Dear Diary,
No one has shown up for the Drop-in Sessions this week on how to search the Catalog. We are trying different topics and different time slots to see if this idea will work. My co-resident is having more luck as the Mobile Librarian. She actually goes to a student hot spot from 3-11pm on Sundays. God Bless Her! So today we took our publicity efforts up a notch. My co-resident was kind enough to offer to distribute bookmarks with my times and dates on them during her interactions with students. I have to create some. I revised my poster and sent it over to Adworks so that they can print and distribute 200 posters on the Student Activity Bulletin Boards around campus. We also got an eye-catching rotation graphic on the library's homepage.
It just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day, lately. I have been talking to a few hiring professionals on the telephone. Those I try to schedule before work, at the end of the day or over the lunch hour. So my evenings are packed with preparing for the telephone conversations. I have started making folders and trying to keep them all straight. I keep refining my preferences and my selection criteria. I have a couple of invitations to come for in-person interviews but I have absolutely no time. I printed out my calendar today to try to mentally note when I could reasonable tell potential employers I am available but in the midst of scheduling one interview, based on my electronic calendar, I happened to glance at my wall calendar and noticed a lot more dates and times filled up than was showing on my electronic calendar. Well wouldn't ya know I looked at my email to see that due to Daylight Savings Time, our calendars need to be "patched" and we are being asked to print out our calendar and after the patch go in and manually correct the times. What a hassle! DOH!
I realized I am booked solid through the next 6 weeks with classes and meetings and projects such as my Blog for Electronic Resources. This is way more cumbersome than I initially thought. But I have learned more than just the normal Techy stuff you'd expect to learn about. In our Electronic Resources meeting this week I learned the plural of the noun rhinoceros is rhinoceros or rhi·noc·er·os·es.
During one of my phone interviews I was asked what would I like to improve about myself. I said immediately, "I need to lose weight so when I step on people's toes, it won't be such a painful experience!" The person could relate. I said "I think I can somewhat get by with a slap on the wrist because 'I'm still new' and I didn't know!" I said but that is going to get old, real fast. Luckily, I do that unintentionally so that helps.
Speaking of interviewing...I was growing weary of the process. Job hunting is mentally draining at times. But luckily, I try to see the glass as Half Full whenever possible. So I was walking across campus to post some of my Drop-in Session fliers, and as I returned to our library, I glanced up in unison with some people on a Campus Tour. We were all admiring the mural of Touchdown Jesus. The sun was out finally after a really foggy start to the day. And I decided to "BE" in the moment. To stop preparing mental reminders and to do lists for next month, etc...and so I sat down on the same bench I sat on when we concluded my Job Interview for this Residency. It was like it was just yesterday!
I could remember the questions being asked by specific people. I can remember thinking what an absolutely amazing campus this is. I recalled how honored I was to be at the University of Notre Dame. I reminded myself that 5 minutes before my phone interview with Notre Dame, I was utterly at my wit's end as a result of a stressful workplace environment. I remembered sitting there with two of my best friends thinking "I should not even do the interview! They'll never hire me! I don't meet all the requirements, they are only being nice because they are Notre Dame." My friends forced me into the conference room and told me, "Just do this last phone interview. We'll leave you alone, if nothing comes of this LAST one!" So I picked up the telephone and there were all the people I've come to know and love. And I remembered Dwight asked, "Can we call you FAY?" And I don't know why to this day, that just TICKLED me! I could not for the life of me imagine why on God's Green Earth would they want to call me FAY? But he seemed so nice and as a general rule I could not care less about what people call me, or how they pronounce my name. So I instantly agreed that they could call me FAY. I am not sure if I explicitly stated or just thought to myself that "You can call me FRANK, as long as you hire me!" Later it hit me that I was ahem...COVERTLY applying for another job, so did not use my work email but rather my personal email which uses the signature "FE" as in Fe-Fe. But I thought perhaps they thought of it as Santa Fe (Fay). OOOHHHHH Ha! Ha!
So that went well, obviously. Because I was invited to campus for an interview. As I arrived at the Morris Inn, I thought "Aww how quaint." I was so amused to drive past "Main Street. In my mind all small towns have a Main Street. I love small towns. When Margaret picked me up for dinner, we drove over payment made of bricks! And I thought of the Wizard of Oz where the Yellow Brick Road was made of gold bricks. All very positive signs. I remember that Margaret and I discussed how low taxes are in Indiana compared to Illinois.
And just when I thought it could not get any more interesting, we approach the restaurant and Margaret said "Oh there is Dwight, now." I look to see a gentleman ride up on a Bicycle. I was completely surprised. At that moment, I knew....okay it can't get any more delightful. So we three enter the restaurant and there is an instant thunder of greetings and screams the kind you'd expect at a Rock Star's entrance. Being the ahem "modest gal" that I am, I naturally assumed all the fuss was over my entrance. But then I heard distinct chants of "Dwight...Dwight!" Laura was already seated and explained that those were some of Dwight's students and "They just love him!" I accompanied Dwight many places during my rotation in the Law Library and I quickly realized that happens everywhere he goes. And it is well-deserved. I am a card-carrying member of the Dwight-is-the-Greatest Fan Club and find myself screaming when he enters a room. But I digress.
As the evening went on, I am not clear how I ended up telling Laura and Andy about the first time I kissed a boy at age 14 I went to Confession to tell my priest that I was pregnant. Because my father, the "Good Reverend" as we call him since his a Baptist Minister, very clearly and in no uncertain terms drilled into me that "If I kiss I boy...I'll get pregnant!" So this first kiss, CLOSED-mouth mind you...convinced me that I was with child and my priest assured me that if I said 10 Hail Mary's and promised not to repeat it, I'd be fine! I thought he was the COOLEST man alive and decided at that point that I wanted to be a Nun when I grew up. Ha!
All that is to say that I was at the end of my "Interviewing Rope" once before and had I given up, instead of persevering I would not be here. I would not have had this amazing experience, in this most sacred location with the best co-workers and supervisors I've ever seen gathered in one place. My friends say I have a cartoon or a song for every moment in my life. So if that is the case, today's song would be one of my all-time favorites by Diana Ross from the movie Mahogany...
There is a video clip available by clicking here for YouTube, naturally.
Do You Know Where You're Going To?
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?
Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open door
What are you hoping for?
Do you know...?
Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies
That filled our minds
You knew how I loved you
But my spirit was free
Laughin' at the questions
That you once asked of me
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?
Now looking back at all we've planned
We let so many dreams
Just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long
Before we'll see
How sad the answers
To those questions can be
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?
Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open door
What are you hoping for?
Do you know...?
No one has shown up for the Drop-in Sessions this week on how to search the Catalog. We are trying different topics and different time slots to see if this idea will work. My co-resident is having more luck as the Mobile Librarian. She actually goes to a student hot spot from 3-11pm on Sundays. God Bless Her! So today we took our publicity efforts up a notch. My co-resident was kind enough to offer to distribute bookmarks with my times and dates on them during her interactions with students. I have to create some. I revised my poster and sent it over to Adworks so that they can print and distribute 200 posters on the Student Activity Bulletin Boards around campus. We also got an eye-catching rotation graphic on the library's homepage.
It just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day, lately. I have been talking to a few hiring professionals on the telephone. Those I try to schedule before work, at the end of the day or over the lunch hour. So my evenings are packed with preparing for the telephone conversations. I have started making folders and trying to keep them all straight. I keep refining my preferences and my selection criteria. I have a couple of invitations to come for in-person interviews but I have absolutely no time. I printed out my calendar today to try to mentally note when I could reasonable tell potential employers I am available but in the midst of scheduling one interview, based on my electronic calendar, I happened to glance at my wall calendar and noticed a lot more dates and times filled up than was showing on my electronic calendar. Well wouldn't ya know I looked at my email to see that due to Daylight Savings Time, our calendars need to be "patched" and we are being asked to print out our calendar and after the patch go in and manually correct the times. What a hassle! DOH!
I realized I am booked solid through the next 6 weeks with classes and meetings and projects such as my Blog for Electronic Resources. This is way more cumbersome than I initially thought. But I have learned more than just the normal Techy stuff you'd expect to learn about. In our Electronic Resources meeting this week I learned the plural of the noun rhinoceros is rhinoceros or rhi·noc·er·os·es.
During one of my phone interviews I was asked what would I like to improve about myself. I said immediately, "I need to lose weight so when I step on people's toes, it won't be such a painful experience!" The person could relate. I said "I think I can somewhat get by with a slap on the wrist because 'I'm still new' and I didn't know!" I said but that is going to get old, real fast. Luckily, I do that unintentionally so that helps.
Speaking of interviewing...I was growing weary of the process. Job hunting is mentally draining at times. But luckily, I try to see the glass as Half Full whenever possible. So I was walking across campus to post some of my Drop-in Session fliers, and as I returned to our library, I glanced up in unison with some people on a Campus Tour. We were all admiring the mural of Touchdown Jesus. The sun was out finally after a really foggy start to the day. And I decided to "BE" in the moment. To stop preparing mental reminders and to do lists for next month, etc...and so I sat down on the same bench I sat on when we concluded my Job Interview for this Residency. It was like it was just yesterday!
I could remember the questions being asked by specific people. I can remember thinking what an absolutely amazing campus this is. I recalled how honored I was to be at the University of Notre Dame. I reminded myself that 5 minutes before my phone interview with Notre Dame, I was utterly at my wit's end as a result of a stressful workplace environment. I remembered sitting there with two of my best friends thinking "I should not even do the interview! They'll never hire me! I don't meet all the requirements, they are only being nice because they are Notre Dame." My friends forced me into the conference room and told me, "Just do this last phone interview. We'll leave you alone, if nothing comes of this LAST one!" So I picked up the telephone and there were all the people I've come to know and love. And I remembered Dwight asked, "Can we call you FAY?" And I don't know why to this day, that just TICKLED me! I could not for the life of me imagine why on God's Green Earth would they want to call me FAY? But he seemed so nice and as a general rule I could not care less about what people call me, or how they pronounce my name. So I instantly agreed that they could call me FAY. I am not sure if I explicitly stated or just thought to myself that "You can call me FRANK, as long as you hire me!" Later it hit me that I was ahem...COVERTLY applying for another job, so did not use my work email but rather my personal email which uses the signature "FE" as in Fe-Fe. But I thought perhaps they thought of it as Santa Fe (Fay). OOOHHHHH Ha! Ha!
So that went well, obviously. Because I was invited to campus for an interview. As I arrived at the Morris Inn, I thought "Aww how quaint." I was so amused to drive past "Main Street. In my mind all small towns have a Main Street. I love small towns. When Margaret picked me up for dinner, we drove over payment made of bricks! And I thought of the Wizard of Oz where the Yellow Brick Road was made of gold bricks. All very positive signs. I remember that Margaret and I discussed how low taxes are in Indiana compared to Illinois.
And just when I thought it could not get any more interesting, we approach the restaurant and Margaret said "Oh there is Dwight, now." I look to see a gentleman ride up on a Bicycle. I was completely surprised. At that moment, I knew....okay it can't get any more delightful. So we three enter the restaurant and there is an instant thunder of greetings and screams the kind you'd expect at a Rock Star's entrance. Being the ahem "modest gal" that I am, I naturally assumed all the fuss was over my entrance. But then I heard distinct chants of "Dwight...Dwight!" Laura was already seated and explained that those were some of Dwight's students and "They just love him!" I accompanied Dwight many places during my rotation in the Law Library and I quickly realized that happens everywhere he goes. And it is well-deserved. I am a card-carrying member of the Dwight-is-the-Greatest Fan Club and find myself screaming when he enters a room. But I digress.
As the evening went on, I am not clear how I ended up telling Laura and Andy about the first time I kissed a boy at age 14 I went to Confession to tell my priest that I was pregnant. Because my father, the "Good Reverend" as we call him since his a Baptist Minister, very clearly and in no uncertain terms drilled into me that "If I kiss I boy...I'll get pregnant!" So this first kiss, CLOSED-mouth mind you...convinced me that I was with child and my priest assured me that if I said 10 Hail Mary's and promised not to repeat it, I'd be fine! I thought he was the COOLEST man alive and decided at that point that I wanted to be a Nun when I grew up. Ha!
All that is to say that I was at the end of my "Interviewing Rope" once before and had I given up, instead of persevering I would not be here. I would not have had this amazing experience, in this most sacred location with the best co-workers and supervisors I've ever seen gathered in one place. My friends say I have a cartoon or a song for every moment in my life. So if that is the case, today's song would be one of my all-time favorites by Diana Ross from the movie Mahogany...
There is a video clip available by clicking here for YouTube, naturally.
Do You Know Where You're Going To?
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?
Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open door
What are you hoping for?
Do you know...?
Once we were standing still in time
Chasing the fantasies
That filled our minds
You knew how I loved you
But my spirit was free
Laughin' at the questions
That you once asked of me
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?
Now looking back at all we've planned
We let so many dreams
Just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long
Before we'll see
How sad the answers
To those questions can be
Do you know where you're going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you
Where are you going to?
Do you know...?
Do you get
What you're hoping for
When you look behind you
There's no open door
What are you hoping for?
Do you know...?
