laurenisms

So it turns out that working has definitely decreased my quality of life. I’m actually getting less sleep than I did in school; I wake up too early and get home from work too late to get anything done. At any given point during the day, I feel like I could fall asleep within two minutes. I used to walk to school, twenty to thirty minutes each day, and now I walk out the door into the carpool car and then out of the car into the elevator at work.
But worst of all, just before Christmas break, my “team” at work moved to another part of the building. And in this other part of the building, the maintenance staff puts the toilet paper on upside down.

(song: “Misery,” the Beatles)

Scraped up my elbow this morning falling off the couch trying to get to the radio: Click & Clack were playing the Old 97s. I don’t think I’ve ever heard them on the radio (possibly because I don’t listen to KEXP as often as I should) so it was very exciting. And now my elbow hurts.

Last week I had to go out to a software company out on the Eastside to get an ID card and stuff for my work. It was an adventure but not too scary. I might have to learn to drive in order to be able to go out there on my own in the future. Oh no, Lauren in a car!!
But I still feel like I’m playing grown-up at work and am being totally transparent — it’s obvious to me that I have no idea what’s going on, but no one else seems to notice. I’m still figuring out how well I’ve convinced them of my adulthood, and I seem to be doing OK: last week I asked if I could have a footrest and a mousepad with a wrist rest, and they just came.

(song: “Bel Air,” Old 97s)

I didn’t have a chance to get new shoes this time because everything happened so quickly. I applied last Wednesday for a job that was posted the day before; I had a phone interview last Thursday and in-person interviews on Tuesday, and yesterday I was offered the job despite the lack of new Target shoes. I’m going to be a taxonomist! I’m starting out part-time next week and then I’ll go up to full time when I finish school in December.
And now I can buy shoes at places that are not Target! Whenever I want!

(song: “Iowa,” Dar Williams)

I am working on making it display the metadata I want.

Soon I will import from MT. (Thanks Bill!)

so the interview turned to be not so much an interview but more like a test to make sure i wasn’t a stupid person, because they’ve been planning on hiring me since they had two applicants for two positions.
turns out i’m not stupid and now i have a summer internship in the field i want to work in!

(song: “train from kansas city,” the superchunk version. i like the neko version better. i’ve never heard the original [shangri-las].)

this week, the student chapter of the american society for information science and technology is putting on icareer week, with a bunch of panels and things. this morning i went to the taxonomy panel and it was fabulous. i surprise myself sometimes: sitting there listening to these people who build taxonomies and manage projects and whatnot at microsoft, amazon, corbis, and moss adams, i realized i understood what they were talking about. it was very disorienting, as i still think of myself as being in way over my head here. but i have had a few epiphanies this week about career-type things, mostly along the lines of “i can do this!” and “taxonomy and information architecture are so interesting!” and “i want to work at corbis!!”
(i want to work at corbis.)

knitblog updated with pictures; kitchenisms updated with recipes.

(song: “oppenheimer,” the old 97s *sigh*)

it turns out the tall boots i bought on sunday afternoon were not an unjustified indulgence, but rather a preemptive celebration: i have gotten a job! yes, i did already have a job, but now i have a better job! i liked my job at special collections, and of course i loved working there, but this job includes benefits, a huge (by my sad standards) stipend, and (this is the important part) a full tuition waiver.
this means i can stay in school!
forever!!
school starts tomorrow. i don’t yet know what i’m taking exactly. it will depend on whether i can get into a really exciting class that i have to register for at six tomorrow morning. thus, to bed. next installment: how lauren went back to high school and did not die.

(song: “tightly,” my girlfriend neko case)

i guess it’s ok that no one was around to email me last week, because i actually got some things done. i just turned in an assignment two days early! this never happens to me. it was a really easy assignment, but still. now i only have to research, start, and finish a ten-page paper for friday, and also come up with a silly write-up of my fieldwork.
today i went for a walk with my fieldwork boss. he is the reason i am in library school, and he is a really awesome guy, so he always kind of intimidates me. we had just gone over the first draft of the silly report i am writing, and then we went to roma and had some chai and walked to the graveyard. we talked about library school, and how i don’t know if i’m really getting what i want out of it, but i don’t know exactly what i want so maybe it’s ok. he said he would contact his old mentor from when he was in library school and get recommendations for other courses or little programs or things i could do to get more experience in the special-collections related world, like rare book school or a two-week session to get archival certification somewhere in california. so i felt happy and not intimidated. if he’s willing to share his mentor, maybe he doesn’t hate me after all.
i can’t find the site for the two-week archival certification program, though, and i’m too tired to look properly. am going to bed.

(song: “at the zoo,” simon & garfunkel)

i really want to redesign. i was going to do some work on it before i left seattle since the ischool has some tablet pcs for checkout, and i could draw fun things. i forgot to, though, so now i have to wait until i get back to seattle. maybe. or get used to drawing with a mouse.
today was grown-up staff meeting day again. i had two meetings this morning! these people really think i’m competent or something — they have this idea that i’m going to accomplish things. it makes me kind of uncomfortable and kind of happy at the same time.
i decided to stop being stupid and go to the lake with shelby this weekend. yay!

(song: “asleep on a sunbeam,” belle & sebastian)

i have been alternating between total confidence in my ability to my fieldwork goals and sheer panic about it - i am only at H! there is no way i can finish the whole survey by the end of next week!! really, as is common for me, i think i need to stick to somewhere in between. i can finish it if i get off my ass and stop wasting time.
today i learned that these big huge awful boxes called solander cases are too wide, and the aisles between shelves too narrow, to accommodate both solander case + my body, even if it’s just my knuckles sticking out on either side of the case. i am now missing a few pieces of skin off a knuckle on my right middle finger, which seemed to be important pieces of skin as i think they were holding a lot of blood in. at least, it all came out after they were removed. ew.
roommate bryon has discovered my new favorite beer: abbey. go new belgium!

(song: “baby driver,” simon & garfunkel)