Oscars on Huron Street

I will come back to Chicago, part 3 but in the meantime let me not let Oscar season pass by without highlighting our exciting event hosted at Anythink Huron Street. We'd been working up to it for a couple of months with Garage Band, Animoto and Sock Puppet Flip Camera films programs. The teens turned out some fun stuff and so naturally we needed to showcase everything they were doing. And so, Oscar/Grammy night was born. 

Complete with a red carpet, drinks and popcorn, 

awards (thanks to Cory for his super hard work!) and certificates,

even the paparazzi showed up!

I was so worried when it started snowing the morning of that our turnout would be weak because so many walk or take the bus to the library. It slowed in the afternoon and would you believe I had over 30 people come?! A brilliant turnout, especially considering the weather and a handful of my regulars told me ahead of time they had a conflict and wouldn't be able to make it. We had parents, siblings, the awardees and even a handful of new faces. I wore my prom dress in honor of the evening and the teens seemed to feel pretty special that we pulled out all the stops. It was fun to play everything they made and see it all put together, especially for those that had brought their parents. Though the evening turned out better than I could have hoped, I still have a handful of ideas on how to make it better for next year. So happy Oscar season y'all! Maybe next time you can celebrate by coming to Huron Street:)

CHI-TOWN! - parts 1 & 2

Where to start?! If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting Chicago, you know how it would be a hard place to sum up in a wee blog entry. Still, if I could do it with London, I can do it with Chicago. Here goes.

It was a 3 part visit. One part visiting a dear Austinite swimming friend of mine (and meeting her sweet babe), one part tourist adventuring, and a final part work. To be utterly honest, I am not sure which of the 3 parts was the superior. It all was something great and at the risk of sounding over-dramatic, the trip was transformational when it came to the work part. But we will get there yet. First! The visiting and touristing!!

As has been stated in other forums, I am one to enjoy a good read while exploring new that references where I am. For this trip, I had "Devil in the White City" recommended to me. It was a great read on the plane - I was being introduced to the city with lines like: "New York City was the undisputed center of cultural and social refinement for the United States, and although Chicago was certainly a city of great wealth, it was still considered a societal backwater." (forgive me for not citing the page # as I read it on my Kindle). This built up all kinds of excitement for my touristy part of the trip - wish I could have been able to snap a picture of the Morton's Salt Factory I saw from the train going into town from Evanston. It would have been perfect to insert right after that quote.

And so the trip began in Evanston to visit my dear swimming pal from the Austin, TX era of my life. We enjoyed all kinds of chatting and a leisurely, windy walk on the Kellogg campus (where her husband is attending business school) along the shore of Lake Michigan.

It was such a thrill to see the skyline from afar.

Julie and Nathan, being the stellar hosts that they are, were also sure to introduce me to what they thought was the superior deep dish pizza you could get in these parts. Apparently, the 2 competing chains are Lou Manati's and Giordano's. This particular pie came from Giordano's and I really couldn't imagine anything more from a pizza.

The next morning Julie and I had the ambition to go into town together with wee Ginger Belle to adventure up the Willis (Sears) Tower. When we arrived, the tower looked like this:

and we were informed that the fog was all anyone could see at the top. We both opted that the $18 could be better spent on a different day. So I checked into my super fancy hotel (seriously, I don't think I have ever stayed anywhere so nice) that was less than a block away from the tower. I felt like such a poser checking in and when they "Mrs Sweeney this and Mrs Sweeney that" at me, I had the inclination to whisper to them clandestinely, "I was a housekeeper last year. There is no need to treat me so highfalutin'."  Not only that, but being a public librarian is not necessarily a power play kind of profession and here I was with all these important looking folks with briefcases. Needless to say I was glad I had packed my tweed side bag so that I could put my orange backpack away and play the part. But not before playing the tourist.

Again, I was only a few blocks away from Michigan Ave (and thus the Art Institute, the bean, etc etc). There were all kinds of highlights. Too many to narrate really.

The Art Institute was truly all it was "cracked up to be". And though I always get the line from people "oh you only spent 4 hours there, that wasn't nearly enough time was it?!" If I am honest, it wasn't enough time to see the whole place or absorb everything, but what amount of time can anyone even stand to be in such an artistically intense place as their modern and contemporary galleries? I don't know of anyone who is up for more than 4 hours in a museum and so I felt right proud of myself taking so much in for so long. One of my favorite bits of the museum was the American furniture spanning from 1700 and on. Couldn't help but notice:

"library table"

"library staircase"

And though I found those to be neat archetypes of my profession, the next few days at my meetings made me proud of how far we have come in the public library tradition. More on that in the next post....

Going Postal for Swimming

Being new to the swimming culture, specifically the master's swimming culture, I am not positive why they call the swim-as-far-as-you-can-in-one-hour the "Postal Swim" but I can take a guess. At any rate, I can honestly say it was far less painful and boring than I thought it would be. Less painful because I am comparing it to "Brute Squad" from the fall (200 Fly, 400 IM, and 1600 swim - all back to back) which is 300m straight of fly, mind you. And less boring because when you are still getting the hang of flip turns in a 25 yard pool, there is always something to think about. I felt like I was constantly either recovering or preparing for a flip turn. Still, I was pleased with myself that I made it the first 40-45 minutes with all flip turns. A feat for someone like me.

Here were my splits, courtesy of my swimming pal Tom's wife who did double duty in recording both my and Tom's splits with a fancy iPhone app.

Right when I stopped doing my flip turns at around 45 minutes, Tom started to pull ahead of me to a solid 50m (an entire down and back pool length) in the 15 minutes left of the timing. Though I simply couldn't have maintained what I needed to because I was dizzy and mixed up with flip turns, I have a renewed sense of motivation to get that quick turn down to absolute muscle memory. In the meantime, there is something so nice about doing a hard swim like this and not feeling like I took something from my cartilage or joints that I am not going to get back (I love running but this often seems the case after a long or hearty run). Still, I like the muscle confusion that comes with doing lots of sports. Right now my perfect mix is swimming, running and yoga - in that order.

Three cheers for trying new sports and partaking in a new culture! Everything feels fresh and motivating and all my times are a PR.

Birthdays are a Season!

Someone once told me that "birthdays are a season" when I felt bad bringing a double layer birthday cake by a day late. I like that idea and I think it is true - well, that is to say that I think the best birthdays are celebrated in that spirit.

My problem is that January can be a cruel month in general. The days are short, cold and devoid of much sunshine. It is the month when tuition is due and I feel like I am barely recovering from the energy and finances Christmas demanded from me. And as my birthday falls on the 23rd, someone once pointed out to me that my birthday is the day before "the most depressed day of the year".

In the past I have tried to even displace my birthday to a more hopeful and happy month. While living in Austin, I had to be on campus for a MLS "web institute" over my birthday weekend. I decided it was time to try something new. So I told Matt that I wanted to go out for birthday celebrations April 15th this year. We would hold off on gifts, dinner, etc until then. Seemed like something worth trying out. Problem was, April 15th came and went and I completely forgot that we were going to celebrate my birthday. Woops!

This year seemed bound for the most epic of birthday fails too. January 23rd was officially declared "Bluest Monday" of the 2012 year. But it turns out a good birthday doesn't have to come from good weather or ideal placement within the calendar year. I learned that pretty quick while eating Pho then frozen yogurt with Matt and my dear friend Claire who came down from Fort Collins in honor of the upcoming "Blue Monday", or my birthday. We finished off the evening with a fire and Freaks and Geeks. Life seemed it couldn't be sweeter.

But then Blue Monday came around and my RS president came by with a card, chocolate bar and a visit. Throughout the day I got a handful of phone calls, text messages and loads of loving FB postings - I was feeling right loved and up to the brim with happy birthday feelings! Then I came home to a card from Luling and a wee birthday shrine Matt had put together (shopping on foot since I had the car at work).

The happy birthday Cate vibes kept coming from all kinds of places for the rest of the week through parcels, cards, messages and phone calls. So indeed birthdays are a season and I can't help but send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone you has made my birthday special this year or in years past. I am one lucky girl to have been born in January:)

Did I mention Chicago?

My first paid work trip. Airfare, my own room in a Marriot downtown, per diem - I feel like such an adult!

It is the first meeting of the IMLS tech grantees and it is going to be held in Chicago so as to give us a chance to explore all the super awesome things that CPL has done with the funds and give inspiration to drive success for our own communities. I wasn't sure whether or not I would get to go on the trip as only 3-4 or of the 7-8 people on the committee would be able to come. Though I think few were as keen as me to head to Chicago in February, I couldn't be more thrilled. They gave me the option of heading out a couple of days earlier in case I wanted to stay and visit friends/family/etc. Lucky me - one of my best pals from my Austin days has moved up north while her husband is attending Kellogg for his MBA. Just $1.75 and a one hour bus ride away - we are already making some plans to maximize the 30 hours I have in the area before my meetings start. Any suggestions from you folk what should be on the itinerary? No doubt pizza and the art institute - I am also thinking some cool pics up Willis tower? We will see. Though I have to admit, it helps that I have to spend a lot of time at the public library there for work. That saves my leisure time a bit since I would probably want to take some time there anyway.

Three cheers for new adventures in new places!

What is an Experience Zone you may ask?

One of the most defining (and in my opinion, coolest) Anythink methods is the "Experience Zone". It is a hard thing to define, we are constantly trying to do just that at meetings. Still, the best way I can describe one is by saying that it is sort of library meets museum or book display meets program. It should be a discovery for library users when them come into the library that in a creative way brings the collection alive - a self-guided way of learning and much less structured than a program. It should be an "experience" where they indirectly experience the "lifelong learning" phenomenon all public libraries seek to promote. Need an example?

Well, I have done several experience zones since starting this last August including zombie magnetic poetry set up by a paranormal and poetry book display, magic eye and optical illusion pictures throughout the teen area, origami, etc etc. The one I did this month though is what I think is my best yet and it warms my librarian heart every time I see someone "experiencing" the community puzzle I made with one of the shelvers I worked with (a theater, media arts major - great with diverse materials!). It was quite the process to make...

I developed a mighty callous during the exacto-knife cutting phase with the foam boards. I think Sarah did too.

And figuring out the mounting logistics was a wee bit tricky. But it worked in the end - here is the result thus far. Only a few more pieces left!

We made sure the board was sticky so that once people decorated their pieces they would readily stick up on the framed puzzle. The numbers helped people match up the right pieces to the right place. So far I would say it has been a great success with surprisingly few mishaps. I have to admit, I just can't get over how great the metaphor is of having the community put together a big puzzle like this. Such a great message to library users:)

I am already thinking of the next experience zone a couple months down the road. I am deriving inspiration from these incredible videos one of my co-workers showed me of the Glass Harp.





Not that I could set up anything as elaborate as this but I am thinking of having these videos available to watch somehow and then have several crystal goblets set up with a wee bit of water in them for them to explore the different sounds they can make with them. The logistics are always the tricky part - must think of a way to attach them to the table so they can't be stolen, broken, etc. But I have a couple of months to figure it out. Any ideas? Suggestions?

Tell me this isn't funny -

I am not sure why...but it is. That said, may I recommend adding "The Trip" to your Netflix Instant Queue? It's brilliant really.



Reminds me of a plaque I read while exploring an installation art exhibit in Glasgow last winter:

"I think the best kind of humour is the kind where you don't understand what you are laughing at - you intuitively know there's something that is both funny and 'other'." 

   -David Shrigley

Though I know why this clip is funny:

But the question that remains for me is who has a better handle on Michael Cain in this one. Impeccable. What is your vote?

Marbling Marvels

Anythink has a big program during the holiday season each year called "Gifts from the Heart" where each Guide (or librarian) at the branch has a craft program going on in different parts of the library. Our Tech Guide had dress-up polaroid photo shoots, our Children's Guide made felt "Merry Mice" with the kids, our Adult Guide made paper beads, and I chose to do paper marbling.

Though it turned out to be the most involved of the program of the day (not to mention logistically tricky), it was really marvelous to see all these tweens and teens get so entranced by what they created.

It was cool to realize at the end of the day that although I was initially attracted to the academic aspect of promoting literacy in the community, I am beginning to see that I enjoy how broad the term "literacy" can be. What a cool opportunity I have to bring together the materials that help youth in the Thorton community have new experiences whether it is recommending a great book they can appreciate or helping them create their own uniquely marbled pattern. There are some discouraging days on the job but this last Saturday certainly wasn't one of them.

Nutcrackin' Good Time...

To satiate our festive feelings this season, Matt and I went to Colorado Ballet's production of the Nutcracker this last weekend. Matt had yet to have the Nutcracker experience, so it was fun introducing him to something I have such fond memories of as a child. And as you can see from the program, it was an grand production - complete with chest bumps from the malevolent mice.

After years of watching Ballet West perform this, it was fun to see a different interpretation. I turned into a bit of an amateur connoisseur of the thing, pointing out the differences in choreography and costumes. Though I missed a few things from Ballet West, I loved Mother Ginger and the baby bons bons in this one. It was guffaw funny and I laughed probably a little more than was appropriate for a ballet. 

Other highlights of the evening included a walk down lovely Larimer that was lit up with a canopy lights.

 And just the unique pleasure that comes when spending time with such a dapper chap.

Blackout Poetry and Knockout Doodles.

Don't be surprised if your tween and teen writers turn their newspaper blackout poetry into something like this along the way....

The thing is, it can add some flavor to their writing.

On the same note, I had 11 - that's ELEVEN - tweens and teens at writing club today! They all participated and truly came up with some stellar pieces. Feeling pretty pleased:)