Administration

On Thursday of this week, I truly became and administrator. The previous day I had two meetings in one day. The meetings were not overly long, but I had to focus on them and they detracted from my reference work.

But it was on Thursday when everything came crashing down. I was exhausted and running around all day and I hit true administratorness: I wasn't able to get any work done until after business hours. I was planning to work late into the evening anyway but I would have had to stay even if I hadn't planned to do so.

When I got up from my desk (to go to an 8:00 class) I knew something was different.

I think I've finally earned my title: Associate Director.

Annoying Questions

< rant >
One of my least favorite reference questions are the geneological digging types: "My uncle graduated from your school, do you have any info on him?"

I HATE them. The answer I want to give is "No, I don't have any information on your uncle who graduate in 1853. Does your college have your papers? Of course not. Only if you're famous or something."

I generally say something like "Unfortunately, we do not keep any former students papers unless they specifically deposit them here at the time of their death."

But then there's always a comeback. "Well, how about a yearbook? Pictures of his class?"

This stuff sounds simple but it is REALLY time consuming and involves a lot of flipping and digging and snooping in the archives because you often trying to prove a negative: No, we DON'T have a picture of your uncle.

Voting

I have no idea who I'm voting for in the Democratic primary and I'm very excited about it.

I like Obama and Clinton and Edwards. They all have different strengths and weaknesses. I kind of wish they could all be on the same ticket.

I find Obama's meteoric rise intriguing. When I lived in Hyde Park, I used to see him every Sunday at the Co-op pushing his little girl around in a cart buying groceries. Mostly I remember that he was really hot and the buying food and the little girl just made him hotter.

But he wasn't very exciting. Being a Harvard grad, law school professor etc., etc., is not that interesting in Hyde Park. It's kind of like saying you have a Nobel Prize and have connections to the UofC. A dime a dozen.

I was living in Bobby Rush's district when Obama ran against him. I voted for Rush becuase his official Congressional bio states: Founder- Illinois Black Panther Party. That is awesome.

And now that guy who I used to see in the grocery store is a contender for President. A black man (yes, I know there's controversy about this but it's stupid...you only know Obama is biracial b/c when he tells you) is running for president.

On the other hand Clinton has pretty good positions on the issues. I'm secretly hoping that if she DOES become president she'll ram through a single-payer health care plan. I can dream. But, her vote on the Iraq war and her refusal to say she was wrong bothers me.

I also agree with Edwards on the issues. But somehow, I think he'd be better at a cabinet position (AG or Heath and Human Services) than as president.

I keep coming back to Obama. He's just something different. Maybe what we really need right now is, in fact, a president whose middle name is Hussein (boy, does that describe Barack) and spent some time at a madrassa.

More on Trip...with Pictures

On Wednesday we had a late start and went to the old city. This is a picture of me by the Damascus Gate which leads to Arab East Jerusalem. The old city has 8 gates and I think Dana and I saw all of them.

This is the view of Old Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. You can see the Golden Gate which will open when the Messiah comes (or comes back depending on your point of veiw.)

On Thursday my cousin and I went to Akko. I already talked about the ridiculously long trip to get there. It was really quite beautiful. The middle picture is of one of the aqueducts. The one to the right shows the citadel walls and the Mediterranean Sea.

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So posting with pictures is proving much more difficult than I realized.  All of my pictures are on my Flickr page.  I'll tag them so you know what you're looking at.

I had a wonderful time on my trip.  Since I love lists here are some things I discovered:

1. Israel is still a crazy country.  It's hard to describe how many different types of people live in Israel.  There are Jews from all over the world, Arab Israelis who are both Christian and Muslim, as well as a whole bunch of people who are basically imported cheap labor.  It was really surprising how Asians there were in Tel Aviv.  When I was on my way home the guy after me in the line was Asian and he spoke Hebrew to all the guards. We saw a bunch of kids at McDonald's running around and a woman told them to go sit back down...in Hebrew.  Those kids are growing up as religious minority in a Jewish state.  This is something that has never been true before.

2. The security there is ridculously tight.  There are guards outside of cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and you have to go through a metal detactor and have your bags x-rayed to get into the bus station.  I spoke in Hebrew as much as possible to every security person I saw. Particularly at the border between the West Bank and Jerusalem. It's scary to have someone come up to the car with an M-16 and peer inside at you then seem a little confused.  I always had my passport at the ready.

3.  The best hummus in Jerusalem is at Lina's on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City.  EVERYBODY eats there Palestinians and Israelis.  Everybody.  My last day I saw two guys there, one was Israeli and the other was Arab, discussing how they could get their kids to meet each other.  It was like a 
little peace summit with excellent hummus.

4.  You can not get falafel in West Jerusalem on Friday night.  Don't even bother trying.
As the Arab-Israeli kid we ran into said (in Hebrew) "everything is closed for the Jews."  (Then he said "what's your name? where are you from? how do you know Hebrew?" It was an interesting encounter. He didn't know English and was quite pleased that I spoke to him in Hebrew.

5. Never ask for directions in a foreign language unless you're prepared to understand a quick answer.

6. Windows on trains work like mirrors so you can't take seruptitious pictures of cute guys.  They will see you.

7.  There is a lot of good, cheap wine and it tastes even better with "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah">nargillah.

As you can see from below, I spent most of my time talking to my cousin and getting to know her better.  That was the best part of the trip.