Those Penguins Don't Look Like Secret Agents . . .

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your . . . eyes?

Well, another week of multiple emotions.  So I shall start at the beginning, which (I am told) is a very good place to start.  (On that note, is it wrong that every nun I see on campus makes me want to start singing 'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria'? Obviously, I should never be Catholic).

First, let me state for those of you who didn't see it on Facebook, that my beautiful Starbuck presented me with a furry, dead present when I came back from class last Thursday night.  I am unsure whether the poison or the cat was the mouse's undoing; all I know is that Starbuck acted like it was her new toy. I kept telling Bucky what a good girl she was, but then she began to, literally, throw the mouse carcass around the room.  So her new toy caught a ride on the garbage chute express.  I don't think she's forgiven me yet . . .

Last Friday I found out that my boss scheduled me to work this week for 38 hours! It was a bit of a shock to the system for my first week on the actual schedule.  Needless to say, I did NOT want this to be a regular thing.  So, I spent a good deal of Saturday worrying about how to tell them there was almost no way I could manage a full time job while being a full time student.  There were many other little annoyances on Saturday that added up to just an overall bad day.  Luckily, I got to talk to both my parents and my non-biological sister, Aimee, who all managed to make my day a bit brighter.  Aimee suggested that I just go into Central Park, read and walk around.  It sounded like a really good idea.

So, Sunday morning found me on the train platform in South Orange waiting for the NYC-bound train.  I got into New York around 11:00 and caught the subway to Central Park.  There was some sort of run going on that was big enough to get 5th Avenue from the Met to 52nd Street completely blocked off to traffic.  I meant to find out what it was, but never did.  I headed into the park, which was full of people enjoying the cloudy and cool day.  I decided not to just read, so I made for the Central Park Zoo since I had never been there in my many NYC trips.  Well, the Zoo is not the easiest place to find, so I wandered aimlessly for a while.  During my wandering, I passed by a homeless man who was trying to sell postcards to tourists.  Like any New Yorker, I kept my eyes forward and just continued walking, ignoring his calls of 'Hey Miss! Postcard?'  Just after I passed by him, I heard him say 'Oh, you look so mean!  Why you gotta look so mean?'  It actually made me laugh out loud (once I was safely out of his sight). 

I finally found the zoo and went in.  The zoo is actually quite beautiful and a very neat place.  I arrived just in time to watch the keepers feeding the seals, so I watched that for a while.  I then made my way into the Tropical Zone building, where the snakes, tropic birds and bats are kept.  The bat exhibit was, perhaps, my favorite thing at the zoo.  They trick the bats into thinking that it's night, so they are quite active during business hours.  Once the zoo is closed, the lights in the enclosure come on and the bats go to sleep!  During the rest of my visit, I saw the polar bears, the lemurs, the (perhaps dead) harbor seal, and the penguins.  Anyone familiar with the Nickelodeon show "The Penguins of Madagascar" would be sorely disappointed to find out that none of the penguins seemed to be plotting anything.  Boo for false advertising!  :D

The rest of the after I spent walking almost the entire length and width of Central Park.  I also foolishly decided not to take the subway back to Penn Station and walked from 81st and Central Park West back to 34th and 7th.  My feet hated me by the time I got back on the train to South Orange!

Other than that, my week has been pretty relaxed.  Work has been crazy since we've been getting ready for University Weekend which starts tomorrow. I found out that this was the reason for the almost full-time status this week.  Next week will be much more manageable, thank goodness!  Classes are classes, and I have my first take home exam due next Tuesday.  I'm planning on tackling that little gem on Sunday.  I also FINALLY managed to get the last of my textbooks, so now I'm working on catching up on the required reading.  Thank goodness I'm a good reader or I think grad school would be much harder.

Before I close, I want to personally thank those of you who have sent me messages this last week (both e-mail and snail-mail).  It really brightens my day to get letters of support and news from the home front.  Keep sending the messages, cause it really does make my day when I see a letter in the mailbox!  I'll try to respond to each one as time allows.

Until next week, my darlings!

XOXO,
K

The noble lioness guards her victim. 

Working 9 to 5

Well Hellooooooo!

I'm am using some of the free time I have on my day off to write an update for all of you.  The last time I wrote, I had just found out I finally had a job.  Well, now I have been working there a week and, let me tell you, it is wonderfully rewarding to be a busy little bee once again.

I started work last Thursday at 11 a.m. and was immediately thrown into the thick of things.  I didn't have an employee ID number, nor had I done any of the paperwork, but they started me any way!  Basically, my job has me bouncing between working at the textbook desk and the cash register.  Work text means that I help patrons fill out special order forms, shelve books that have come in, shelve books that are special orders that need to be picked up, and assure patrons that we will call them when their books are in.  The cash register is more methodical and less hectic, but you're in charge of money, which always has a certain stress level attached.  But both tasks are great and keep me running all day.  I go in, work work work, and then, when I look at the clock, it's time for lunch/go home! 

Classes are still going well.  I have a presentation to give in my registration class tonight over a topic that has popped up on the listserv for registrars of the American Association of Museums.  I'm taking in two, just in case the other presenter today took mine.  I finally buckled and ordered the registration books from Amazon and I'm just waiting for them to arrive.  Luckily, my buddy Stephanie got them first, so I borrowed hers to at least start catching up.  I've also started writing a paper for my History and Theory class on a particular museum.  Thank goodness I have a pretty good connection at a certain Kansas museum, so guess which one my paper's about? :D

That about catches you all up for this week.  I hope things don't get too boring now that I have a job and a regular schedule.  I'll try and do something random/fun every week just to keep you all hooked!

XOXO,
k

Check out the cool plate my parents sent me! It says "Eat, Drink, and Be Spooky"

Climbing a Mountain (Literally and Metaphorically)

Buon giorno, readers!

This had been a very stressful, yet rewarding, week for me.  Let me start with the mountain climbing adventure that spoke of in my last post.

Last Friday (besides being my Mom's birthday), was the day I climbed to the top of Mount Tammany.  Mount Tammany is located in the Delaware Water Gap National Park, which straddles the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  The mountain is located on the New Jersey side of the river and is about an hour from my apartment.  I got up early and packed my rucksack with popcorn, water and a light jacket.  I drove up to the park and left my car in the lot at the foot of the Red Dot Trail, which shall from here on out be referred to as the Trail of Death.  The trail is about a mile long and it climbs the 1,526 feet to the top really quickly.  This means that almost all of the trail is vertical and covered with rocks.  This required me to basically boulder (climbing over rocks to you non-climbers) my way up the trail.  I ended up not needing my jacket, since I was working up a sweat climbing.  The entire way up, all I could think about was 'I'm going to have to come back down!' which was not comforting.

Finally, after about an hour, I reached the summit.  This was my view

The mountain that you see is on the Pennsylvania side.  I sat down on a rock to take in the view and gather my strength (and eat some popcorn).  I ended up having to call my Dad to have him look up online whether or not there was an easier way down the mountain.  Thank goodness there was, so I ended up going down the Blue Trail, which took longer but was not as vertical :)  My reward for making the three hour trek was eating at Pizza Hut on my way home.

Saturday, I had my first Object Care class.  This is more of a field trip class, and since we go to different places and it takes all day, we don't meet every week.  For our starter class, we met at the Monclair Historical Society where our teacher works.  In the afternoon, we had the second part of the class at Glenmont, which was Thomas Edison's home and is now a part of the National Park Service site in West Orange.  I think the class will be a lot of fun, especially because we will get to go several of the big museums in NYC and go behind the scenes.

Now, you may be wondering "Katie, why did you say your week was stressful?  Sounds pretty fun to me."  Well, this has been the week of trying to get a job.  I had an interview at Sears in Livingston (about a half-hour away) and at the nearby Best Buy.  Both places offered me a job, but I was reluctant to accept since I was still holding out hope for a job at the SHU bookstore.  I had been calling my contact there (and probably bugging the hell out of her) since my interview, but hadn't gotten any word.  So, yesterday (Tuesday) I had resigned myself to the fact that I would probably have to take one of the off-campus jobs, even though they wouldn't be as understanding about my class schedule.  Then, today, a miracle!  I got a call from the bookstore and they want me to start tomorrow! So I'm happy and now, almost 100% stress-free!  Tonight, I shall celebrate with pizza!

So, the moral of the story is, the trail up may be hard and arduous, but once you get to the top, the view is spectacular!

XOXO,
K

His Mother was a Mutter

Hello all!

Well, the first week of classes is under my belt and there have been hardly any headaches! As soon as the rest of the textbooks come in, I'll be all set.  In case you're wondering, I'm taking History/Theory of Museums, Museum Registration I, and Object Care.  I haven't had Object Care yet, because that's a Saturday field trip class that doesn't meet all the time.  My other two classes are going to be very interesting, but there is a TON of reading to do.  Ah, the pleasures of Grad school.

So, last Friday, after much stress and doubt, I FINALLY got a parking space behind my building.  It's not as close as it could be, but it's mine and it's guaranteed to be there when I come home, which is all I care about.  Because of this, I have been doing a lot more exploring outside of the immediate area.

With my parking spot affirmed, I set out on Saturday morning for Philadelphia, PA.  My destination was the Mutter Museum, which is part of the College of Physicians in Philly.  It's basically a museum of anatomical oddities, which is my idea of awesome!  It's pretty old and the exhibit cases really don't go together, but if skulls and brains are involved, count me in.  I'm going to say the coolest thing I saw there was a portion of the brain of Charles J. Guiteau, who assassinated Garfield.  Why would I care about Guiteau, you ask?  Because he's the coolest character in Sondheim's 'Assassins', that's why.

After exploring the Mutter for about an hour, I drove to the Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site, which is also in Philadelphia.  Poe wrote some of his most notable works ('Fall of the House of Usher' and 'The Pit and the Pendulum') while living at this house.  It was interesting to see, but I'm glad there was no admission fee because there wasn't much but empty rooms to see.  Driving in Philadelphia is pretty stressful and there are very few free places to park, so I decided to not explore further and went home. 

Still no word on any job. I did have an interview with the university bookstore, but I don't believe it will lead to anything. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful to have gotten as much as an interview.  So, it's back to filling out tons of applications during my downtime, of which I have WAY too much.  When the Phineas and Ferb episodes start repeating, you know you need to go take a walk.

Tomorrow, I plan on going for a hike up Mount Tammany, which is located in the Delaware Water Gap National Park.   My mom has already told me not to talk to strangers, so I'll try not to.  :D  I'll write more on that, as well as my Object Care class, next week.

Have a pleasant week, my friends!

XOXO,
K

Kate Keckeisen is Alive and Well and Living in New Jersey

Hello to all my friends back home (and anyone else who may be reading this)!

First, let me say that I am almost totally settled in here in Newark, New Jersey.  The whole parking situation is still a headache (more on that in a bit), but school has started and a job may be on the horizon.  A job would be great because, besides needing a nice steady inflow of cash, I am getting cabin fever sitting in my apartment all day watching television.  Not so much fun after almost two weeks.

For those of you who haven't been caught up by my parents, Dad and I arrived in NJ after three days of driving from Topeka with a packed U-Haul trailer and my car.  The people at the apartment complex ended up making a computer mistake that, instead of putting me in a one bedroom on the fourth floor, installed me in a second floor, two bedroom apartment.  The manager, to make amends, ended up giving me that apartment for less than a studio! So now I have more space than I know what to do with, which is nice.  My cat, Starbuck, has her own room now! 

The parking situation is perfectly medieval.  There is a huge parking lot behind the apartment buildings, but it's privately owned.  So The Woman With the Book comes the first three working days of the month to collect the rent and give out new stickers.  New rentals are only handled on the third working day.  So, for the past two weeks, I've had to park on the street.  Since there isn't much space out there to begin with, I've become a Frank Costanza i.e. I will not drive anywhere if I won't get back before people arrive home from work.

I have only had one class so far this week, but it doesn't seem like I won't be able to handle it.  I'm taking History and Theory of Museums, Museum Registration I, and Object Care.  Object Care turns out to be a class that relies almost completely on field trips taken about twice a month.  So far, we're going to the MoMA, the Met, and the Museum of Natural History in New York.  Plus, we'll visit some museums in the surrounding area in New Jersey.

I have also already gone into NYC twice since I've been here.  I would go more often, but the train station is a mile away and I would drive, but I don't want to lose my good spot on the street.  I saw 'Next to Normal', which is an amazing Tony Award-winning musical.  But, since I'm watching the pennies, I haven't been to see anything else.  Plus, right now on Broadway, there isn't much worth seeing.

Well, that catches everyone up for the moment.  I will try to write at least once a week to give all the updates.  If I don't write for a while, don't assume I'm dead.  I'm sure it's only the mob holding me hostage :D

XOXO,
K