hello 2009

Today school is back in session in Brookings, SD. That means mom is back at work, having recovered from her hip surgery. She's still a little stiff, but she's walking so much better than before! I also went to school today. For the next two weeks, while I'm in town, I'm doing playground duty at Hilcrest Elementary. It involves watching kindergardeners before school in the morning and helping them get out of their snow gear for the start of the day, then helping them to lunch and taking them out for recess, rushing back in to take out the third graders and then taking the third graders to lunch. It ends up being about 3 hours of actual work, but it takes a larger chunk of the day to accomplish it all. For the hours in between the start of the day and the lunch rush I helped mom in her art room, since it didn't make much sense to me to leave the school only to rush right back to it. Once I get a handle on what kids I'm supposed to be watching, it shouldn't be a bad job. I also need to memorize the names of the kindergarden and third grade teachers so I can keep the kids in classroom groups--that seems to be the most important part.

Interestingly enough, my paperwork for this job isn't processed yet, but they decided I should just come in anyway because they need the help. I had to have a background check, which has apparently been completed, just not turned in properly. I've had one before, when I first was hired by the city of Sioux Falls. It involves being fingerprinted and waiting for the government to confirm that I'm not a child molester or anything. What was different about it this time is that I had the fingerprinting done here in Brookings instead of Sioux Falls. This town doesn't have the demand that Sioux Falls does to allow for fingerprinting in more than one location. So yes, I had to go to the jail and be escorted through two locked doors and have my fingerprints taken in the same room where they process criminals. It was weird. On the bright side, I also got to experience having my fingerprints read electronically instead of doing the ink method. That was pretty darn cool. As a writer, I store all these random experiences in my mind for future reference, so random experiences like that are perfectly welcome in my life.

Some other experiences are less welcome in my life. One reason I haven't written for so long (besides being generally busy) is that I broke up with Sherwin right before Christmas. I wasn't sure how to write about it, and sharing the seasonal joys without addressing it didn't feel right either. Even now I won't go into detail, because I don't feel this is the proper medium, but all of you, my readers and friends, should know why it is that I've been so long absent. Even though it was my decision to end the relationship, I feel the loss acutely and had to lose myself completely in the work and play of the season to allow my heart to heal. I wish I hadn't hurt him, and I hope we can be friends again someday, but I know better than to intrude on his own healing--I will not allow myself to distract him from the challenges he faces this semester. Those of you who are praying folk, please keep him in mind.

And now that I have thoroughly killed the mood, let me perk things up a bit before I let you go. Christmas was great--I got to see my brother and his wife, I decorated cookies with dad, and I almost singlehandedly made the house look festive (since mom was still laid up and dad was tired from working overtime). It's been a busy few weeks, including time spent in Sioux Falls catching up with friends I hadn't seen in months. Sometimes I forget that life goes on without me, but of course it does. Friends are graduating soon and making huge life decisions, and it boggles my mind to realize that they're moving forward, which shouldn't be a surprise considering the changes in my own life, going to Boston and all (although, really, now that I've survived a whole semester and pretty much have a handle on how city living works, it doesn't seem so amazing to me anymore that I'm out there--it's amazing how quickly the new and exciting can become commonplace!).

One other thing to mention--I figure the more people I tell about this, the more likely I'll be to succeed in it. My grandma Elsie, long known for giving incredibly random Christmas presents, did something good for me this year. She gave me a "day book," which is like a hardcover weekly planner that has illustrations and quotes on every page. I have decided to make it a sort of micro-journal and write something in it every day. Since the space allowed is rather small, it's less daunting than an entire journal page, which I sometimes feel guilty for wasting if I only write a few lines before my train of thought derails or falls asleep. But this way, I can get myself back into the habbit of writing every day, and hopefully also start writing longer journal entries in my regular journal and more frequent blog posts and even some fiction work. I've never been much of one for New Year's resolutions, but if I had one it would be to write every day no matter what and to make real progress with my fiction again. (Better physical fitness is also a goal of mine, but since I already have a plan for swimming and such, it hardly seems to merit the title of "New Year's Resolution If I Were To Make New Year's Resolutions.")

Sorry to jump topics so much, but it's what I had to say. Happy 2009--may it be even better than the year before!

-Kim

By the way...

I have now finished my first semester of grad school! There was a lot of stress in the final weeks, and now much rejoicing at having free time again. Since I completed my work I have been busy hanging out with people who are graduating and leaving. A full post of the end of semester activity and thoughts will be written later, perhaps during my three and a half hour layover in Minneapolis on Monday.

-Kim

Personality test

The other day, Dianna forwarded me a link for a personality test that her writing center boss had sent around to the staff. It's short, and therefore questionably accurate (it couldn't decide for sure if I was a 5 (Investigator) or a 9 (Peacemaker), but when I took it again and thought harder about one or two questions, it finally made up its mind about me.) It does seem to be fairly accurate, though. The proof is not so much in the description of a single personality type (of which this particular test lists only 9) but in its description of how different personality types interact. Read below for what it says about 5 (Investigator) and 7 (Enthusiast) and be amazed at how accurately it describes my friendship with Dianna.

free enneagram test

Enneagram Type Five (the Investigator)
with
Enneagram Type Seven (the Enthusiast)

What Each Type Brings to the Relationship:

Since they are both thinking types, Enneagram Fives and Sevens both bring a lot of mental energy and appreciation for ideas to their relationship. Their approach is complementary and reciprocal--each one brings something that the other does not have. On the positive side, Fives bring depth, clarity of observation, insight into the objective state of affairs, independence and self-reliance, and often a wonderfully, off-beat, whimsical sense of humor. It almost goes without saying that they have quick minds and love knowledge and intellectual pursuits. Sevens bring quickness not only of mind but of spirit--ready to do almost anything at a moment's notice, from going to a movie to booking an around the world trip, from moving the furniture across the room to moving the home to another state. Sevens are independent, although they like to have a few people around to join in the fun and to add to the celebratory, happy feeling that they are always looking for in their lives. They tend to be generous and extravagant, optimistic, gregarious, and outgoing with strangers, often the life of the party.

Fives tend to be somewhat more frugal with money and resources, seldom spending much on themselves (unlike Sevens). Fives also tend to be private and taciturn around strangers, although they can be very funny once they get to know you and feel secure. Fives ground and deepen Sevens, giving them permission to take themselves and their interests more seriously, to focus their energies, and to stay with things until they pay off. Sevens get Fives to try new experiences and to make more social contacts. They may also run interference for Fives in social settings. Both like conversation and ideas and they love to explore new realms together. In short, this is a mixture of opposites with different attitudes about how to enjoy themselves and how to be fulfilled in the world. Fives say: "Life is short: don't expect too much." Sevens say: "Life is short: try it all." Both attitudes are true and can usefully balance the other.

Christmas Lights

It's that season again! Decorations are going up on houses and streetlights all over the country! Last weekend, driving back with Katie to the train station, we passed four houses that were so done up in lights the Grizwalds would be jealous. If only I could have been fast enough with my camera...

But do not fear, the Christmas light extravaganza is still available in this post, just in smaller form. This past Wednesday was the Festival of Lights on the Simmons residence campus. Each dorm competed to have the most creative, beautiful, shiny and inclusive decorations. Yes, inclusive--it's still our buzzword. Our dorm, being North Hall, decided to become the North Pole. Of course, the end result was more of a generic mish-mash, but it was still pretty. There were snowflakes all over the place, lights inside and out, and a Christmas tree in the corner. to evidence the group participation of the dorm residents, a bunch of us sat in the decorated lounge watching the Rudolph Christmas special when the judges came through. That one has always been my favorite, though Charlie Brown is in second by the very smallest of fractions. Anyway, the judges consisted of Simmons faculty and staff, and one of them is an old man who has long grey hair and beard and actually looks like Santa. He dressed up for the night, which was great. We didn't really have a chance of winning, but it was fun to actually participate, since apparently our dorm hasn't done so in the past. Here's the best picture I could get of our outside decorations.



After the judging, we went to dinner in Bartol, which was completely transformed for the evening. the tables were rearranged and had white tablecloths, and the food stations were all serving the same traditional holiday food. There were also tables on one wall covered in cookies we could frost ourselves. It was great.

From there we made our way down the street (cutting through the Harvard Med campus to save time) to The Squealing Pig for an end of semester party for GSLIS students. It was a small turnout, but it worked for the size of the room. We stayed pretty late playing trivia against other teams in the bar. Apparently they do trivia every Wednesday, as well as hosting live Irish music on Thursdays. This is the sort of place I may have to go back to, should I run across friends who actually have time to go out. The best part was that the appetizers were free, so we had wings and fries to keep us going while we worked our way through the trivia. And let me tell you, there is nothing better than playing trivia with a bunch of librarians...even if some of them were a little "happy" by the end of it. Our team was in second place until the final question, which we missed. The final tally put us in fourth, but it was a great game. We did beat the other two librarian teams, so that's saying something.

Here's a picture of the pub.


And here is half of the trivia team. That's Alex on the left and Tetima on the right.

-Kim

Snowflakes

I have just escaped from the vortex known as hall council, where I spent the last hour and a half cutting snowflakes out of coffee filters. Tomorrow is the hall decorating contest, and a couple of people seem to think it's actually worth trying to beat the undergrads. I know we don't have a chance, but I figured I'd pitch in anyway. They'll spend the rest of tonight and tomorrow afternoon turning North Hall into the North Pole. Pictures will be taken, and they may even eventually be posted for you to see!

Well, it's been quite a week or so since I last posted. Two weekends ago I saw several USF professors and a Broadway musical, just not at the same time. Theology profs Hiigel, Gregg and Lierman were in town for a national Biblical studies conference. I bumped into the first two at service at Park Street, and joined Katie in meeting up with Lierman the next day at the Prudential Center. Good times, hearing about what's going on at USF this semester and trying to explain to Dr. Hiigel just what it is that I've been doing out here. Sunday afternoon I caught a matinee of "Spamalot," on tour off Broadway. Absolutely hilarious! I have no time for a full review, but I loved it, and it was well worth the price, even to sit in the nose bleed section.

This week has also been busy for schoolwork. I wrote an entire research paper over the course of Thanksgiving break, and am about half done writing/editing a group paper for my technology class. There's never an end to it...

Thanksgiving itself was pretty great. I stayed at the dorm, and a bunch of us cooked together and had dinner in our RD's apartment. And we stayed there all day, through lunch, dessert, two movies, dinner, second dessert, and all manner of conversation and relaxing. It was a great way to spend a holiday.

I also got to see Katie again last weekend. On Saturday I took the train out, and she met me at the station to get lunch and then wander the largest mall in the area. But on the way back, I got squashed on the subway! I had managed to grab a single seat right by the door, and as the car filled up, there were lots of people standing around me. Well, a couple guys didn't make it out of the car at their stop and were rather upset about it, and I guess someone grabbed an emergency break, because the whole train lurched to a stop, and the guy standing closest to me was thrown forward. But, since he was holding the pole by the door, he ended up swinning around and squashing me against the side of the car. I'm just lucky his coffee didn't spill all over me. Nobody got to get off the train, and we got moving again only a moment later. The moral of this story is to never touch the emergency break unless it's a real emergency!

It seems like every moment of my days are planned out now. Today I tutored and then did work in the library, then had a SCoSAA meeting, then had class, then got roped into decorating. And tomorrow I have class, then I'll work in the library, then I'll help decorate again and take pictures, then we have the end of the year GSLIS party at a local Irish pub, with free appetizers and a raffle. So yes, I'm going to that. Oh yeah, and I have a paper and a presentation due on Saturday, another project and presentation due on Wednesday, and a small project and unrelated presentation/panel discussion on Tuesday night. And I still have to finish my application for the summer internship I'm interested in. Plus, I'm working two extra tutoring shifts next week as a favor to my fellow tutors. At moments this feels overwhelming. But, one huge paper got turned in tonight, and my archives group project is now finished. I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank goodness!

I can't wait to go home and have a real break! It's been too long since I've been able to do something totally fun and relaxing without feeling guilty about it. I've had too many weeks with every minute scheduled so I can get everything finished on time. I've had too many evenings hunched over my keyboard with my shoulders tightening up every minute (even the swimming hasn't quite helped that, and neither has the new shower head with optional massaging setting that was randomly installed a few days ago). I want to come home and see the people I miss and get to hug them, not just hear their voices.

I don't mean to whine, it just sort of came out that way. After all, it's not that much longer before I'll be able to breathe again. For now I'll just have to be the stereotypical anime heroine and "work hard and do my best!" until all this has been dealt with.

-Kim