so it begins...
I know. It's been ages since my last post. But my life has been utter chaos since then, and finding the time or the energy to sit down and actually string together words into coherent sentences has just seemed like a monumental task. So here's the highlight reel:
My last day at the public library was September 30. It was kind of bittersweet--I was just starting to get along pretty well with everyone, but it was time for me to go. I think I will miss working with the books themselves the most. It was fun looking at interesting popular non-fiction works every shift, and I wish I had written down more titles of some of the books I cataloged for future leisure reading. Oh well.
The whole home remodeling thing finally finished just mere hours before my mother arrived in Columbus. So all she saw was how sparkling and new everything looked, and not the cluttered hell the house was for 3 weeks. (I spent 3 hours scrubbing the f'n tile floor!) I'm just glad it's done, and I have vowed never to remodel anything for my parents ever again. I should've known better. Pinoys simply do not know how to plan.
I had my big graduation party this past Saturday at an Italian restaurant, in one of the banquet rooms. It was mostly an excuse for my parents to invite a bunch of their Pinoy friends to get together, but I was able to invite some school friends and colleagues, which was nice. My favorite professor came, which meant the world to me, because she really inspired me while I was a student. The party itself was vaguely surreal--Italian food, lots of Tagalog being spoken (rather loudly), a projection screen with the PBS special "Celtic Women" playing in the background, and 2 solid hours of karaoke. Probably the strangest karaoke moment was the song "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion being belted out by a balding, portly, fifty-something year-old Filipino man, with the words "'Cause I am your lady And you are my man Whenever you reach for me I'll do all that I can" pouring forth from his mouth. Overall it was a lot of fun, albeit strange, and I got a lot of loot out of the whole affair, which was nice.
Finally, I started my new job as a faculty member and librarian today. It took me 90 minutes from door to door to get to work, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Everyone was super-nice, and I met a lot of people I didn't meet during the interview process. It all seemed a little overwhelming, simply because there are so many different things I will be doing. I think most of my time will be spent cataloging items like Catholic materials, dissertations, rare books and other oddities. I will also be spending about 6 hours a week on the reference desk, answering student questions. I also found out today that I will be responsible for collection development in the subject area of communication, which is really intimidating because I don't have any experience with either collection development nor do I have any real knowledge of communication as an academic discipline, so I will be learning a lot on the job about both. At least I can partner with the faculty who teach communication courses to find out what kinds of materials they would like to see in the library, so I won't be flying completely blind. But it should be interesting.
The funny thing about my job is that tomorrow I'm actually participating in the interview process for another librarian position that was posted at the same time that my position was posted. I will actually be asking a potential candidate some of the same questions I was asked just a few weeks ago, which is just plain weird. But as one of my colleagues pointed out to me today, I'm a member of the faculty now, so why shouldn't I participate like the other faculty members? I think it's just going to take me a few days to get used to the whole thing, but I think I'm really going to like it.
On a side note--I finished reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys last week, and it was yummy. If you've read American Gods, you should read it. If you haven't read American Gods, you should read it. If you have no idea who Neil Gaiman is, you should read it. Basically, you should read it. It's terribly entertaining. Matt and I have plans to drive up to Cleveland at the end of the month to watch Mirrormask, and I can hardly wait.
Okay, I'm quite tired now, having driven to Dayton and back in a day, with work sandwiched in between. Hopefully I'll get used to that quickly.
G'night!
My last day at the public library was September 30. It was kind of bittersweet--I was just starting to get along pretty well with everyone, but it was time for me to go. I think I will miss working with the books themselves the most. It was fun looking at interesting popular non-fiction works every shift, and I wish I had written down more titles of some of the books I cataloged for future leisure reading. Oh well.
The whole home remodeling thing finally finished just mere hours before my mother arrived in Columbus. So all she saw was how sparkling and new everything looked, and not the cluttered hell the house was for 3 weeks. (I spent 3 hours scrubbing the f'n tile floor!) I'm just glad it's done, and I have vowed never to remodel anything for my parents ever again. I should've known better. Pinoys simply do not know how to plan.
I had my big graduation party this past Saturday at an Italian restaurant, in one of the banquet rooms. It was mostly an excuse for my parents to invite a bunch of their Pinoy friends to get together, but I was able to invite some school friends and colleagues, which was nice. My favorite professor came, which meant the world to me, because she really inspired me while I was a student. The party itself was vaguely surreal--Italian food, lots of Tagalog being spoken (rather loudly), a projection screen with the PBS special "Celtic Women" playing in the background, and 2 solid hours of karaoke. Probably the strangest karaoke moment was the song "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion being belted out by a balding, portly, fifty-something year-old Filipino man, with the words "'Cause I am your lady And you are my man Whenever you reach for me I'll do all that I can" pouring forth from his mouth. Overall it was a lot of fun, albeit strange, and I got a lot of loot out of the whole affair, which was nice.
Finally, I started my new job as a faculty member and librarian today. It took me 90 minutes from door to door to get to work, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Everyone was super-nice, and I met a lot of people I didn't meet during the interview process. It all seemed a little overwhelming, simply because there are so many different things I will be doing. I think most of my time will be spent cataloging items like Catholic materials, dissertations, rare books and other oddities. I will also be spending about 6 hours a week on the reference desk, answering student questions. I also found out today that I will be responsible for collection development in the subject area of communication, which is really intimidating because I don't have any experience with either collection development nor do I have any real knowledge of communication as an academic discipline, so I will be learning a lot on the job about both. At least I can partner with the faculty who teach communication courses to find out what kinds of materials they would like to see in the library, so I won't be flying completely blind. But it should be interesting.
The funny thing about my job is that tomorrow I'm actually participating in the interview process for another librarian position that was posted at the same time that my position was posted. I will actually be asking a potential candidate some of the same questions I was asked just a few weeks ago, which is just plain weird. But as one of my colleagues pointed out to me today, I'm a member of the faculty now, so why shouldn't I participate like the other faculty members? I think it's just going to take me a few days to get used to the whole thing, but I think I'm really going to like it.
On a side note--I finished reading Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys last week, and it was yummy. If you've read American Gods, you should read it. If you haven't read American Gods, you should read it. If you have no idea who Neil Gaiman is, you should read it. Basically, you should read it. It's terribly entertaining. Matt and I have plans to drive up to Cleveland at the end of the month to watch Mirrormask, and I can hardly wait.
Okay, I'm quite tired now, having driven to Dayton and back in a day, with work sandwiched in between. Hopefully I'll get used to that quickly.
G'night!