I went for an interview today at the private school. It was meh. Not the school, but my interview. Actually, it went much better than I could have hoped for, since I didn't get any sleep last night due to hideous allergies and my body's erroneous reaction to Benadryl (the well-known drowsiness effect? Didn't happen). My feeling is that they will ultimately go with someone who has a background in either teaching or young adult librarianship - the question I kept getting asked was, "Why do you want to work with high school students?" and I can't exactly answer that it's been my lifelong dream. It was a whim, people, a whim! A passing fancy. A thought experiment, if you will. I tried to subtly indicate that without saying it outright, but even I admit that you can't blame someone for not hiring me. Why bother hiring a candidate who may or may not fit in and who may or may not like working with kids when you can hire someone who specializes in hanging out with the teenagers?
The good news is that I called in sick today so I don't have to work till 10:00 as previously planned. The bad news is that there is probably nothing but crap on TV.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Cat blogging Sunday
I know that traditionally cat blogging is supposed to take place on Friday in the culture of the so-called, dare I say it, "blogoshere." But I forgot to do it on Friday and Saturday, so here it is Sunday already, and I'm just now getting around to the cat blogging.
But anyway, as you can see from the photo above, we finally put the lazy beatnik to work around the house. Here she's struggling to wield a hammer, but don't worry, she got the hang of it after a few tries, despite the lack of opposable thumbs. And she only gouged out that one eye, so it's all good.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
This just in: Storm clouds heading toward Hell; cooler weather predicted
OK. I think you all know how I feel about children and all things child-like; i.e. scant to zero interest, particularly when it comes to avenues of librarianship.
However. There comes a point in the job search where you begin to take seriously career possibilities that would never have occured to you without the sudden clarity of desperation.
Namely, I have just applied for a position as a private school librarian (high school), and even received a call back about it. The thing is, I came to the decision last week that, after having worked with adult students in academic libraries for awhile now, perhaps working with kids wouldn't be half bad. And it isn't as though these would be little kids - they would practically be adults, but I would have the abilitity to tell them to sit down and shut up, something that is not within my power at my current job.
So we shall see where this leads. I am apprehensive and yet open-minded about the possibilities, and am already savoring the idea of 8:00 - 5:00 / Mon.-Fri. hours. No weekends!
However. There comes a point in the job search where you begin to take seriously career possibilities that would never have occured to you without the sudden clarity of desperation.
Namely, I have just applied for a position as a private school librarian (high school), and even received a call back about it. The thing is, I came to the decision last week that, after having worked with adult students in academic libraries for awhile now, perhaps working with kids wouldn't be half bad. And it isn't as though these would be little kids - they would practically be adults, but I would have the abilitity to tell them to sit down and shut up, something that is not within my power at my current job.
So we shall see where this leads. I am apprehensive and yet open-minded about the possibilities, and am already savoring the idea of 8:00 - 5:00 / Mon.-Fri. hours. No weekends!
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Oh, life and things like that
Here I am at work again, on a lovely spring Saturday for which the projected high temperature is 82 degrees. And you all wonder why I hate my life. But the greater tragedy here is that my one-year anniversary of looking for a full-time professional position has come and gone, with little fanfair and even littler chance of finding said job. I am having a really hard time being positive at the moment (as though I'm so positive at others times), especially since I joined Weight Watchers a few weeks ago and am now in a constant state of semi-hunger. Which is fine and good, and as it should be. If weight loss were not painful we'd all be thin, right? There would be no "obesity epidemic" (although frankly I have my doubts as to whether or not there really is an epidemic anyway).
So, that being said about the gloom and doom and the weight loss and what have you, I'm just gonna do a meme for today, which will be nice and lighthearted and allow me not to have to work really hard to craft anything witty. This one is kind of lame, but you will just have to deal.
Top Five Must-Haves:
In My Fridge
1) Thomas' Light Multi-grain English Muffins - they're only one point on the Flex Plan! And reasonably filling, for an hour or so anyway.
2) Carrots - sad, but true
3) Weight Watchers Chocolate Sunday Cones - Technically these are in the freezer, not the fridge, but they are quite yummy for being a diet food.
4) Unsweetened applesauce - As BF calls it, babyfood. *Sigh*
5) Nonfat cream cheese - God I'm boring.
In My Closet
1) There are really no "must-haves" here, other than jeans, but at the moment I only have three pairs of those. Someday I would like to have nice clothes that I am not ashamed to wear out in public.
In My Purse
1) Various and sundry keys.
2) At least one breath-freshener, preferably of the gum persuasion.
3) A book or magazine to read on the subway - I just finished Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller, and it's a good thing cuz that book was heavy.
4) Lip gloss or lip coloration of some kind. Very important. Right now I have about five different tubes in my purse. The little pouch in there intended for a cell phone currently houses them. Alas, I am still cell-phone-less.
5) Change so I can buy sodas at work. Sodas (notice how I no longer say "pop"? I am becoming so cultured out here) are one of the few joys I allow myself, and they keep me from strangling myself with my mouse cord.
In My Car
1) Let's see: motor oil?
2) Gas.
3) Radiator fluid.
4) An engine.
5) Someone to drive because I sure as hell aint gonna. I don't drive a lot these days, see?
In My Netflix Cue (was orginally supposed to be "in my TiVo", but I don't have TiVo. How behind the times am I?)
1) Six Feet Under Season 5 - I am addicted to that show and it will always hold a special place in my heart. I only wish season five wasn't the last.
2) The first season of Lost. Like I said, behind the times.
3) Twenty-Eight Days - never seen it. Hear it's good. Zombies and shiznit.
4) The Ice Harvest - I don't know if I've spoken of my John Cusack love here, but I think he's pretty much The Man. Right up there with Johnny Depp. They are The Men. So anyway, Cusack is in this movie, hence its no. 2 spot in my cue.
5) The Best of the Best of the Electric Company - ah, the halcyon days of childhood, when learning how to say big words was the most difficult challenge we had to grapple with.
So, that being said about the gloom and doom and the weight loss and what have you, I'm just gonna do a meme for today, which will be nice and lighthearted and allow me not to have to work really hard to craft anything witty. This one is kind of lame, but you will just have to deal.
Top Five Must-Haves:
In My Fridge
1) Thomas' Light Multi-grain English Muffins - they're only one point on the Flex Plan! And reasonably filling, for an hour or so anyway.
2) Carrots - sad, but true
3) Weight Watchers Chocolate Sunday Cones - Technically these are in the freezer, not the fridge, but they are quite yummy for being a diet food.
4) Unsweetened applesauce - As BF calls it, babyfood. *Sigh*
5) Nonfat cream cheese - God I'm boring.
In My Closet
1) There are really no "must-haves" here, other than jeans, but at the moment I only have three pairs of those. Someday I would like to have nice clothes that I am not ashamed to wear out in public.
In My Purse
1) Various and sundry keys.
2) At least one breath-freshener, preferably of the gum persuasion.
3) A book or magazine to read on the subway - I just finished Lost in the Forest by Sue Miller, and it's a good thing cuz that book was heavy.
4) Lip gloss or lip coloration of some kind. Very important. Right now I have about five different tubes in my purse. The little pouch in there intended for a cell phone currently houses them. Alas, I am still cell-phone-less.
5) Change so I can buy sodas at work. Sodas (notice how I no longer say "pop"? I am becoming so cultured out here) are one of the few joys I allow myself, and they keep me from strangling myself with my mouse cord.
In My Car
1) Let's see: motor oil?
2) Gas.
3) Radiator fluid.
4) An engine.
5) Someone to drive because I sure as hell aint gonna. I don't drive a lot these days, see?
In My Netflix Cue (was orginally supposed to be "in my TiVo", but I don't have TiVo. How behind the times am I?)
1) Six Feet Under Season 5 - I am addicted to that show and it will always hold a special place in my heart. I only wish season five wasn't the last.
2) The first season of Lost. Like I said, behind the times.
3) Twenty-Eight Days - never seen it. Hear it's good. Zombies and shiznit.
4) The Ice Harvest - I don't know if I've spoken of my John Cusack love here, but I think he's pretty much The Man. Right up there with Johnny Depp. They are The Men. So anyway, Cusack is in this movie, hence its no. 2 spot in my cue.
5) The Best of the Best of the Electric Company - ah, the halcyon days of childhood, when learning how to say big words was the most difficult challenge we had to grapple with.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Well garsh
OK, I apologize for the shitty updating as of late. I know I've been slacking off, and I'm sorry. In other news, the move went well, if we are defining "well" to mean that no one was killed or seriously injured during the process or aftermath of moving, and the majority of our belongings made it across the parking lot without severe damage. If we define "well" to mean that all in all, we feel better for having moved and are satisfied with our new apartment and believe the effort of moving was in fact worthwhile, then no, the move did not go well at all. I guess it depends if you're in a glass-half-empty or half-full kind of mood.
Speaking of everything in my life totally sucking, I bought a $110 sandwich last night, and I have to say, it wasn't really worth it. I purchased said $110 sandwich because the BF and I decided, in a moment of wanton hedonism, to drive to the local Quiznos for dinner (yeah, we live the high life). Upon arriving at Quiznos, we had the sheer brazeness, the nerve, the big hairy cajones, to throw caution to the wind and good sense out the window; to park in the entirely-empty-but-for-us parking lot we naively assumed had been paved and painted expressly for the use of the customers of the three businesses located in the building for which the parking lot had seemingly been built.
Oh, how wrong we were. As it turns out, only TWO of the parking spaces in this completely empty lot were intended for use by Quiznos customers, and we being the obviously slapdash sloppy-vehicle-parking dunderheads we are, failed to realize this, and accidentally parked in a space designated for one of the other businesses which were closed by that time in the evening.
And by now I'm sure you can all guess where this is going. Yep, my car was towed. In the ten minutes it took to order and pay for a Turkey Lite and Turkey Ranch and Swiss, the thing was gone like whisper in the night. After much bitching and yelling and threats of litigation on the part of BF, we managed to locate the car and get it back, but we did not manage to retain our appetites for the fucking lousy sandwiches that caused all the trouble in the first place. And let me tell you something else: this type of thing is called predatory towing, my friends, and it is illegal. So, if ever you are tempted to park in the Quiznos parking lot in Arlington, VA, be warned! And also the name of the towing company was something like Advanced Towing, and they are shitheads. That's my PSA for the evening.
Anyway, in conclusion, we had to pay a taxi to take us to the towing place ($10), then another $100 to get the car. By this time of course we were furious and anxious and generally fed up with the world, and the god damn sandwiches were bloody cold and soggy by the time we were able to eat them. So the moral of this story: if you come home from work some random day and are kind of tired and don't feel like making dinner and decide on a whim to go eat at a restaurant, you better sure as hell shake off the exhaustion and WALK THERE because laziness will cost you. Big time.
Speaking of everything in my life totally sucking, I bought a $110 sandwich last night, and I have to say, it wasn't really worth it. I purchased said $110 sandwich because the BF and I decided, in a moment of wanton hedonism, to drive to the local Quiznos for dinner (yeah, we live the high life). Upon arriving at Quiznos, we had the sheer brazeness, the nerve, the big hairy cajones, to throw caution to the wind and good sense out the window; to park in the entirely-empty-but-for-us parking lot we naively assumed had been paved and painted expressly for the use of the customers of the three businesses located in the building for which the parking lot had seemingly been built.
Oh, how wrong we were. As it turns out, only TWO of the parking spaces in this completely empty lot were intended for use by Quiznos customers, and we being the obviously slapdash sloppy-vehicle-parking dunderheads we are, failed to realize this, and accidentally parked in a space designated for one of the other businesses which were closed by that time in the evening.
And by now I'm sure you can all guess where this is going. Yep, my car was towed. In the ten minutes it took to order and pay for a Turkey Lite and Turkey Ranch and Swiss, the thing was gone like whisper in the night. After much bitching and yelling and threats of litigation on the part of BF, we managed to locate the car and get it back, but we did not manage to retain our appetites for the fucking lousy sandwiches that caused all the trouble in the first place. And let me tell you something else: this type of thing is called predatory towing, my friends, and it is illegal. So, if ever you are tempted to park in the Quiznos parking lot in Arlington, VA, be warned! And also the name of the towing company was something like Advanced Towing, and they are shitheads. That's my PSA for the evening.
Anyway, in conclusion, we had to pay a taxi to take us to the towing place ($10), then another $100 to get the car. By this time of course we were furious and anxious and generally fed up with the world, and the god damn sandwiches were bloody cold and soggy by the time we were able to eat them. So the moral of this story: if you come home from work some random day and are kind of tired and don't feel like making dinner and decide on a whim to go eat at a restaurant, you better sure as hell shake off the exhaustion and WALK THERE because laziness will cost you. Big time.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Yeah yeah
...so it's been a whole week since I last updated. See previous headline. My excuse this week is that I'm moving on Saturday, plus I've been wicked tired lately. Probably the depression. Anyway, speaking of moving, as I was packing up my books in anticipation of the big move to the building next door, I realized how many books I own that I haven't read yet. Some of them are of the category where I'm like, "Crap, I really need to read this one", whereas others are of the category like, "Uh, why the hell do I have this?"
I'm looking at you, Memnoch the Devil. To be honest with you, I cannot even remember where or when this book came into my hands (surely a sign of evil), although I think it must have been during my misguided Anne Rice phase. At some point I had read Interview With a Vampire, which in my defense is actually a decent vampire read if you like the whole vampire thing, which I do, and I foolishly went out and bought The Vampire Lestat, during the reading of which I had to tape my eyelids open in order not to be bored into a coma. And thus ended my love affair with Anne Rice. Which really does not explain how a copy of Memnoch the Devil came to be in my possession, nor does it explain why I seem to have hung onto it all these years later. I guess what I'm saying is that this book is Satan.
Anyhow. I've gotten completely off track. So did anybody else read Library Journal's article on new librarian salaries? It came out in October so it's a bit outdated, but basically it says that I'm a big loser and everyone else is doing just fine with their MLS degree, so why don't I shut up and stop whining for the love of God? Don't bother reading it unless you want to anger yourself, because it reiterates all the same bullshit they told us in library school: be patient; be willing to move to the middle of nowhere, even if it means leaving your spouse and children behind or displacing your entire household to some God forsaken hellhole just so Mommy can live out her dream of earning a decent salary for once in her life; be willing to suck it up as a paraprofessional for several years if you foolishly attended library school as a twenty-something without substantial work experience because even though technically a master's degree is required to be considered a professional librarian, what no one will tell you while you're in school is that what really matters is having a shitload of experience. Oh, and if you can manage it, go ahead and move to the Southwest because that's where library jobs seem to be booming, but be prepared to live off of $33,000 a year, despite the usurous student loan payments you're making to pay off your pretty little degree and the thousands of dollars you spent to uproot yourselves and your loved ones.
What I'm saying is, don't read the article.
I'm looking at you, Memnoch the Devil. To be honest with you, I cannot even remember where or when this book came into my hands (surely a sign of evil), although I think it must have been during my misguided Anne Rice phase. At some point I had read Interview With a Vampire, which in my defense is actually a decent vampire read if you like the whole vampire thing, which I do, and I foolishly went out and bought The Vampire Lestat, during the reading of which I had to tape my eyelids open in order not to be bored into a coma. And thus ended my love affair with Anne Rice. Which really does not explain how a copy of Memnoch the Devil came to be in my possession, nor does it explain why I seem to have hung onto it all these years later. I guess what I'm saying is that this book is Satan.
Anyhow. I've gotten completely off track. So did anybody else read Library Journal's article on new librarian salaries? It came out in October so it's a bit outdated, but basically it says that I'm a big loser and everyone else is doing just fine with their MLS degree, so why don't I shut up and stop whining for the love of God? Don't bother reading it unless you want to anger yourself, because it reiterates all the same bullshit they told us in library school: be patient; be willing to move to the middle of nowhere, even if it means leaving your spouse and children behind or displacing your entire household to some God forsaken hellhole just so Mommy can live out her dream of earning a decent salary for once in her life; be willing to suck it up as a paraprofessional for several years if you foolishly attended library school as a twenty-something without substantial work experience because even though technically a master's degree is required to be considered a professional librarian, what no one will tell you while you're in school is that what really matters is having a shitload of experience. Oh, and if you can manage it, go ahead and move to the Southwest because that's where library jobs seem to be booming, but be prepared to live off of $33,000 a year, despite the usurous student loan payments you're making to pay off your pretty little degree and the thousands of dollars you spent to uproot yourselves and your loved ones.
What I'm saying is, don't read the article.
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