Swimming didn't happen, because the pool wasn't open. Then I was supposed to go to the gym on Monday, but didn't - I couldn't convince myself to go back out after walking home from work in the pouring rain. The weather has been sucky for the past 3 or so days - rain off and on, humidity, greyness, etc. It was sunny for a bit this afternoon, I think, but I only saw it through the window as I was shifting books. Whee.

Good news: the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins in the Ville is now open, so I can procure ice cream. Yay ice cream. Also, in about 20 minutes I'm getting my hair chopped off - not all of it but still more than a trim.

This evening has actually been pretty nice. I had a good, balanced meal for once - salad and ravioli - and then hung out with people, only a few of which I actually know well. But they were all very nice, and we played Apples to Apples, and I did well and acquired adjectives that basically added up to being a sexy secret agent. I also got to eat lots of fresh butterscotch cookies. Too many, I think, but they just kept appearing.

Tomorrow: swimming. Now: lazy lounging.

Today was the trip to the Mütter Museum. The museum was interesting enough - though Body Worlds was much cooler - and I learned why Legionnaire's Disease is called that (It first appeared among people staying at a Philadelphia hotel; many of the guests were there for an American Legion convention, hence the disease was named for that). The boy was nice, and I will probably see him again at some point, even if it is just as friends. Because friends are good things to have.

I got back to Swat around 5:50, and it was starting to drizzle. I was torn between going home and picking up groceries; the groceries won, mostly because I'm running low on things to eat. By the time I was done at the store, the drizzle had become actually rain. So I got to make my way back to ML with my messenger bag on one side, two paper bags of groceries in one hand, and my umbrella held in the other. It was not a fun trip, but at least the bags didn't fall apart in the middle of the walk.

Now to cook dinner using my newly purchased food. Yum.

Today I woke up feeling horrible, so after emailing in sick to work, I went back to bed. I didn't go grocery shopping like I needed to; I didn't even make it over to Mary's for dinner and a movie. No, I just slept and loafed, ate grilled cheese for dinner, and have begun to read Eats, Shoots & Leaves (which is now making me rather paranoid about my punctuation, I must admit). Blarg to sickness. Grr to summer sickness, especially. Things like soup and snuggling in bed are not the same when it's massively humid out.

Today has not been a good day. It hasn't exactly been a bad day, either... just... blah, for the most part. I don't know. I think I need to take a break from reading plays for work; most of them aren't exactly happy. The last one I read was really good, but also really sad.

I need to go buy groceries (though it's too late today, unless I want to hike over to Geunardi's). I need to get a hair cut. I need to do research/dramaturgy stuff. I need to make phone calls.

I don't want to do any of it.

Today I took a crowbar to a ceiling.

My main summer jobs don't seem like they should be very heavy when it comes to manual labor. And yet... Yesterday I spent most of my morning hauling metal shelves around at the library; today at the theatre we began the process of refurbishing the room next door that we're taking over. This involved moving things and tearing out the old ceiling. It was kind of fun, though getting coated with plaster and dust wasn't great - especially because it didn't want to come off very easily, which meant I got to remain partially dust-coated on my walk back to the train. Fun fun.

At this point, I don't feel very guilty about not making it to the gym. Between the ceiling destroying, shelf moving, book shifting, and all the walking I'm doing, I feel like I'm getting plenty of exercise. It's exhausting, at the very least.

Sign number one zillion that I have issues: I think going to the Mütter Museum is a swell plan for a first date.

I really need to stop shifting books for the entirety of my work day... Today I spent the morning working on periodicals, then spent the afternoon in the rare book room. So now my arms and back are less than happy, and I crashed when I got home... Which, of course, has led to me not having a real dinner. Because once 8 pm rolls around, it becomes hard for me to convince myself to actually cook... Which is no good, since I really should eat more substantial dinners than I have been. (Well, Saturday I had a very substantial meal - cider, lamb, and cake at a restaurant - but that's the exception rather than the rule lately.)

Tomorrow: probably more book shifting (hopefully with some other stuff mixed in) and then a gym date with Mary.

Megan stopped by today on her drive homewards and took it me out to lunch. It was fantastic and fun and made me very happy. Then I headed into the city to do a bit of work - i.e. sit in the office, read plays, and pet Gomez. I managed to get to the office and back to the station without getting turned around or lost once - a major accomplishment for me, giving my horrible sense of direction.

It's beautiful out right now. I just got back from Philly, so part of me wants to crash, just like I always do. Another part of me thinks I need to take advantage of the weather... I haven't been into the Crum for a while now. And I need to break out of this napping habit, I think. I mean, it works, but it's got me on a weird schedule. So stroll in the woods it is, after a quick snack.

Swarthmore now has a mascot: the phoenix. Not really a surprising outcome, given that it's the name of our newspaper and all. I was kind of rooting for the griffin, though, because Garnet Griffins is rather catchy - alliteration is just nice. So now the question is - are we the Garnet Phoenixes? Is phoenixes even the correct pluralization of phoenix? You usually don't hear about multiple phoenixes, so...

You wouldn't think that working in the library would really count as exercise, but after spending 6 hours stack shifting today, my muscles feel otherwise. Ow. On the plus side, there is something very satisfying about stack shifting and seeing how nice and orderly everything is.

Also, today I got to see one of the library's prized possessions - a first edition copy of Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue. It doesn't look like much, but I silently geeked out over it anyway.

I'm on my second mug of hot chocolate of the day. The first one, this morning, was to help myself warm up after a cold shower -- the hot water has been out for almost 24 hours now. This one is just to warm me up in general. I've been cold lately, at least in my room. Outside, things are fine. In my room, it can be a bit chilly. I suppose it's better than being miserably hot, but still...

I hate people.

The latest: two guys are living in a room that they're not supposed to be in - they've both been assigned to other rooms. In fact, someone else is suppose to move in there, only she can't, because all their shit is in there. In addition, they have an AC unit (not allowed), the smoke detector covered (really, really not allowed) and they have a hookah (technically, possibly allowed, but not if they're using it in the room). They also haven't picked up their keys to their real rooms, so the only way they can get into the dorm is through less than legal means.

Which brings me to my second reason for hating people: propped doors. I just got back from checking every door I could think of, and I think all of them were propped open. I understand wanting to let the breeze in, I really do. And I'm fine with the front door being open during the day as long as someone is around. But every door in the dorm? Of a dorm that's in a residential area, where anyone could easily walk in? Swat's not exactly a crime-laden area, but thefts in ML do tend to increase in the summer, and it's partially due to stuff like this.

So now all the doors have been closed (except ones that have been broken - thanks people!). And I really want to talk (ie, berate) the two guys, only they're not home. At least I got to turn off their AC and uncover the smoke detector. Perhaps a bit bitchy, but sometimes, it's got to be done.

After many hours at the computer, I can tell you the following:

There are 56 ALA-accredited LIS programs (American Library Association, Library and Information Science). The breakdown, by location:

1 Alabama, 1 Arizona, 2 California, 1 Colorado, 1 Connecticut, 1 D.C., 2 Florida, 1 Hawaii, 2 Illinois, 1 Indiana, 1 Iowa, 1 Kansas, 1 Kentucky, 1 Louisiana, 1 Maryland, 1 Massachusetts, 2 Michigan, 1 Mississippi, 1 Missouri, 1 New Jersey, 7 New York, 3 North Carolina, 1 Ohio, 1 Oklahoma, 3 Pennsylvania, 1 Puerto Rico, 1 Rhode Island, 1 South Carolina, 1 Tennessee, 3 Texas, 1 Washington, 2 Wisconsin, 7 Canada.

So 7 are in Canada, which is appealing, but only to a point. 23 are in states that I cannot, at the moment, see myself moving to voluntarily. 2 are on islands (Puerto Rico and Hawaii), which, while nice, seem a bit unrealistic. 24 are in states I could actually consider moving to after I graduate.

As far as dramaturgy goes... I haven't found very many graduate-level theatre programs that allow you to focus on it. The ones I have found: University of Iowa, Virginia Commonwealth University, UMass at Amherst, Stony Brook University, Brooklyn College of CUNY (City University of NY), Yale, and Columbia. UMKC (U of Missouri, Kansas City), WashU, Miami University of Ohio, and Hunter College of CUNY seem to have general M.A. programs that at least mention dramaturgy specifically.

No matter what, I'm not going to grad school right away. The idea of theatre apprenticeships - namely ones focused on literary management - is leading the pack of possible post-grad plans, along with a possible post-bacculaurate position at the library here at Swat.

However, the possibility of becoming a hermit and living in a hut in the Crum also sounds pretty appealing. It wouldn't require me to take the GRE or become fluent in another language, at the very least.

The power is back on. Finally. It's been out since about 4 in the afternoon, thanks to the big storm we had. At least the rain cooled things down so being without my fan wasn't too miserable... But I was bored. In the 8 hours without electricity, I read two plays, did some crossword puzzles, played on my laptop until the battery ran down, talked to my mom, ate the melting ice cream from my fridge, attempted to sleep (and failed, sadly), played the music quiz on my iPod, played solitaire on my iPod, stared into space, and eventually sat in the hall and played with a bouncy ball until Mary came back. And just as I was going to try sleeping again, the power came back on. Now, of course, I won't sleep - I have to revel in the light.