Stratford-on-guy

This weekend I took a vacation in Intenseland, as Cora calls New York. It was really wonderful to see everyone, but the city made me cranky, stressed out, and very drunk (and then hungover). We just don't party like that in Champaign-Urbana. I got to see my sister and her boyfriend's new place in Ridgewood (sorry I kept calling it Midwood!), which was a great neighborhood! If I move back to NYC (unlikely) I am gonna live way out in the boroughs--it helps take the edge off.

However, I did love the culture (the CULTCHAH). I saw the Babar show at the Morgan, which was awesome, and my last morning I went to the Guggenheim and saw the Catherine Opie show as well as the new Jenny Holzer installations, which were both pretty fucking reveletory. I was sorely tempted to spend the night at the Guggenheim (only $250 for students!) but had to return to Chambana.

For Halloween, I was a member of the fighting Illini basketball team. So it pretty much looked like this:

You get the idea. A highlight was maybe flying home--while flying into Chicago at night, I sat in 27D, behind the wing, watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke, which is a life-long goal of mine.

Then President Lincoln, I mean Obama, was elected, and my occasionally wavery faith in the American public was restored. Indiana went blue--thanks Dawn!

It's been a while...

...but I can still remember just the way you taste, blogosphere. (Kind of fruity.)

Greater Chambana and the splendidly autumnal Midwest have kept me pretty busy for the past few weeks. I have gone on wonderful DAY TRIPS to archives in East St. Louis and Evanston (two very, very, very different places), cried tears of joy and then pain over the Red Sox at a local bar, visited to a orchard/pumpkin patch/kitcshfest with my roommates, been weirded out by Thandi Newton's "impersonation" of Condi Rice, and done lots and lots and lots of busy work. (So much busy work. But if you need to compare owls and bats for your third grade paper ever, I'm your woman.)

I really love library school, as I think I have mentioned. Somebody told me today that I was a born reference librarian (thanks, friend who told me that!) It's a really good feeling to have found something that I like and am somewhat ok at (fuck false modesty. I am AMAZING at this). However, I am already thinking of places to move after I'm done with the program:

• NEW YORK: Pros: everyone I know lives there, lots of culture and fun, great seasons, the Morgan. Cons: everyone I know lives there (KIDDING!), expensive as shit, made me mildly insane over the course of six years.
• PHILADELPHIA: Pros: seems cool, lots of museums, Erin is there (hi Erin!), cheap, cheesesteaks. Cons: Have spent probably less than 48 hours total there, so I don't really know.
• CHICAGO: Pros: has really come from behind (heh) to be one of my fave towns. Cheap, lots of stuff to do, fun people. Cons: far from the folks at home, really cold.
  
• ALASKA: I would really prefer not to move to Alaska.
  
• ANYWHERE ELSE???

Weigh in, friends! Or don't because maybe no one is reading anymore...

I am going to New York the day after tomorrow! I can't wait to see everybody, eat some delicious food, and go to the Guggenheim.

Inner, Inner City, Inner City Pressure

Turns out Chicago fucking rules. Apparently you just need to go WITH someone. Who knew? What fun times. Saw the Silver Jews Friday night, and a wasted, wasted Bob Nastanovich guested on drums. Cassie is so pretty up close. One thing Chicago has to recommend--great sight lines for shows. I could actually SEEEEE for once. They played "Pretty Eyes", which I'm pretty sure was just for me. Also saw these guys, who were pretty great, especially their hymn "I Hope There Is A Crack Whore In Heaven". Pat and I were confused as to whether they were actually Finnish or not. Jury's still out. Also geeked out at the Newberry for a long time. Met many charming people, and saw the start of a motherfucking marathon! Which was exhilarating. I will probably run one. Maybe that will be my next post?

Came home to cuddle this new addition to the 1211 W. Green family:
She's very small.

Hoosier? I hardly know her!

Today I went to a place I had never been before--the great state of Indiana. True story--several years ago, I forgot Indiana was a state. I am embarrassed now. Indiana is totally a state, and an important one indeed to the future of our country, for it is a swingy, swingy little state. Of course, now it is a radiant midnight blue, thanks to the canvassing work of this lady here.

Indiana looked strikingly similar to Illinois. There was much corn, and some small towns with antique stores and such. We were canvassing a subdivision outside Lafayette (where Purdue is). Here were some of the subdivision's street names.:

• Waterstone Drive
  
• Waterfall Court
  
• Stoneripple Court
• Stonegate Circle
• Stonegate Court
• Stoneripple Circle

Please imagine trying to tell these apart. On foot. With clipboard.

Then there was another subdivision:

• John Adams Street
• George Washington Lane
• Thomas Jefferson Drive
• Pennypackers Mill Road

So apparently that last one is the name of a Revolutionary War battle site in Pennsylvania. At the time, though, we did not know that, and we thought it was rather endlessly hilarious.

I think I mayyyy have convinced one lady to vote for Obama. Dawn, if you're reading--remember what we talked about! Then we went to a soda fountain. I loved Indiana. Also, me and my co-canvassing partner discussed Obama's probable Jedi status with an 8-yr old boy. If he could only vote!

Overheard on Green St.

"Yeah, she invited me to a weenie roast, you know, but her parents don't know about my age yet..."
-weasely-looking guy smoking a cigarette outside Kam's (gross undergrad bar here)

Is that what they are calling it these days, Chambana?

On an unrelated note, I am sharing with you yet another delightful peek into my life as a baby archivist. I have been confirming the death dates of the members of the board of trustees. Boring, you say? Not when the obits in question are from olden times, I counter! To wit:

• One subheadline reads "Cheerful to the last", with the heartbreaking paragraph that follows describing just how cheerful the deceased was:

"It's pleasantly cool this morning", he commented to his nurse...then he lapsed into silence. A few minutes later he was dead."

Dun dun DUNNNN feel the drama!

• Another of my faves, about a Democrat (in the minority) who died was entitled "Joined the Majority". BURN
• Some podunk poet's was called "Poet and brother of greater poet dies"
• Some other dude's mentioned that "Regret was generally felt."

Obituaries in the past were kind of harsh. I am trying to imagine the widow reading one and being like, "Um, brother of greater poet? That's the nicest thing you could say, Chicago Tribune?" [sobs]

I love my job

So, as we all know, olden times are often hilarious. (Why else would I do history but the laff factor?) Since my job involves getting up close and personal with these olden times, I am beginning herein an occasional series where I share with you excerpts from the kinds of documents I read/process/lug around in 40-lb boxes all day long. Ok, usually only half a day long.

Today's excerpt comes from an anonymous fellow's recollection of an early member of the board of trustees of Illinois Industrial University, the precursor to this fine institution of higher learning:

"The second wife of Griggs was 'Grandma Kittie', as she was called, a very fleshy woman. She took anti-fat, they say, and it killed her."

Anti-fat again! That shit was the crack of the late nineteenth century.

Every blogger's nightmare

From this article on everyone's fave aerial wolf shooter:

And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”

We will never stop blogging, Sarah. NEVER