Wednesday, August 31, 2016

What's changed?

Although more than a year has passed since I've even looked at this blog, I'm still exploring this time-management game called life. Although the kids are spending a lot more time on their own (wait till next week, when they're actually in elementary, middle, and high school every weekday), I've added school for me, and an additional life goal--being a librarian!
I came up to New York in the first place because I knew that in order for my life to have meaning, I needed to be involved with books and publishing. Back when I was 22, I thought that meant being an editor in a traditional publishing house, and although it didn't take me long to figure out that I didn't actually want the pressure of being the one to pick the winners and losers, I had a pretty good run of proofreading and copyediting.
I tried to walk away from that (freelance) job in 2006 (went so far as to give away my red pencils), but I couldn't yet see what I was meant to do instead, so I fell back into the comfortable(?) rhythm of receive job, complete job, wait on pins and needles for next job.
In 2014, I managed to walk away for good, mostly, and only then could I see my way to the next chapter. In Summer of 2015, I started the Syracuse iSchool MLIS program, and I'm now almost halfway through, on my way towards a life of reading, recommending, shelving, and helping my community not only with books but with a whole world of information needs and aspirations. Being a librarian encompasses so much more than I imagined.
Along with part-time online graduate classes and getting to visit more and cooler libraries than I'd ever imagined, I still love my hobbies: Christmas sweaters, nightgowns, dance costumes, skirts, and Craftsy cooking classes on everything from sauce and piecrust techniques to empanadas and Indian food. Here's a snapshot of some of my awesome kitchen gadgets
(tortilla press for dumplings, pasta machine for pasta).
One aspect of being an information specialist (and grad school, and life) that I've got to embrace is sharing my opinions in written form, so my fall resolution (more useful than New Year's, I hope), is to post about my hobbies here, and about more professional stuff over at our family Web site--link TK).
Shooting for once a week, and my next topic will be the Textile Arts Center, which is every bit as wonderful as I envisioned, and then some.