2008: Year in Review

This morning on NPR several commentators bid "good riddance" to 2008, a very bad year for financial markets (and political corruption, and natural disasters . . .). Thinking back on my personal experiences this year, I bid a much fonder farewell to 2008. It was a good year in the Bowles-Terry household.

Mike and I had a lot of fun following the presidential campaign. It consumed much of our free time and conversation all year long. Political drama is really some of the best entertainment available. And, as most of you know, we were thrilled with the way the campaign came out in the end and are hoping for good things in the year to come.

We took several short road trips in 2008: Carthage, Nauvoo, Chicago, (and Chicago and Chicago again), and Indianapolis. We had a wonderful visit from the Terrys in May and a fun-filled visit from my Mom and Dad in October. We spent time in Cache Valley during the summer and we're going to be there again in just a couple of weeks.

Mike has been very successful in his position at the bank, and my career as a librarian is getting ready to take off. I attended and presented at two different conferences in 2008, had a job interview and a job offer (that I didn't take), and will graduate in four months!

Our church activities have kept us busy over the past year. I lead the children's music program and love it. I'm also the pianist for the church choir and for our regular Sunday meetings. I love teaching music to the children -- I learn so much from them! Mike does a bit of everything in our congregation: he makes a lot of visits to people who need assistance, teaches in our Sunday meetings, and generally helps out wherever necessary.

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Mike's former Logan roommate, Karl, in Lafayette, Indiana where Karl is working on a PhD at Purdue. We had a fabulous time catching up with him and sharing an excellent meal.

Digging delicious cornbread/sage stuffing out of the turkey's body cavity. Yum!Karl & Mike coming up with a plan of attack for the carvin' of the bird.

We feel very blessed to have good friends in our church congregation; the George family invited us over for Christmas this year and we had a really wonderful time. We had a delicious turkey dinner, played games, and had a huge show-and-tell session of gifts received by G (6), M (4), A (2), and E (9 months). Actually, E didn't show off her toys. She got a bit overexcited and napped for much of the afternoon while we were there. :)

We wish the very best to all of our friends and family in 2009!

In Memoriam: Montague (Monty) Brough Terry

Unfortunately, I didn't get to know Monty well. We only met a few times, but I'll never forget the first time I met him. Mike and I went to Albuquerque for a visit with the Terry family and I was sort of nervous -- we'd only been dating a couple of months and it would be my first time meeting many Terry family members. Monty made me feel so welcome -- I sat down on the couch and almost immediately found 90 pounds of beagle on my lap. Unexpected, yes, but also very endearing. He was a very sweet dog. -- Melissa

Melissa's memory of Monty points to what I'll always remember most about him - his unconditional love. I'll always remember how excited he was to see me, whether it was first thing in the morning or after I had been away from home for a semester at Utah State. He would wag his tail so hard that his whole body would shake. Or if it had only been a little while since he'd seen me, if I walked into the room after being in another room for a little while, Monty would start to wag his tail. If he was laying on the floor, I'd hear the "thump, thump" of his wagging tail hitting the floor.

The most fun that Monty and I had together was on our walks. When I would put on my tennis shoes, he knew it was time to take a walk, and he would get so excited! He'd run and jump, and it was kind of hard to settle him down enough to get his leash attached to his collar. But after the pre-walk drama, we were off to sniff the neighborhood together. Some walks lasted longer than others. If something happened that Monty didn't like - if a strong wind blew in the wrong direction or if Monty spotted a hot-air balloon overhead - he'd turn around, hunker down, and drag me back to the house.

Monty, we love you and we will miss you. -- Mike

For more remembrances of Monty, see Bob & Emily's blog and Rachel & Jake's blog.

Happy Holidays!

Melissa and Mike in Chicago in August 2008

We wish all of our friends and family a very merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a healthy and productive new year. We're grateful for your friendship and love.

The Wild, Wild West of Illinois Politics

Rod Blagojevich

Our esteemed governor, Rod Blagojevich (pronounced bluh-GOY-uh-vich) has apparently been trying to sell Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. Great. This is just the latest incident in Illinois's very sordid political history. My hope is that this doesn't hurt President-elect Obama too badly -- he's not implicated in the mess, but of course Fox News has jumped into the Obama angle of the story with both feet. Since I didn't grow up in Illinois and didn't take Illinois history, I need a little insight into when and why things went so wrong. Somewhere between Abraham Lincoln and George Ryan, ethics and morality completely excused themselves from politics in this state.

Another movie post

A friend and I went to see Twilight yesterday. Yes, I read all four books. No, I am not 15 or a children's librarian or a YA librarian. No, I didn't read them just because the author is Mormon and so am I. Yes, I'm a little bit embarrassed at how much I liked the series. Why? Because it's about teenage vampires and it's a pretty sappy romance and I was an English major and should have higher standards for the stuff that I read.

Now that the Q&A is out of the way, here are my thoughts about the movie, Twilight:

• It is lesser than the book.
• It could be much worse.
• The movie includes some cheesy dialogue, bad special effects, and not particularly great acting. But it's not all bad.
  
• The movie (and the book) totally capture the despair and wonder of teenage love.
• The movie very successfully evokes the spirit of the book.
• The movie captures just what it's like to be in high school.
  

So, I enjoyed the movie. Mike was totally uninterested in seeing it (and I know he would have been groaning and rolling his eyes throughout), so I'm glad I got to see it with a lady friend rather than subjecting Mike to the experience. My very funny brother-in-law, Mike's brother, is blogging about his experience reading the Twilight series. Check it out: Edward Kidnapped My Wife.

P.S. One more thing -- recently on Times and Seasons (a Mormon blog) there was a review of Breaking Dawn, the final book in the Twilight series. ** Spoiler Alert ** The reviewer claims that Breaking Dawn is "a profoundly Mormon book by a proudly Mormon author" because it concludes the love story not just with a marriage, but with the promise of an eternal partnership (a tenet of Mormon belief). The book also makes the heroine a perfected and immortal being after her death (which is also a part of Mormon theology). Any thoughts from those of you who've read Breaking Dawn? I personally wasn't thrilled with the book, though it did satisfactorily tie up all the loose ends and effectively finish my addiction to the series.

The Fountain

Mike and I watched this movie last night and I'm still thinking about it, which is the sign of a good movie, if you ask me. Movies that stay with you and make you think for hours or days are often more worthwhile than the type you forget as you're leaving the theatre. I'd recommend the movie if you're interested in "love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world" (summary from imdb.com).

Yes!

Halloween 2008

We had a fun trunk-or-treat party at our church last weekend, with lots of fun stuff:

• kids in costume
  
• games
• a chili cookoff
• a dessert contest
  
• and candy!

On Halloween night itself we hung out with our friends, Heather and Devin, and watched the movie Clue and handed out candy to their trick or treaters. Good times!

Visit from the Bowles parents

Mom and Dad visited October 17th-22nd and we had such a fabulous time! We're so glad that they took the time to come and visit us in central Illinois.

We showed Mom and Dad around campus, including (of course) several libraries. Dad is one of the most curious people I know and he had loads of questions that I couldn't always answer (though I nearly always make an attempt to B.S. some kind of response). It made me think -- maybe this is why librarianship is so right for me.

We went to an Illini football game and they beat Indiana 55-13.
The game was a lot of fun and Memorial Stadium is truly impressive.
At church on Sunday, the children in our congregation presented a special program. I direct the kids' singing (I'm the Primary music leader) and so my parents got to see all the kids that I teach each Sunday. They all did a wonderful job singing and saying their spoken parts.

Last Monday we went to Springfield, IL together to the Abraham Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library and to the Lincoln House (pictured below). This is the home where Abraham and Mary Lincoln lived from 1844-1861 (when they moved to Washington, D.C.).
We spent two days in Chicago together and we got to see Wicked, go on a Chicago Architecture Foundation walking tour, and go to the LDS temple in Chicago. It was an action-packed visit and we all nearly walked our feet off, but it was a fabulous time!

M&M in front of the Chicago Temple
Tiffany glass in the dome of the Chicago Cultural Center -- absolutely stunning!

Homecoming

Alma Mater with an electric guitar. Theme of Homecoming: "Feel the 'Nois." Get it? No? It took me more than a week to catch on: 'Nois is short for Illinois and it sounds like "Noise." Now do you get it? Yeah, me neither.

This is a club that builds high-powered lawn mowers to pull stuff.

This float had the Chief gutting a gopher.

This past weekend was Homecoming at University of Illinois and, sadly, the Illini lost the big game to the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. Too bad. Mike and I went to the parade and enjoyed the floats, marching band, and carloads and carloads full of parade organizers. OK, honestly, I mostly just enjoyed the marching band.

I tried to upload a video of the marching band, but am having trouble "processing" the video. Maybe fate is intervening on your behalf, protecting you from the blast of brass and odd prancing steps of the orange-clad instrumentalists.

Mom and Dad are going to be here for a visit Friday the 17th through Wednesday the 22nd. Can't wait to see them!

Matinee Coat

Here's a look at my latest completed knitting project:
It's a baby sweater, pattern by Debbie Bliss, and it's on its way to Chubbuck, Idaho for a little one born August 30th. It's meant to fit a 3-6 month old -- hopefully the proportions are about right. I love this little sweater. The lacy pattern on the skirt part was a bit tricky, but not too bad. It's definitely one I would make again.

Sarah Palin,, Librarians, and Libraries

I try not to get too political here on our family-friendly blog, because I don't want to start any virtual fist-fights -- BUT I do want to tell you about a couple of library-related Sarah Palin issues that are bugging me.

The first one is merely an annoyance, and it's this: I can't count how many times I've heard Palin's look (the glasses, the bun) described as a "sexy librarian" look. First, this plays into all kinds of stereotypes about what librarians look like. Second, putting the two words together -- sexy librarian -- is redundant. The basic precept of librarianship -- access to knowledge -- is super-sexy. ;)

The other Sarah Palin/library issue that's been bugging me is much more than an annoyance -- it's a bit frightening. Apparently, as a mayor, she approached the town's librarian to find out how to ban books (insert gasp of horror). Then, it seems, she fired the librarian when said librarian didn't offer support for Palin's campaign to ban certain books that had "inappropriate language." Then, after a show of support from the locals, the librarian got her job back. Read about it in a TIME magazine article here. The American Library Association promotes the Freedom to Read and I wholeheartedly embrace their statement on the issue -- which is just another reason I can't support the McCain/Palin ticket.

Just some random pics

I survived the first week of school -- I think it's going to be a good one. I'm taking two classes:

• Instruction and Assistance Systems: How to teach people to do research and use the library
  
• Cataloging and Classification I: How information is organized (Mostly how books are organized in the library -- it's more complicated than you might think. Sort of like learning a new language, or like music theory, or algebra. Lots of rules . . . )
  

And I'm doing a practicum for credit at the Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences library this semester, working at their reference desk 8 hours a week and preparing library guides for students in the various majors that the library serves.

My parents always used to take pictures of us on the first day of school and my mom requested one for this year (maybe my last year of school as a full-time student!), so here's my first day of class.

Also, Mike and I made a very delicious Thai Chicken Pizza last Sunday with a new crust recipe (thanks, Erica) and it turned out beautifully.

And here's a random shot of the compact shelving on the 5West deck of the main stacks in the library where I work:
Books, books, and books as far as the eye can see. I think this is what heaven will be like, except not so dark, musty and scary.

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
-Jorge Luis Borges

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Tomorrow is the first day of my 22nd consecutive year of formal education, and perhaps my last "first day of school" as a full-time student. So, my last summer vacation is over and it was a fabulous one. Mike and I had a visit from his parents and brother, visited my family in Idaho/Utah, and spent weekends in Nauvoo and Chicago. I also took two classes in June-July and worked 20 hours a week all summer, so it wasn't a "real" summer vacation like the summer vacations of my past, but it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Besides a few travels, class, and work, I spent most of the rest of my summer reading. My whole life I've been a voracious reader, but for the seven years that I was getting a bachelor's and then a master's degree in English literature, I did very little reading "for fun" because I was reading so much literature for my classes. Since starting library school, I have found much more time for pleasure reading. For your information, here is my summer reading list -- all the books that I have read since I finished school the first week of May.

1. Gilbert, Liz Eat, Pray, Love
2. Pollan, Michael The Omnivore’s Dilemma
3. Russo, Richard Bridge of Sighs
4. Meyer, Stephenie The Host
5. Lewis, C.S. The Magician’s Nephew
6. --- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
7. Goldman, William The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
8. Gregory, Philippa The Other Boleyn Girl
9. Campbell, Beverly Eve and the Choice Made in Eden
10. Ariely, Dan Predictably Irrational
11. Andrews, Julie Home: A Memoir of My Early Years
12. Tan, Amy The Bonesetter’s Daughter
13. Lewis, C.S. The Horse and His Boy
14. Binchy, Maeve The Glass Lake
15. Lewis, C.S. Prince Caspian
16. Wilde, Oscar “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “An Ideal Husband”
17. Brooks, Geraldine People of the Book
18. Krug, Steve Don’t Make Me Think!
19. Horan, Nancy Loving Frank
20. Lewis, C.S. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
21. Sittenfeld, Curtis Prep
22. Meyer, Stephenie Breaking Dawn
23. Lewis, C.S. The Silver Chair
24. Weinberger, David Everything is Miscellaneous
25. Schwarz, Christina Drowning Ruth
26. Lewis, C.S. The Last Battle
27. Grimwood, Ken Replay
28. Roberts, Cokie Founding Mothers
29. Guiliano, Mireille French Women Don’t Get Fat
30. Rinaldi, Ann A Break With Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials
31. Powell, Julie Julie and Julia
32. Lee, Min Jin Free Food for Millionaires
33. Diaz, Junot The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

If you want my reviews of any of these books, post a comment and I'll tell you what I thought. I'm trying to decide if I have a top five, but I don't think I can really compose a ranking list so, you get them in the order that I read them.

Public Library cartoon

It seems that many librarians and techies think that libraries and the web cannot co-exist, that the two are mutually exclusive, that libraries will not survive the 21st century, that librarians are irrelevant. Well, I got news for ya'. The two are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. As long as people need to find information, they will need information specialists (like librarians). And as more and more information becomes available, via the web, and as it becomes less organized in a linear fashion (thanks to the web-like nature of the web), information specialists will be needed to organize information and to make it accessible to the masses.

My Backpack

My royal blue JanSport backpack and I have been together for a long, long time. In fact, our relationship is one of the longest-term relationships of my life. I got the backpack way back in 1996 (or thereabouts). The bag survived the teenage angst of high school; four years of lugging around literature anthologies in college; three years of graduate school and teaching, carrying gradebooks, freshman essays, and the collected works of May Swenson; and now it's carried me halfway through another degree, this one in Library and Information Science. Alas, the backpack begins to show the wear and tear of its long life and five shiny safety pins hold together a bottom corner. Michael suggests replacing the backpack, but I believe the backpack and I can finish our journey through higher education together. We can make it through just two more semesters . . .

Chicago: August 7-8

For Christmas 2007 I gave Michael two tickets to one of our favorite NPR shows, Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me; the show is taped live in Chicago on Thursday nights. Mike was finally able to cash in his Christmas present last week (talk about delayed gratification!) and we went to the show on Thursday, August 7th. It was all we ever dreamed of -- funny, clever, lots of dirty jokes that they edit out for the radio broadcast . . . etc.

Last week's major joke was the Paris Hilton campaign ad that Funny or Die produced in response to McCain's attack ad against Obama (starting line: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world."). Great stuff.

We spent two days in Chicago, and besides the radio show we also:

• Went to the Museum of Science and Industry.
• Walked around Grant and Millennium Parks.
• Ate some awesome Chicago pizza. Nom nom!
• Went on the Chicago Architecture Foundation's river tour -- a major highlight of the trip.
• And spent time on Chicago's trains and buses finding our way around town. We're smitten with Chicago -- it's such a fun city!

We took way too many photos to post in this little blog, so check out our slideshow of Chicago fun.

Nauvoo, July 25-26

This is Mike blogging about the trip Melissa and I took to Nauvoo, IL last weekend. Going into this trip, we were really excited because, although we've visited Nauvoo a few times since moving to Illinois, we still had not seen the LDS pageant in Nauvoo. Here's a recap of our trip.


On our way to Nauvoo, we crossed the Mississippi River at the Illinois-Iowa border and saw that the flood waters still have not completely receded. In this photo, you can see that the water comes all the way up to the road. Actually, the water covers this road over one stretch. To keep the road open, workers have piled gravel on top of the road to keep the road surface above water.


Once we passed the flood zone, we got into Nauvoo for the festivities. We saw people dancing in costume to bagpipe music. I've been considering wearing a kilt to beat the heat. Melissa tells me that skirts are even cooler than shorts.



This was our view from where we sat for the pageant. The temple is such an inspirational sight! My favorite part of the pageant was the triumphant finale when the temple was lit with floodlights, and we heard President Hinckley's voice over the speakers declaring that the Nauvoo Temple facing west and the Salt Lake City Temple facing east stand as monuments to our pioneer heritage. (That's a very loose paraphrase, by the way.)

One of the major highlights of our trip, for me, was our discovery of the Nauvoo Land and Records Office. This is kind of like a family history research center where you can find information about who rented and owned land in Old Nauvoo and where those land holdings are located. The Land and Records Office also has records about who performed ordinances in the original Nauvoo Temple in 1846. Melissa was very patient with me while I looked up information on some of my ancestors and saved those files onto a CD. This was a very exciting discovery for me!


This is me in front of what was the home of George Laub, one of my ancestors who lived in Old Nauvoo.

Another semester bites the dust

Enacting a little librarian stereotype here on the steps of the library.
(Just so you know, we actually NEVER shush people.)

Besides being Michael's birthday, yesterday was also the end of summer semester! Some of the fabulous people I've worked with for the past year are now moving on -- E to a job in Reno, K back to her life in Oregon, and C to Boston to look for a job there while her boyfriend goes to Harvard Law School. I feel really lucky to have worked with these ladies!

Enjoying lunch at the Y Thai

Happy birthday to Michael!

It's my Michael David's 29th birthday today. I'm so lucky to be married to him! He's the best friend and best spouse a person could wish for.

We had a great time celebrating Mike's birthday. And Simone was so helpful in the present opening!

Indy

Yesterday Mike and I finally crossed the state line and made it into Indianapolis (or Indy, as folks around here call it). The whole purpose of our trip was to go to an exhibit at the Indiana State Museum: Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting. Unfortunately, once we got to the museum's parking garage we found out that the museum was closed for the day to repair the cooling system. Since we were already there, we spent a bit of time exploring downtown Indianapolis and we went out to lunch at Buca di Beppo. It was a very hot and humid day (don't look too closely at my hair in the photos -- it began to get really BIG) so we didn't spend too much time outside. Downtown Indy sidewalks were completely empty -- we hardly saw anyone outside at all. Then we walked into a mall and were overwhelmed with the mass of humanity. On our way home we drove past the massive Indy 500 stadium. Yep, it's massive. And that's about all there is to say about Indianapolis.

There's this giant monument/fountain in the middle of Indianapolis. It commemorates all the wars that Indiana's "Silent Victors" have fought in.

And here's Melissa. With the big hair.

The bears on the fountain are in a really goofy position, with their bellies sticking out. I guess they're holding up these posts?We're guessing that's Lady Liberty in her more aggressive mode. OH NO! Mike's falling in!

Here's the ceiling at Buca di Beppo. The walls look like this too -- covered from top to bottom with . . . stuff. We asked a server about the place, and he described the decor, "Well, I call it gaudy." Uhhh, yeah.

An action-packed 4th

Mike and I decided to go all-out this Independence Day to celebrate the 4th of July. We started our day with a 5K race -- in the pictures above you can see us at the Assembly Hall at the beginning of the race. We walked the course in 42 minutes.

We felt pretty festive for the 4th of July, but not compared to the patriotic decorators of this lawn:
There's a bear in red, white, and blue and a Statue of Liberty, and a ton of red/white/blue bunting all crowded in to one little front yard. Nation -- we need more of this brand of patriotism.

After the race, we watched the big Champaign County parade.

There were three or four high school marching bands

Lots of floats (this one is for Urbana's 175th birthday)

A bunch of old guys in funny hats driving antique tractors

And more!

In the afternoon, we made some apple pie and vanilla ice cream to share with our friends, the Whipples, then we went with the Whipples to the big fireworks show in town. It was a really fun holiday!

Kailey Whipple, Melissa & Michael

P.S. As we were riding our bikes to the festivities on Friday morning we saw this yard ornamentation. There are birdhouses for Dick Butkus and Jim Grabowski and a gravestone that says: "Yo Chief Illiniwek 1926-2007." Chief Illiniwek was the long-time mascot of the University of Illinois. He was retired in 2007 at the request (demand?) of the NCAA.


You can read more about Chief Illiniwek and/or watch his last dance: