I won’t miss the RNC people or the more violent protesters either.
The behavior of law enforcement still disturbs me, though. I am concerned about bystanders and journalists who were swept up in the arrests and wonder how fairly and well the detainees were treated.
The big, giant long interview (8 am to 5 pm) went well yesterday. I could end up with two job offers, it is hard to say. The real problem is that neither of these are exactly what I want, even though they are both good opportunities. Instead of being an outreach librarian, I really want to be a reference/instruction/liaison librarian. So, I still need to finish that application for job #3 and get it frakking turned in.
Meeting with University Librarian and dinner with director & his boss all went well. Am suddenly very, very tired. Need to finish the presentation so that I can go to bed.
Interview for Job #2
Meeting with director of entire library system today. Then, dinner with branch library director & his boss. That should all be okay. Tonight, I finish prepping my presentation. I did some useful background research last night which should hopefully be helpful. Now, my goal is to tailor the presentation carefully to the specific library. Interview stuff all day tomorrow.
After all of this, perhaps I can finally get my act together and submit my application for job #3. One thing at a time, I guess.
Not sure how this is going to work out, but I have been walking this much on at least some days. I wonder if I can do it every day? Basically, it boils down to taking an extra evening dog walk in addition to my morning dog walk and walking to/from/at work. I’m going to try and see what happens. Walking is the only exercise I seem to be able to manage. Baby steps, I guess.
- Air conditioning. I know it isn’t very green, but I love it almost as much as indoor plumbing.
- The sweetie has ordered two CDs by Great Big Sea. I think I love Great Big Sea.
- My laptop (iBook G4)
- That we really might go to the UK sometime in the next year. That we are in a position that we might be able to afford this. I’m going to binge on British novels in preparation. First up: On Beauty.
- That the sweetie is so cool, interesting, companionable and fun to hang out with. I’ve known her for 22 years thus far and still am not bored. How cool is that?
- That my estranged and troubled oldest brother has gotten himself the Coolest Job Ever and sounds quite happy. For the first time in his life, according to his own description, he is surrounded by people who are both smarter and weirder than he is. I think it is good for him! I hope it provides him with a new perspective.
- That tens of thousands of people are on the streets of St. Paul today advocating for a better United States of America. I wish I were with you. I’ll do what I can in my daily life in my little corner of the universe.
the one thing I need to focus on is prepping for my interview tomorrow & Wednesday. I’m trying to read about agricultural libraries right now, which is challenging because I’m not very interested in agriculture (frankly) and because I keep thinking about how I am not at the protest and feeling guilty about it. Shouldn’t I be saving the world right now? (kidding, kinda) I still think this could be a good job for me, so I need to pull myself together and focus. I need to read enough so that I can update my presentation and feel like I have enough background for the interview.
Here are the subjects I need to brush up on or add to the presentation:
- National Agriculture Library
- 4H
- cooperative extension in MN
- extension faculty & programming at UMN
- outreach to ag libraries by academic libraries in the US
- info lit standards
- open access & scholarly publishing
- how academic libraries can directly support researchers
- org chart for this particular library
Some of this is review for me, so I shouldn’t have any problems finishing this today if I can just focus. Then, I can move onto other things, like submitting the next job application.
Gah!
I’ve got the sweetie hooked on my crazy idea of going to London for Christmas. She is checking theater schedules right now! I best be about renewing my passport, just in case.
Today I am grateful for:
- A beautiful, gorgeous summer
- The giant box of vegetables that mysteriously appeared on our doorstep
- My scrambled egg & cheddar cheese sandwich, on whole wheat molasses bread with the homemade ketchup I bought. (I adore ketchup).
- I have a amazing job in which I get to do meaningful work that serves people and the great good, for which I get paid a living wage, and I get to work with amazing, supportive, collaborative, cool people. You all often only get to hear me talk about the bad things or vent about how stressed out I am, but, even so, I love my job.
- I have two real prospects for even better jobs, with all of the above qualities, plus a potential third prospect.
- All the people of conscience who have stood up and spoke up for social justice and liberty over the past few decades.
- For my parents, who raised me to believe in social justice and to work for it. I remain astonished by their examples of lives spent in the service of others.
http://twincities.indymedia.org/
The raids on and arrests of activists are being covered by mainstream media here, but with significant bias. I resent the generalized stereotype that all of those being harassed are “extremists” intending to commit violent &/or illegal acts. This is a way to marginalize and discredit legal, peaceful, nonviolent protest activities that are legal under U. S. law by people of conscience.
determined
emotional
opinionated
honest
idealistic
trepidatious
reader
thinker
creative
punning
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html
oh boy, here we go…
I have no idea what happened to last week. I took a week of vacation from work and somehow managed to accomplish nothing, except throwing a party, walking the dog, feeling freaked out, napping, watching Olympics and reading a couple of fiction books. I had well-intentioned friends telling me that they were worried about me and that I should take it easy and do some vacationing. This would normally be fine, except that I have these two job interviews coming up for which I have to do big presentations. I did almost nothing to prepare and now will be up very late tonight and tomorrow night and will go to my interview on very little sleep. I feel stupid. I just couldn’t figure out how to get myself out of my anxious & depressed miserable funk. I just kind of snapped unfairly at the sweetie for not somehow realizing that I needed help and that I was in trouble. As she pointed out, this isn’t at all fair, because she spent last week studying for a massive exam and did what she could to help me. She gave up going to the cabin last week to stay here with me, because I was freaking out. Also, her friend died unexpectedly last week. So, now I feel like a schmuck, in addition to everything else (sorry, sweetie!). The good news is that the little grey cells are finally working. When will I finally let go of this stupid pattern? Ultimately, I have to get myself unstuck, no one else can.
