More job hunting

At my conference last week, I was asked to be on a panel after the opening keynote speaker. It was a great opportunity to let people know that I was graduating with my MLIS in December...check that... finishing my coursework in December (I'll be graduating in May). As a result, I had one or two people introduce themselves and ask me if I would be interested in applying at their institutions. One of them was a catalog position, and I don't think I would be very good at that.

As a result of being on this panel, I also made friends with a library director who was on the panel with me. We really hit it off, and after the conference was over, she sent me an email to let me know that her circulation librarian had just quit and wanted to see if I would be interested in applying for it. I told her to send me the job description. The college sounds really neat. It is in Mississippi. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that.

I currently have three applications out there. Two are for libraries in San Diego, and one is at a library in Idaho. I was looking at another job in Texas today, where I also think I would do well, and that position starts on September 1, but is negotiable...

In my mind, I'm applying for a bunch of different positions, and I am not really expecting that I will get any of these first ones that I apply for. The last time I went through the job hunting and application process, I felt like it took a month or two for me to really hone my application skills and write killer cover letters. So if I did happen to get a "bite" on one of my applications, and someone wanted to hire me, I feel like things would happen much more quickly than I expected them to.

I really want to see the job description for the job in Mississippi. I think I would have a good shot at getting that one because I already know the director. I definitely need wisdom on this decision because that would be a big change!

Music

At the last show I did with my former band, I met a guy who was vitally interested in talking with me about playing cello for him. He emailed me last week and we met up after work yesterday to just talk about music. It was really good and somewhat affirming.

Hard Drive

I was trying to do some laundry on Saturday and as I went to pick up my laundry basket from beside my bed, I tweaked my back and managed to pull my computer off of my desk. So I literally crashed my hard drive.

It was pretty upsetting and the first thing I did was call my computer geek friend to see what could be done. The answer was, "nothing, I think you're gonna have to take it in."

I took it to Best Buy, where they told me that my data was irretrievable. But then I went to a barbecue, where there were a bunch of computer geeks. One of them thought he might be able to retrieve my data. So I picked up my hard drive from Best Buy and gave it over. I still haven't heard the results.

The good news is that there is now a new hard drive in my computer and it was covered under my extended warranty, so I don't have to pay anything. The bad news is that I can't get it back until I return the original hard drive.

In other good news, I found the data for my Master's degree that I thought I had lost on one of my flash drives. I didn't think I had backed-up my classwork, but I did. I'm relieved. Still sad about all the other stuff, like journal entries, pictures, and my music. So it would be fantastic if I could get my data back, but because I have the most important stuff on my flash, I'm better off than I thought I was.