A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

by Elizabeth on March 10, 2011 · 6 comments

in conferences, i am random, librarianship, libraries, my cat is better than your cat

I don’t really have enough for a full blog post today, so I thought I would just through a few thoughts out here today.

In Need of Lunch Ideas
Yesterday I told you how I’m giving up meat for Lent.  Originally, I was mainly concerned about having difficulty going out to dinner and finding vegetarian options on the menu, but, when I was packing my lunch this morning, I realized how much I depend on meat for lunch.  I usually try to eat leftovers for lunch, but when I’m out of those (like today), I usually eat turkey sandwiches, frozen dinners, or soup.  The only vegetarian lunch options I could think of (besides leftovers) were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and vegetarian soups.  I need some suggestions for lunches that can be easily and quickly packed and taken to work.  Any ideas?
Writing Cover Letters
I’ve been trying to write a post about drafting a good cover letter and failing miserably.  My cover letters were well written, but it’s been so long since I’ve written one that I’m having trouble coming up with good ways to explain it.  If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or resources on writing cover letters for library jobs , I would appreciate it!
Boycotting Harper Collins
Have you been keeping up with the “Boycott Harper Collins” movement?  I have, but rather sporadically, mainly through Agnostic Maybe.  While I like the idea of a boycott, I wonder how much of an impact it’s really going to have.  Yes, libraries have a lot of purchasing power, but when compared to the rest of the country and all the bookstores purchasing Harper Collins books, libraries are chump change.  I sincerely hate the restrictions the publisher is putting on libraries, but I’m not sure that a boycott is truly the most effective way to make our voices heard.  But I also don’t have any better ideas.    
Medical Library Association Annual Conference
In case you missed it on Twitter, I’m an official conference blogger for the Medical Library Association’s Annual Meeting in Minneapolis in May.  I will be blogging twice a day on the official conference blog about what’s it is like being a new member participating in my first conference.  The conference runs May 13-18 and I will be sharing several of my posts here too so you can keep up with what I’m doing.
Speaking of Conferences
I’m also attending the American Library Association’s annual conference in New Orleans in June.  If you’re going to be there, let me know and we can try to meet up!  But the really exciting part is that I’ve been asked to be part of a panel on management, new librarians, and new managers.  The discussion panel, which is hosted by the Emerging Trends Discussion Group in the Human Resources section of the Library Leadership and Management Association, will be on Saturday, June 25.  I’ll share more details including time and specific location when I have them.  But if you are going to be at conference you should totally come and watch me attempt to public speak.  It should be highly entertaining!  
And just because…
…I love to show her off, here are two pictures of Caty being exceptionally cute.  

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Colean March 10, 2011 at 6:30 pm

I, unintentionally (since I'm not vegetarian, nor trying to reduce my meat consumption), packed a vegetarian lunch 4 days this week.

Today, I've got a couple of homemade tortillas I had left over from chicken fajitas the other night, a big bag of carrot chips, a container of hummus and 2 little snack baggies (1 has granola bites, one has kashi cheese nips).

I frequently end up with these sorts of lunches. Sort of a "odds and ends" of the pantry (as opposed to what I had for dinner last night).

Yesterday I had hummus, carrot chips, an apple, an orange, a banana, and a bag of granola bites (trying to finish off the bag)

The day before I had the last handful (about 10?) kashi triscuits, muenster slices, an orange, a banana and a snack bag of nut clusters.

And the day before was a spinach salad (spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers), a banana, the lone leftover croissant from dinner the night before, and kashi cheese nips.

I've tried to get out of the mindset of "lunch needs to be a real meal format" and to use up whatever I've had floating about that needs to be eaten that's not necessarily directly leftovers from the night before, such as the 4 boxes of open crackers I've had floating about for a while (if that makes sense?). Plus sometimes it's nice to have the variety of 6 very small portions of random stuff than 1 big item like a bowl of leftovers.

Reply

2 amber March 10, 2011 at 6:37 pm

Caty Cat is just too flippin cute!! Particularly in that first picture!!

Reply

3 therese March 10, 2011 at 7:40 pm

I understand that not everyone has strict "meals" for lunch everyday… but I just couldn't do what Colean suggested above. To me, that's nibbling. Those are all snack foods, piled together to temporarily fill you up.

I can dig the hummus and tortillas for a snack…and a quite tasty one… but for lunch? 🙁 My poor tummy would be grumbling!

I eat as a veggiesaur for lunch almost 100%. But I tend to buy frozen meals a lot of the time for WW. My favs are butternut squash ravioli, mexican rice and beans with tortillas, zucchini spaghetti, and cheesy potatoes with whole grains.

^There is no reason why you couldn't MAKE all of those things 🙂 But this would require quite the planning and time to make all of these things.

*cough frozen*
I love open-faced tuna sandwiches, placed in a microwave oven with cheese melted on top.

I love tofu fajitas.

I also love boca burgers, baked potatoes (in the microwave), soup, or chocolate ricotta pudding (OMG SO GOOD).

And then I snack throughout the day on things like apples, bananas, yogurt, etc. I eat more than anyone I know 😉

Reply

4 James March 10, 2011 at 8:46 pm

Simple lunch: nuke a potato in the microwave for 5 minutes, let cool for 5 minutes, pack with whatever you want to put on it. Quick and surprisingly filling. Not very nutritious, though.

Also, in terms of baked potato toppings, BacOs Bits are vegan. Amazing.

Reply

5 Melanie March 11, 2011 at 3:41 pm

I'm a huge fan of cheese, crackers, and chicken salad for lunch. There's no reason you couldn't change chicken salad for tuna salad 🙂

Veggie chili is usually good, and there are a bunch of veggie sandwiches – like peanut butter, honey, and banana – that I love. There are also salads (as long as you have a separate container for your dressing, cause spinach and lettuce get soggy and icky), and a whole host of meat-substitutes that include almost-chicken, almost-turkey, almost-sausage….the list goes on and on!

Reply

6 Elizabeth March 14, 2011 at 2:22 am

Thanks for all great lunch suggestions. I'm looking forward to trying some of them out!

Reply

Leave a Comment

Notify via Email Only if someone replies to My Comment

Previous post:

Next post: