Good news! and an update

I have a job! :) I'm going to be a Library Assistant at Pflugerville Community Library in Pflugerville, Texas, a small city northeast of downtown Austin. I interviewed on Tuesday and was offered/accepted the job on Wednesday. According to the job description, I'll be shelving books, checking materials in and out, issuing library cards, answering phones, and helping computer users. It seems like a great work environment and I'm looking forward to getting started.

Been busy since the last post, as always. Last week was the first kickball victory I was present for (the other one happened at the only game I've missed). We beat the team that beat us 7-0 in our first game. Very satisfying. We've got two more games to go, so we could plausibly end the season at .500. I have faith.

I've been going to quite a few library-related things lately: a couple of things hosted by our career services office, a Romance Readers' Social, and a screening of The Hollywood Librarian, after which the director spoke with the audience. The documentary isn't, at present, commercially available, but I wish everyone I know would watch it because it captures much more eloquently than I've been able to why I want to be a librarian. Even after watching the segments on the battle to keep open the public libraries in Salinas, California, I felt confirmed in the desire to be a public librarian. It was a good feeling and a powerful documentary. And Ann Seidl, the director, is something else. She's fearless. It's inspirational, even if you don't necessarily agree with her.

Jennie was here. We went to San Antonio for the day on Sunday and did the Alamo, Market Square and the River Walk. She bought me a beautiful pashmina as an early Christmas gift. I'm wearing it right now, actually, because it's finally cold in Texas--it feels like Thanksgiving! :) Monday, she toured the Capitol while I was in class and then that night we had drinks on Sixth Street and went to Artz Rib House. Oh, and we took her to the Dog and Duck and Woodrow's while she was here. Good times.

Now the houseguests are gone and there are three weeks (and lots of homework) left of the semester. But first, Thanksgiving. Pat and I are going down to San Antonio to have dinner with some friends of mine from high school and their families. If I can pry him away from the Packers game, that is.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

October, I hardly knew ye...

Okay, October's not quite over, yet, but it has flown by! And, even though I was wearing shorts just a few days ago, it seems fall may finally have arrived. Right now, it's 75 degrees, but this morning it was 50 and I saw two people wearing gloves. True story. Anyway, what have I been up that's made the time go by so quickly? Well...

Kickball season started a couple of weeks ago. Yes, kickball. Pat and I are both playing on my school's team, Dublin Hardcore (it's a library joke that I haven't been here long enough to fully understand). Our player numbers are all Dewey Decimal numbers. Pat's is 621 for Applied Physics and mine is 641 for Food & Beverage. And you thought it didn't get any geekier than Theta Ballers... ;) So far, we tied in a scrimmage and lost both of our regular season games. But, we improved from scoring no runs in the first game to scoring three in the second, so I think things are looking up.

Last game, I was really awesome and ran full speed directly into the ground. It didn't hurt that much when I first stood up, but eventually several injuries surfaced: I got dirt so far under my fingernail on my right thumb that it really stung for a day and then got infected (gross, I know); I have a bottle-cap sized scab on my left shoulder and I did something that wasn't visible or disgusting but really painful to my left thigh. And that's on top of face-planting in the dirt in front of 30 people. Did I mention I'm awesome?

A couple of weeks ago, we went to this place called Threadgill's to see The Gourds. The Gourds, for those of you who don't know, are a bluegrass-y rock band that did a cover of Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice. The cover was featured on a recent episode of My Name is Earl, if you happen to watch that show. The show was, first of all, outdoors in October and I was wearing short-sleeves. It was also totally awesome. They are excellent performers.

Despite the fact that I feel like I just started school, I also had my advising appointment for next semester this month. Next semester ought to be good; I'm taking some classes that are actually library-related (this semester I'm only taking one library class and 3 core classes): Collection Management, Research, and most likely an independent study on library services for incarcerated persons.

Elsewhere in library-world, I started volunteering at the Austin Public Library and I toured the Hogg Regional Foundation Library last week. At APL, I'm shelving books. It is what it is. The RFL tour was really interesting though. It's a library of foundation information. What they do, essentially, is help grant writers. They have a large collection of resources on who offers grants and for what purposes and how to write grants. They also do grant proposal editing and a few other things. It's really a hidden gem, I think, for non-profits or grad students looking for money. I was really impressed with their operation and I kind of wish I needed to write a grant so I could spend more time there. Or that I could just work there.

Hmm...something else has been going on this month...what is it...

Oh, wait, I know. Football and Baseball. Life is good. GO SOX!