I'm Baaack!

The nice people at Ibiza salon in Union Square are letting me use their laptop to post on this here blog (see how important y'all are to me). I am typing this without my mighty glasses so forgive the typos. I went to my new health club (Crunch) to use their hotspot, but it's down right now. Crunch rocks because they are running a special where I don't pay dues until June. RRROCK. And, it's cheapter than NYSC so I'm in like Flynn (whoever that joker is).

My move is going alright. The chumps at my old apt bldg still have not rented my place so I am getting anxious. Please put the good karma out there for me, I want it rented by MAY or I am in troub-lee-vee. My new apt is squeeky clean and the landlord/owner(s) are very attentive. The neighborhood, well, eh, er, it's a slice of reality this drive-thru acclimated girly isn't all that familiar. But now each day I become more familiar. It's good for me, as I am super close to the city (right over the Williamsburg bridge, actually).

It's funny, I never felt like I fit in in SD, and when I first got here I felt huge pangs of regret, like why did I leave my fab apt and a job that I really loved for the unknown of the city. Now that I'm getting back into the groove of things in the city, I realize that this is where I belong. It is a relief, really. Although there is still a Midwestern girl beneath, I still feel huge relief being back in the city.

It was strange at first though, the noise in particular got to me a bit. Oddly, my apt, being in the back and all, is very quiet save for the next door neighbors who had a big party Sat night, while I was in full hibernation mode. Maddy barked a bit, but hey, no one seems to care as there are dogs everywhere.

I met some of the neighbors in my bldg. Nice, nice, very nice.

I should "getty on the getty on" as my dear old dad says, as they need to wash the dye outta my long locks (did I tell ya I am getting grey, spotty grey but the bA**ards are still poking their evil little heads through).

I saw "Funny Games" at the Angelika (why does that theatre seem dingy lately) and it was DISTUBING. Me no get. Me sorta get, but me no likee. I also saw the new Tyler Perry, with my girl Angela Basset, it was fun, a bit over the top character-wise, but positive message and fun.

I get cable and internet on Friday, I went with the el-cheapo package, but I shold be back sometime this weekend.

Ciao Bella,
Dabeckrock

MY LAST DAY IN SODAK!!!!!

It's finally here. The day has dawned. A new horizon. I will be leaving SDSU for the last time in about a half hour. Although there's been oodles and oodles of planning to get to this point, it's surreal how it's here. Already. I won't miss the evil hellish commute, I will miss some people I've worked with and met here. I cannot deny. Sadly, I never felt truly at home here. Always outside looking in. That's okay, it taught me a lot about solitude and myself. It has made its imprint (even if at times it was in the form of a cow pie).

Dabeckrock, over and out.

Eat This and Love it (day 3)

I had hushpuppies for the first time on Sunday. I now have found the vehicle for tarter sauce, one of the most beloved of sauces ("she's got sauce" (I couldn't resist)). I've been on the hunt for fake fish sticks, but food science/technology hasn't caught-up to the desires of us vegetarians yet.

Here's an idea: write a blog in voice of someone from years ago, create a character and blog from that perspective (dirty disco dancer from the 70's perhaps). That's what I thought this blog was: Pepy's Diary but was saddened to learn it really is a diary afterall. Clever or no?

I am IM-ing with a student right now whose topic, I thought, was an indictment speech about not allowing elderly people to drive. It blew my Diet-Coke-drenched mind. Now, let's get straight about one thing, I didn't ask him his assignment, I asked him his exact topic, he willingly volunteered the rest. SO, I advised him against using that specific topic as he might risk offending his audience. Through a frustrating series of questions/answers I discovered that his actual topic is along the lines of forcing more testing on senior citizens. Here's the rub, in library school it was pounded into my brain in advanced reference that I really shouldn't give my opinion on topics, because if I do, I risk that the patron/student won't feel comfortable asking for help when researching future topics for fear of our reactions. Truly, it should be annonymous in nature. YET, the student in me couldn't let that one slide. Dilemma. I feel guilty now, can't help it.

I have been trying to type with one hand today, just to see what it's like.

It's mighty quiet here in the library tonight. I want to stand-up on the reference desk and start singing: "Come on feel the noise, girls rock your boys," but I won't.

Those wee little babies who felt it necessary to view my current apartment TWICE in two days, never dropped-off the rental application. So today the management company worker came knocking on my door at 9am with someone else wanting to view my apt. DUDE, I don't work until 1pm on Tuesdays. Chill. Or, better yet, how about 1) effin call a girl first before pounding, 2) CALL THOSE IDGITS TO FIND OUT IF THEY ARE TAKING THE PLACE BEFORE TAKING MORE APPOINTMENTS, 3) Let me outta my lease already or let me sublet, I have taken about 7 appointments now, I can't even pack as a result and I leave this week for NYC.

What is wrong with people? These two wee little babies are not buying the place. It's just renting kids. Plus, there are only two buildings in all of SF that look like this and are brand new, they are the nicest in the G-Damn city. Seriously.

Meow says Chel (my Siamese torturer). Or, better yet, mew as her meower has never really worked quite right.

I taught my second-to-last class. Tomorrow is the last one and then it's BUH-BYE.

Happy moment of the day: my last trip to Taco Johns, mmmm, mmm, good. It was weird though, I ordered a taco salad without the beef and they brought it out with a big, steaming pile of beef. At this Taco John's they deliver the food to your table (??) so this tiny old lady delivered the scrump-dilly-icious meal and I had to explain to her not once, not twice, but three times what I wanted. It went something like this:
Server Lady: Here you go.
Me: This was supposed to have beans instead of beef.
Server Lady: What?
(We go around like this several times, then she leaves and returns a couple minutes later and says...)
Server Lady: So you wanted extra lettuce then since you don't want beef?
Me: No, beans instead of beef.
Server Lady: Beans instead of beef?
Me: YEs, exactly.
Server Lady: So you want me to take this back then?
Me: Yes, please.
I know this rocked her world as I am living in the heartland where every meal contains a dead body.

Oh, and I'm going to attempt to cut cheese out of my life for a month, I think I'm getting strung-out.

The countdown is on, one and a half more hours here at the desk on my last night shift. Goodbye.....

Over and out~
Danielle "wearing her Obey fashionable top" Beckrock

Lucy Wearing WW Suit (Day 4!)

Could it be? Is it really my girlie Lucy wearing a Wonder Woman costume? HFS (holy effen Shite) I am in 8th heaven! Explain. I've often been accused of being a bit of a Lucy myself being ever-patient in my quest for the ultimate rip. Tis true. Oh and y'all know how much I love the Amazon Princess se we won't even "go there" as my four-year-old second cuz likes to say. "Lexi, do you like this dress on Barbie?," I ask her as I showcase the sluttiest bra-looking glitter top (why DO they dress Barbie so slutty these days, in my day she wore long prairie dresses, for Ken's sake) and she replied, "We won't even GO THERE" snatches the dress out from between my fingertips and thrusts a leather bustier into my hands. HUMPH. That girl reminds me of me.

I'm reading Sarah Boxer's Ultimate Blogs book and it feels contrary to read excerpts from blogs in a book. I'm a geeky librarian so I'm going with it.

I saw The English Patient again and still feel like Kip and Hannah's love story was far superior to that of the English Patient and Kathryn, those two were melba-toast. Plus, girlie, you cheated on yer hubby, nothin' good comes outta that.

Lyric of the day: "Don't go for second best baby, put your love to the test..Express Yourself." Tongues out to the nay-sayers that don't think Madge should be inducted into the (albeit somewhat useless) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She should and is. So there. (Watch it tonight, I guess on VH1).

Danielle "channeling Lucy" Beckrock

**PS. I just had a student who wanted a book sent from the public library here in town simply because they didn't want to exert the effort to go there. Um, er, you could walk son. I told them to "put on your walking shoes, it'll be fun." I got a virtual laugh. Can't fault a guy for tryin' I guess.**

I'm A Tofu Head (day 7)

Every day this week the cafeteria at SDSU has featured Tofu in its salad bar. When I first saw it (cubed and raw, but whose complainin') I did a Tex Avery double-take ("Boing"). I've been there every day since, stocking up as tofu is difficult to come by in these here parts. (Did I mention there was BACON in my potato salad on Tuesday, un-effin'-real.)

In one almighty week I move back to NYC. I woke up this morning in disbelief, after all the crud I've been through since September 06 I find it almost impossible to believe I've gotten my happiness back. And, I have a couple looking at my apartment again (second time, the landlord said "She loved it. Now she just has to show her fiance.") Pa-leze, it's a fab apt, best I've ever lived-in for a measley $700/month. What is there to think about? (New appliances and washer/dryer in the unit, COME ON.) Man, I've rented my last two apts sight unseen, have some sense of adventure kids, yer not buyin' the joint. Smash your fore-finger and middle finger together for me now and wish me luck.

I taught my second to last class today, it was on searching and evaluating internet tools. It was packed and the students were amazingly awake. I will miss these students, I really will. They made my time here so much more enjoyable. They're so polite and try pretty hard to follow along and complete the assignments without any guff. They even thank me when I hand out assignments to them. Compare this to the students at the U of MN Mpls, who'd let the door slam on my face when I went into our building. What do you do when someone is right behind you in a doorway? Anyone, anyone? Hold the door open for them. It's called what? Anyone, anyone? It's called having manners.

In teaching this class I was reminded to pull myself out of Google, every now and again, to use other search engines and meta search engines (I've gotten a bit lazy as of late). Examples to the young-at-heart include: Gigablast, Wisenut, Teoma, Clusty, Dogpile, Search.com, Metacrawler, IxQuick, Mamma, Kartoo, Turbo 10

Song Lyric of the Day: "This aint no party, this aint no disco, this aint no foolin' around."
Happy Moment of the Day: A student came up to me after class and said, "Thanks for that class, I really learned a lot."

Off to the all-you-can-eat Tofu bu-ffet.

Have a rock'n'roll good time this weekend, courtesy of Nick Cage in the great David Lynch film "Wild at Heart."

I Am Wearing Clothes from Walmart (Day 9)

Just when I thought SoDak couldn't hand my azz to me anymore, it rose up and unleashed its angry fury. So here's the latest: I worked until 9 (insert the Ferris Bueller recording "nine times" here) and when I emerged from my bookish cave there was a fresh layer of snow beautifying the parking lot. "Oh shit!" I exclaim, having not been outside for hours (while in book cave) I was caught with my pants around my ankles. So be it, I thought, I'll drive home anyway. But first, I called 5-1-1 to double check road conditions. They said visibility was a half mile to a mile, I can handle that, so armed with Diet Coke in hand I sped off.

I'm trucking along, sure it's snowing, but come on. Then it got worse and now I can't even see what is road and what is stinkin' not-road so I slow down. Then a hateful semi passes me and all I see is white, I am in a cloud. This isn't cool as I am driving over a bridge at the time (note sign before bridge: "Caution Ice on Bridge"). Oh sweet jeezus, help me. I steer through it, as if hitting a deer (don't remind me, that experience ruined my ability to drive in the plains). I come up for air and now the snow is blowing up my nose and I hit an icy patch and fish-tail.

Gawd-damn-it!

My nerves are shot. My palms are slick on my steering wheel, glistening with sweat. I pull over at the next rest stop in (yeah, seriously, this is town here) Nunda Ward. I sit there for say, 15 minutes, collecting myself. I hop on my B-Berry and gather information (tis my way) and discover that I am only 11 miles out of Brookings (where I began said evil adventure) and it's been 25 minutes. After much swearing (see Christmas Story, when the furnace goes out kinda swearing) I slowly pull back onto the interstate 29 (nope, no side roads between towns here) and brave it. I drive 30 mph, as does everyone else with a brain therefore all the pickup and semi drivers speed on by. Crunts.

What next? I returned to Brookings and spent over an hour in Walmart assembling something to wear for today. I am okay with wearing my jeans another day (it's like camping) as I am wearing lace-up Fleuvogs so a skirt is outta the question. So I found a top that I slapped under a sundressy thingy (yes all black), grundies, sundries, etc. It took an HOUR though. Dang.

What I learned at Walmart: they have everything there. Ab-so-lute-ly every thing.

Next step: hotel. I picked the Starlite thinking it'd be skanky and what better way to top-off this most excellent experience. Turns-out it was okay, decent, even. That was a tad disappointing, but hey, I'm a state employee and I got a state rate of $45/nite. Bring it on!

Above is a photo of the approximate area I'll be living in when I move. Just a week and a half now, thank gawd.

I'm off to a faculty meeting, my last, PHEW.

Song lyric of the day:
It's just emotion that's taken me over
Tied up in sorrow, lost in my soul
But if you don't come back
Come home to me, darling
You know that there'll be nobody left in this world to hold me tight
Nobody left in this world to kiss goodnight

Goodnight, goodnight
(by Samantha Sang and the Brother Gibb, it makes me want to rollerskate so bad I can barely stand it)

Happy moment of the day: the barista (who is normally a disturbingly chipper person) at the grocery store here in Brookings was in a foul mood today. It was awesome. I overheard her bitching to her co-worker about her drive from Sioux Falls to Brookings last night. It took her 2 1/2 hours to get back here, same time I was on the road. We bonded.

Happy moment of the day part deux: my boss came in today (he does my commute) turns out the roads are still evil. Ha, for once I made the wise choice by chickening out. Now we'll see if I have to don Walmart clothes another day. I best be able to get outta here.

Growing Up Becker (Day 10)

I found an apartment! (I'm doing a happy dance at the information desk in front of all the studyin' students, believe me, huh, do ya??) It's in Brooklyn (http://www.theburg.tv/) and I am relieved. It's been E-VILL, to say the least. But I done it Ma, I got me a place to live. Arn't you so proud of yer little girl? Phew (not pew, but that kid that just walked past me did sorta reek).

I decided to leave the UES because it's my comfort zone and since I know zippity zip about Brooklyn's vibe, it should be a mighty fine stretch for this Midwestern kitten. I find that when I explore regions unknown I grow, as a person. Aw, now I'm getting all serious and shite, watch out, I'm a big girl now.

Fun fact of the day: The internet went commercial on May 24, 1991 and Ebay was launched Sept 4, 1995. I'm happy about the internet but my ex is probably not happy about Ebay as I dwindled away a small fortune on my obsessive/compulsive collecting habits (that doll above, Growing Up Skipper, I own her). Here is a list of stuff I bought (and still own) on Ebay:

~Growing Up Skipper Doll: When you turn her left arm she grows boobs, no joke
~Sonny & Cher Dolls
~Captain & Tenille Dolls
~Farrah and Charlies Angels Dolls and books and toys and t-shirts and trading cards and infinity
~Cher Head Doll
~Farrah head doll
~The Welcome Back Kotter gang in doll form
~Kojak Doll (WTF)
~Suzanne Somers doll
~Diana Ross doll
~Audrey Hepburn, yes, doll
~Marilyn dolls, plural
~Luke and Leia dolls
~Dorothy Hamill doll
~dozens of Barbie dolls from the years 1969-1978
And that is all I will admit to right now. The almighty collection fills (dare I say it aloud for fear of being struck-down by lightening) AN ENTIRE ROOM. What was I thinking? I had "issues." Since I moved to NYC I've barely Ebayed because I didn't know how to quit it. Zippy. I did buy one disasterous item when I moved here: an actual deer rug from the early 70's. I loved it. I know, being all vegetarian and animal rightsey you'd think I wouldn't partake, but I did. And the angry gods of my hypocritical act retaliated by inspiring my be-ew-tee-ful Persian to make this here pelt his new litter box. He was bold enough to squat while I was eating dinner, as if to say: F-you ya band wagon activist. I immediately threw it away and have not Ebayed since.

But, with all its primary-colored glory I am digging through Ebay's pages tonight, mang, and it is tickling my fancy something fierce.

Song Lyrics of the Day:

Shooting at the walls of heartache
Bang, bang!
I am the warrior
Well I am the warrior
And heart to heart you'll win
If you survive the warrior, the warrior

Geeky Link of the Day: http://librariandressup.com/ (BTW, that is totally what I look like now, no, really).