It isn’t that I have to do my grad assistantship work (I’m putting it off til I get home).

It isn’t that I have one more day of my internship left (aww sad).

It isn’t that I’m planning on spending Wednesday making a Christmas present, going to museums, or making fudge (because all of those are fun things).

It isn’t because I have an apartment to keep clean (because I could really care less right now).

It’s because in my opinion it would be the dumbest thing ever to put away all of my laundry today just so tomorrow, Wednesday, or Thursday I can fold it all up again to pack.  Really, I’m saving time!

One website, one presentation, and one paper to go til my first semester of graduate school is done.

-a dishwasher.  I VOLUNTEER right now to load the dishwasher at least once a day.  You know why?  Because it means I won’t have to do any of those damned dishes by hand.

-a washer and dryer in a designated laundry room. I don’t have to get dressed to go the laundromat? I don’t have to make sure I have dollar bills to put on the card to make the machines work? We’re golden.

-animals.  Four of them, two cats, two dogs.  I have missed the chaos that comes from four-legged furry creatures running around, being Max’s hero for just opening the back sliding door, and making Charlie’s night by agreeing that indeed, it is dinner time.

-decorating for Christmas!  I have serious concerns that if I were to walk in December 24th, the house might not be decorated.  Mom, Dad, and Rachel did alright two years ago, but this year I don’t think they put up ANY of my fall or Halloween decorations (jerkfaces).

-Christmas at home. There will be coffee cake, there will be Christmas movies (HP 7 Part 2?  Hint hint), there will be stress, there will be cleaning, there will be throwing of pillows off of the floor, on to the floor, at people, and at dogs who don’t get off of the couch fast enough.

-NEW YEAR’S EVE.  ’Nuff said.

-my library, which I left far too much of at home, will once again be just a few steps away from my bed, and let’s face it, reading and sleeping are two things I plan on doing almost exclusively for at least a week.

Things that perhaps I’m not looking forward to so much:

-animals.  Four of them, two cats, two dogs.  Furry, smelly, attention-needing-and-demanding four legged creatures that always make my black jeans look awful, and recently I’ve been wearing a lot of black (it’s just easier).

-a dishwasher.  I may be remembering incorrectly, and the last two weeks around here completely negate this point, but five people accumulate more dirty dishes faster than one or two people do.  SO MANY DISHES.

-three weeks at home.  I want to go home so bad.  Please don’t misunderstand me, I love it here in New York, but I need to go home and see my family.  However comma.  Three weeks.  Am I a little worried that this is too much time?  Yes absolutely.  Is that enough to make me change my plans?  Not at all.  We’ll just fight it out.  It’ll be fine.

-a month away from home.  I’m going to miss out on so much fun happening here in New York, and that’s sucky. (If you’re wondering how I can be away from NYC for a month, and yet only home for three weeks, the gap week is four days in New Orleans with George and Lana!  So excited.)

So, what does this mean?  It means I’m procrastinating on the four papers, three presentations, and one website due by next Thursday.  Clearly.

One, we celebrate my existence (yay!).  The celebration this year was especially notable for its awesomeness,with its 5, count ‘em, FIVE days of celebrating (Breaking Dawn, lunches, dinners, drinks, friends, pancakes, boxes from the 92025, CUPCAKES).  Not that I don’t remember every birthday fondly, but this one is a stand out.

Two, in accordance with reason #1, it kicks off The Holiday Season.  In order: my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years.  All of these are accompanied by food, drink, music, friends, family, and a crap ton of planning, stress, cleaning, cooking, cleaning again, and recovery.  And I LOVE it.  I love having people around 24/7.  I like getting dressed up.  I like the details that go into a Cloyd Party.  I like making fudge for people.  I love getting a Christmas tree and bossing everyone around while we decorate.  I love the feeling of joy that exists when you know that the people you love are close by and happy and healthy and arguing and singing and sharing and debating and loving and living. 

Today I take off for Maryland and Virigina for Thanksgiving with the East Coast contingent of the Family, and Friday night I come back to a house full of new friends.  In between there will be henna, knitting, parade watching, and turkey eating.  Life is good.

Love Vlogbrothers!

It has a category!

This is me editing it again.

A view of Cornell from the top of the bell tower.

2.  Seeing Katie was awesome.  She showed me around and explained to me what she does (hint: it has something to do with physics) and took to me a fun Halloween party, where I was propositioned by Richard Simmons (I said no thanks).

...yup.

This has Natalie Portman's face, and we like that.

The elephant I knit for Carmen. I plan on featuring this on the website.

Reason 2: Free tours of cool places.
In the last two weeks I’ve toured the Fitch Ratings Library (wiki link here), which was a really interesting look into corporate libraries, something I didn’t know anything about.  While before it probably ranked the same as public and school libraries on the interest scale (like at a…zero) it’s probably now a 2 or 3.  So, progress.

The second place I toured was the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum Complex and it was uh-mazing.  The event was held by the Archivists Round Table NYC (shout out!  Pamela Cruz, VP, put together that program- she’s cool) and I’m so glad I went.  The first hour was a meet and greet, and I talked to a Queens College student who is in her last semester.  She told me about her internship at the Coney Island Carnival Museum or something like that.  It sounded interesting!

The second hour was a rotating cycle of mini-presentations, by the curators of the museum, who are awesome.  They walked small groups of us through the Intrepid’s history, through how they use the artifacts they have to tell the story, and then how they are in the process of archiving their collections.  Very educational, and it was so cool to be with professionals who actually DO this and are excited about it!  I’ve been so worried that I’m building up this career in my head, but all three of the presenters said how much they love their jobs, so I’m feeling better.

After, since we’d been given snazzy wristbands, we got to wander around the Intrepid for free!  I had dressed in my sleekest professional heels, so it wasn’t the most comfortable excursion ever, but so worth it.  I saw planes and the captain’s chair and read fun signs and played with radios and all in all had a good time.  I did miss having my fajah to explain everything to me, so it’s still on the list of things to do when we collectively have time to go and play tourist.

Reason three why being a library student is cool is I get to sit in tea shops and make snarky remarks with other library students about how we totally went into SILS for the money we’re planning on making.  Bahahaha.