You Know You're From Wisconsin When...

While ordering the book Bratfest at Tiffany's for your library, you automatically think how hilarious and bizarre it would be to have Brat Fest at Tiffany's.

Wherever He Laid His Head Was His Home

Dudes, I am in a world of trouble. In a month or two, I think I'm going to be a homeless children's librarian. As mentioned previously, I'm trying to move. There are two reasons for moving: 1) to save more money 2) to somehow maybe try to get a life. Honestly, reason #1 is the most important reason for moving; #2 would be a nice side effect. Realizing that my lease will soon be up, I called my landlord, told her I was going to be moving out, got myself on a month by month lease and started looking. The great apartment hunt search started on Saturday and as expected, it sucked. And now you get to hear all about it. (Feel free to stop reading now...)

Problems:
1) I have limited financial resources. I'm not completely broke but I'm an underpaid children's librarian with a substantial student loan payment. The cheaper the better, especially since I'd really like to save up some money for the future.
2) I don't want to live in a cheap apartment! There, I said it! Who does!?!
3) The cheap apartments are further north, farther away from Madison, my social life in Milwaukee, and most importantly, my job.
4) I don't want to live in my current city of residence. I want to go to the grocery store in peace.

I have three options that I can see right now:

1) Move to the first apartment: I love the idea of this apartment but I don't know if the reality is going to work. The idea: It's in a town completely removed from my current place of residence. The apartment is in a cool building that's close to the downtown area but not smack dab in the midst of it. It's also two blocks from the lake. I can see myself feeling less fishbowly there and I love the idea of being able to walk a block to a cute coffee shop and then walk around by the lake. However, the reality is a little bit more complicated. Basically, the entire problem is that it's 20 minutes north of my job, which also means it's 20 minutes farther away from my social life.
It's $495 a month, which is $120 less a month than my current place (which would save me $1440 a year) but heat and electricity are not included (same as my current place) and obviously the money spent on gas would suck up quite a bit of that $120. It doesn't have air conditioning (I'd be praying for a nice lake breeze). It doesn't have a dishwasher but I have one now and it's such a piece of shit that I just hand wash everything. It also has the ugliest carpet I've ever seen (that being said, the carpet is brand new.)

2) The second apartment: This apartment is much closer to my job (but still a bit of a drive as it is in the middle of frickin nowhere) and it is a steal of a deal. It's $500 a month and heat and electricity are included. I'd also have an air conditioner which I can run like a crazy overheating girl and not have to worry about paying for it (and then feel guilty about my carbon footprint...) It also is a corner apartment which means I have two big huge windows in my living room. The problem though is that it's basically a efficiency with a bedroom. The kitchen is one wall with a teeensy strip of linoleum to differentiate it from the living room/dining room. The rest of the place is really really ridiculously outdated. The bathroom needs a major facelift (nothing too gross though) and the entire place looks flimsy. And when I went to tour the place, the woman giving the tour said "Hey, are you the children's librarian at the public library?" Definitely no escaping my job... Do I just put up with being a bit cramped for a year or two and save some money?

3) Wait. As mentioned above, I am on a month by month lease right now. I could definitely wait it out and see if anything else comes along. This would probably be the smart thing to do but I'm slightly worried that if I wait, I'm just going to find that there isn't that much more out there (in terms of quality or cost.)

I've always sucked at making decisions. I am Little Miss Indecisive and no matter what I choose, I will probably regret it (and probably will end up moving in a year anyway.) I'm currently making an Excel spreadsheet with pros and cons of each option. I'll let you know my decision.

Out of the Mouthes of Babes: February

Dear Lord, I'm a horrible blogger and blog commenter. I'm sorry I have disappeared. However! Exciting things are afoot (I need to talk about moving! And planning summer reading programs! And attending my first conference!) and I promise I will have more to blog about in the future (and I will go through my overflowing bloglines and comment on your posts!). In the meantime, however, here are some highlights from the children's room during February:

Colin, age 3: "I want to play on the computers Mom!"
Colin's mom: "But Colin, those children are already playing. You can play when they're done."
Colin, age 3: "They're never going to be done!!! They live here!"

While teaching Junior Achievement to 2nd graders-
Me: Why do we need to have businesses in our community?
Courtney: To make money!
Evan: So there are places to work.
Connor: So we can give money to the Army.

Grace, 2-years-old: You're Miss Katie! You're my liberry teacher! You live at the liberry!

Grace (yes, another Grace.), 3-years-old: We got a new kitty and we haven't named her but we're going to name her soon and Joey has this thing and we go swimming and you swim and you swim and you swim and then you hit your head on the wall and then you have a grumpy face!
*pause pause pause pause*
Grace's mom: Are you talking about the Wii?
Grace: Yeah!

Evan, age 3: Mama, what's your name?
Evan's Mom, Eileen: Honey, you know my name
Evan: *whispers in her ear*
Evan's Mom: Evan, my name is not Obi Wan.

Mary, age 4, talking about her brother and sister: ...and Nathan won't eat pepperoni! And Lucy said "Naaaathan! Just try it!" But he won't. Because it's too tangy."

Back story: Gordon, 6 y.o., is obsessed with Star Wars and Transformers and has read every single book in our library on those subjects. So, now when he comes in, I find him books but have to tell him that "we don't have it at our library but there's a copy in the system and we can have them send it to our library so you can take it home with you." Thus...
Gordon: Miss Katie, can you see if The Transformers Ultimate Guide is in the system? *pause* Whatever that means.

Grace (it's an epidemic!), 6-years-old: Olivia, let's go to the bubbler!
Olivia, also 6: Okay! I love water! It's my best friend!