Tawny

The bright colors of fall are beautiful, but my favorites are the tawny colors of drying grasses and weeds. If you let your eye catch on them, explore them, you notice the differences between what could seem a large stretch of sameness. A phrase from a Mary Oliver poem pops into my head - "and I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular." I sometimes think that if we humans managed to eradicate all the things "we" deem as not useful or not beautiful, the world would be so much less rich. So, here, now, I am thankful for all the marvelous beauty and diversity that surrounds me in my own yard and community.

thyme under leaves

Virginia creeper

rock wall and beautiful, tawny weeds

dried grasses and rocks

tawny and headframe

mountains and weeds

love the way the mountains look like layers, stacked on top of one another

more mountain layers (from Walkerville)

Callie in the sun, sharing the bed with a few fall decorations yet to be put up

Fall Photos

It's trying to be fall here. In some places, it looks like fall. Tree leaves are colored and drifting down. The temperature is in the 60s. Still, October is dwindling, and I've still seen all sorts of flowers blooming, and the grass is green.
This is a the chapel on campus. It has a small cemetery next to it. The building you can see behind it is the Indiana Memorial Union - basically the student union building.

These trees are across from the library, where I sometimes catch the bus. They have these green balls that are now falling onto the ground. I have no idea what this is about, but perhaps my tree identifiers will provide me with enlightenment.

This is a tree that's across from the bus stop at the apartment complex (yes, I spend a lot of time on buses or waiting for buses). The tree itself is just starting to turn, but if you look closely at the ground underneath, a pink rose is blooming. This was taken today.

On campus, on my walk from the library to Ballantine. These trees are very colorful and fall-like. (still, note the green grass)

Last, but not least, Callie! She's looking disgruntled because she did not want her picture taken, and because, according to her, she's being seriously neglected by me. Hey, in my defense, it is the middle of the semester - it's been busy.

My interview with Alaska was Thursday. I'm giving it maybe a 7 out of 10, and calling it a learning experience. This was my first phone interview ever. I hadn't realized how much I depend on visual feedback from people. Talking to disembodied voices was harder than I thought. Still, now I now that this is not my preferred method, and that I will have to find ways to compensate. It was my first library interview, too, so again, I have better ideas of what to expect for next time. I said that at the least, I'd like to get a phone interview because it would be a good learning experience. I did, and it was. I count it as a success.

We finished stuffing and sealing the envelopes on all 2080 nomination ballots and associated information at work. These go out to the tenure eligible professors and retired professors. They'll actually leave our office and go to the mailroom on Monday. I might have a chance to take pictures of them all stuffed into boxes (lots and lots of boxes). This means we're done for awhile, though. I'm hoping to still tweak my database a bit to make it better and easier to use for next year, just in case the online voting thing doesn't go through, and they're stuck with the paper ballot process like this year. I'm crossing my fingers for them that all this goes away and gets replaced with the online system, though.

Other than that, it's classes and work as usual. I did go to dinner at Nora and Weldon's house with Virginia. The food was good, and then we all knit, or in Weldon's case, crocheted. It's been really nice getting together with all of them. That's really the only time I spend knitting anymore, too. Maybe I'll finish this same scarf I'm working on before winter's over if we keep this up.

Maybe it is fall, and more random bits

The weather feels like it. The 80s are gone. I know some of you don't get my facination with cooler weather, but hot is not my friend. The only thing I suppose I should do before it gets cold (or as cold as it gets here), is find a new winter coat. I'm sort of putting it off, since I'm not at all sure where I will be wintering. That makes a big difference in the type of coat I'd want.

I did finally post my apartment on the graduate student housing board. (and made a quick webpage using only Notepad - it's pretty basic, but it does have more pics of the apartment: http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~plpierso/apartmentinfo.html). I've been putting that off, too. I'm ready to be finished with school and Bloomington in some ways. In other ways, I really like the apartment, and Callie and I are really nicely settled in and cozy here, and I've been getting together with some people for knitting evenings. The thought of having to move me, Callie, and my stuff off to some mysterious place, and to have to get to know where things are all over sometimes seems like more work than I feel I can manage.

I'm ready to go to a place and stick around there for awhile, settle in and feel connected and comfortable. I do like the fun of exploring new places, but I'm ready to stay in a place. That makes me want to be all the more sure about picking a place I like. I had the thought that I could just get experience for a couple years and then move on. Now, I think I would like to stay somewhere at least 5 years, if not longer. Is it too much to hope that the perfect job is my first job in the profession? It would be wonderful if that was the case, that I could find a job where my skills could be used, and used well.

It's all wait and see for now. I am getting myself ready for my phone interview. I'm going over questions that might be asked, and preparing myself for the answers I might give. It's mainly a matter of reminding myself what I think about my skills, experiences, ways of working. I take all of that for granted, or sometimes don't value myself enough. I'm excited and nervous, but if nothing else, it will be good practice. I appreciate the opportunity to do some self-reflection, and to look back over what I've learned over the past two years. Even though I feel like I know only a miniscule amount of what I'd like to know, I have learned quite a bit, a suprising amount.

Random Stuff

My project at work is helping make photocopies of the nomination materials to go out to the faculty. Lots of copies - like 19,929 of them. I will be working tomorrow and on Friday afternoon, and maybe over the weekend. Hopefully this will be remembered when I take off the Tuesday before Thanksgiving...

Brenda sent me a birthday present, which I got today. A calendar of treehouses around the world. Someday when I become a clairvoyant pirate/writer/hermit, I will live in a treehouse instead of a cave.

Indiana has early voting (?? - I don't know), so since I'm registered to vote here, I will be voting tomorrow. I am trying to have good thought about the election. I have also made sure my passport is still current (good until Dec 2010, just in case).

I have a phone interview scheduled next week for the Alaska job. I'm alternating between excitement and nervousness (as in a lot of random smiling for no reason, followed by feelings of dread and nausea). If nothing else, at least some response has happened to one of my applications, so I take this as a sign that at least on paper I'm not a dork (no guarantees about in person ;-)

I am baffled by the Dewey Decimal system of classification, and can only hope that the mysteries become clearer before my assignment is due.

If I had roughly 17 years with nothing scheduled, I MIGHT be able to catch up on all the things I would like to do.

It's still not fall here. It's been in the 70s and 80s. boo.

Why are cats so strange?

This is a sweater that was washed in the machine, and then draped over the chair to dry. Hey, it's wool. Wool and dryers are not friends. Callie, as you can see, had to get on the damp sweater. She sniffed it carefully for awhile, and then she stretched out on it and went to sleep. Hmm, yes, I've always wanted to sleep on a damp wool sweater. Can anyone explain this behavior, or do I chalk it up to the craziness of kitties?

It's starting to feel like fall. It's been in the 60s and 70s. Perfect weather, with some sunny blue sky days. It makes me want apples, maybe even enough to go to the farmer's market before work at 9am on Saturday. Maybe...

Less sweating, more sweaters

And it's still in the 80s during the day, in spite of my wishes for cooler weather. The trees are losing a few leaves, but not in a huge splash of color. Long sleeves have yet to make an appearance for me. In fact, I'm not sure where the fall/winter clothes are, other than in a box in the "box room" (aka storage room, aka that wierd little room in the back that has no windows).

I'm blaming my recent streak of procrastination on the hot weather. Who wants to do anything ambitious with heat and humidity? I have finally made and mailed thank you notes to participants in the fundraising effort, though, and have been plotting out some beaded items requested from that event. In spite of procrastinating on reading and projects, I have somehow managed to get good grades on my papers. I would grade myself much more harshly, so I suppose it's a good thing I don't grade myself.

I finished my first week at my new second job. My "temporary" first job is still hanging in there, on a week by week basis. After that I'll go to on-call. I'm working next week for sure. My second job is very part-time, 9 hours a week, doing reference in one of the departmental libraries on campus. It's a little unnerving. People ask questions, and I'm supposed to have the answers. Some I can answer, while others send me running to the office to ask the experts. It may well be more of a learning experience for me at the moment than for the people who ask me things.