One Crazy Week

The last week has been a roller coaster of emotions for me.

I've had a job for the past three years that I have loved.  I worked for a technical college in the area.  There are several campuses and I worked at one of the campuses that was an hour away from my home.  This campus is in a small town and so I was the only librarian on that campus.  I worked collaboratively with the librarians on the other campuses in the area, but I was able to order the books and movies I wanted for the collection, buy new computer workstations, answer reference questions, help administer tests, and do a variety of other tasks.  I enjoyed making the library how I wanted it.  I got along with all my co-workers- everyone was so friendly and willing to answer questions when I had them.  I also enjoyed the variety that came with the position.

I had my last day at this job last Thursday.  I didn't realize how much I would miss this job until Thursday night when I was sending my farewell email to everyone.  I started crying.  I enjoy driving and this was an hour away from home, but my car has over 250,000 miles on it.  This was becoming a concern for me.  But I enjoyed my work.  I had several patrons I always looked forward to seeing.  I was happy.  All this hit me while I was writing this goodbye email.  And it was my late night so no one was on campus anymore.  I had no one to go up to and say "I'll miss you."  I had said it several times throughout the week to a variety of people, but it just wouldn't have had the same feeling to it as it would have that evening.

The next day I was with Kyle at school and got some really bad news.  I don't want to get into what it was, but it entirely derailed my day.  As soon as he was done at school I dropped him off at his apartment and burrowed into my apartment with a pizza and watched some movies and got some things done I'd been putting off.

Saturday was my last day at my second job.  I've been a clerk at my local public library for almost 4 years.  I've been at the same branch, with mostly the same staff, during that time.  I enjoyed this work but I recently got my Master's degree in Library Science.  Putting books back on the shelves and checking people and items in and out without being in a manager's position or working in a small library was not something I wanted to be doing anymore.  I knew I needed to start moving up.  So this was my last day in this position.  My co-workers at this job are wonderful.  Fortunately, I don't have to miss them because I'll still see them when I go into work!

My new job started on Monday this week.  I'll be working at the same library where I was a clerk, so I know everyone already.  This has made the transition easy.  I'm now a 32 hour Children's Librarian.  The amount of information that has been given to me so far is a bit overwhelming, but it would be so much worse if I didn't know the catalog already.  The summer reading program is a month away and I help coordinate the volunteers so I was thrown into that right away already.  Everyone in the department is wonderful and will be great to work with.  It's just a lot of information all at once.

I'm looking for a second job to add some hours (and some extra money) but finding one that's ok with me being off every other weekend or so to visit Kyle will be tough.  Kyle will be moving 3 1/2 hours away to finish his Engineering degree and that'll take two years.  He's the one in school so I'll be visiting him more often than he'll visit me.  I start paying student loans off the week before the wedding.  I need to upgrade my car at some point, but it's been running wonderfully so far, thank you God.

All this, in one week.  Call me Super-Woman because I have been at highs and lows this week, up and down so often, that I'm just wiped.

This is me on my first day at my new professional job:

~M