The Other Sandy

After first closing to the public, then cutting staff down to half days, my library finally decided to close completely for the next two weeks.

Part of me wants to be all responsible and do dishes and stuff, but the rest of me really just wants to make a dent in my Netflix queue.

I spent yesterday driving across four states to visit my best friend. Driving through Illinois was about what you'd expect--everything was under construction and down to one lane. When I finally got to Iowa I was looking forward to some smooth sailing. Ha.

I barely got past Davenport when the skies opened up. It got very dark and was raining so hard that I couldn't see the exits from the right lane. Today I found out that storm spawned sixteen tornadoes, but it only poured while I was in it.

Missouri was just very hot, but then I hit Kansas. The weather alerts on my phone never went off, but somewhere around Lawrence I saw some programmable road signs announcing a high wind warning. There was barely a breeze where I was, but there were some very dark clouds just to the south, so I figured that's where the problem was.

About five minutes later, I came around a curve in the road and there was a long, straight stretch in front of me. I noticed that the visibility on the back half was markedly worse than on the front half. A minute later, the surface of the dirt road next to the highway went blowing down the road. Then a little cloud of debris went sailing over the highway just above car height. Then a gust of wind hit my car so hard that it punched me half out of my lane. Then it happened again. Then the sustained winds hit and everyone slowed to a crawl. The person in front of me turned on their hazard flashers and less than a minute later it was pitch black and raining so hard that the only thing I could see was those hazard lights. I just kept following that person for the longest five minutes of my life until I came out the other side of the rain shaft.

According to the thermometer on my dash, the temperature when I drove into the storm was 100°F. When I came out the other side, it was 71°F. Welcome to the Midwest in summertime.

Last month I found out my undergrad college was going to demolish the dorm I lived in junior year. Although I lived in another dorm longer, Higgins was the one where I met all the friends I still keep in touch with, and one of them (Cheryl) organized a reunion for us to watch the building come down.

( The tale, with videos )

Grabbed from agt_spooky.

For a change in the news feed, tell us about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!!

( The year was: 1987 )

Copy and paste. Let's hear your story.

Last week I posted pictures of what my library looked like after we finished packing everything. Construction started today. About 90% of my workplace is a hard hat area that we're not allowed into.

Oddly enough, the biggest issue was that the construction guys propped open all the exterior doors for easier access. The high today was 39° F. We were all freezing all day.

This was the view from the entrance to the office area when I left work this afternoon:

I made a New Year's resolution this year not to buy a new book until I've read a book I already own. It didn't seem like it was going to be that big a deal, but it's not even the end of February yet and it's the worst. Five books in series I read and/or by authors I like came out this month alone. Also, several books I've been wanting to read went on sale for super cheap this month, and I couldn't pass those up because I'm a happy miser.

I'm never going to be able to keep this up. I just want to read all the things. Is that too much to ask?

Or, you know, have already changed.

I cleaned out and reorganized my desk drawers yesterday. I found a whole bunch of things I'd forgotten I actually owned, like two folders of stationery, the newest of which is 20+ years old, some letter-openers, and a box of envelopes.

I used to write a fairly decent amount of letters because my best friend and I went to college in different states and the internet wasn't a thing yet, but then email started to become more common before I ran out of stationery. I also pay almost all my bills online now, so I have all these leftovers that I'll probably never use. This makes me weirdly sad. I don't think I've even used a stamp since I sent out Christmas cards last December, and I haven't had a chance to use any of my fountain pens or glass pens since...I don't even remember when.

And the change happened so abruptly that I have an entire desk drawer that's basically a time capsule from another era.

agt_spooky broadly tagged her flist for this and I haven't been posting much lately, so I'm taking this as a poke with a sharp stick to be more active on LJ. So, 7 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I have the ticket stubs, wristbands, or badges of every convention I've ever attended. The first one was TARDIS 21 at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in 1984. Back in those days, you bought your tickets from someplace like Ticketmaster and they gave you an actual ticket like a concert or theater ticket. My parents bought two tickets and shared the second one between them so they could take turns chaperoning me on alternate days.

2. When I was in high school, the big crushes for girls were Rick Springfield and the members of Duran Duran. My biggest crushes in high school were Lord Peter Wimsey and d'Artagnan of the Musketeers. Yeah, I read a lot.

3. Part of my college graduation requirements for my degree was to do a one semester internship and then write a 30 page paper about the experience. The end of the semester happened to coincide with convention season here in Chicago, so the bulk of the paper was written between panels and while waiting in lines at Visions '90 (coincidentally also at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare).

4. I'm an only child. Both of my parents are also only children. I've never had aunts, uncles, or cousins.

( Read more... )

This is the first year the con hasn't been held a short drive from my apartment, due to the Ryder Cup people taking up all available hotel space in the Greater Chicagoland area. We're currently in Madison, Wisconsin. This is actually okay with me because I live just a couple of miles down the street from the Ryder Cup venue and my neighborhood has been a three-ring circus all week because of it. Too bad traffic on I-90 sucked so hard. There was a solid 62 mile segment that was under construction, followed shortly by a lane closure because someone had spilled something fluorescent yellow all over the road. The two hour drive took me four and a half hours. Hopefully, it won't be as bad headed home on Sunday.

( Read more... )

9/11
Where were you?

I was actually one of the last people around here to find out what was happening. I had already been at work for 10 minutes when the first plane hit.

( Read more... )