The Freckled Diaries

41.4

Inches. Of snow. That's the official Alexandria total (between the two storms--but they really were back-to-back), as reported in the local paper which finally showed up today. Wow. Even I didn't think it was that high. 

The National Guard came, I didn't see them until the other day though because they were mainly down by City Hall doing their thing. I think they're gone now. The President declared Virginia a disaster area, and I suspect that Maryland's not too far behind. We had work today, though, finally. The government was on a 2-hour delay, mainly to allow for transportation issues. It was weird being back, and very difficult to concentrate. Everyone was in good spirits and it was nice to be back roaming the buzzing halls again.

Still, it's an adjustment. I suspect it will take a little while for things to feel normal again. Good news, though: I'm up for a pretty great (permanent) job very closely related to the one I have--different building, similar sort of setup (I'd still be a Capitol Hill librarian--just for a different library). I'm trying really hard to not get my hopes up, but my boss called the person doing the hiring (who she knows and has worked with) and sang my praises and highly encouraged her to consider me. So....that's good, right? It would be so perfect if it worked out (which is kind of why I'm pretty sure it won't). Fingers crossed!

A Library Kind of Day

Or, more accurately, a Library of Congress kind of day, seeing as how every day is a library kind of day for me.  I slept over at my aunt and uncle's house (we had fun when I was living there after the burglary, and it's just easier to stay over when I go there for dinner ) and dragged myself out of bed at an ungodly hour (7:15) the next morning. Libraries and librarians keep non-standard working hours (as you may imagine), and I generally use that to my advantage and swing in sometime between 10 and 11. Lest you think I'm lazy, that also means that I'm always there at least until 6, frequently until after 7. I prefer that schedule--it suits me and my nocturnal ways. So, long story short, anything before 8:30 is "ungodly early" in my book.

Why this cruel turn of events? I had to go to a training at the Congressional Research Service, in the Madison building of the Library of Congress. CRS runs all sorts of classes on Congress for congressional staff. I noticed that a 7 week series--Advanced Legislative Processes Institute--was coming up. It's a good program, and you get a certificate after it, and the fact that you've taken it goes in your personnel file, and for someone who would like to stay working on the Hill or in a related library environment, it's a good idea to take it. Legislative process and procedures are really quite complex. I know that most folks know this, but I still feel the need to say that it's not all School House Rock. I know the "basics", (which is actually pretty detailed for non-legal/legislative types) but the really advanced stuff is difficult to me, and quite confusing. So, not only to I want to show I've taken this course, I really do want to know the stuff.

Unfortunately, CRS requires you to be invited to take the Advanced course, and a prerequisite to being invited is to take "Congress: an Introduction to Resources and Procedure". From 9am to 3:30 pm. Now, I will say that it was a great review, particularly for House processes and procedure (very very different to the Senate, and in my opinion more complex, but maybe because I'm just not used to it), but it was a very, very long day. Particularly because I was surrounded mainly by extraordinarily young, brand-new-to-the-Hill kids from (mostly) House member's offices (as opposed to committee staff, or Senator's staff, who tend to be a little more.... let's go with experienced). Anyone who's heard my rant about how one actually gets that first and usually entry level job in a Member's office will know what I'm talking about (connections, plain and simple, you will NOT get hired without major string pulling by some big shot on your behalf) . I think I've grown to be too nice (or paranoid) to put the rest of the rant in print. So, I found myself back in the sea of everything I grew to hate about the Hill, which prompted my career change in the first place.

Now, there is no such thing as a stupid question. If you do not know something, you should ask it. It is never stupid to seek the information you need. This is the librarian's creed, and it's true, and I believe it. But what I couldn't believe is some of the things that some people needed to know. These are people who already are in the employ of the United States Congress in some shape or form. It was very surprising, disheartening, and brought back up a lot of old angry feelings about just how unfair the whole "hiring process" is (it's not what you know, it's who you know). So they weren't stupid questions, and I won't repeat any of them here. But it was just really very...difficult. 

After that (and after putting in my application for the Senate Advanced Legislative Processes Institute, and double checking that the House Advanced.... will be offered later this year), I scurried across Independence Avenue (or is it Pennsylvania once you get to 1st Street?) to the Adams Building of the Library of Congress to meet with someone related to the project I'm working on for the Committee. An hour later, and I was in another room of the Adams Building for my graduate school class: (Indexing, Abstracting and Thesaurus Design).

All in all, I spent the entire day, from 8:30am to 7:30 pm at the Library of Congress, for three very separate reasons. A very library day indeed.

Guess where?

Yes, I'm back at the library.  This time in the Science and Business Reading Room of the Library of Congress.  It's not anywhere near as impressive as the Main Reading Room, but I actually really like it.  It's extremely art deco in here and honestly reminds me of a bank--an old, cool art deco type bank (green marble, gold grilles over doors, some chrome looking stuff and very geometric and stylized stately looking owls standing at the doorways).  It also smells like a library in here, something the Main Reading Room does not.

I'm updating because this is a closed-stack system and I had to put in a request for my books and now I'm waiting for them to be sent up the conveyor belt to me.  But, yes, here I am another Saturday at the library and I'm very pleased about that.

Oh, I also meant to add,  this place is so fun.  There's cool stuff everywhere!  But by far the Science Reserve Services is the best! History of Household Technology webcasts (it's fun I swear), information on beer brewing, school gardens etc.  It's my goal to take up the offer of one of our guest speakers in class the other day and come in and check out the cookbook section.  Hundreds of years of cookbooks--from small town Junior League fundraiser cookbooks from the 20s to Julia Childs' first editions. Sounds like kind of a blast to me, quirky recipe and regional cooking wise, at least.  Man, I could live here.

Libraries and Autumn

They're just best of friends.  I wish I could just upload the sensory perfection and the sheer bliss that has been the past several days. I've spent much of my time since Saturday at either the Library of Congress or Catholic's library.  Saturday afternoon was passed here:

The Library of Congress's Main Reading Room.  Literally right there, too.  At the seat just in front of the second column from the right.  Not a good seat at all, actually.  Too close to the traffic coming in and out (see the aisle), and too close to the laptop users (they are on the other side of that aisle). Seeing as how I'm extremely noise-sensitive, even the whispered conversations between the librarians and patrons and the clicky clack from the laptop section were a bit much.  Oh and that seat is in direct line of sight of the tourist area and even though they're enclosed in plexiglass, you can still hear their shrieking toddlers and see them milling about, which is only slightly less distracting than the clicky-clack.  I sat there, though, because I needed to keep the late afternoon sun out of my eyes and get the heck away from the scofflaw Georgetown student who had set up her laptop in the non-laptop area. I had half a mind to ask something to be done about it, but I didn't.

Anyway, that was Saturday until 5pm.  Then I was off to Catholic's library to get some books that I could actually check out and then I headed to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. Walking out of the library, the last of the sun's rays disappearing and casting that clear autumn light onto everything, loafers clicking on the stone steps, cold air nipping at my legs (tweed skirt season!), wind whirling around crispy leaves with an armful of books, the newness of puppy love popping into my head, surprising me over and over again (what exactly IS it about me and fall...aren't we supposed to have spring fever?), the satisfaction of a good day's work well done, and looking forward to a cozy family evening....it just is so wonderfully and stupidly perfect it just shouldn't be legal.

Sunday was an equally lovely day spent with Rebecca and Erin at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, where we ran into no fewer than 7 people we know from Ballyshanners or Gatsby's Tavern or just generally from around Old Town.  The weather was so lovely it should be bottled and sold and we had a great time watching a Shakespeare parody/comedy troupe, semi-stalking a bagpipe band (men in kilts...we've decided that's our favorite way they are packaged), watching a joust, window shopping, and eating fried things on sticks.  Oh and drinking Sam Adams Octoberfest which is really just a wonderful beer.  Came home, car heater working it's sleepy magic but managed to swing by Murphy's to hear about Rebecca's first paying gig (she'd left the Festival early to do a show at Casablanca).  Pat Garvey who is in an apples and oranges type of tie for my favorite pub singer was playing, and I haven't seen him in ages and it was so nice to hear him sing again--especially those songs that only he does.

Monday was a sleepy kind of day but it involved more Catholic library which wasn't so blissful this time around (mainly because the research topic is a little frustrating) but then there was pub trivia.  We got our asses handed to us but it's alright.  We had fun.  Today was more Library of Congress which is really just my favorite place on earth (Newspaper and Periodicals Reading Room this time) and then to Catholic for a midterm which I think I did pretty well on.

Phew.  So that's life.  Libraries and autumn pretty much.  

Agenda (besides unpacking): buy pumpkins, carve, cook, toast seeds.  Buy firewood (I'm on the hunt for applewood--burns cleaner and smells so sweet), have fire.  Sit in big comfy chair, drink apple tea, read copious amounts of books (preferably with kitty in lap, dependent on feline cooperation).  Coziness index will be through the roof.

Oh, and PS, a little schadenfreude to fall asleep by. They're having trouble renting out my old place.  They just had to drop the price.  It would be amusing if they have to cut it to below what I was paying (economy having tanked and all). They're already out one full month's rent that I happily would have paid in full (and early, as always).  It doesn't seem hugely likely that they'll get someone by Nov 1 so that will be more than a month's rent by then.  And they have the nerve to claim that *I* have cost them "thousands of dollars" (patently untrue--the only person to move out over the alleged smoking--his apartment was rented out almost immediately upon his departure).  They've just cost themselves a sum in the four figures, plus the time spent advertising and showing the place.  The bullet couldn't have hit the foot more squarely if they'd tried.

Reading List

Here's my reading list for this semester (or, well the books, most of the readings are articles), I'm very pleased with it! 

Other than that, I'm stressing myself needlessly about all the different options available.  I'm trying to sort through what needs to be done, what should be done and what I just plain old want to do.

So far my list is thus:

• American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting in Denver Jan 23-26
• American Library Association's Annual Meeting in Chicago July 9-15
• Oxford Seminar Early May-Late May
• Art and Museum Librarianship Class (which is possibly being taught in Scotland this summer, if it is and if the dates line up I would certainly do both Oxford and the Museum class)
• Rare Book School at UVA (different seminars at different points all summer, generally week long)
• Figure out exactly what is up with the Certificate in Conservation from U. Texas is all about.  All their website has is information for people getting their MLS who also want the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Conservation, which is apparently a 2.5-3 year venture.  It tells those who already have the degree to call to work out their options.  This is certainly a post-graduation thing, but I really hope it's not longer than a semester because I just don't feel like relocating temporarily to anywhere.  I'm either in or out, no halfway (of DC that is), and because it's a conservation certificate and DC is where a huge amount of conservation jobs are....you figure it out.  I really would hate to have to give up the new apartment because I'm leaving for only 6 months only to turn around and have to go through the hell that is the apartment rental game all over again, with no guarantee of success. Oh, it's maddening.

So, that's it, so far.  It's what I can remember.  It's a lot.  There's several more regional meetings of ALA type things and Society for American Archivists and just a huge variety of things.  Overwhelming, I say.

Hooray for Librarians

To me, this post is less about She Who Must Not Be Named's attempt at banning books from her feifdom's Wasilla's library and more about the great comments of people's love and realization that really, librarians along with journalists are on the front lines of the fight for the First Amendment.

And for the record: just....ick.  It's one thing to have some local crazies band together to burn copies of Harry Potter, or to try to get Our Bodies, Ourselves ripped from the shelves of the local library but it's entirely another for the mayor of a town to unilaterally attempt to do the same (and, possibly, fire the librarian for refusing to comply although that part is unclear).

I'm all for age-appropriate reading materials here, and take serious issue with publishers marketing certain series to audiences which are far too young, even younger than the author intended, but that doesn't mean it needs to be removed from existence!  It just means that parents and guardians have to be as involved in their children's reading materials as they are in their television, movie and internet usage (and if that's "none", well then you get what you get).

School, Scotland, Wanderlust and Questionable Sanity

Today (tonight, really) I had my first class of the semester.  It's the "Libraries and Information in Society" core course so not too terribly much to report awesome class-wise (that should be tomorrow and Thursday), but I did see my seat buddy/ group project partner from last semester's classes and it was nice to catch up.  I told her about Alaska, she told me about Scotland and just as I finished my oft-repeated sigh of "oh, I have always wanted to live there, I gotta make that happen one day", a girl sitting in front of us piped up saying that she had lived in Edinburgh after college and (a) can show me how to get a student work visa for up to 6 months (b) her old roommate is a librarian there and could help with the finding of a job (c) knows how to find short term furnished apartments.  Awesome.  Add the fact that I could probably squeeze in a class or two to apply toward my degree(s) (I'm working out the history component) and that could be basically awesome.  

It's not the permanent move I've long wanted to make but it's a start, and now that this is becoming more reality I'm not sure if I'm totally up for a permanent move to someplace I've never been, even if it does seem like a match made in heaven.  Or, well, I'm not sure if I'm totally up for a permanent move at all to anywhere because I seem have a strong aversion to making permanent decisions (God help me on that front or I'll never marry!). But if I were up for a permanent move somewhere, Edinburgh would be top on the list along with Philadelphia (home), Portland and Seattle. I had others (extremely random others) listed but then, upon reflection...no.  I wouldn't wish to end up in those places permanently...not saying that I wouldn't DO it, I just wouldn't make it one of my "genie wishes".

There are also seriously promising avenues on the international development front.  In fact, the American Library Association has a whole "working group" for international sustainable library development within its International Relations Roundtable and on TOP of it, one of the members just so happens to be a Catholic professor.  Add the encounter last semester with the new president of the International Federation of Library Associations (who happens to be African and have contacts with some programs for library development that I found on my own), and that, too, is a promising avenue.  I doubt that any of this would result in long-term relocation because the nature of these programs is to get them to be self-sustainable. For me, that's good and bad (and for the libraries, all good, obviously). 

The good is that I do like to keep on-the-move and really don't like feeling "stuck" anywhere (even if I like it there) but the bad is the exact flip side of that coin and it is that when you're living and working somewhere you love it's really hard to move on.  This insane conflict of desires is a constant in my life and I'm getting kind of sick of it. But just think, the longer time you spend in one place or doing one thing, that is time that you are necessarily withholding from other, possibly more interesting,  prospective living and working situations.  Basically, every month you spend in DC is one month you won't be able to spend elsewhere.  Every day spent on one project or in one job is a day you can't spend in your "next" project or job.  It's maddening.

But either way, on the development front,  3-6 months of work developing specific outreach programs, funding projects or library worker training (or just helping get a new library off the ground) would be both fun and rewarding....I'm just sure I'd want to stay longer while having the drive to go back home and also wanting to live someplace entirely new.  Crazy, I tell you.

But then we come around to the constant sticking point.....the cats.  What to do with the cats? They do qualify for the special US/UK pets program that does not require quarantine but I kind of question Penny's ability to survive the stress of that particular trip, as well as much longer ones (most of the development stuff I've looked into has been in Central and Southern Africa). This is the same cat who wound up in the kitty ICU the one and only time she was present to witness a move.  What was wrong?  Respiratory distress brought on by stress related to moving. I kid you not, I have a cat with a nervous condition.  Something tells me that 6 to 12 hours in a cargo hold (after several hours of driving to airport/being in airport) would not do the wee beastie any favors.  

Can you leave kitties behind for 6 months? The longest I've left them was for 8 weeks, once for the campaign and once for Vietnam.  Does it even make sense to bring them for such a short term?  What happens if I DO wind up moving permanently? I don't want to leave them behind but I don't want to risk killing them (or, well her...Toby would be fine because he really doesn't care what you do to him as long as it doesn't involve water and provided there's food afterwards).  I love them, but I kind of get a little regretful about the roots that they've given me.  Stupid roots.

So....in case you haven't caught on, the wanderlust is gnawing at me again. I have no big trips planned (I WAS going to do the January term class in Nicaragua but it apparently filled up in a matter of hours), and have been discovering and re-discovering just HOW MANY options there are in this field and it's kind of overwhelming....like "trip to the fabric store" overwhelming, not scary overwhelming, and I suspect that this is the source for this particular bout of the travel bug.  For the record, though, I have visited 10 international library development sites, 6 cities' Craigslists (for apartments) as well as a few Edinburgh specific rental websites, and 3 international pet moving specialist companies all in the past hour.  

All I have to say today is...

I can't freaking wait!

And this, I think, is the best song (during the bachelorette party scenes which look great!)

It's funny because I didn't care to see the live musical because somehow the West End/Broadway thing doesn't seem to work with the pop-song musical thing (Jersey Boys, I'm looking at you too) but the movie musical thing and the pop song musical thing is like a match made in heaven (Moulin Rouge anyone?).  The movie soundtrack was released today and yay!  Just yay.  I can't wait. 

In other news, it turns out that the Air Force has several hundred civilain job openings for librarians, the reasons for which I don't fully understand but they pay fairly well, have room for growth and are in locations basically everywhere.  Everywhere there's an Air Force base that is, which as it turns out IS kind of everywhere.  All of the lower 48 plus Alaska and Hawaii, Guam, Korea, almost everywhere in Western Europe, Egypt, Kuwait and then I stopped looking at listings.  I hope this hiring binge lasts until I graduate! Choosing between Korea and Hawaii (and Britain, too) would be tough.  I've long held the desire to live in Britain for some period of time, and recently had an "a few years in a little bungalow in Hawaii would be awesome" kind of attitude (a screened in porch/lanai is essential for this fantasy because that's where I intend to have my bedroom), and I couldn't get enough of Korea when I was there oh-so-briefly. 

Isn't it funny the amount of time we (it can't be just me) put into "plans" that are nowhere on the horizon? It's fun to dream :)

Monday, Monday

The weather did eventually break (somewhat) but not without a few more "episodes" on my part. Without getting too far into it, lets just say that there were lots of tears of anger and frustration (I'm really not a crier--only recently I suppose) mainly surrounding parking issues (here, and in Bethesda), and a mid-day call to a friend to go out to lunch because I needed out and away from the apartment and was feeling deprived of conversation and human contact.  Thankfully my friend felt the same exact way and we had a lovely lunch and felt like humans again.  It was good.

It really does drive me crazy, the heat.  Like it somehow makes me hormonal or something (that's the only other feeling I can relate it to).  Just that I have a good case of the crankies and crazies that doesn't go away until we return to a more sane temperature/humidity.

Anyway, besides house stuff I've been continuing my work as a research assistant for my adviser and have just wrapped up preliminary work on her summer project--a study of the Library of Congress's Flickr project.  Without getting too far into all the library of science stuff which is hard to explain without actually writing the research paper, it's basically comparing the Library's way of describing the photo using their standardization rules versus the users' tags.  There are serious pros and cons to each, which we already know, but this is a large project and "in practice" research can be done.  It's cool, and complicated and has a bit to do with this project I did in school, which as you may remember I got a 99.5 on :).

Here are some of my favorite photos, from th 1930s/1940s in color set:

 

And finally,

I'd love a pantry that looks like that but sadly, I've decided that this summer is going to be the "hot water bath" method of canning only which means only acidic foods which basically means tomatoes and other fruits, no veggies.  Non-acidic foods need the pressure method, which requires a special canner which is expensive and makes no sense to buy for me at this stage.  I have no idea how the food pictured here was canned--there have been many, many home canning methods used over the years but now they know that the only two truly safe ones are hot water bath and pressure and that non-acidic foods MUST be canned using pressure to avoid botchalism and other poisoning (pressure allows the temperature to get above the boiling point of water which non-acidic foods need to kill the bacteria that the acid in acidic foods usually kills).

I will, however, give freezing non-acidic foods a go.  It's not as environmentally friendly as canning (freezers use electricity, and plastic bags are generally used) but it's still healthier and more environmentally sound than the alternatives.  Freezing food, apparently, is easy.  You blanch (immerse into boiling water, then quickly cool in ice water) the vegetables according to a proscribed time, dry them, pack them tightly and lay them out (not stacked) in a freezer until frozen solid, then they can be stacked.  Apparently most vegetables will last 12 months this way (asparagus only 9).  That's a project I'll be tackling over the next day or two, just to see how it goes.  I'm going to do asparagus which YES is out of season here now but I didn't anticipate this slow of a start.  I'll get it from as close to here as possible--something is better than nothing!

Today, I'm going into work to learn about the next phase of the LoC Flickr project, and then I'm finishing the kitchen reorganization, probably taking a trip to the recycling center (lots of boxes) and figuring out how to safely dispose of old knives.

Spring Cleaning

Ok, so no pictures.  Yet.  I was a little over ambitious.  But it's in full swing and going well.  I can't quite give it a "score" on my percentage scale because it's all so random (kitchen is freshly done and is 95% perfect--I have to re-organize the under-sink storage area) yet the bedroom looks like...it is a disaster, basically.  You'd almost expect to see it on some cop show, where the crazy bad guy lives. Well, not quite.  Basically, every article of clothing I have ever owned is on the floor, and not even in piles on the floor.  Two suitcases are still out from some recent trip or another and you could probably write your name in all the dust.  The closet is so bad that, NO KIDDING yesterday I thought I lost my cat in all the door-opening and closing excitement (movers...long, long story) and checked the closet THREE times before I found her in all the clutter.  I'd already searched the rest of the building.  Front room is...weird.  Mount St. Laundry is alive and well but isn't actually laundry.  It's a Goodwill pile with no place else to live.  But, the front room is now officially the crafts room!  Major reorganization/re-purposing.  Now just have to run extension cord so that the sewing machine can be plugged in and make some shelves.  But it's alright for now.  The rest of the place just needs regular day to day stuff done, but I just need to find the time. 

I'm having a friend over to spend the weekend so I probably won't get to the rest of it until next week (eek!) but I'll live.  Life organization isn't going AS well but none of it is time sensitive (except the hostage mail situation which I've dealt with).  Can't wait to be done so I can photograph this place!  I've actually never taken pictures of the house, which considering how much I love it and how much time I put into making it pretty is kind of crazy.

School is going well and I've already made some strong contacts for future jobs.  Very excited.  This world of library science gives you so many options--I don't know what to do!  For now, I'm leaning toward doing the international development thing (these are the contacts I've made, conveniently) where basically you get funding to develop libraries in rural South Africa.  I really like this idea on so many levels and is one of the reasons I chose this path.  We take free and easy access to information for granted here but if you really think about it--it's really one of the most amazing things about Western culture.  It can make such a difference in people's lives and educations...I just really like that idea.  Of course there's all the rest, maps, rare books, archives, research....it's just endless!  It's going to be hard to make a choice but it'll be fun!