The Falcon Has Landed

(Er... the falcon being Alex.)

He called at 4:30 am to let me know he was in Paris, and I just got off the phone with him--he's in Helsinki!! It's odd how he seems closer now, over the phone, than he did when I dropped him off at DFW airport, when he was still in town for two hours. The beauty of cell phones and global communication, eh? And my husband is now officially an American Airlines Advantage Platinum member, and he's terribly pleased with himself making it to that point before I did. Hmph.

Monday morning is proving to be much more fun than yesterday afternoon--lack of sleep and coffee are much more my normal routine, I guess. I did complete my homework last night, but not all my work-work, so I got to work a bit early to start on that before my meetings begin. And a huge thanks to Tihleigh, who chatted me up last night until I was cheery, as well as let me know that I wasn't pathetic for feeling sad. And another huge thanks to Gayla, who is graciously hosting me tonight and tomorrow, so that I don't waste time and gas commuting home for no reason (particularly since I work until 9pm both tonight and tomorrow). I'll be back in McKinney Wednesday to catch up on mail and housework, since I will end work at a much more normal time.

And I'm wearing a new Audrey Hepburn shirt today--who can't help but feel a little glamorous when wearing such a gal on your shirt, I ask you?

Goodbye, Buddy!

Bleh.

So here I sit on my bed, laptop in lap, completely ignoring all the homework and work I have to get done before Monday morning. Because every time I try to concentrate on work/homework, my brain panics and starts to think about Alex. Which is ridiculous, because at this point he's still in Dallas. He doesn't board for another half hour, and he doesn't take off for another hour beyond that. Sigh.

So I am seriously wondering how I'll get myself to concentrate on the things I need to do, instead of continuously distracting my miserable self with the internet, comics, and the fact that I've got "The Empire Strikes Back" in the DVD player in front of me, and I don't have to leave the bed to enjoy any of these distractions.

Yeesh, and I have chocolate next to me, too. All I need is ice-cream and I'd be classic break-up mode girl. Geez. And here I used to have no problem living alone--I guess I had a much smaller apartment, then. And it wasn't so quiet, considering I lived near a college campus. And, y'know, the bed was too small to feel empy.

Yes, get used to this. Because if I have any time to blog this week, it will probably be more sniveling about how sad I am that my best friend is gone. If it sickens you, you can just come back Friday, when I'll probably start relaying all the awesome adventures Alex went on without me. Sigh...

Okay, seriously--who can I get to kick my butt about this work/homework stuff? Yeesh!!

Preparations

This morning, I dutifully did my homework. Then I spent several hours looking up relevant online info for Alex's trip. Then I double-checked my list of things to get for him, loaded up the Dreamsicle (yay! she's back!!) with Goodwill donations, and I was off.

I'm back, almost four hours and six stops later. I spent the most time, predictably, at Walmart. I got little travel-sized things of whatever we hadn't already bought for our last trips, luggage tags, large ziplocks, and that Tide stick I've been wanting to try out. Then, since Wally World didn't have a passport holder or flip-flops of any worth, I trekked further south and hit Bed, Bath and Beyond (no dice), Sports Authority (flip-flops), Half-Price Books (also no dice), and Office Max (passport holder).

Now, I'm sitting here unloading scads of photos off of seven SD cards (7.25 GB worth). Because my Nikon and my backpack are going to Finland with my boy--dangit, if I can't go, at least I can con him into taking photos for me.

No, I didn't play hookie today. I used some of that ever-present comp time, and I scheduled it last week. It was supposed to be the big cleaning-house to prep for that whole getting it fixed and then put on the market thing... but Finland takes precedence.

Happy Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day!

Arrr, my mateys!
May ye enjoy this day of celebratin' with a pint of grog.

My pirate name is:

Bloody Mary Kidd

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Finland, Here We--er, He--Comes!

Yesterday morning, I got a message from my husband just as I arrived at my desk. He's going to Finland this Sunday, and he has never had a passport.

My heart leapt for about two hours on the double-adrenaline-rush of acting as GovDocs librarian trying to help Alex get a passport, and also thinking Finnish thoughts and trying to figure out how to squeeze in my own trip with him.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Not only is the cheapest plane ticket I (and one of my info-maven friends) could find around $900, but my passport just expired three months ago, I can't find it or our marriage license, it would cost about $470 to get it renewed in time (assuming I found those documents), and during the six days that Alex will be gone, I have an important meeting with administration--along with my regularly-scheduled I'm-already-far-behind work.

Sigh.

But we did manage to get the passport documents and service taken care of this morning, and I've already created several wiki pages of helpful information for Alex's trip, along with plans to make several more. I am nothing if not a thoroughly librarian wife.

(My apologies for cross-posting, to the two or three of you that read both of my blogs.)

Promoting Silliness

Today, UNT's Women's Studies Program held a ceremony to honor all female faculty promoted at UNT this year. I took photos, because, well, I'm a big camera dork, five of our librarians were promoted, and also because I was one of them: promoted to Librarian II (a year early--woohoo!!). Our president, Dr. Gretchen Bataille, and our new Provost, Dr. Wendy Wilkins, also came and spoke at the ceremony--it was quite nice.

And then, big dork that I am, I came back to my office and took photos of myself being thoroughly silly. (Yeah, that's a Minx poster in the background for you comics nerds.) Very professional of me, don't you think?

Slow Like Dial-Up

I'm not sure if everyone has this problem, or it's just us... when it rains, or has recently rained, our DSL is sloooow. This happened back in our wireless days, as well--but it's apparently as much a problem for SBC Yahoo as it was for the small-ish company dividing up a T1 among my neighbors. I'm online right now trying to access my SLIS course materials... and it feels just like early 2005, just before that February when our semi-rural area finally got one highspeed option. I used to spend two hours just posting discussions to one course, every night--and then magically highspeed cut 120 minutes to 10. No kidding.

And here I am on molasses-like internet again. (Or, as the people who used to provide wifi spelled it on their sign, i-net-re-net, which sticks in my brain as singularly hilarious.) As if homework isn't un-fun enough--I have to be dragged through it, slowly, while someone scritches their fingernails across a chalkboard.

And I'm not even a true millennial--how soon we forget those days of internet-less yore, eh?