN--it was an exciting feeling).

On Thursday, I got an oil change for Grune and also chose to replace one of my high-mount brake lights (apparently it was out). I went grocery-shopping and practiced on my bass clarinet. Today, I slept in longer than I had expected (one, I'd stayed up late talking about writing with a friend who's teaching in China, and two, I was warm and comfortable in bed and kept re-setting my alarm). Still, I made it to the credit union, the campus shop (I picked up my last textbook, the one that hadn't been available before break), the post office (no mail), and the VM (an onion--better than Wal-Mart's produce) before they all closed up shop, seeing as it was Friday afternoon. I even chatted with the cashier at the VM about today being a busy day, and she said, "Not as busy as when the kids come back." (She thought I lived around here. Weird! But good!)

I practiced some more on the bass clarinet; I really suck at practicing before we sight-read together as a group (which I'm sure we'll do on Wednesday). I can learn the notes and kinda learn the rhythms but it won't come together until I get a feel for how fast we'll be playing the pieces. Yes, I own the tracks for the one piece (different pieces from the original Star Wars trilogy), but listening to them does not usually translate into me playing awesomely. Especially in this case, seeing as I'm not a brass player, a percussionist, or some high-pitched instrument that usually gets melody. You can't always distinctly hear my parts on the tracks because they're foundational--heard but not seen, if that makes any sense. (It does to me, anyway.) So listening to the tracks doesn't completely help. We'll see on Wednesday. At least I know I've done some practicing. Not as much as I would have liked (see: weather delayed my return), but at least some.

Yes, I've got some resolutions, but I don't know if I'd call them resolutions or something else. I don't know if I'm up for posting them either, seeing as they're only partially formed in my mind as yet. :D

More later.

Truck Adventures

10-21-11

Today I had lots of adventures! I actually had most of the adventures with Brooke, since she texted me right before I was ready to go and asked me for my plans and I said, "Why don't you come along?" and she did.

We went to Great Clips and we both got haircuts, and I'm pretty pleased with mine, enough so that I think I'll add myself to their database when I go back for another haircut while I'm here in Collegedale. When I take pictures of how I look now, I just might post some. Both of the housemates who are here freaked a tiny bit; one said, "You chopped it all off!" (Which is untrue and exaggerated on several levels. I did nothing to my hair; the stylist did. Also, it was not chopped, it was cut, and I still have plenty left.)

I went and got The Green Machine an oil change, which it apparently REALLY needed, since the Vavoline data sheet I got back indicates that it had been over 100,000 miles since it had had an oil change. (So I was pretty proud of the fact that I took that $20 coupon and took the initiative and got the oil changed. The next thing on my list is probably going to be that back window. Even though the duct tape and plastic make it distinctive in a parking list, it's not super secure. That'll be more expensive to fix, however.) Changing the oil made the truck work SO MUCH BETTER.

Brooke and I then went to Panera, ate lunch, and then "surprised" Alan at work. (He'd told me his hours and suggested that I come by because he'd be bored.) Would you believe that he actually tagged me? (Tagging does not involve paint in this case; it involves throwing me a tag line when I walked into the store.) Brooke and I walked in the side opposite of where he was, and walked around the store because he was talking to someone who I found out later is his manager. When he saw me, he was like, "Ashlee! When did you come in?" and I was like, "We've been here for a bit. You talked to us when we walked in." He said, "Oh, I tagged you, didn't I?" I thought it was pretty funny, anyway.

Then Brooke and I went to Barnes and Noble (since it's right around the corner from where Alan works and since we're both English majors), and then we went to McKay, where I had my cheapest haul yet (I was very good). I got a copy of Death of A Salesman and Eats, Shoots, & Leaves for like $4. Awesome.

Brooke and I went back to my apartment and watched satiric videos and then I went back to the mall and met up with Alan when he got off work. We ate at Red Robin and then chilled in Barnes and Noble for about half an hour before he drove back to his grandma's in Calhoun and I to Southern Village.

I'm glad to announce that the replaced lightbulbs work! Also, I connected a few more roads in my mental map of the area, since the only time I took the highway was when I was driving back after dark tonight (it's the route I actually know the best, so I took it instead of the curvy backroads).

All in all, it's been a great day. I was remembered by friends, had good truck adventures (which is way more preferred than bad vehicle adventures), and ended the day with a phone call to my mom and writing this blog post. GREAT DAY OF BREAK. And I still haven't worked on my Pirates, Captives, and Slavery paper. (If I had regrets of my day, that would probably be it. But I don't.)

Now to bed, since it's almost midnight and I do plan to go to church tomorrow. More later.

Decisions, Decisions

12-1-10

So I know I mentioned in an earlier post that I was having doubts about whether or not to be a teacher. I did some career counseling (which included a Meyer-Briggs personality test and two career interest tests) and did a lot of thinking over Thanksgiving Break.

I came to a couple conclusions. One, I believe that a person choosing to be a teacher should be passionate about it, and, therefore if I've already had the thought that I don't plan to teach forever, that's not the right attitude to be entering into a profession with.

Two, I need a future career to be somewhat intellectually stimulating andor challenging. Teaching would provide some of that, but I don't know if it would be enough. I was plenty challenged to teach well while on Ebeye but I also devoured any piece of written material I could get my hands on. As a corollary, the question has never been about whether or not I'd do a good job, but whether or not I'd be happy. Big difference.

Three, I am mostly definitely an INTJ. In Meyer-Briggs' speak, that means I'm Introverted (which means I get energy from alone time), I use iNtuition (more abstract thoughts, logic jumps that make sense when I have to trace my thoughts), I Think through my decisions, basing my decisions on the facts and ideas rather than on how I feel in the situation, and I am Judging, which in this particular case means that I make lists and I like to plan things and what not. The introversion makes sense, and it also explains why I'm a better tutor than teacher.

Four, I needed to make some changes in my course of study. I made the decision pretty much by the Friday or Sunday of Thanksgiving Break, but I held off on a final decision until after my second career counseling meeting where I discussed the results of the various tests with the career counselor. (It's an example of the T in my personality: I wanted all the facts before making my final decision, since it was, after all, pretty momentous for me.) The results summed up and confirmed what I had already been thinking: I was far more interested in writing and mass communications and law than in teaching.

So, what did I decide to do? I dropped my secondary education major, knocked off the teaching endorsement from my history minor, and added a journalism minor. Doing this shaved an entire semester from my time left in school--an entire semester! (I did have people ask if I did this to get out of school sooner; um, no, because I'm not even sure I'm ready to be entirely grown up.) So I am officially an English major with history, journalism, and honors minors. I got this arranged Monday evening and Tuesday morning. I sent in my request to change my major and minor, dropped classes for next semester I no longer needed, added classes I did need (and had to go to Records for them to computer-wrangle me into one that said I didn't qualify for that I did), and informed my adviser.

And how do I feel about this?

I FEEL GREAT. I feel more free than I have in a long, long time. At least a year, if not more. I've been in an excellent mood that I can't completely describe except that it's similar to when I got my ears to clear for the first time in scuba diving, or when I chose to keep Sabbath rather than go to a band contest. It's a combination of feeling that I'm on the right road--even if I have absolutely no clue where this road will lead after I graduate. I'm on the verge of another adventure, and I'm excited about it.

-Ashlee