Been awhile.

Things have been a bit nuts and it's been hard to keep up with the blogs. Truth is, generally I get home after work every day and am so emotionally drained I often can't think about working in front of a computer anymore, or doing anything for that matter, which has been really damning not only to my writing but to my health and general attitude.  Something has to give on that front, and soon.

Speaking of which, some minor developments on the job front. I had a meeting with a lovely woman who runs one of our local public libraries this week.  It was a sort of half interview/half networking meeting (I'm not sure she knows what she's looking for out of a position she's got open currently).  I think and hope I made a good impression: she did say that even if this position didn't work out she'd keep me in mind for the future, hopes I keep in touch, and would like to help me out if she can.  So that was something--certainly it was more than I've gotten up till this point.

I have had a few interviews with other departments at Pitt; nothing strictly library-related, but stuff that would make use of the information management part of the degree, so that would at least be a step in the right direction.  There are a few things that could go wrong, still, but they're kind of on a personal level so I won't be posting them here. I can say they're directly related to the fact that my current boss wants to keep me exactly where I am...which unfortunately for him is exactly where I don't want to be. I am, for example, up for another position in our department for which everyone (including the position's direct supervisor) feels I'm the perfect fit, but my current boss has been doing everything he can to roadblock the hiring.

In any case, working here isn't going to get me into the LIS field anyway, so it's high time to look to move on.  I have begun reaching out to some local librarians and library directors online in hopes that someone will take a look at my resume and give me some advice, thoughts, what-have-you. If I have to network, then I need to start networking. Hopefully my efforts bear some fruit.

Julie and I have talked here and there about starting a family (I love that phrase, by the by, as if Julie and I aren't already a family until we have children).  Regardless, we've talked about having kids.  I think we're both at the place where we'd kind of like to. Unfortunately it's not in the cards for economic reasons and that's making things rough on both of us.  And yes, I know that everyone says you're never ready, you can never afford it, blah, blah, blah, but the simple truth of the matter is that right now she and I are drowning in debt to the point where we could not afford to buy diapers and food for the child. We are both possessed of maxed-out credit cards that we can't seem to get leeway on, we're (barely) living paycheck to paycheck, and we make too much money to get public assistance. Unfortunately, I can't even do a debt consolidation loan because I don't have enough equity in my house to pull it off, and my debt-to-income ratio is too high to get an unsecured loan. This kind of sucks because I'm going on 38.  At some point you just get too old to be an effective parent by the time your kid becomes a teenager.

Blah.  Why did I wait so long to finally try to get my shit together? 

I guess we'll figure something out.  We always do.  I just need to somehow come up with a quick twelve grand and will be good to go.  That's not too hard, is it?  I mean, there has to be a bag of $100 bills just laying around with my name on it, right?

And pigs might fly.