I Smell Autumn

Hello again 🙂

I’m just stopping by to update you guys. I definitely earned my tea today! Both the 3 boxes of Bigelow’s Pumpkin Spice, and the 2 boxes of their Apple Cider.

Judging from the response I got both during the coffee-break and after my class/course/presentation, I did well. Not too long, not too complicated, smiling, and adding a generous coffee-break. That’s what it takes to win the hearts of 230 students.
Wait… Did I say 230? I meant 265, including the 35 students who were watching me on live “television”. I am very grateful that I didn’t know beforehand that they were filming me and broadcasting to students attending from other colleges, because I was quite nervous enough without knowing that tidbit of information.

Today has been crazy busy, and I like that to be honest. Busy days always mane me feel good, like I’m doing something sensible and I1m being of use to somebody or something. Today I taught until noon, had a short lunch, planned a meeting where me and another librarian will be presenting an article to the rest of the staff, and manned the circulation/information desk until 15:30. The desk was busy, so I’ve been helping a lot of students, which is something I love doing, and then I met my mother and youngest sister for dinner before then ran off to see some big handball game that I have no interest in. So all in all, a busy, slightly stressful, but wonderful day!

This time of the year though, I love it! The air is just starting to turn crisp in the morning, which give you the perfect excuse to bring a travel mug of coffee or tea with you, but it’s still not too cold outside. Another thing is the smell. Autumn has this special, fresh and crisp yet sunkissed smell, and people are all wearing such cosy and comfortable clothes, all huge sweaters and scarves. On days like this, when it’s not raining, the sun is shining, and autumn is in the air, it’s impossible not to smile and be happy just because you are alive and well to experience this.
Oh, and the tea. The tea always helps. 😉

I actually own this travel mug from Aladdin. It’s pretty awesome if you like your tea to go.

Happiness is the right cup of tea

Hi guys!

Wow, it’s been four months since my last post, which is really bad. I don’t really have an excuse, except that I stopped participating in the weekly meemes because the hostess was taking them in a religious/christian direction, and I wasn’t comfortable with that. Without the prompts, I sort of fell out of the habit…

A lot has happened since my last post, so much in fact that I hardly know where to start!

It was a rough summer, living at home with me and my three sisters all cooped up with our parents is always rough and tense. Then I had no idea what my life would be like after the summer. Would I manage to land a jobb? Would I have to move across the country for said jobb?

Now though, I am happily installed at my new jobb and in my new apartment. The jobb is temporary, my contract is just for a year for now, but I’m hoping I’ll get a permanent position there later. I work as a university librarian! It’s a wonderful jobb really, my coworkers are great and so welcoming, and I love it. It was a but rough the first couple of weeks, because between my interview and me actually starting the jobb, someone left on paternity leave (yes, we have that in Norway), so I was handed a lot of his responsibilities, such as giving lectures in literature/information searches.
It’s great, I don’t mind giving lectures at all, but I wasn’t prepared for it, and… Well, it’s a medical library, and I had no idea how to do structured searches, let alone search medical databases such as Pubmed and Medline. So I had to learn and I had to learn fast.

But I’m getting a bit off topic here, I was supposed to talk about happiness!
As I was sitting here, curled up in my new couch from IKEA (we managed to assemble it just fine, btw) in my first apartment, I was feeling quite anxious. You see, I’ll be doing a lecture tomorrow, for what we thought would be 10-15 students, only to learn that there will be 230 (!!!) students instead. I have never stood before so many people, and now they’ll all be looking at me for two hours while I attempt to teach them something I barely know myself…

These two are both on their way to me as we type 😉

Then it happened. As I was wallowing in anxiety, I got a snap from a friend showing me her lit fireplace. We decided that it was certainly becoming autumn, seeing as it’s been really cold the past week, and autumn means tea. This conversation lead me to stumble across the most wonderful online shop! A teashop based in Norway which sells Bigelow tea!
I thought my heart would leap out of my chest from joy! I love Bigelow’s Pumpkin Spice tea, everything from the scent and the taste to the look of the box. The problem is that no one but the factory ships them to Norway, and you have to buy at least six boxes and pay 50$ in shipping. So to be able to buy “just” 3 boxes and have them shipped from Oslo instead of America? Well, lets just say that an assortment of Bigelow tea is now on its way here, and I’m one happy librarian once again.

So what is happiness? It depends on the day, but today happiness is knowing that your favourite tea is on its way to you, and that you will have it close at hand for warmth and comfort throughout the autumn and winter. #justlittlethings

So share! Has something small changed your mood for the better?

Friday Finds (08.05.2015)

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

This week I learned the extent of my seclusion the past months. As some of you might know, and most of you don’t know, I handed in my final exam on Tuesday. This exam was a paper that I had been working on for months, on how and why we should make libraries more enticing to teenagers, and with that I finished my degree in Library Science. Needless to say that this paper have been consuming my life lately, and I just realised that one of my favourite Paranormal Romance authors have published a book without my even knowing about it.

Midnight’s Kiss by Thea Harrison is the 8th book in the Elder Races series, a series that I have been following for many years now. To be completely honest, I’m not so sure if I will like this book, because I detest the male main character. You have a different protagonist in each book, and Julian hasn’t exactly been loveable in the previous books. But then, I didn’t like Carling either (book 3) but the book was still a good read. So I will definitely be diving back into this universe soon.

How about you guys? Discover any books in the past week?

Musing Mondays (04.05. 2015)

Friday was the 1st of May, and at least in Norway that is a national holiday. Everybody has the day off, and it is the perfect day to enjoy a book outside in the warmth of the sun. I hear you are supposed to wave a flag and march for your rights as a worker, but as I am a student still, I opted for a book instead.

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

I have done woefully little reading and searching for books lately, mostly due to my final paper being due tomorrow. On that note, I have found a lifesaver for stressed out students and anyone else who needs to disconnect for a few precious moments.

The Secret Garden colouring book, by Johanna Bashford!

This book is so perfect for relaxing and putting your mind back together after a long day, and it gives your eyes a rest from all the screens you’re constantly surrounding yourself with. The Secret Garden by Frances H. Burnett is one of my favourite books of all times, and I love how this colouring book is inspired by it. I’m combining the colouring with listening to an audiobook.

The meme is hosted by A Daily Rhythm, so you should stop by if you want to see more Monday Musings today.

“Fugit Hora” Time Flies..

When I was in my teens, I loved to surround myself with small quotes and saying that I had picked up from books that I had read. My best friend and I scribbled them everywhere! On our desks, on paper coffee cups (not that we drank coffee back then, but buying hot chocolate and walking around sipping it made us feel very grown up), on our note books and everywhere else like the back of our hands and so on.

I still love to collect quotes and sayings, I just don’t flash it around as much. I remember being in love with foreign and mystical languages that few if any but me and my friends could understand, such as Latin and Elven (from Tolkien’s fandom). I would scribble “Carpe Diem”, “Memento Mori” and “Fugit Hora” everywhere, and while “seize the day” and “remember death” still doesn’t mean that much to me, “time flies” has suddenly struck me as true.

I never used to think about time, not really. When you are young, time goes by so painfully slow, and you can’t wait to be grown up and participate in “real life”. I turned 25 a few months ago, and I just realised that “real life” was just as much then as it is now. As a child or a teenager, I could submerge myself completely in the wonderful world that is fantasy, I could scribble and draw all over my arms, on my shoes, on my backpack, I could be as nerdy and geeky as I wanted, and I didn’t have to pretend to be a grown up when I met new people. (Because lets be honest, I’m still just pretending and I’m amazed that I can fool anyone)

Suddenly you are 25 years old, and your former classmates are having kids, more than one, buying a house, getting engaged, and you’re left feeling slightly dazed. The fact that my family keep on hinting that it’s about time I meet a nice guy and have some kids doesn’t help at all! My sisters are dying to become aunts, and since I’m the oldest it’s apparently my duty to make that happen, and I’m apparently long overdue already.

One of my closest friends in High School just announced on facebook that she is pregnant again, and the announcement left me shellshocked! Slow down people! Life has just begun, I’m still working on my bachelor’s degree, I’m in no way ready to have kids yet, aren’t you supposed to experience life a little first? I want to live in a nice apartment, I want to have a decent income and travel, I want to do all those things that you need money to do, and I want to do them while I’m still young. When you have kids, though I’m sure they are a blessing, then you’re stuck for at least 18 years before you get to be selfish again. I want to spend my money on me.

I just spent the entire easter break re-reading the Inheritance cycle (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance) by Christopher Paolini. At some point Eragon, who is 15 when we are first introduced to him in the first book, looks at his cousin who is a few years older and he is shocked to realise that they are adults now. He can see the beginning of lines around Roran’s eyes, and his cousin is now married and has a baby. He says something along the lines of “just like that, the cycle continues and a new generation takes up the mantle”. I don’t remember the wording exactly, but it made me realise that damn, I’m that generation. It’s not like I have wrinkles yet or anything, but I have faint lines on my forehead (from the weird face I make whenever I put on mascara) and my face isn’t that of a teenager any more. My generation is settling down and having children, we’re the adults now, and our parents are the grandparent-generation.

Isn’t that a scary thought? We’re totally going to fuck this up, since when did we become responsible? Doomed. This is doomed to fail at some point. I don’t know why, but I never imagined myself as an adult. I kinda thought I’d skip that part and go from a free spirited teenager/young adult to becoming an ever more free spirited old lady like the one in the poem. That’s going to be me. It’s a bit comforting that though I might screw up the whole “being an adult” part of life, I know I’ll excel at being an old woman.

When I am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple. (Warning)

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings,
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens,
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickle for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old
and start to wear purple!

Jenny Joseph

It’s Alive!

I should have written this days ago, but some how I didn’t find the motivation to write until I sat down to work on my exam-paper. Funny how that works, I only have to glance at the stack of books and articles I should be going through to find the motivation to do ANYTHING but that. I even cleaned my entire apartment yesterday.

Anyway, as you might remember, I was in the middle of a mental breakdown last Friday. Seriously, I cried and ate my own weight in chocolate, because I dropped my beloved phone in the sink, and it wouldn’t work!

I read somewhere that you should put it in an air tight container submerged in uncooked rice, but unfortunately we didn’t have any rice in the house, so I filled the container with oatmeal instead. Same thing, right? No? But it does suck up moisture as well, so I figured it was better than nothing, and switched it out with rice a few hours later. I left it in the rice for 24 hours before attempting to switch it on, but nada. No change at all! I bet you can imagine my panic at this point, because I can’t afford a new phone right now.

A handsome fellow working at the local electronics shop told me to toast it in the oven for about five hours on 50C. I can not express how skeptical I was to this suggestion, just the thought of placing my phone in the oven for five hours was ludicrous! But it wasn’t as if it could make the situation worse, so I gave it a try, and behold, it worked! I had no expectations what so ever when I pulled it out and turned it on, so to me it appears to be a miracle.

I know though, that my phone is living on borrowed time. Something could be wrong with it, some sneaky problem lurking under the shiny surface, ready to jump out at me when it’s most inconvenient, but for now it works, so I’ll just not look a gift horse in the mouth and pretend like everything is perfect while I enjoy whatever time the two of us have left.

Maybe my phone is a zombie now? It did rise from the dead after all… Just assume my phone ate my brain in the middle of the night if you never hear from me again.

Tempting Fate…

I am never ever ever going to cheer out loud again.

In Norway, we pay a lot of taxes, and by a lot I mean A LOT. about 1/3 of my wage never even makes it into my bank account, but rather gets shipped off to the government. In return, we have welfare and health care that is close to free, and if something does happen to you, the state will patch you up physically and mentally as best they can without asking about insurance.

The point is, we pay a lot throughout the year, and at the end of the year someone somewhere goes through your papers and statements from your bank and your employer to see if you have paid enough. Some things give you tax benefits, such as living in a certain area, while other things such as owning property means you have to pay more. In March they send out the papers that everyone are both dreading and looking forwards to reading; have you paid enough or will you have to pay more? If you haven’t paid enough taxes, then you get a bill. If you have paid to much however, you get a nice surprise and the money is returned to you.

I paid too much last year, and just as I was finished cheering about the fact that a nice sum of money will be transferred to my account in June, the unthinkable happened.

The horror! I watched as if in slow motion as my phone (I was listening to music and doing the dishes) slid into the sink. The sink that was full of water… My phone. My beloved, shiny, almost-new phone drenched in water…
In truth, it was not so much slow motion as a painful tug in my ears as I had turned from the sink, forgetting that my phone which was connected to my ears through my headphones was in fact not in my pocket, but on the counter. My life is ruined. Or at least my week, possibly my month seeing as I’ll have to live on noodles for at least one month to be able to afford a new phone, and I can’t not have a phone! It’s my alarm clock, it’s my appointments book, it’s my source of entertainment, my source of music, it tells me when I have to leave to make it to the buss in time, how much money is left in my account, and last but not least, it keeps me connected to my friends and family.

So yes, that is my life at the moment. Woe is me.
(I know, there are worse things to complain about and worse things happening in the world, but for a student, the loss of a phone is a pretty big deal.)

Musing Monday 09.02 2015

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should be Reading that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:

• I’m currently reading…
• Up next I think I’ll read…
• I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
• I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
• I can’t wait to get a copy of…
• I wish I could read ___, but…
• I blogged about ____ this past week…

THIS WEEK’S RANDOM QUESTION: Do you have people in your life (face-to-face) that are readers like you? Or, do you find that you have to reach out to those online in order to find like-minded folk?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your answer in a brief comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

My musing this week has not so much to do with books in particular as it has to do with the sanctuary of books and those who should be reading them. That’s right, the library and its potential users.

The library to me when I was growing up was just that, a sanctuary. I didn’t always get along with my family du to conflicting interests, and no one else shared my love of literature. You could say that I escaped to the library to lose myself and my teenage worries in books, and I still do. Anyway, the point is that I loved my old library. The building was from the 40’s, a long and narrow room, more like a long hallway with hidden nooks here and there in between shelves of books where you could hide away, and rooms that seemed to just appear before your eyes, the doorways hidden by shelves. It was not a fancy building, and certainly not modern, but it was cozy.

Back then, the library was a popular hangout for a lot of young teenagers because of the computer room, we didn’t have our own laptops at home, so we would sign up to have our 30 minutes of gaming time on one of the library computers. Now though, every child above the age of two has their own laptop of iPad, so the computers no longer entice teenagers and children to use the library, which I think is sad. The library is now a grand, open hall with fancy architecture, but it’s almost empty.

The thing about the library, is that it is there for its users. Librarians want people to use the library, not because spend money there, which is the case with most meeting places, but because the library is there to serve the patrons, and it’s such a pity for those resources to just lay around unused. Not to mention the fact that in order to build a great library, you need great patrons.

So what then, should we do to get teenagers to use the library? There is no point in spending money on books they won’t read, so what should we offer them? I was thinking along the lines of a gaming room with couches, playstation, an Xbox  and so on where they could gather and play games together. I could build on that, I could get them to read the books the games are based on, discuss the changes done to the plot to have it fit as a game (or from game to book), and so on.

But what do you think? What would you do to make the library a place where teenagers could meet up and just spend time, a meeting place. We don’t have to get them to read books, that’s not the point, the point is to get them to use the library, because a modern library is about so much more than just books.

I should mention that I’m writing my Bachelor assignment on this subject, so not only am I really passionate about this, but I would absolutely LOVE your input!

 

Teaser Tuesday 03.02. 2015

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from the book Bound by Flames by Jeaniene Frost, book three in the Night Prince series. I can not express how much I have been looking forward to this book! It was highly anticipated ever since I finished book two and realised that the story didn’t end there, and this far it has not let me down. I love Jeaniene Frost’s books, she is such a talented writer, and they always draw me in from page one, and I practically hold me breath until I have finished the book. Seriously, I am living and breathing this book right now.

She (Gretchen) blew out a sigh and then gave Vlad a speculative look. “It’s Szilagyi, isn’t it? He’s not dead after all.”

“Why would you say that?” Vlad asked, his voice dangerously silky. We hadn’t told her. Had one of his staff been loose lipped?

She huffed. “You’re Dracula, so everyone knows  your enemies don’t live long, but my dad and I are still locked up, so whoever’s yanking your chain must be the king of badasses. The only one person I know who fits that description is the same old vampire you couldn’t kill before.”

Vlad’s nostrils flared while I stared at my sister in disbelief. First calling him Dracula, then bringing up Szilagyi successfully faking his death twice? The nine pounds Gretchen had gained must’ve come from her new brass balls.
-Bound by Flames 15% in, Kindle edition.

I was pleased to learn that Jeaniene Frost will be writing a fourth book in the series. This is the third book. If you are interested in reading it (which you should be!) I recommend starting with book one, or better yet, start with book one in the Nighthuntress series, Halfway to the Grave. The Night Prince series is a spin off of the Nighthuntress series, and though they can be read individually, they are most definitely best enjoyed together. Like coffee and chocolate!

Reading Challenge 2015

I have decided to read at least 40 books this year. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the number of books I read last year (according to goodreads), and I’ll be finishing my degree in library science this year, which I’m assuming will take up a lot of my time.
In addition to the goodreads challenge, I found another challenge that I want to do in order to challenge myself to read different books and to broaden my reading-horizon.

26 books to read in 2015.
1. A book you own but haven’t read
2. A book that was made into a movie
3. A book you pick solely because of the cover
4. A book your friend loves
5. A book published this year
6. A book by an author you’ve never read before
7. A book by an author you love
8. A book at the bottom of your “to be read” pile
9. A book with a colour in the title
10. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit
11. A book you’ve started but never finished
12. A book with a lion, a witch or a wardrobe
13. A book with a female heroine
14. A book set in the summer
15. A book of poems
16. A book you learned about because of this challenge
17. A book that will make you smarter
18. A book with a blue cover
19. A book you were supposed to read in school, but didn’t
20. A book “everyone” but you has read
21. A book with a great first line
22. A book with pictures
23. A book from the library
24. A book you loved… Read it again!
25. A book that is more than 10 years old
26. A book based on a true story

So, how about you guys? Are you doing any reading challenges? What’s your reading goal for 2015? Do you think you’ll read more, or less than you did in 2014, and did you reach your goal in 2014?