baroqueMorales

Though just recently accepted to the iSchool, and yet to introduce myself to the MLIS community, I will now join the fray of "librarian-types" who blog. Starting at the very beginning. Why do I want this? What do I hope to learn? Why do I think I might be successful at this? What do I envision? What could I hope to contribute? What type of work-environment do I hope to get out of this? Will this make me happy? These are just a few of the questions I need to learn to answer with ease. I was able to answer many of these questions successfully in my admissions essay (max 750) words, which I worked on daily for about 8 weeks. Going through the process of: idea, futher research, writing, revision, peer review, re-writing, better ideas, (rinse, repeat). In the end my essay was exactly 750 words, written as tightly and with as much passion as I could muster. It's a very personal statement so I'll not repost it here. What I will post here are some basic ideas about how this ...

Friends & Family, This is to let you know that I was finally able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when I received a letter this Saturday on UW Stationary that reads: "I'm pleased to inform you that the MLIS Admissions Committee has decided to recommend you for admission to the distance Master of Library and Information Science program for autumn 2006. Official confirmation of your acceptance into our program will be sent to you under separate cover by the Dean of the Graduate School." I will now be spending the next few months learning how to become a graduate student/100% FTE/mom. Wish me luck! Especially in finding creative financing beyond taking out the max allowable student loans of 35k/year x 3 years! on top of my loans from undergrad...ack! For anyone not familiar with this program, you can check out the UW website at: http://www.ischool.washington.edu/ --

Well, I'm in the market for another place to live...Again. This time, the reason is completely legit. I just need more square footage and perhaps someplace closer to CNB's school so he doesn't have those arduous cross-town yellow bus commutes that I had as a child. Actually, there are a number of other reasons, one of which is just looking at the rental market again before I continue to go through the motions of becoming a first time homebuyer, weighing the options, seeing what's available etc. So I put up a blurb on Craigslist, marketing myself as a good potential renter and have begun my search. There are many humorous stories to tell about what's available in the Seattle rental market, but (that would be the ultimate digression). Every place I look at that's affordable and has a vacancy has really obvious reasons as to why it's vacant. Doing research, driving around neighborhoods, looking at listings, gets me into this really competitive mood. Be the firs...

Something that I find completely puzzling is how now that I have a LAN line, I get marketing calls in Spanish. Most recently from Qwest , whom I actually have a long-standing grudge with due to experiencing years of over-priced, poor, and disjointed customer service. I put in the phone line so one, specific-person could communicate in the case of a hypothetical, combined emergency of: ten-year old sets kitchen on fire, and is too panicked to locate the other two (cell) phones in the house, and thus avoid the cold shadow of parental malpractice. Now, they've got my number, I get calls mid-morning on Saturdays! ...in Spanish, which I unfortunately don't actually speak with any fluency. It's very embarrassing for both the telemarketer and I when they call and ask for: "Llamado a Jen-nifer-Mo-ral-es por favor?" I explain in my broken Spanish that I don't speak much, etc. And then they seem disappointed and confused that I'm a non-speaker. A very basic...