Good Day at Work

Sorry this is a little late, I've been enjoying my Spring Break and the chance to feel a little lazy.

Last Friday I got paid as part of my internship to go to the Church History Symposium sponsored by BYU and the Church History Department.  It was one of those days that made me feel lucky for the education I'd been able to get and the job I now have.

The highlight of my day was listening to President Uchtdorf talk while sitting in the fourth row.  It was so amazing.  My intern buddy Tarienne from North Carolina was sitting next to me and it was the first time she'd ever been in the same room with one of the Quorum of the Twelve or the First Presidency, so it was great to be with someone else who was geeking out over the experience.   He talked about a lot of great things, some of my favorites were him talking about the The Hobbit as an example of exploring and getting out of your comfort zone, and when he talked about his own doubts when he was younger about their ever being a temple in East Germany.

The entire talk is here if anyone's interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rc5GyF5i3Y&app=desktop

The theme of the conference was the Global Church, and one of my favorite presentations talked about how to create Church history papers and exhibits that are more international member focused and less western missionary/leader focused.    The exhibit he used as an example tells a seriously heart wrenching but amazing story about early Saints in Armenia.  If you haven't seen it before I think it's pretty amazing from both a historian and a gospel standpoint.   You can check it out here:

http://history.lds.org/exhibit/1921-lds-armenian-exodus?lang=eng

More TV Ramblings

Can I just say I am love, love, loving the relationship on Castle right now?  It's so awesome to see a television show actually let the couple be together in a quite happy and stable adult relationship.  Yes, yes, I wished they'd just hurry up and get married already (though they are working on it, yippee!!) but really its so nice to see a show demonstrate that love triangles and manufactured drama aren't the only way to go with things.

This adoration may be more than a little enhanced because I find myself comparing Castle to the uneven, angst fest that is  Arrow.   And, ironically, why I find myself writing fanfiction for Arrow and not Castle.  I don't have to write fanfiction for Castle and Beckett because their relationship onscreen is satisfying to my clear storytelling, romance oriented brain.  

 Oh, and if I'm not blogging about my real life,  it's because the new schedule still has me a little overwhelmed and things are just getting more complicated - and who wants to listen to me whine about problems that aren't actually problems like having too many jobs, right? 

So television ramblings will have to do.  

You Know You're an Archives Geek When...

...Tonight on Arrow they had a shootout in the City Archives.  It was the first time I kinda wanted to punch Oliver in his little green face.

(Then at almost the last minute of the show he was cute with Felicity ... so maybe I can let him off with a stern lecture  :-)

Intern Girl

So I started my job at the Church History Library today, and I think I'm going to really like it there.  The commute home was interesting.  There was a major problem with Trax and Tracy had to drive all the way downtown to pick me up ... my knight in shiny armor!

Though the view from the walking part of my commute was pretty good...

Finals

Nothing can make you grateful to be done with school like proctoring a final exam.  The nerves rolling off my students today are enough to make me anxious.  So glad 2013 was the year I finally finished.

Workity work

So on January 6th, I go from one part-time job to three.  And as of today, one of those jobs got bigger (Salt Lake Community College offered me back the second class that they pulled a few weeks ago). While I do have some concerns about the logistics of this change, surprisingly enough the overriding feeling I'm having is excitement.  Yes, I'm having a holy-crap-I'd-better-finish-up-some-stuff-and-be-prepared feeling, but beyond that I'm looking forward to actually being out in the world doing what I trained for 10 years of my life to do.   Would one full-time job be the ideal?  Yes, of course.  But one thing's for sure...I won't get bored.

Grateful

This has been one of those spots in my life where things have just been happier.   Even with having two weird flare ups of not feeling well, it's still been a amazing couple of weeks.   On the serious real-life side of things I have an internship with the Church Archives starting in January.  Still only part-time, but it's really interesting work that's going to pay decently.  That combined with teaching for the U and for SLCC actually makes me feel downright employable.  It's an extremely good feeling.

I've also watched three good movies in the last week.  First, Thor 2 last Saturday, then the epic Doctor Who special screening on Monday, and today Catching Fire.  All three of them were respectably clean and thoroughly entertaining.  It was a great run at the movies.  It also reminds me of how grateful I am to be married to the world's best movie buddy.  Tracy isn't nearly as in to Doctor Who as I am, yet he still went with me and we had a really fantastic time. 

There's also been a bunch of other things, both serious and silly that have gone on in the last few weeks.  I got to babysit my friend Pam's little boy this week for a couple of hours, and in spite of going through the terrible two's he was a total angel for me.  My long standing favorite show  (Castle) and my new favorite show (Arrow) had great episodes that were again respectably clean and also mushy.   I had a great chats on the phone with my Mom and my cousin Jennie.  Thanksgiving dinner turned out really yummy.  I got the "Jayne's Cunning Hat" card while playing the Firefly board game with Chris, Stacia and Tracy.  Tracy's Mom and Aunt came for a visit last weekend.   It's almost December and I went outside without a coat today. I got an amazingly sweet note from my friend Becky.  In fact, it's been so awesome, I feel like I'm forgetting things.

And can I just say again that I'm married to the most amazing-perfect-fit husband on the planet!

Like I said it's been a lovely few weeks.  I definitely have a lot to be grateful for. 

Salt Lake County Archives Blog Post

I've been volunteering at the Salt Lake County Archives and wrote a blog post for Utah Archives Month.  Here's the link:

http://slcoarchives.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/we-must-act-green-space-and-recreation-in-salt-lake-county/

Crazy Day

So I went to start a part-time job this morning at a retail place that on the surface seemed like it might work for me at the moment.  After about three hours I began to feel increasingly anxious and uncomfortable.  It wasn't that the people weren't nice, they were, I could just tell it was a really bad fit.  So, I politely asked to take a break and decided to go and call Tracy to see what he thought.   Not only was Tracy supportive, I also received an e-mail offering me a chance to teach a fall class at the U.  Though it was an emotionally rough 15 minutes as I made my exit from the job, I think I made a good choice, and I'm excited at the chance to do something far more up my alley.

As weird as it was, I'm definitely feeling blessed. 

This Week in Our Life

It's been a bit of a long week, after a weekend of ups and downs.  Tracy did a great job of blogging about our last weekend in Boise.  So if you haven't already you can check that out here.

http://potrazeebee.blogspot.com/2013/06/our-week-of-ups-and-downs.html

I will add my own note about seeing Man of Steel.  First of all, like Tracy I think it's just short of miraculous that we got together my mom and John, Tracy's mom, Jeff and his family and Tom and his family all together on the same night.   It's odd that even as much as I adore Superman, I'm pretty open to people doing their own take on the story.  In fact, it's one of the things I like about it.  This movie was definitely Superman-as-gritty-science-fiction movie.  Almost everyone who went, including me, agreed there was just way to much mayhem for a Superman movie.  Seriously, since when does Superman randomly smash through building after building?  However, the movie makes an interesting choice with the way they handle the Lois/Clark dynamic and I really loved it.  I'm hoping for a sequel with more story and less smashing. (As Tracy just aptly put it "Less of a Hulk movie")

In my real life - I've applied for seven jobs in two days.  Four full-time history jobs (they're in Washington State, Washington D.C., Colorado and Massachusetts), one part-time online teaching position, and two local retail jobs, hoping that something will pop up.  I'm definitely dealing with some unemployment blues and at least applying makes me feel like I'm doing something about it.  I'm also taking a workshop next week at the church employment office.  Also, Tracy has been really good for me today, and in spite of our ongoing car repair saga, right at the moment I'm feeling hopeful. 

A Good Day to Be A Historian

A few weeks ago I got invited to attended a luncheon with Pulitzer Prize winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.  I assumed a bunch of graduate students were invited, and I accepted the invitation with only the passing though of  "She's actually kind of famous, for a historian, that would be fun."  In the back of my mind I knew it was connected to a conference they are having tomorrow on Women in the LDS Church, but I didn't really think about it.

So I show up today to discover that am I one of only a fairly small number of students that got invited, and in addition beyond this amazing historian (who I was impressed with, she managed to be gracious even when skewering people) this small group also included Church Historian Elder Steven E. Snow.  Elder Snow handled a difficult question with such humility and tact, while still being absolutely true to the gospel, that it made me delighted to be a member of the Church.  I was a little star struck and am still not entirely sure why I was lucky enough to be invited.   I even got to ask a question!

I also got to reconnect with one of my grad school buddies whom I look up to and who has meant a lot to me over the years. 

Beyond the sheer amazement I had at being in a room with those people, the discussion was extremely interesting and relevant to a number of things I care about, both as a historian, an archivist and as a Mormon woman.  It was one of those days that reminded me why I went into history in the first place. 

All Sorts of News

We had an amazingly fun birthday/anniversary weekend.  Tracy planned it as a surprise for me and it was just right.  We went to the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall, where I learned I'm a bigger fan of Beethoven than of Brahms.  Saturday we went to the Desert Star Theater for a parody musical called The Princess Bridesmaid, to the Melting Pot for dinner (one of my very favorites), and stayed at an amazing historic inn near the Capitol Building.  On Sunday we took a drive through one of the canyons where I was able to get a small fix for my pine tree withdrawal.  It was great.

On the job front the bad news is that I got turned down for a job I really wanted in Washington, but the good news is that I was offered to a chance to teach a class for the University of Utah in the Fall.  Nice to know I am at least somewhat employable.

Jobs

So I ended up applying and/or interviewing for three jobs this week, in and around having either food poisoning or stomach flu.  The jobs run the gamut, one is a short-term contract position here in the valley with a small new business doing research (which I had an informal phone interview for), one is a 30+ hour a week paid internship doing document editing for the Church, and one is a full time, completely awesome sounding public history/library/archives gig in Washington.  Just hope one of them pans out so I'm not freeloading, quite so much, off of my very sweet and patient husband. 

Sigh of Relief

I really, really need to learn not to worry quite so much.  I did a ton of work this last week getting some writing done on our Shoshone-Bannock Project for the American West Center, and yet somehow I had managed to convince myself that what I had done was so substandard that I was going to get in trouble for it.  Today we met to start working on it, and, of course, everything turned out alright.  There wasn't any logic to this concern, just a prime example of what a worry wort I can be. 

Excuse me while I go take twenty deep breaths. 

Multiple Career Interests

As things have gotten a little more tight for us financially these past couple of months I've occasionally wondered if I made the right decision to quit my job at the county archives.  When I was talking to my mom the other day about the good news from the literary agent we jokingly talked about how many careers one person can keep going at the same time.  Well, I think the answer in my case is two, but not three.  I found out today that I was awarded a great fellowship for school next year.  It's a fellowship I was able to apply for precisely because I've had time to work on my dissertation.   That combined with the fact I've been able to work more on my writing, both creatively and professionally, makes me think it wasn't such a bad idea after all.  Apparently while I couldn't juggle archivist, historian and fiction writer, I can juggle historian and fiction writer .... well today anyway.

Pleasures of Working From Home

I often wish I had an actual office somewhere.  Someplace where all of my history books and other assorted research crap could live.  However, right at the moment I'm doing laundry and making toasted bread crumbs all while doing research for the American West Center.  Couldn't do that at an office.

Marathon Application

So I just applied for a job.  Frankly, the timing stinks a bit, as I've basically just quit another job to focus on my dissertation, but awhile ago my Mom asked me what the ideal history job would be after graduating and I said something like, "Oh, probably a public history job, like doing museum education, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest."

Well this job is job is a museum education job at a small history museum south of Seattle (far enough south that the cost of living isn't insane). Not only is it a fantastic job, but I'm pretty qualified for it and it has great pay and benefits.

It was posted four days ago and I've been hemming and hawing ever since.  Not just because of the timing but because I knew it was going to be one of those herculean job applications, with hundreds of tiny little boxes to fill in and supplemental questions that require pages of writing.  I just wanted to officially decide it was worth it before putting in that kind of time. Well, today I finally went for it and only THREE short hours later, the application was complete.  Ugh. 

Anyway, I don't know whether to hope I get the job - because it's exactly the kind of thing I want to do, or hope I don't - so I can actually finish my dissertation.  But in either case, my brain is officially fried.

A New Year

Happy New Year everyone! 

New Years always makes everybody think about resolutions.  I do think the idea of having a time to reflect on what we want to accomplish is a great idea, on the other hand I think it can be a bit depressing to realize that at least half your resolutions are the ones you made last year.   I have, once again, pledged to give up soda and deep fried food, and to match my husband's resolution of 15 minutes a day on the treadmill (that one started today).  Now, I have already set these goals, accomplished them, and then slowly faded back into bad habits.   I also want to have a draft of my dissertation completed and my current novel finished, also both goals, that in some way, are hold over, or at least extensions of, last years goals.  I'd also like to at least crack the second level piano book that I've had for five years (to be fair, I'm nearly finished with book one after three years, ugh).  

I've always considered myself good at setting goals, and at least mildly successful at achieving them, so taking stock of the last year, in which I feel like a lot of wheel spinning went on, is a tough look at myself.  Granted I have excuses - surgery, lots of traveling for my job, having what amounted to a full time job for most of the year etc.  Still, its sobering to feel like I could have done much better.

Yeah, this is depressing blog post.   So to make this blog and myself more cheerful, I'm going to end with a few things I did accomplish.

-  Defending my dissertation proposal and acquiring at least 3000 pages of research in Washington, D.C.
-  Writing least 150 pages on the first two Capstone books. 
-  Reading the Book of Mormon again
-  Maintaining, for another year, my ridiculously happy marriage.  (Of course I can't really take the credit for this, I'm married to an awesome guy.)

That's not such a bad list, right?

Here's to 2011, may it be a great year for everyone.  We all could use it.

Feast and Famine

When it comes to reading,  I find myself going through weird phases. Over the last month I've found myself in a traffic jam of fiction, feeling like I have more books to read than I have time for. I think this is largely due to two causes -

First, a struggle to finish Gerald Lund's The Undaunted, which was worth reading but difficult.  There's only so many plucky historical figures and covered wagons I can take at one time apparently.

Second, to the fact that I'm slogging through a lot of particularly thorny stuff for both the American West Center (which also features plucky historical figures and covered wagons) and for my dissertation.  After a day of sitting and reading for work and school, I tend to gravitate toward other hobbies. 

Now, normally, I check out 5 or 6 books and have them read well before I need to turn them in.  Right now I'm sitting on at least four books that are going to be coming due any minute, all of which I really want to read.  Also, three of my favorite authors (I think of them as the "M" trio -  McKinley, Marillier, and McKillip) are coming out with books which I have wisely put on my various Christmas lists.  These aren't just any books, but the kind that suck me in so fast I don't want to eat, sleep or breathe until they are finished.
In addition, my fiction "To Read" list has grown to over 30 titles.  

When I'm in the midst of this bounty of books, I find it baffling that there is ever a moment in my life when I feel like there is nothing decent to read.  Bizarre yes, but it happens all the time.  In fact just a few months ago, wandering wistfully and aimlessly through Barnes and Noble I had that very thought, which is why I started my "To Read" list in the first place.

However, I think I'm about to be back on my usual book gobbling track.  The book I'm currently reading, Dangerous Neighbors, is 170 pages and there isn't a covered wagon in sight :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I was thinking this morning about things that I am thankful for.  The big, important things never change.  I'm thankful for my husband, my family, my friends, the basic necessities of life (especially a warm cozy house) and for the knowledge that I am my Heavenly Father's daughter and He loves me.

This morning, however, I tried to think about other blessings I needed to count - and became really thankful for books and for reading.  This will come as no surprise to anyone.  However, I realized that 90% of my life is tied up in my love of reading and writing.  

- My job pays me to read.  This week I was reading about Chief Pocatello, strangely enough. 

- My schoolwork is almost entirely reading and writing (especially now that I'm at the dissertation stage).  

- For fun I read novels, write novels, and journal in scrapbooks.  

- My communication with family and friends, thanks to e-mail and blogs, involves a great deal of reading and writing.

- To feed my spiritual needs I read the scriptures every day. 

In fact I can't think of a part of my life that isn't profoundly impacted by the ability to read and write.  Today I stopped to realize that I am very blessed to live in this day and age.  For most of the history of the world, ordinary people, especially women, didn't have the resources they needed to learn how to read and write even at a basic level. Not only that but, thanks to the miracle of libraries, I can read books for free.  (Well, for $4.50 in library fines :)  I can't imagine a world without words.   So my special bit of gratitude for today is to be thankful for books and the fact that I can read them.