Incoherent Scribblings

Ta da! Here is my Friday Cactus complete on a Thursday! (Actually I finished it on Tuesday night and photographed it Wednesday, but that is neither here nor there.) It was really fun to stitch this and was a great way to get back into the stitchy swing of things.

After almost two weeks, I suppose I finally have a few minutes to do a quick recap of everything that has been going on in my life… Besides, I think I am about as settled in as I can get without furniture.

The drive southwest was a long one. The tripometer on my car had almost reached 1100 miles (that’s over 1700 kilometers) when I pulled into West Texas Town 19 hours after I left my driveway in Small Town, Iowa. My mom and stepdad came along with me in my aunt’s van and it was stuffed to the gills with my things. Even so, I still had to leave quite a few things (mainly furniture) behind that I had originally planned on taking because my little car was full of cats! (Remember how I said that I only taking four cats? Well, I couldn’t bear to separate the kittens and, long story short, now– including me– we are six.)

I started my new job last Monday and everything at work since then has been sort of a blur. I began by attempting to clear my new office of my predecessor’s left-overs, but since there may be some valuable job-related materials amongst all the junk I have been painstakingly going through everything. In addition, I have been brainstorming with my new boss about things I want to accomplish in my position. Though I go to bed each night exhausted, I am so loving it!

My apartment is small, but it is a very funky part of town and it is quite convenient to the university. I have not yet met my landlord, nor have I paid a dime in rent or signed a lease. I was quite alarmed at this the first few days that I was here, but then I was told not to worry. Things here in West Texas Town get done, but apparently no one is in too big of a hurry to do them.

As a result, I am waiting (rather impatiently) to get my telecommunications center (phone/DSL/cell) set up. It was supposed to be done on Wednesday, but as you may have guessed that didn’t happen and I am still waiting.

However, I fear that the problem may not necessarily be the phone company’s fault. (GASP!) I do not live in an apartment complex. Rather, I am one of three apartments in a tiny building in an alleyway. As I have not yet met my landlord, I didn’t even know my physical address until I asked the mailman. After that I decided to get a PO Box, but the phone company and the UPS man still need to know where I am physically located nevertheless.

In amongst all of this chaos, Harley managed to fall ill again. This time she has a problem with her eye. Originally we thought she may have torn her 3rd eyelid, but when it didn’t heal we began looking at the possibility of infection. Unfortunately, she has not responded very well to the antibiotics thus far. Yesterday we put her on something stronger and took some blood. As I am prone to do with my kitties, I fear the worse: A diagnosis of cancer.

Mouse will be visiting our new vet (we’ll call her Dr. M) tomorrow because it is time to refill her thyroid medicine prescription. Luckily, (mostly for Dr. M who has not yet met Mouse) she doesn’t need her blood drawn until February so Dr. M is just going to have a quick look at her and refill the meds.

I still want to fill my readers in on some of the fun and interesting experiences I have had over the past two weeks learning about life in West Texas and it will come… eventually.

I promise.

On Wednesday, I finally got the call I have been waiting for: The one that offered me a job as a librarian.

In keeping with the semi-anonymity of this blog, I am leaving the details deliberately vague, but this much I can say: Around September 15, (specific start date details are still being worked out) I will be moving to west Texas to take a position as Education Coordination Librarian at a small university. For those of you with a library background, the title means my main duties will be reference, instruction, and outreach. For those of you without, it means that I will be doing a little bit of everything in the public services area of the library.

I am really looking forward to beginning this position and have already begun thinking about goals and objectives in a rather abstract way, but as you can imagine, for now the focus is on getting all the paperwork done and moving.

I actually don’t know what else to say right now as I think the whole situation is still sort of sinking in, but one thing I can say for sure: I am extremely excited and can’t wait to get started!

After a whirlwind two weeks in which I barely had time to breathe, I returned from my second interview Friday afternoon to a message that a public library about 100 miles north of Small Town, Iowa where I had recently applied for a library director position also wanted to interview me. Before I even had a chance to unpack I called and managed to set up a third interview in as many weeks for this coming Wednesday.

Although I was looking forward to the upcoming interview at the public library, I felt that the previous two interviews had gone extremely well and spent most of the weekend pondering the possibility that I might get two, or even three, job offers very soon. I made a list of the pros and cons of the first two positions and discovered that even though it was a tough decision and an offer for either position would be welcome, it was the first position that I really wanted.

Therefore when the telephone rang this morning, I answered it with anticipation: I had received a message while I was away at the second interview that the library director from the first interview would be calling me with news Monday morning. I was ready to say “yes” when the director broke the news that they had decided to hire another candidate. I kept a smile in my voice as I thanked her for letting me know her decision so promptly, but needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.

After mourning the loss of the opportunity for a few minutes, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and reminded myself that all is not lost: I still have a chance of getting offered the second position and maybe even the third. We’ll just have to wait and see…

Things are finally looking up on the library-job front. Over the past month I had two telephone interviews which in turn led to two on-campus interviews. The crazy part is that both of these on-campus interviews came within ten days of each other!

Last week I went out East to interview for an Information Technology/Liaison Librarian position at a private university. I loved the city, the campus, the people, and the job is perfect for me. Of the two positions, this is the one I want the most and I hope that when they contact me this coming week it is with an offer of employment.

However, while I wait to hear from the first university, I will not be sitting on my hands. In fact, this week I am headed to the Southwest for another interview. This position is for an Education Coordination Librarian at a small state university and is also quite desirable. When I talked to these folks on the phone a couple of weeks ago, we discussed information literacy at length and the library/university’s information literacy initiative would be a major focus of this position.

To be honest, information literacy is not quite enticing to me as the information technology aspect of a library, but it does rank right up there as one of my major interests. Therefore, I think this job would be attractive as well. Ultimately, I think I could excel at either position so I just hope that one of these on-campus interviews results in a job offer.

Oh yeah, did I mention that not only have I continued to work midnight to eight at the dispatch office in between all this traveling, I also flew last week with a sinus infection? A word to the wise…

Air Travel + Sinus-Induced Ear Infection = A Miserable Flight

I have begun to think about legal librarianship again. When I started library school I intended to take some classes in legal research, but my web interests replaced them and I never got around to taking those classes.

However, working in law enforcement has once again drawn my attention in the direction of legal librarianship. After all, why not use the experience that I am gaining now as a dispatcher and channel it towards my true calling?

Combined with the knowledge of a dispatcher, a couple of online classes like Government Documents and Legal Research would greatly expand my horizons and I could look at more than a life as just another General Reference Librarian…