Pain at the pump

I had to post this because it made me ill. Michelle and I filled up the Toyota this morning for a hideously high $4.47 (and 9/10 of course) per gallon. Thank goodness we get an average of 30-35 mpg, but seriously this is too much.

We commute by train (which is free for us as Stanford employees) 3 days a week. We'd like to do 5 but the office Michelle works at on Tuesday and Thursday is off campus and a bit far thrown from transit. Hopefully this will change soon.

Hope everyone is happy and well,
Sarah

It's May

Already? Seems like it way just January. Summer seems to be pushing itself early here in California. For the last week we've managed to stay cool despite 104 degree days and 80 degree nights. We've been running the A/C in the house which I'm sure will make our power bill terrifying. I'm trying not to think about it too much.

The news from down here is pretty good. Everyone is healthy and Michelle has been at Stanford working for almost 6 weeks. I still love my job and all the challenges it presents.

**Warning librarian stuff follows**
I've been going through the arduous process of reviewing our reference collection. This means not only looking at what we have and figuring out what we should have that seems to have vanished, but also seeing what we've got in electronic format. Once I've done that I have to go back and see if there's things we can buy to replace the print titles and work to get rid of duplicate copies before we send our print off-site.

When I look at the shelves they seem so empty but when I start looking at the books the list grown really fast. So only 1/3 of the way in it looks like what I thought would be a short task is going to take weeks. The good news is more things are available electronically than we thought, so all this preparation will get us where we want to be eventually.

**Okay that's the end of the librarian stuff**

I hope everyone is having a good spring and that the sun shines on you, but not too much.

Until next time,
Sarah

Where am I?

Just a quick update to minimize confusion. I am now in California working at Stanford. I don't have a permanent home yet, Michelle is still in Seattle and I'm staying in a rented room.

My flight was hellish due to a nasty typhoon that decided to hit the bay area the day before I flew down but I made it in one piece. My luggage arrived the next morning. *sigh*

I'm excited to finally be starting my new job and soon it will, I'm sure, all feel more familiar and I'll be a little less scattered.

Best wishes and Happy new year!
Sarah

It's nice to feel wanted

If word has escaped you, please consider this an official notice that I finally have found a GREAT job. I'll be starting at Stanford in January as an Engineering Librarian. Michelle and I are working right now on logistics and figuring out where we want to live and such.

It took me a year of interviews and applications, but in the end I did actually find a position I'm proud of. I was losing hope that something would work out and considered taking a tech job at Microsoft, but thankfully I didn't go through with it.

Yesterday I got a voicemail from one of the other colleges I applied to letting me know how disappointed they were I withdrew my application, and I couldn't help patting myself on the back. It sure feels nice to have choices....

More news soon!
Sarah

Blah, blah. blog...

Now from that title you might think I'm bored...but you would be wrong. I just started on Aug 30 working at Microsoft doing some indexing and search refinement work. It's quite interesting and I'm happy to be doing it, even if it is for Microsoft. I get free pop and a nice paycheck, no complaints here.

Even bigger news is that I heard early this week that I have been invited to interview for an Engineering librarian position at STANFORD!!! :) It's one I didn't have a lot of optimism about because I thought I'd get weeded out by the millions of other applicants (which is what happens in Seattle) but apparently, THEY LIKE ME!! So October 1st (it was originally Sept 17) I will be giving it my all down in Palo Alto.

So everyone think good thoughts for me.
~Sarah

So long my fuzzy friend

Mid-way through graduate school I found myself in love with a furry orange ball I named Dewey. He was a terror, he ate my stuff, he bit, he scratched. Molly, our lab mix, adopted him as her baby and kept him clean. Despite his rotten behavior we grew attached to him and he picked up an array of nicknames: SOK - Satan's own kitten; douche; douche bag; and little f**ker, to name a few. We tried to keep him indoors but he became an expert escape artist, so we conceded.

Friday morning I found Dewey dead in the front yard as I was heading to a meeting. It seems that he must have been hit by a car and somehow found his way back to our yard. I don't want to know what happened and I want to believe he didn't suffer. His time with us was very short, but we miss him terribly nonetheless.

This has not been an easy year, I'm still looking for work and trying to keep our heads above water hasn't always gone smoothly. The loss of my friend and kitty has been a bit of a thorny addition to a difficult year. Here's hoping he finds lots of catnip and upholstered furniture in heaven.


Scritches to all the kitties out there,
Sarah

Detail oriented...

I've been interviewing a lot. Trying to find the right job. I've been getting asked more often lately about my attention to detail. I think most folks who know me know that I'm totally anal retentive about all sorts of things. That said, I've been having some trouble coming up with more descriptive/job interview appropriate ways to describe this aspect of my personality. I've described myself as "detail oriented" as well as "very attentive to details"...I just can't decide if that fully captures it. And being the anal retentive girl that I am, I just can't stop thinking about it.

So, if anyone out there has some good alternatives, I'd love to hear them.

'Til later
Sarah