Blog Titles?

Any ideas for a blog title? Send me some suggestions.

What's wrong with this picture?

OK, so I don't actually have a picture. But, today when I was out and about I saw something I thought was pretty funny.

Picture this:

The local Subaru dealership parts delivery vehicle is... a Toyota mini-van!

I kid you not! It's true.

I judge you when...

I'm a member of a group on Facebook called "I judge you when you use poor grammar". There are so many photos of examples of poor grammar that they had to create another place for members to post examples of poor grammar. I'll post this photo there but just in case my readers aren't members of that group I thought they'd be entertained here too.

I've been driving by this store on Market Street in Northampton for years and have always thought that something was funny about the sign on the window. It wasn't until today, when I just happened to have my camera with me that I realized what it was.

Old Barns

We live in Hatfield, Massachusetts, in the Connecticut River Valley. Towns on the Connecticut River have some of best soil in the world, including Hatfield, which is famous for its soil, and because of that it's also famous for potatoes and tobacco. There are still plenty of tobacco barns in Hatfield. The tobacco that's grown here is used as cigar wrappers and is known all over the world as some of the best tobacco. Although we don't have tobacco growing in the field across the street from our house there's still an old tobacco barn.
I wandered over there this evening as the sun was setting and the light was hitting the barn just right to capture the texture of the old wood.

Beki & Jason's Wedding

My dear friend, Beki Phinney, married a super fantastic guy, Jason Greenwood on Saturday at the Quidnessett Country Club in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. I've known Beki since she was a toddler (she's 27 now), and we've gotten to be quite good friends over the past few years. The wedding was lovely and perfect "Beki & Jason". Their close friends had some really funny & sweet things to say both during the wedding ceremony (which my husband's cousin's wife, Rev. Sarah Buteux, performed) and reception. I had a really good time and was really happy to be there. (Even if Trevor couldn't be there with me to enjoy the fun).

The Happy Couple met swing dancing and really know how to dance! I was impressed. Beki looked beautiful in her dress and Jason looked dapper in his tux.

CAKE!

The adorable George A. Dole and his father, Andrew Dole (Trevor's cousin) talking with Bob Perry at the reception.


My grandniece, Jillian Grams, was a hit on the dance floor. Here she is dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

Wedding Gift

Normally the wedding guest brings a gift for that Happy Couple but at the wedding of my dear friend Beki I received a gift of an opened box of wine. Or as I like to call it, Chateau de Cardboard. I've introduced Beki to cardboard wine, as she likes to call it, and she had some leftover from making sangria for the After Party. Of course she'd want to give me the leftovers and she knew that I would be both grateful and highly amused. And I am.

How do I work this thing?

I forgot how my alarm clock works.

Seriously, every time I have to use it recently I have to stop and think really hard about it. I've figured it out but these are the unexpected side effects of being "between jobs" like I am.

My neighbor asks...

"Hey Nancy!"
(I'm sitting on the front steps at 11AM on a Thursday morning, just finished with a shower and painting my toe nails...)

"Still not working?"

YUP, I reply. (Isn't it obvious?)

"Are you liking it?"

I give him a "thumbs up".

WHAT??? Are you crazy??? I'm pretty good at not having a job. I know it's not forever but I'm enjoying it for the time being. I can get quite a bit done in my pajamas. Who's going to know?

What I Really Mean When I Say...

What I really mean when I say...

"I'm going to be out of range all afternoon."

I'm at Lake Wyola State Park sitting on the beach reading a totally mindless novel and there really is no cell reception here but I've locked my phone in my trunk anyway.

I'm sitting on my porch reading the same totally mindless novel and drinking a beer. Sorry I missed your call.

What I've been doing lately...

This may actually come as a surprise to some of you, but, I've actually been quite busy lately! Yes, it's true. Here's what I've been doing (besides garden tours and visiting waterfalls):

• I'm in the process of applying to Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science with the intention of earning an Masters in Library Science. I want to be a Science Librarian. I've requested transcripts from all 3 colleges (makes me regret that decision...) and begged 3 people to write letters of recommendation and now I'm working on my "personal statement of career goals". I set up an admissions interview for next Thursday.
  

• I applied for 3 Library Assistant jobs: one at UMass (see tale of woe about that one titled "Losing My Cool"), one at Westfield State College, and one at Springfield College. The one that seems to fit me best is at Sprinfield College and I just mailed the resume and cover letter yesterday so I'm sure it'll be while before I hear anything on that one.
  

• I attended a Cover Letters workshop at the Northampton Career Center. It was excellent. Who would have thought that someone can talk about cover letters for 90 minutes and have it not be boring? The woman who does these workshops is so good at it that I signed up for an Interview Workshop next Tuesday. I really need help in this area. I hate interviews!
  

• I'm working on a Labor Market Inquiry into the fields of science librarianship, and my former job in plant tissue culture. My career counselor at the Career Counselor assigned me this arduous task to document these 2 fields in an effort to get me some funding for grad school. I'm enrolled in a federal program called Workforce Investment Act (WIA) because I was permanently laid off from my position at Nourse Farms and lucky for me, the only other plant tissue culture lab in all of Massachusetts is in Sudbury, MA. If I present a good case I may get some, certainly not all, not even close, of my MLS paid for by the federal government. Don't you just love government? (no)

• I made an appointment with Maxine Schmidt, micropaleontologist, geologist, librarian at UMass and Simmons alum to chat with her about being a science librarian. I met her tomorrow at 10AM.

• Saturday is my good friend, Beki Phinney's wedding in Rhode Island. I'm very happy for her. I even painted my toe nails and bought a new dress for the occasion!
  

Even More Highlights of the Garden Tour

These climbing roses remind me of the rose garden at Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, CT.

An old iron gate at a small garden in Northampton.

This beautiful patio was built by the homeowner with stones from his property which is on a drumlin with a view of Mount Tom. He and I had a nice chat about geology. He's also one of the owners of the Green Street Cafe in Northampton. One of my favorite restaurants in the area.

I always enjoy seeing a vegetable garden on the garden tour.

A garden gate with statuary.

More Highlights of the Garden Tour

Beds were another common theme on the garden tour.

Cacti grow in Northampton...

More statuary.

A little to kitschy for my taste but kind of cute at the same time.

Highlights of the Garden Tour

Every June I look forward to the Friends of the Forbes Library (Northampton) Garden Tour. I've been almost every year since I moved here almost 10 years ago. Trevor comes with me when his schedule allows. Here's some photos from this year's garden tour.

Climbing roses at a small but impressive garden in Northampton.

Statuary in all shapes and sizes was a common theme on the garden tour this year.

Another garden with statuary on Florence Road in Northampton.

A beautiful woodlands garden.

The Soundtrack of my Dreams

I was having a very vivid dream early this morning where I was in a thrift store looking through a pile of really cool tote bags made out of vintage fabric. (I told you it was vivid...) I kept hearing a loud purring and yet I couldn't find the cat anywhere. I kept looking and looking and there was no cat. Something made me wake up. It was then that I realized that the loud purring that was invading my dream was coming from Tiger Lily who was curled up next to me on the bed.

Linseed Road Car Wash

It was such a lovely late spring day today that I decided to wash my car (rather than sit inside at the computer doing a boring labor market investigation - more on that later...). When I was done with my car, I offered to wash Trevor's truck. He said the inside windows really need to be cleaned. While I was inside cleaning the windows I saw him out of the corner of my eye behind the truck... I thought perhaps he was picking up trash off the front lawn, as he often does. But no, he was lining a couple more vehicles to go through the Linseed Road Car Wash. I told him they didn't meet the minimum size requirements for the car wash.

It was so hot today...

How hot was it?

It was so hot that between yesterday and today the plastic cup that contained an iced coffee that I bought yesterday late morning after my haircut at Hair East in Amherst and left in my car until today at 1pm when Trevor & I decided to take my car (the one in which the A/C actually works) to the mall to see Kung Fu Panda had actually melted. You can see in the picture that the plastic lid is quite distorted, as well as the bottom of the cup.

It was over 100 degrees today. I'd still rather this than snow and freezing cold temperatures!

Feeling Loved

I stopped by Northampton High School today, known locally at "Hamp High", where I worked for 4 years, to drop off a recommendation form for my former colleague, Donna Canuel-Browne, to complete as part of my application to Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. I didn't actually get to see Donna, it was was the end of the school day, although Mary (one of the office secretaries) tried to track her down. While I was waiting in the office for a few minutes I got to catch up with the office staff and Jimmy Miller, former chemistry teacher and currently athletics director.
It was great to see everyone and feel, as my title implies, loved by a group of people that I've lost touch with simply because I have no reason to see them on a regular basis. I left there feeling really good and appreciated, even though it was 5 years ago that I left that job.

Losing my cool, Part 2

I was quite miffed, to put it mildly, today when I went to UMass to apply for the library assistant job that was advertised on their website, and was told that I couldn't apply for it because it was only open to employees of the University. I'm not even sure I want to work for such a huge bureaucracy anyway but that's another story.

When the guy in the employment office asked if I wanted to fill out an application anyway, I tried very hard to restrain my sarcasm when I replied, "Well, I'm here."

So I filled out the silly application and attached the resume and cover letter that I spent ALL of yesterday afternoon working on and then went directly to TJ Maxx and bought some dumb junk I don't need just to help me feel better - don't worry - I only spent $16.99.

Then I proceeded to Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and bought stuff that we actually need so it wasn't a complete waste of time or money. When I was done there I went to Big Y and bought a bottle of Stoli to keep in my freezer for days like Tuesday when nothing was right and everything was wrong.

Losing my cool

I spent most of the afternoon having a major meltdown and fighting with my printer while attempting to print out my resume to bring to UMass tomorrow to apply for a library assistant position. And just to push me over the edge even further, my (free) word processing application (NeoOffice) was giving me trouble and kept changing the bullets in my resume to some other symbol (lambdas?) to the point where I just gave up entirely, had a screaming, crying complete meltdown. After I calmed down a bit (the deadline to apply is tomorrow so I don't have the option of just giving up for the day and going to a movie - I'd like to see SATC but it'll have to wait), I started from scratch and rewrote my resume. Since my resume only covers my work experience of the past 10 years, I had to write a cover letter to go with the resume that would also talk about my relevant work experience as a library assistant at the Education Resource Library at my alma mater, Salem State College. All this for a job that'll probably pay less than my last job.

Ahh... let the torture begin... This is why I'll never be a writer...

And why do "they" say it's good to apply for these jobs "just for the experience"? I find the experience to be extremely PAINFUL! All around, a pretty lousy experience.

I'm taking a page from my cousin Becca's book when she was unemployed a few years ago and starting cocktail hour early today!

June Flowers

Here's some more photos of my glorious gardens.
Now that I'm not working I can be obsessed with having a weed-free garden.

I really like these yellow and magenta bearded irises.

The False Indigo looks good too. I tried to dig it up and move it but then learned that they don't like that. Once you plant them somewhere that's it. I've decided I like it here, I'd better.