Good things recently, mostly. House progress has restarted (the cabinetry looks wonderful, can’t wait to see it installed) book progress continues, and we’ve been going places.

Last week Spouseman and I went back to our ol’ University of Notre Dame stomping grounds to see the fancy inauguration of the new university president. And attend a fancy dinner, which I did not dress up for (YAY!)

And mainly (honestly, the only reason we accepted the invitation) to see a post-inauguration concert by Jon Batiste, who is a freaking amazing musician.

Random observations from the campus visit include:

• Thanks to past me for remembering to put ear plugs and Kleenex (aka “backup emergency er plugs) in my travel bag, because I need to bring ear plugs to all concerts.

• The new president threw down some big challenges to the finanacial aid status quo in his inauguration speech. Be interesting to see how much pushback he gets on “needs-blind no-debt-at-graduation support of all students” goals. I think it’s grand, myself. 100% back it. But I wasn’t the target audience for the “stop being selfish bastards” speech.

• Jon Batiste & his band do audience-involved concerts, which was awesome as far as I was concerned. Singing along encouraged? Nay, expected! Clap! Dance! Cheer! Bring student band members and The High Kings (Irish Folk) up on stage for collaborative jazz! End with a New Orleans style band parade all through the crowd in the small arena!

• Just epic.….but a lot of the Old White People crowd didn’t know what to do with much of it. The student sections, especially the floor crowd, were All IN, Batiste and his band did an incredible job of working up participation, but it was clearly hard work.

• The logistics of big events like this fascinate me. The amount of planning and organization involved is always one of those Iceberg Memes, a thousand times more involved than the little part that gets public view.

• The interpretation of “business wear” varied from formal 3-piece suits and ties to golf shirts. Which is only reasonable, I think, since “business” varies so wildly these days. I mean, at my actual paycheck business, I'm in twill trousers and a logo tee shirt. For this dug up a blazer and wore sandals instead of hiking boots.

• The New Architecture building remains my favorite building campus, which is saying a lot, since there are also fancy new world-class science facilities. I love those, too, but the architecture building is just a visual feast inside & out.

• Speaking of visuals, there was a drone light show after the concert. Much more impressive and cool than I was expecting. Also loud. A couple hundred little quad copters all flying at once makes a truly ominous hum, like a swarm of angry monster insects. But the light show synced to music was pretty spectacular.

And that’s enough about old school visits. There’s more travel to come. (more on that next week.)

In Other Job news, my department’s role at the library has changed from “directing calls, registering new cards and signing up patrons for programs &” to a more generalized role now known vaguely as “Patron Services.”

AND! We have a brand new desk in a better location to go with the new job description. Well, it will be better, eventually. Now it’s…a work in progress. The desk has some accessibility issues, tho nothing unworkable, the placement is, hmmm, let’s say it’s iffy and gonna be majorly iffy midwinter, and it defaults as a standing desk, which is daunting from the patron side, judging by the questions we never got when sitting at a table in the same location during renovation.

Part of the problem is that New Desk has debuted without a jot of signage. The front and sides are a blank white canvas under a slab of gray-beige top, all waiting to be made more friendly. Plans are already in progress, so, there’s that. But for now, I’m resigned to hearing a dozen kids stop dead in their tracks, contemplating this large change in their library, and ask in their honest little-kid way, “What’s THAT for?”

ANYway. Congrats, you’ve made it to the end of another big stream of consciousness post, so here are pictures for your reward. Flowers and butterflies, Pippin being a basket boi, and a sneak peek at a detail from the book cover in progress.

One last note — shiny, warm glittery thanks to everyone who reached out individually after my post venting about my (continuing, but thankfully not deteriorating) health gripes. I appreciate those notes of support much more than I am able to express. (Obviously, as I don’t think I’ve managed to reply to any of those notes. I just look at them and reread them and feel loved.)

Anyway. Thank you all. That’s a wrap for now.

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