In less than a week I'll be doing my first half marathon with one of my roommates. I counted up my training miles yesterday and in the last 7 weeks I've run 135 miles! I'm looking forward to seeing the finish line :)
I'm also in a Learn to Row course at the Winnipeg Rowing Club. After a bit of a hiatus due to flooding (rain, rain, go away!) I was back on the water last night for class #3. It's a wonderful feeling to glide along the river, but my arms sure are sore today.
Back in May I spent some time at the Manitoba Libraries Conference. I attended the pre-session "Understanding Your Creative Side at Work" with Stephen Abram. With Play-Doh, pipe cleaners, paper and crayons, Mr. Abram helped us to see how creativity can be an important and energizing part of any kind of work. The keynote address with Gerry Meek had some big ideas about connecting with the community to celebrate the library. In Calgary, the public library partnered with groups like public transit and the police force to help the community and bring people into the library. I also attended the session "The Power of Library Partnerships" with Stephen Abram. The most memorable part of this session was the idea that in today's changing world, libraries need to focus on their people power. To paraphrase Mr. Abram, law has lawyers, medicine has doctors, and information has librarians. (And hopefully library techs, too!) I also spent a bit of time volunteering at the registration desk, and attended the MALT Annual General Meeting.
This summer I have been working for my brother and his wife at Kampphotography. My main project has been keywording wedding photos. After some discussion with Jake and Jess I created a fixed vocabulary of sorts in order to tag the people, location, time, and vendors of each wedding. I have also been taking care of print orders and responding to new client contact forms. It has been a lovely experience working with the two of them :)
Other than that I've been relaxing, reading, crossword puzzling, baking, and spending time with friends both old and new.
In the next little bit I will be attending a few days of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, taking a Francais Oral course (if I can still fit it in), and spending some time at the Pitblado library.
Cheers!
