So, I'm in a pleasantly up-beat mood at the moment, so thought that perhaps I would take a minute to blog, since I'm mostly a hermit and am terrible at talking to people who I don't see regularly. Which, right now, is like everyone I know except for like three friends. One of which may or may not be my sister. So.
I don't even remember the last time I wrote. I suppose I could maybe go back and check that, but whatever. I think it was about Jamestown? If not, holy crap. Jamestown. I'm going to be very honest, I think I might have made a mistake about the particular historical career I wanted, because archaeology is truly like nothing else I've ever done. I don't know. Is there any way I can be a curator and archaeologist? Because that would be tremendous. Oh, also the people I did it with are actually just spectacular human beings who I miss pretty much every day (COME BACK TO ME FAM!!)
ANYWAY. Back to present day, which is mid-November! In a week I will be seeing one of my favorite musical groups ever to grace this planet, Celtic Thunder! Irish-husband Emmet will definitely be there, so I'm stoked.
I've also obtained employment, in which I am "the adult" in the situation. Weird, right? I'm a part-time supervisor at a college library, and due to my casual mention of life-goals and some empty display cases I'm actually getting the opportunity to practice my exhibit-building skills! The subject matter is in science, which I'm less comfortable with, but now I know a ton more about migratory birds, have skimmed hundreds of science memes, and found out more fun science facts about dogs, roasted turkey, snow, and geese, than I ever expected to in my life.
That, and like I said, I'm supervising, which is a new and strange experience. Basically, I've come full-circle. When I first started this blog, I was working as a student library worker at Waynesburg, and now, here I am, supervising student library employees! Not quite what I had planned to do, but whilst I'm getting my museum studies certificate, it's a good place to be.
Oh, right. Museum studies certificate! I'm doing that. It's all online, one class at a time for now, through Harvard Extension School. I'm taking classes with professionals from the Smithsonian! AHHH! It's crazy and I'm learning so much. This semester it's been about digital media and marketing, a skill I've just started wetting my feet in as one of the administrators for my library's Facebook page. I've also created a low-quality-but-could-definitely-be-worse virtual tour of a room at Wheatland for one assignment, and have put together a full social media strategy-for my own exhibit, actually- for another.
Also, during the past several months I've spent many-a-weekend at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire! Elisia, my older sister, was a cast member this year (Sam the Scottish blacksmith!), and it was so fun and well-done. I'm 100% confident that I'm getting a season pass next year if Elisia is in it again. Shout-out specifically to Sam, the best of rabble rousers, to a particularly friendly Irishman who always made me smile, the very best master of revels anyone could ask for, and to an odd fellow from "Nortwegia," 42 of whose children I've birthed. The whole cast was amazing, though, and there were a few that caused some swooning. No one should look that natural on a horse, in freaking armor, jousting. What even. How dare they.
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| If you look closely, most of my babies are all in this picture somewhere. |
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| Sam MacFarlane, forging friendships throughout the shire. |
Okay, so that's what I've been doing for the most part, plus a super chill vacation down in Florida (except for a bastard blue heron) with my family. Now that autumn is nearly over and my students are all getting ready for break, it's been especially weird to not be doing the same. Being out of grad school has been both a relief and a cause for unrest in my brain. I love not having all of that pressure, and I'm so happy that I graduated, but I'm so used to having a million things to do and feeling like the walls are closing in that I'm in a constant state of "I know I'm missing something." That, and after six years of school, I'm living in my parent's house again, probably until I get my certificate and find a full-time museum job, which on one hand is nice and on the other is driving me completely insane.
It should be a good thing, not being stressed out all of the time, and I'm hoping my brain will stop being all first-world-problems about it, but I have had some problems adjusting. I am and probably always will be a bit of a hermit, but at least I'm a hermit who's usually in a decent mood. That has been the case less often, unfortunately; I mean, I'm starting to get more comfortable with my current situation, but especially at first, I'd be super irritable and grumpy, or just generally down, really, with no good present reason (other than a general sense of low-key existential dread). Who knew that you could get such bad withdrawal from a part of your life where you routinely felt like stress was slowly killing you?
Don't get me wrong, I am fully aware that my life is also full of some really cool things, like what I was talking about earlier; I am aware that I'm very blessed. It's just that knowing that doesn't always make me feel less blah. Filling my days with work, hopefully volunteering soon, and finding projects to work on (like embroidery, crochet, watching copious amounts of history documentaries, writing, and well, blogging) has definitely helped. Plus, been trying to eat better, (which is also often a struggle when living with five other people).
So now that I've vented a bit, let me tell you about my display, and specifically about my experience with the goose, because it's not every day I can just say that I can start a story off that way. So, my display was on the effects that climate change has on migratory birds (I called it "Fowl play" because I come from a family of giant dorks). I honestly thought this project was a low-key thing that didn't matter that much. That was, until my boss suggested I contact a local science museum to borrow some of their bird specimens, one of which we were apparently going to hang from the ceiling, and that the science museum was also looking for a bit of publicity via this display. Once I realized that it was not just a couple of cards of information and printed out photos, I began furiously researching and planning this thing, and met with a person from the museum who showed us their collection.
I actually had such a cool experience, because they were talking to me like I was their own little curator and showing me other unrelated collections in hopes I'd keep doing exhibits in the future, and it made me so happy. There was a lot of internal screaming going on. We settled on a few smaller species to go in the cases, and were surprised to find an in-flight Canada goose with a 3-foot wingspan, which we claimed, because why not. After running into a few delays, and already setting up the little birds, I was finally able to go pick this thing up. It ended up being heavier and bigger than I remembered, and oh, it didn't have a mount or anything, and I was provided with zero instructions on how to deal with that and keep it intact, so how to string it up was anyone's guess. It filled my car's entire trunk, and pro tip, large taxidermy geese are way creepier and ickier to touch than cute tiny taxidermy songbirds- though at least that one didn't come with a warning about potential arsenic poisoning.
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| Come at me bro |
Cut to me awkwardly carrying this thing across the parking lot, avoiding all of the confused stares. Cut again to me taking basically my entire shift trying to design and craft a harness for this thing that wouldn't damage it, because everything online said to stab a freaking wire through it's back, which I definitely could not do. Keep in mind I have definitely never created a harness for anything before, and I absolutely didn't have any idea how to create an even weight distributing harness for a freaking goose. One of the most fun parts of all of that was that I was alone in the office for most of this experience, and because I sometimes feel the need to speak even when people can't hear me, I ended up talking to the bird, mostly about how frustrating this all was. I gave it a variety of goose-themed nicknames. My favorites were "Goostave," "Goosy-mcgooserton," "Sir Goosy" and "G-dog." Anyway, I finally figured it out, and the next day we hung it up. Astoundingly, it even now remains suspended above studious undergraduates. It was amazingly satisfying to have everything come together- including a place to make origami birds that some students have used for less appropriate origami- and even more enjoyable to watch the faces of startled and concerned students as they noticed it for the first time.
Anyway, that was a lot. Other than that, I've been watching way too many Dan and Phil videos on Youtube and overplaying my CD of "For Your Entertainment" by Adam Lambert. It's been a mix of good, bad, and peculiar, at this point, but all seems to be going comparatively well. Have some random videos that please me as of late:
My precious babies. Must be protected at any cost.
I highly recommend you just watch this whole series. The rest of life is unimportant.
Kay, that's all. LOVEYOUOKAYBYE.
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