A Whirlwind of Activity

No, this isn't a posting about a hurricane or tornado (though "Irene" is apparently heading towards the east coast... be kind to my friends). There's change a-comin' and I want to take it in stride. The first happened last week: my supervisor resigned. She's moving onto other opportunities and I wish her the best. So until her spot is filled (unfortunately I cannot go for it - I lack the required degree), I and my fellow Youth Services staff of 2 must make sure everything is in order -- and trust me, there's a lot going on right now. Oh, if only I had that degree.. oh wait, that leads me into another upcoming change. I'll be starting school. Next week. For that degree.
This coming Monday I start a graduate program through Kent State University in Library Science. I'm gonna be a li-berry-an. Right now I'm the next best thing (Library Assistant) in the children's dept for my local library. I plan on focusing in that area in school as well, but I will not limit myself to only that. I'm looking forward to the technical side of libraries, and as of right now, the idea of the information architecture and "User Experience" intrigues me.
I thought I had more going on right now, but I guess not. I'm looking forward to a beach vacation next week (Irene needs to not ruin that either), starting school (excited and nervous), and overall new possibilities.

We have a winner!

Apparently this is the summer for me to win a few contests; namely raffle drawings. At the beginning of the summer I signed up for the summer reading club through the Upper Arlington Public Library. It was easy enough to sign up online, and submit book reviews for title's I've read this summer. They had weekly raffle drawings, and I won a $10 Giant Eagle gift card! Not too shabby. I'm not exactly foreign to the idea of pushing prizes for encouraging reading, as I do the same at my own job (a different library... shhh.. don't tell!). I did not know, however, what the prizes were or how often they would be handed out. When I saw I had a missed call from the UA library, my first instinct was to do a mental scan of the books I had out, wondering if I accidentally kept something way past due. But nope, it was to inform me of my prize.
Well, that was just my first. Another raffle I won is associated with the organization, Consider Biking. During the month of July I logged my bike rides, whether for exercise, errands, social outings, via Ridenet.net, and was automatically entered into a drawing because I had at least 3 logged entries for using my bike as my mode of transportation to run my errands. I didn't even know they were having a July contest! So now I'll have the opportunity to get a 30 minute massage from Massagebee Sports & Wellness Therapy.
So here's to continuing reading and biking, and a life of good surprises.

I am Triathlete

So, I had my first triathlon.
I finished(!!!)
I always feel the need to qualify the fact that it was a mini triathlon (shorter distances, even than a sprint), as if completing the smaller one makes it less of an accomplishment. Either way, I should be proud of myself for trying, and finishing, right? I could be in the same place as last summer.. the idea of competing, but sitting at home, not signing up. I know I am proud of myself on one level because I love to tell people I participated in a (mini) triathlon, showing them the photo I took with my phone, showing off my medal (that they give everyone [insert winking emoticon here]).
The day of the race I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted to; waking up at 3am and trying to go back to sleep only to wake up at 5a can do that. It didn't take me too long to get myself together, but I did not anticipate the pre-departure, bike mounting excitement. Apparently it's still dark at 5:30 in the morning. Most of you would say, "well, duh!" But I gotta tell you, I haven't seen 5am in a while. Anyway, I'm going to leave, taking all my gear and my bike, and I get to my car and realize I have to put together my bike rack on my car, and then mount it. It would have been easier if it were a newer rack with those handy dandy ratchet type fasteners, but no. Ties, ties, and more ties. In the dark. I mean, there were some parking lot lights, but it was not as well lit as I would have liked it to be. I think a part of my nervousness was just driving on the highway with my bike on the back of my car. I've driven around town with it, but never above 35mph. BUT I do have to say that driving on the highway at 5:30a on a Saturday is the PERFECT time to test it out.. as there was practically no traffic... so no worries that if the bike DID fall off, it would cause a crazy crash and damage other people's car.
But we made it, bike and all. We met up with my friend who did the race as well (her gazillionth tri). I finished in 1 hour 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Not too bad. I'll just have to beat that time next race.