Graduate School Personal Statement

Oh the agony of trying to fit all the reasons why I want to be a librarian into only 750-1000 words.

There are so many stories to tell, so many books to quote, so many heart felt pleadings I want to include.

I'm not sure if my first attempt at graduate school application will work, but I almost want to put in somewhere that if they don't let me in on the first time around, I will apply each and every year 3 times until they see fit to see my enthusiasm for information and library science.

In reading almost all of the required textbooks for the first 4 classes I have learned that most applicants are just like me.... late to the game. Apparently being a librarian is not something people think of right off the bat after graduating from college. They meander around, raise a few kids up to kindergarten age and then figure out that what they love most is books. I should have that to my advantage in getting in.

Again I can't say how excited I am to have finally found what I want to be when I grow up. It seems so obvious after all those years of searching and checking out hundreds of library books and buying hundreds from Amazon that what I loved most was the search for the information the books that could lead me to a career and there all the time were the very books that I loved. There was the information that I craved. It was the book all along, not the writing, not the careers I was investigating, but the book itself.

Now I know I've had revelations like this in the past and thought I knew for sure what I was talking about when I found my new "career" ideas, but this sums it up perfectly........

"Books are the immortality of the race, the father and mother of most that is worth while cherishing in our hearts. To spread good books about, to sow them on fertile minds, to propagate understanding and a carefulness of life and beauty, isn't that high enough mission for a man?" From The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley.

When does school start?

I am plodding through the summer and we've still got 4 weeks until school starts and not much planned to keep the children entertained.

Every year I say I will pay for summer camp no matter what the cost, and every year here we are sitting around and watching SpongeBob while baking and making weird art projects.

Monsoon season has set it and it's too wet to play outside, not to mention the frequent lightning strikes starting fires left and right. It's a little too dangerous for children to be running around unattended.

I'm flagging on the blog posts. I'm just not feeling the writing right now. The children are sucking all the energy out of me. I miss the gym, I miss the big empty quietness of the house during the day that inspires me to write. I miss long leasurely hours at the book store and the library waiting to pick the kids up from school. I miss folding laundry at lunch time and looking at the mountain out the big picture window in the dining room while listening to whatever music I want a loud as I want.

4 Weeks! 4 Weeks! and hopefully my life will return to normal again.

Sugar and coyotes

This is Sugar.

Yes I know we already have so many cats, but we are now officially down 2 from 5. You all know Rupert died of liver failure earlier this year, well a couple of weeks ago we lost another one.

I woke up in the middle of the night to what I thought was a cat fight. I got up went downstairs, turned on the floodlights and saw and heard nothing. The next day we were missing Sammy, one of the two kittens we took in from a friend last November. He wasn't small for an almost a year old cat, and he looked bigger because of his fluffy long hair, but not big enough to fight off a coyote.

I told the kids he must have run away and found a new family, but I know what I heard that night was a coyote running off with our cat. He must have put up a hell of a fight, but it didn't turn out good for him. We're upset, but he wasn't a favorite and obviously replaceable. I think we just have to know living here in the mountains that if you let your pets outside at night they can get eaten.

So anyway. I took the kids to the pound supposedly to look to see if someone had turned in Sammy and we fell in love with Sugar. I've never had an orange cat so he jumped out right away.

So far he's doing okay and helping to console Sammy's lonely brother PeeWee by fighting with him constantly.

Obviously nothing else spectacular is going on in our lives since I'm writing about my cats. I am a cat lady and always will be. If there is nothing else to talk about I can always gush about my animals. Entertaining? Not really? I know.

Feelin Fine

Things are finally feeling setteled this week, even though it's only Monday.

I think I have figured things out. I more or less know what kind of a career I want for the rest of my life and I have a plan to get there. It's kind of exciting and it's kind of a relief.

I've written so many times about how hard it is to not be an architect after all the time I've invested to become one. That was a heavy weight on my shoulders. But now that I've decided that I want to work in a library the path seems laid out neatly in front of me.

It's a clear path with very definite white gravel to follow. It's not a muddy trail through the woods.

Loan Mod Results

Final installment of my loan modification story.....

We got docs! The low down on the low payment is that it is interest only. It's not what I really wanted, but it's the best offer we could possibly get. Payments start at an amazing $1600 and then go up incrementally over the next 5 years from 3% interest up to 5% interest. After that we have no idea what our payment will be, but the interest rate will still be 5%, but then the principle will start to be added in with what remains, so payments could go huge after that. We are encouraged to pay more than the minimum interest only so that we are still paying down the principle. We will pay more, I just have to run the numbers and see what we want to add and what we can afford while things are still tight (me not working as an architect).

We are still waiting to see what CitiMortgage says. I'm still waiting on the "packet" to get things started. Apparently the packet can take 3 months to arrive. I'm not holding my breath.

Damn it's hot today. That never happens here, but I honestly think it's over 90 degrees.

Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Dang it's been like a whole week.

It must be because Fourth of July is my absolute favorite holiday. There are no expectations, no family obligations, just pure summer fun with sunburns, parades, ice cream, corn on the cob, and grilled meat.
So I've been keeping to myself, too busy to come here and bitch and complain.

This year in the annual Flagstaff Fourth of July parade the stars where the firemen, the Hot Shots, as they are called around here. They dress in yellow shirts, carry axes and chain saws and wear either brown or Forest Service green pants. They got the standing ovation this year and it just sent shivers down my spine. Theses are no ordinary firemen. They are the guys who get sent into the forest to try and create fire breaks in the forest fires. They cart miles and miles of hose deep into the forest to dry and soak portions of the forest that are threatened. They had just finished putting out one of the biggest fires I can remember and some of them even had singed pants as they walked thru the street of downtown with their axes on their shoulders. It was amazing.
That is what the Fourth of July is for. It's when we all come together to celebrate what it means to be an American. There may be numerous religions and political agendas paraded too, but the ones that always get me, and everyone else, are the local heroes that we can all get behind and just feel like plain old Americans.... not Catholic or Jewish or gay or straight or Libertarian or Republican, but just members of the United States, the State of Arizona, and the City of Flagstaff.