Well, I feel really lame because this makes 19 days I blogged in April. That's of a possible 30. Yikes. Talk about massive failure.

I do feel guilty, but in my defense April turned out nothing like I expected it to. It was craziness. Between studying for and taking the GRE, finishing the rest of my grad school application and then getting my wonderful promotion at the library and training for that, my Internet time has been way down.

Even so, my BEDA buddies were wonderful as always. They were very supportive and very helpful as I went through all that. I am still behind on reading your blogs ladies, but like Becky said, that is what May is for!

My other plan in May, which should be a much calmer month than April was, is to hit all the BEDA topics I missed in April. Well not all, but most. So you'll be hearing from me again soon.

BEDA 3.0 will see Autumn blogging much more faithfully.

I feel like I already did Things I Love this week while covering my favorites yesterday. So even though I am too lazy to change the title, I am going to go more with a Things I'm Thinking Thursday. Please don't expect there to be order or logic in residence for the rest of this post.

It's crazy stormy here in Omaha tonight. The good stuff is out to play. The good stuff being the thunder and the lightning. I love it. I mostly love it sitting protected under a porch awning where I can just watch and listen. And I do love the rain. Not all the consequences of the rain mind you, but the rain itself I love.

My favorite thing about rain, is when you're driving in it at night. There is something about the reflection of the stoplights in the water that I have always found so beautiful. I don't know why. But I love it. Though I did have a hell of a time trying to find a decent picture of what I mean.

Other thoughts:

• I don't understand how shoes end up in the middle of the road or on the median. Hats and gloves I can kinda sorta picture, but shoes? H-how? Wh-why? It makes no sense to me.
• When I see people driving really fast or really stupidly in extremely bad weather, part of me hopes they crash. Not into me of course, but into something. Just to prove their idiocy to themselves.
• I watch a lot of movies. I love movies, but sometimes it feels more like I am working my way down a checklist than actually watching them for the movies themselves. I feel that way with books too. There are so many I want to read, or have from the library, that I feel like I have to just get through them so I can get them all done. I don't always feel like that, but sometimes.
• Sometimes I wonder if my OCD/AR tendencies will become debilitating one day. I get pickier and pickier about certain minutiae as I get older. There are so many little things that drive me crazy. So many things where I can't stand it if they aren't in the order I think they should be in. My dad will deliberately put crumbs on the table when we go out to eat because he knows I can't leave them there. He thinks it's hilarious, and I put the crumbs back on the plate every single time.
• That's the first time I have ever had to spell minutiae before, and I got it right first try. To me, that's exciting.
  
• I love breakfast food, but not for breakfast. It's much too early in the day for all that heavy stuff. I love waffles and eggs and bacon, but for dinner. That is why restaurants that serve breakfast food all day are awesome.
• I love knowing the answers to questions. One of the things that draws me to being a librarian is that when someone asks me a question, nothing is more thrilling than knowing the right answer. Or being able to show them how to find the right answer. It's kind of show off-y I guess, but there you go.
• When other people chew gum, it makes me want to vomit. Each and every time. At least close your mouth. PLEASE!
• Don't spread this around, but there are musicals out there that I do not like. And up until recently, I hated My Fair Lady. But it's grown on me.
• Also, I hate Sleepless in Seattle and it feels like I am the only female in existence who feels that way.
  
• I'm very vain about my name. I love all three of them. But I am so used to being called everything but Autumn, that I will answer to anything that starts with an 'A' and any season. I'm just resigned to it.
  

And I think that's enough thoughts for today. My goodness, I had way more thoughts rumbling through my head than I thought. A lot of them were negative too, which is dumb because I am in a good mood right now. Oh well. Good night.

I am really not good at picking favorites. As far as I can remember (which isn't all that far back) I never have been. I don't have a favorite movie, actor, musical, food, book, author or anything like that. I could make a list of things I love for each category. But ask me to narrow it down and I am stumped.

I can maintain temporary favorites, like what is my current favorite musical (Next to Normal), but never ask me my favorite musical of all time. Who knows? Too many to choose from. I prefer to spread my love around, not focus it in on one thing. But here is a stream of consciousness list of my recent favorite things.

My favorite things of the last five minutes: knowing I am finally blogging again (however belatedly in the month), milk and a chocolate chip muffin at midnight, downloading Glee Madonna music, getting comfortable in my pajamas.

My favorite things of the day: take away from Famous Dave's, catching up on Glee and Project Runway, reading Maureen Johnson, Google chatting with BEDA buddies, finding a new Broadway-related album I know I'll want that comes out next week, knowing the answers to patron's questions

My favorite things of the week: finally getting my GRE scores, playing with the puppy, margaritas with one of my favorite Chili heads, starting my new job as a clerk, buying tickets to see Beauty and the Beast this summer with my dad, buying new jeans, finding a great deal on one of the seasons of Veronica Mars, catching a glimpse of Piz from Veronica Mars in Up in the Air.

My favorite things of 2010 thus far: Los Angeles/Camp Pendleton vacation and spending time with my amazing and loving grandparents, coming to a firm decision on what I want to be when I grow up, watching things come together for me after that decision, reconnecting with old friends in Omaha, winter ending and no more snow coming down, ooh and the amazing apple glazed pork tenderloin I had at Claim Jumper.

My future favorites looking forward: getting into grad school, starting grad school, getting my pre-ordered copies of Mockingjay, The Clockwork Angel and Linger this summer, moving out of my parents house and once again into my own space, seeing my EEB again, seeing old college friends, going to sleep after I write this.

OK, I've got to make this fairly quick. Not a ton going on this week, I've been a bit busy. But here are the highlights:

Yesterday I finished reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. YA of course, but not the typical kind of YA fare I indulge in. Usually, even though I read a lot about teenagers, I avoid books that actually take place solely in a high school environment. At least not unless there is some sort of fantastical twist involved.

This book is about a girl plucked straight from a Mean Girls-style pack who dies, and then relives her last day seven times. So Mean Girls meets Groundhog Day. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I ended up really liking it. I would definitely recommend it. It makes you think, and it was more touching than I thought it would be. I couldn't put it down really.

I managed to avoid spending any money on music this week, yay! I have been listening to the My Fair Lady Broadway soundtrack I bought last week a lot. It blows my mind that Julie Andrews was only 20 when she recorded it. Her voice was already so mature and amazing even then.

I've also been listening to a lot of Lucy Schwartz this week. She is a Portuguese singer I discovered a month or so ago. I heard this song, "Turn Back Around", while watching some stupid movie. But though the movie was dumb, the song stuck with me. So I looked it up and found her. I started to listen to some of her other stuff and I really like her. So that's what's been on my iPod this week, with a little Glee thrown in.

Let's see, what else. I finally saw An Education this week. It was one I was looking forward to seeing, but by the time I got to it I couldn't remember why I'd wanted to see it. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But I actually quite enjoyed it. It was interesting, and while it wasn't fast-paced by any means, it didn't drag like it could easily have done.

I've decided after seeing her in this and some other film I can't remember right now, that I like Carey Mulligan. She's one to watch I think. The rest of the cast was quite good as well. Including Rosamund Pike, who played Jane in the most recent version of Pride and Prejudice (wherein Carey played Kitty).

And that's about it. Here's to a new week of beautiful music and wonderful books.

I was going to write this Thursday night when I got home from work, but I was NOT in the best of moods after leaving Job #2, and I was not in the right mind frame to focus on things I love. So I waited to write it. I am in a much better mood now. But I won't be after going to Job #2 again tonight, so now is the time.

I spent this week downtown at the main branch of the library, training with the circulation manager for my new position as a clerk. I start back at my own branch Tuesday. Training was a lot of fun, and I think this new role will suit me very well.

I bitch and moan about people a lot, about how stupid and self-entitled they can be. And that is still true, anyone who waits tables or works customer service will tell you that. But I still enjoy helping people and I am still good at it. People on a case-by-case basis can still be pretty wonderful. I am really looking forward to all the customer interaction I will have as a clerk. Shocking isn't it?

In addition to LOVING just training and anticipating my new role, I am in LOVE with this new feeling of contentment and home that I have. I just finally feel like I've found where I fit in. Each job has its downsides, but every shift I have at the library is overall a good one. I enjoy what I am doing and who I am working with it. I am reaching the point where I can't imagine ever doing anything else. And I can't believe I finally found that.

Even with journalism, I mostly enjoyed what I was doing, and I loved who I was working with, but I never had that feeling of home. That sense of truly belonging there and knowing this is where I could fully make use of my unique talents. Libraries give me that. And I am just so happy to finally have that.

So that is mostly what I loved this week. That and making fun plans. I am going to go see Legally Blonde (the musical) next weekend with a couple of wonderful girlfriends. And I have plans to enjoy dinner and margaritas Monday night with a couple of other wonderful girlfriends. I've set a goal to get a place of my own here in Omaha by the end of the summer, and life is good. (At least as long as I don't think about Job #2).

First things first, I can't stop gushing about the CD I bought this week. A collection of 12 songs I've been listening to over and over again. I am a huge fan of Ella Fitzgerald. I love her voice and her music. Purely by accident, while I was searching for something else , I found an album of hers called Ella Sings Broadway.

It's perfect because it combines my love of Ella with my obsession for all things Broadway. The whole album is great, but some standouts are "Whatever Lola Wants" from Damn Yankees and "Almost Like Being in Love" from Brigadoon. Amazing. Can you tell how enamored I am? It's not too obvious is it? I could gush more. It's just so great. I'm listening to it again now.

That purchase led to another purchase. She does two songs from My Fair Lady: "I Could Have Danced All Night" and "Show Me". I then realized I don't own a cast album of that show, so I bought the original Broadway album starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. This has never been my favorite show, but I can't deny that there is some great Lerner and Loewe music in it. In fact I requested the Audrey Hepburn DVD from the library to watch it again and give it another chance. It's been long enough and my tastes have evolved enough that I might like it now.

This is one of the pitfalls of mp3s and iTunes/Amazon. I am way too impulsive about buying this stuff and those sites make it way too easy to be. Oh well. I can't regret either purchase.

Glee is back! I haven't actually been able to watch the newest episode yet. I sat down to watch it on Hulu this afternoon, but I decided I wanted to watch the previous episode, "Sectionals" again before I did so. Then I ran out of time because I have to go to work shortly. But I enjoyed seeing that last episode again. It was a great one. And I can't believe it, but I got a little emotional at the end with Matthew Morrison's character tearing down the hallway and the inevitable events that followed. I am such a nerd!

Now that the GRE is done I have gotten back in the swing of pleasure reading again. I just finished Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore. It was a shorter read, and I was left with very mixed feelings when it was over. On the one hand, I very much liked the premise. But I thought the author did so much less with it than she could have. The relationship between the two main characters felt too rushed and under-explored. And the ending left what I felt were too many unanswered questions, with no indication of a sequel. I don't know, mixed feelings like I said. Sti, you read it first. What were your thoughts?

Now I am reading When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead, which is even shorter than that other book, so it shouldn't take me long. It won the 2010 Newbery Award, and I just finished a project involving Newbery winners at the library, so it caught my attention. It's interesting so far. We'll see how it goes.

Have a very happy week. Hopefully mine will be cheaper and less stressful than this past one. I start my clerk training Tuesday. Woot!

Collections ... hmmm.

Well, there are the obvious ones, which are my big shopping weaknesses: books and DVDs. I use the library like crazy for both, and I have Netflix, but I LOVE owning books and movies. I will read a book, love it, then buy it. So I might not have read the copy sitting on my shelves, but I pick them up randomly, and I know I will read them again. The point is that they struck me enough to be considered worthy of belonging to my collection.

I don't have one big collection I've maintained my whole life. I used to collect Victorian-style greetings cards. I don't know what happened to them though. But that was mostly because my grandmother collected them and sent them to me all the time.

I do collect Playbills, as any Broadway geek worth his or her salt does. I keep all my ticket stubs and programs anyway, but there is something special about an official Playbill. I have a handful now, but someday I will have MANY more.

I do like to collect decks of cards. Sometimes when I travel, (like my most awesome Wacky Woolies (Sheep) deck from Dublin, picture <--- on a deck of cards) and sometimes when I just think they're cool (like Scooby Doo and The Little Mermaid). When I was a kid I would play with them like they were people. Four families, Kings and Queens were the parents, odds were boys and evens were girls. I had a whole system and it was a lot of fun. I was an odd kid.

Everyone seems to collect something when traveling. I've actually put some thought into what I should collect. Some people collect mugs, thimbles, spoons, kitschy stuff like that. I wanted to be a bit different, but I was stumped. A couple of years ago, I had the idea to keep the front pages of the local papers of each town I visited, with the date of my visit on it. I still think it's a neat idea, but I never got organized. I have a pile of papers sitting in storage, but I haven't gotten any recently.

P.S. At the moment I am also collecting unread blog posts. I remember the time in my life when I had about a dozen unread items in my Google Reader at any given time. Often zero. It was a nice, simple time. But now I have 474 unread items. It just keeps getting bigger. I swear when I checked yesterday it was around 400. STOP BLOGGING! I need to get caught up.

So I am doing my catching up a bit out of order, but it's my blog so I can do whatever I want right? This was the last of my crazy Thursdays. I worked 14.5 hours today! 8 at the library and then 6.5 at Job #2. Oy vey.

So for the past three weeks I have been spending my Thursdays in downtown Omaha at the main library branch. In addition to being a library branch, it houses all the other departments like acquisitions, community services and technical services.

I've been picking up extra hours in tech services because (1) extra hours are good and (2) I've been quite curious about the behind-the-scenes library stuff. It has been a nice change of pace, though my body has not been the biggest fan of hunching over a desk for 8 hours stickering paperbacks.

One perk is that I can listen to my iPod while I do that. And actually, the work is mindless enough that I listened to an audio book over the course of a few shifts. I listened to Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, to bone up for reading the sequel, Scarlett Fever, that recently came out. I quite enjoyed listening to that, and I think I like the book itself better the second time.

So that is the first thing I loved this week. Also ...

• HAVING THE WEIGHT OF THE GRE OFF MY SHOULDERS. Of course. Although I still won't know my analytical writing score for a week or two. Ugh.
  
• Learning I can study! - I may not be especially efficient at it, but I know my GRE scores were better for the studying I did attempt to do. And the book I used as a study guide was a really good one: The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE. I ignored some of it, but what I did pay attention was a great help. Let's see if I can keep up this studying thing once I get into school.
• Finding my ideal study music - I think this is a hard task, but I found the perfect music for what I need. Because if there are words in the music, I get distracted by the lyrics and don't get anything done. Sometimes I can get away with random bands or singers, but musicals are a big no no. But Miles Davis is absolute studying bliss. I was already a fan, that man and his trumpet are quite amazing. But the lack of singing helps me focus, but the jazz he plays is upbeat enough to keep me energized. Perfection. (I've really been discovering how much I love jazz the past year or two).
• BBQ pulled pork - Random, but so good! I took the GRE Tuesday morning and had to go straight to work for seven hours. Not great fun. I got off at 8 and I was starving. I was not about to go home and scrounge, so I ordered take away from Famous Dave's. I hadn't had it in forever and it was amazing. Yum - my.

And, that's it for now. I was a total social recluse during my GRE prep time, so I am hoping this coming week will bring more of a life.

Well, I survived. I spent three and a half hours in a testing center this morning fighting to focus and not vomit. It was quite interesting. I have never been so nervous over something before that I thought I would throw up. I didn't think I was that nervous, but apparently my stomach did.

Do you want to hear what kinda sorta turned out to be the hardest part? Before I took the test I had to sign a confidentiality thing where I had to write out a paragraph/pledge IN CURSIVE. I felt like an idiot because I haven't had to write in cursive since elementary school, and I didn't remember how. I can sign my name, and that's it. I really struggled to get that paragraph written, and it looked awful. Not like my usual careful printing. I was so embarrassed to hand that paper back to the test proctor.

Not that it was cake after that, but still. Yikes. But I got through the GRE and now I can stop obsessing over it and move on to the rest of the application. And then on to school. OK, there is still plenty to obsess over. But more important things than some standardized test.

More to come as I get caught up with BEDA. I have to take a look at our calendar and see what I missed.