Actually thinking about grad school...

Last week was my last week of teaching for Upward Bound. As much as I know that teaching high school students long term isn't for me, saying goodbye to some of my students at their award ceremony was actually bitter sweet. I really enjoyed my Women's Studies class and there really were only a handful of students that were a problem. Grading took forever, but I finished all my paper work around 1am on Friday... meaning I've had time to start thinking about grad school.

The first thing on my agenda was finding a place to live, which I accomplished within a few days. I did lots of calling around and thanks to a friend who lives in St. Louis (I'll be going to Washington University there) I was able to secure a place with minimal hassle. Now the procrastinating packing has begun. I keep looking around my place, knowing that I need to start packing something, and then I do something else instead. I think seeing my belongings packed away will make this all too real. It's already starting to sink in, since I wrote a check for my new apartment this weekend, but packing will bring it to a new level. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity, but the next few months are plagued with so many uncertainties... I'm starting to feel very nervous. New city, new school, new people, new challenges.

So I leave August 13th... only 25 days from now and I'm procrastinating to the extreme to avoid the terrible trepidation that is threatening to overtake me and I keep thinking, "what the hell did I just get myself into?"

The coolest app for fellow bookworms

I've always had the hardest time keeping track of which books I own and have read. I'm always losing books because I loan them out and I have random scraps of paper all over with recommended book titles or authors scribbled on them in the hope that I'll read them someday. I've told myself I'd keep a notebook or an excel spreadsheet to keep track, but its never happened.

Finally last night, as I tried to figure out what new book I wanted to start, I decided to look for an app. And I found a really cool one. It's called BooksAp and you can check it out at http://books-app.com/. It has a barcode scanner that automatically adds your books. Like all barcode scanners I've used, it doesn't work every time, but you can also search for books and add them via Google books.  It automatically sorts your books by author and you can put the books into series. You also can create collections. For example, I'm using a collection called "to buy" for the books that I still want to buy or that have been recommended to me. I have another list called "to read" for the books I own but haven't read yet.

My favorite feature though is the "lend to a friend." You can select any book from your library and there is a link to click on if you loan the book out. That link synchs with your contacts and you select the friend you loan it to. If I'd had this a few years ago I wouldn't be wondering what happened to my Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. 

Anyway it has a lot of features I haven't had time to really explore yet, but I'm really excited about what I have found and wanted to share! Happy reading!