It's official

I am a bad blogger.  I do not keep up with this often enough.  And I'm ok with that.

I just have a couple things to share this time around.  First is a design project I did for the library here at GVSU.  I created buttons for Open Access Week.  They were a big hit!  Here they are!

They make me smile.  I have a whole set that i pinned to a string on the shelf right above my desk.

I've also been working on some tutorials.  They are on my SlideShare account.  Here's a teaser.

You'll have to go on SlideShare to see the rest!

Hope you all are enjoying what is possible our first snowy day of the year - I've heard reports of snow, but haven't seen any myself.

Time flies

Was it really August when I last posted?  I really need to get better at this!

I'm going to try and post weekly, and I'm going to read Chris Brogan's article about how to write good blog posts to make my posts more interesting.

So, September was busy with lots of instruction sessions and the like - I only have two more this semester.  Crazy, huh?

Next week is MHSLA - Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association.  I'm excited to have a few social days.  My cube can sometimes feel like a cave - especially now that I don't have overhead lights.

Why no overhead lights, you say? Well, I was getting dizzy and getting migraines from the fluorescent lights.  I also get migraines from riding the bus.  Who knew motion sickness caused migraines?  I also have to get up before 8:30 everyday to avoid migraines.  Bye bye sleeping in. (not that 8:30 isn't sleeping in, but there will no longer be those 9:30 or 10:00 days).

My last effort to completely rid myself of chronic headaches is an eye doctor appointment next week.  I cannot wait.  While I wish I could get new frames, it'd be a waste of money, so I'm going to try to get lenses in a pair of my old frames.

Lately, I've really been missing being a musician.  I've sent e-mails to several ensembles in GR and am hoping to be able to audition for at least one in the near future.  That means I've started practicing again and so the cats look at me funny during warm-ups.  I'm hoping to regain my range fairly quickly as I'll be going to Hope College's homecoming in a couple of weeks to sing with the Chapel Choir.  I could not be happier about it!!

I've also been feeling as if maybe I missed my calling a bit.  I am not a huge fan of sitting in an office for most, if not all, of the day.  I think the only way I could do it is if I were a graphic designer.  Luckily I'm working on some awesome presentations to put on my libguide to help people be better searchers without me having to explain it every time.  Don't get me wrong - I love teaching.  It's the best part of my job.  But it'd be nice to be able to point students to an online resource for them to use when I'm asleep and they are not because they are crazy college kids.

I've also been thinking about going back to school.  Not now - I like my job fine and we are settled and I'm more than willing to stay here for a few years while we pay off loans and get some money saved up and such.  Maybe I'll start taking some classes.  I get to do that for free.  But if I do go back, I'm still thinking about historical musicology - perhaps focusing on the political nature of music.  Ties in with my paper about the sociopolitical implications of Paul Simon's album Graceland.

But I don't know.  Like I already said - I love graphic design.  Do they even let you go back for a bachelor's when you have a master's?  A B.F.A. in graphic design would be cool.  Maybe I could just be a full-time student for the rest of my life.  Although I'd get burnt out.  That last semester of grad school was a little bit torturous.

In other news, we've had some interesting family occurrences lately.  I'm not going to go into detail, but, man, am I so stinkin' blessed!  My family is AWESOME.  I have great brothers and sisters and my brother by blood continues to surprise me.  I think being a father has really changed his perspective in life a bit.  He's become quite compassionate.  And my new family as of just over a year ago is spectacular.  I love Sami - she's adorable.  And she's begun to really open up to me.  She gives the best hugs, seriously.  Dorian is cute as always and Elliott is still his cute baby self but is getting more and more personality everyday.  Parents are extremely supportive and it's great to have them around, even though having them so close was a concern when we were deciding whether or not to come to GR.

And now, I will wrap up by saying that I absolutely love Grand River Church.

Oh, and if you need a photographer, you need to check out Wellington Photography! (shameless plug)

A day in the life...

So I've officially made it through my first week of working at Grand Valley.  I thought it'd be fun if I did kind of a "day in the life" photo post.

My 10 minute walk to work through Heritage Hill.

This is where I work. My library and office are on the second floor with another section of library and the librarian for the rest of the health professions on the fourth floor.

The Frey Foundation Learning Center (a.k.a. my library)

My name is on the door!

and on my cube/divider wall that leads to my office! 

Here's my office.  Some of the shelving will get changed around soon, I hope.  I can't move it by myself - facilities has to do it.  And put my diplomas on the wall.

We have compact shelving for our print monographs.  Not as compact ast the ASRS that's in the other downtown library, but much prettier. (We only keep the most recent 10 years of print materials on site.  The rest are in the ASRS or in storage). Journals and A/V materials are on the fourth floor in standard shelving.

This is the fourth floor.  There are giant pills coming out of the wall.  Judy (the other librarian in the building) and I tried to identify them.

A view of my library from the third floor.

I really like my job, so far!  Should be great once school starts and there are more students around.

In case you haven't heard...

... I got the job at Grand Valley!  I will be the Liaison Librarian for Nursing.  Steve and I will be living and working downtown Grand Rapids.  I'm so excited!  We're moving in just under two weeks.

I've had some time to do some fun stuff, so I've got some things to show!  First off, is Steve's website.  It was a challenge to build a site for someone on the pickier side, but it was good to stretch myself and learn new things.  Check it out at wellington-photography.com.  And if you're in Michigan (especially West Michigan) and need some pictures, let us know!  We've been having a blast doing photography together.

I've also been doing some fun design work.  I wanted to get a calendar for my office, but everything 2010 is gone or is ridiculous (think puppies hiding in flower baskets).  So I designed some calendar pages for the rest of the year myself!  They've got kind of a retro feel to them - I like it!

In other news... I've been knitting a lot, too!  Tons of craftiness at the Bedford household!