Sara's Blog

Dear Tim,

2008-10-04T15:56:00.001-07:00

Thanks for phoning me today and calling me a liar again; boy that brought back old times! Thanks for also letting me know that you're going to steal my property... good to know! I'm sorry to hear you were offended by the things I wrote here months ago, but if you think this is bad, you should see what was said on Facebook! Apparently a lot of people had stuff to get off their chests about you. Anyways, sorry to hear you hated to read about yourself on here... but relax. I've always only referred to you as Tim. Never have I ever mentioned you as Timothy Ryan Westerman of Wadsworth, OH and more recently Bowling Green, OH. That would have been wrong. Since you seem to like calling us and leaving messages calling us liars and fucking assholes, or whatever it is you called my husband, I've decided to go ahead with my plan of changing our phone numbers. I'm also abandoning this blog now, but you know what? I think I'll leave it up forever as a sort of tribute to you.

The Job

2008-09-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, can I just tell you how much I love my job? I honestly have the best job in the world and I still laugh whenever I remember all the education majors (and education professors) back in BG who told me I would go into student teaching and change my mind and become a teacher after all. HA! I would never give this up, and I guarantee you they're all stressed out right now with students/grading/lesson plans, etc. And me? I'm blissed out.

Picture this. I'm in a huge beautiful (new!) room. I have music playing since I'm alone. To my left is a huge wall of windows where I have a view of the mountains and some palm trees. In front of me I have two of my favorite things: Macs and books. I have a brand-spanking-new iMac. Well, okay, actually I have three with another 20 in the room, but those are technically for the students. I also have almost 7,000 books at my disposal. Can you hear my squeal of delight? I'm checking out books like mad and just basically drool on my books all day. But you know what the best part is? I'm not even the person at the school who has checked out the most books this year! Can you believe it? There are students here who LIKE TO READ. I know, I almost died of shock too. And finally there are my esteemed coworkers. Could there be a better group? I'm just seriously in heaven.

Is this McDonalds? Cuz I'm Lovin' It.
This is so Visa--Everywhere you want to be.

(sorry, quoting some of more idiotic books I have read this year)

Movie Ratings

2008-09-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I know I'm way behind the times, but I just watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated and wow. There was this one guy, and no I can't remember who it was because my memory is God-awful, but he said the most intelligent thing ever. He said that if you make a movie and you show tons of people getting shot and killed but you don't show the blood, then it's fine and it will get like PG or PG-13. If, however, you show people getting shot and then show blood and guts, then you get at least an R rating. Well, he suggested that it should be the exact opposite. If kids today are to realize that violence is bad, then they need to see the consequences of violence. If every time someone is beaten, stabbed, or shot in a movie and they show the real consequences and gore and just plain nastiness that comes from it then they'll really understand violence and it should be those films who never show what happened after that guy got shot that should be restricted from view.

How simple and how smart is that?

Free at Last?

2008-07-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

Alright... I finally have some (potentially) good news. Nate spoke to Tim today and Tim says that the last day he is schedule to work at the Barnes & Noble here in town is August 7th... and as soon as he's done with that, he's moving back to Ohio.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have no idea what a relief that is! It's great enough that he's finally moving out, but to know that he'll be back across the country? Fabulous. You have no idea how many times I've warned Nate to never let Tim know our new address once we move.... or how many times I've planned on changing my phone number and license plates as soon as he left. But now? Everything's cool :-) Well, at least they SHOULD be. Still plenty of time for crap to go wrong.

The plan now is that Nate and I will just continue living in the apartment until the lease ends Sept. 8th. We were going to have to pay the rent all that time anyways, might as well live here!

Not much else is new. Work things are getting messed up DAILY and I've been so stressed out that I haven't had a good night's sleep in weeks. Who knew it could be so complicated to order a few thousand books?? Some people just need to stop freaking out and let go of their money! :-D

The only other thing that's new is my best friend is officially pregnant. And I'm incredibly jealous. I can't wait for school to start. Maybe once I'm surrounded by kids every day having a baby won't seem like such a good idea after all.

Update on Roommate Stuff

2008-07-22T21:10:00.001-07:00

Well, as you can tell by my facebook status, things are not going well. It all started last night. I saw Tim left a hat on my chair in the living room. I took the hat and put it on this huge pile of his crap that sits outside his bedroom door. This morning I was in the kitchen and he yelled at me from in his room, "Don't you ever touch my stuff again you fucking bitch!" I didn't even know what he was talking about until he explained. I told him it had been on my chair, so I moved it, and I walked back to the bedroom.

He followed me to the bedroom and from there screamed at me and Nate for about an hour and a half straight all about how I'm the biggest psycho bitch in the world and how we both screwed him over, etc. When it was clear that we thought he was the psycho and that we weren't about to apologize for whatever it is we did wrong, he got even more pissed. He then accused me of cheating on Nate with a friend of mine and I don't think I need to tell you how close I was to throwing something at his head.

Luckily he left a bit later so Nate and I talked to the head of the apartment complex. We explained everything to her, and she said there was nothing any of us can do since we're all on the lease. Even though he threatened to kill us, there's still nothing we can do. Even though he has not paid anything since the first day we moved in, there's nothing we can do. I asked her if we could move out and have them do a walkthrough to show that we hadn't damaged anything... and then I'd even continue paying the rent until the lease expired in September. She said that we were responsible for the apartment until the lease ended... so they wouldn't do that walkthrough for me and if we moved out and Tim trashed the place, it would still be our fault. She then sent us away, saying there was nothing to be done.

My thought after leaving the office was that Tim could destroy all of our stuff and we'd 1) Not be able to prove it was even our stuff and 2) Wouldn't be able to prove that Tim was the one who broke it. So Nate and I ran out and got a uHaul and rented a storage facility downtown. We now have virtually nothing of our own in this apartment other than our bed, clothes, the pets, and some books. So I'm still not sure what we're going to do. Can I live in this tiny room for another month and a half? Should I go ahead and get a new place but pop in here constantly to check and make sure Tim hasn't destroyed anything? And if he HAS destroyed something... what would I do about it?? There's nothing I can do. I thought about us moving out and just not paying the August rent. Tim would then be evicted, but I don't know what that would do to my credit, etc. I just want them to evict Tim and then I'll give them whatever money they want, you know? I just can't take this anymore. I mean, he said I was completely full of myself and in love with myself and why don't I go "learn yoga so that I can lick my own cunt."

I'm going crazy. Someone help me :-(

My Book in Tags

2008-07-16T15:36:00.001-07:00

I just used the website Wordle (http://wordle.net/) to make a tag cloud from my book. For those of you unfamiliar with tag clouds, the more I use a word, the larger the word appears. They obviously took out words like "he", "she", "and", etc. Kind of neat, huh?

Realization: I Hate Having Summers Off

2008-07-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

Okay okay, I know a normal person would LOVE to have summers off. Especially in a town like Vegas. The weather is always nice, it's the city that never sleeps, etc. So I should be having the time of my life, right?

Umm.... no.

I am completely unable to entertain myself. I don't know how I turned into a workaholic, but it seems like if I'm not working on something I just have no idea what to do. What makes it worse is that Nate is a complete workaholic when it comes to his book, so he's always busy. So basically, when I'm not working I bug Nate for awhile and then try to find some more work to do. I vacuum a lot. Laundry is another thing that always seems to be there when I need something to do. Other than that I have been reading like nonstop. I'm averaging about a book and a half a day. But really... what kind of life is that? I should really go out and do something fun, but fun costs money... and as I said a post or two ago, this is a time to save, not spend. Which sucks. So I'm pretty miserable. I can't wait to have a normal schedule once school starts. I feel like I'll be much more sane and happy.

Speaking of becoming more sane and happy... please God someone make my roommate move out!! Not only is he driving me crazy and causing me to live in my bedroom instead of the entire apartment, but I learned even more about him that makes my skin crawl. Long long ago he told us some horrible stories about 2 of our mutual friends. We kind of stopped talking to those friends because of it and of course now I find out that my roommate is full of crap and made up all that stuff. We've been talking to the two friends again and boy did they ever have some freaky stories about my roommate! I've been sleeping with the door locked and have been avoiding him like the plague. I just keep telling myself that we're moving out in the first week of September... so this will all be over soon.

In happier news, I found out my friend Danielle and her husband are DEFINITELY coming out to Vegas to visit this December! I can't wait. It's just going to be so nice to actually have a guest bedroom and stuff to offer them. I can't wait to move!!!!!!! Have I mentioned that my neighbors sell drugs? Like I REALLY REALLY want to get out of here.

Rollercoaster

2008-06-24T23:56:00.001-07:00

Life is nuts. The other day (yesterday?) we had the cops over to our apartment because things were.... a little crazy. Everything is technically okay now, but still a little bit weird. Lots of walking around as if on egg shells.

Other than the whole police thing, not much is going on other than the massive house hunt. So far:

- We found a house we loved. It was actually crap, but it would have been tons of fun to fix it up and we could have made a massive profit on it when we sell it years from now.

- We found out we could only borrow the asking price of the house; they wouldn't let us borrow a little extra for repairs or to buy the refrigerator/oven/microwave/washer/dryer/etc. that was missing from the house.

- We found an even MORE amazing house that was even bigger than the other and had all the appliances included other than the refrigerator and it was in perfect shape other than having some ugly paint colors.

- I drooled over it like crazy while we applied for the home loan.

- They turned us down.

- I spent the rest of the day lying in bed refusing to move. (Until Nate lured me out with the promise of Italian food)

Since then we've been making a plan. We were turned down for the loan because our debt to income ratio is to high.... which, well yeah. Of course it is. You don't go to school for 7 years with no parental help and come out without massive debt. Add to that moving across the country and you get big time debt. BIG TIME. So yeah, sucks. It's not too bad though because we have a plan and there's stuff in motion that will help us pay down the crap quickly and we should be able to get a home loan within a few months. I'll just have to deal with this dumb apartment for a bit longer than I wanted to :-(

I'm so whiney.

Miss Me?

2008-06-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

Alright, I know... it's been over a month. To my credit, it has been a particularly busy month; it's not that I've just been lazy. Just for a little recap and to get me back into blogging regularly, here's a little recap.

I successfully moved across the country and now live in Las Vegas. Shocking, I know. I'm actually LOVING it so far. Except for the sun... I can't get used to that. It just seems 1000 times brighter out here. I really need to invest in some good sunglasses.

Anyways, the trip out here went well other than a couple of slight setbacks like ordering pasta to be delivered to the room and then realizing we had no silverware, getting lost in the back roads of Missouri (or Misery, as I shall think of it from now on), and the car breaking down in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. All of those were pretty minor things though and we made it in one piece! Well, technically several pieces since there were 5 of us making the trip (me, Nate the husband, Tim the roommate, Daisy the dog, and Dexter the cat).

My job is AWESOME. I actually get sad the days I don't go in and wish I could break into the school and get some more work done. It's disgusting. I actually do work most of the days I have off, whether it's researching which databases are best or calling various vendors to get more information and pricing. No rest for the librarian!

Everything is absolutely wonderful. Well, not really. Nate hasn't found a job yet, but there are a couple of really good leads. He has an appointment with the VA (Veterans Affairs) next week and they're going to do one of four things. 1 - say "we can't help you" and send him on his way. 2 - say "here, let me help you fix up your resume" and then send him on his way. 3 - Find him a government job. Or 4 - Pay for his college and give him a stipend to live on while he learns a real trade that will actually get him a good job (unlike a degree in english which leads you nowhere). So yeah, very hopeful on that front. The second not so good thing is that we are really having problems with living with Tim. We have always been really good friends, but for some reason living together is just not working. We're all always on edge... it's awful. I'm thinking once our 4 month lease here in the apartment is up, Nate and I will just get a house alone instead of asking Tim to live with us again. I miss my sanity!!!

I'll blog more soon. Promise.

To Kindle or Not to Kindle

2008-05-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

For the record, I don't like e-book readers. I really don't. I love books, as I'm sure most librarians do. I don't want to curl up in bed with the Kindle, which I find to be ugly and bulky looking.

And yet...

From Sunday until Wednesday I was in Washington, D.C. to present at the IUG conference. I brought two books with me and I was horrified to realize I had them both finished by Monday morning. Two and a half days away from home with nothing to read?!? What a nightmare. (FYI, I'm not some sort of crazy speed-reader... I just didn't realize how quick these books would be to read-especially the graphic novel.) Anyways, there I was with nothing to read. There was a book about the Hilton family and their hotel chain in my hotel room, but I didn't think I was quite that desperate. My first thought was "God I wish I had a Kindle."

Why can't Apple make an e-book reader? If they did, I guarantee I'd buy it the second it was available. If I could have a Kindle that wasn't completely ugly, I'd be there. I'm sure I'd still read print books, but I would always be sure to have a fully-loaded Kindle in my bag wherever I went.

The funny thing is I went to Amazon.com this morning and what did I see? A huge thing about how they couldn't keep the Kindle in stock but NOW IT IS! OMG GO BUY IT! Maybe if it was prettier, Amazon. Until then... go to an Apple Store, look around, and take notes!

How Social Networking Could Kill Web Search as We Know It

2008-04-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

Awesome. A day after I try to get my thoughts out on this subject and I find an article speaking about it... and in Popular Mechanics of all places. Actually, the fact that I found this article is some sort of evidence that what they're saying is true. I set up all sorts of digital filters around my online profile and relevant information flows to me so I don't have to go searching for it any longer. They say it better than I do:

"In fact, as we each carve out our individual niche on the Web, the logic of search may well flip inside out. Since we are essentially meta-tagging ourselves through our social networking memberships, shopping habits and surfing addictions, it’s conceivable that the information could attempt to find us—the old concept of push media, but in a far more refined way. As new content enters the Web, it could tumble through the various filters that you set up around your identity and then show up on your home-page news feed, or in your in box, or pop up on a ticker that follows you around as you browse from page to page."

It's a very good article if you're interested. Here's the link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4259135.html

What's the Point Exactly?

2008-04-17T04:44:00.000-07:00

Speaking of me being a cyber-stalker, why in the world do I do it?

I like feeling connected... I think of it as networking... but is it? What is the point of knowing what everyone is doing and what they think about current events, etc. if we never actually communicate in any meaningful way? I'm not sure if the internet is evolving or if it's us. Here's sort of a quick and dirty timeline of what I spent most of my time doing on the internet since I first got on it many years ago:

Chatting -> IMing -> Posting on Forums -> Blogging -> Creating a Website -> Status Updates on Facebook

Do you see a trend? I used to talk to people... mainly strangers from all over the world. It was fascinating and I'd stay up all night, praying my parents wouldn't wake up and yell at me to go to bed. I then moved to instant messengers, speaking almost exclusively to people I knew from real life-mostly classmates and friends. Suddenly I found we were never online at the same time due to work and classes, so we created our own forum and posted there on whatever was going on in the world... sharing our thoughts and ideas. It went really well for a year or two and then-bam-it was dead. No one came anymore. Where were they? Posting in their own blogs. I would like to think we all kept up with each other and read each other's blogs regularly, but I think people mostly just kept to their own space and used it as their own outlet. I moved into a website design phase and created some great things... but realized no one would ever come. No one can bother with going to individual websites anymore; we expect all the relevant information to just flow to us. This is why I do almost nothing but update my status on Facebook these days. I post a simple sentence about what's going on in my life and automatically all of my friends see it, just as I see theirs. We know what's going on without having to actually work at it. We don't need to seek out the information and we don't need to (God forbid!) actually speak to each other.

The strange outcome of this process is that I now feel just as connected to the total strangers I keep track of (famous authors, well-known librarians, etc.) as I do my actual friends. The bizarre part being that these strangers don't even know I exist, yet I feel like I know almost everything about them.

So what's the point? Why are we doing this? Are we really so wrapped up in our own lives that simply knowing that Justin's busy writing a paper and Megan is having a crappy day at work equates to friendship these days? Does the fact that I know Laurie is revising her next book and Michael got a cool new toy really help my professional life? Is anyone actually communicating anymore? Does any of this have a point?

Back to Blogging

2008-04-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

I realized that I constantly stalk people online and read all of my friends' blog posts religiously... but I never write any of my own. So, here I am. I'm back. I have nothing better to do, right?

What's going on right now in SaraLand:
- Selling everything I own on Craig's List
- Freaking out about having enough money to move
- Moving to Las Vegas in less than 3 weeks
- Absolutely despising my (current) job
- Absolutely giddy about my (upcoming) job

That's it for now. I'll post often, and hopefully I'll have interesting things to say.