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elanya at 08:12pm on 03/01/2016 under 2015, life, stream of consciousness, tumblr crosspost, twitter crosspost, year in review
elanya at 08:12pm on 03/01/2016 under 2015, life, stream of consciousness, tumblr crosspost, twitter crosspost, year in reviewI started this year working at the Forsyth Galleries at Texas A&M, with a good group of local friends to hang out with in addition to other and older friends I am in good contact with online.
I knew my contract was coming up at the beginning of June, and I spent a lot of time worrying about that, sending out job applications, etc. I also worked out a backup plan, with a couple of variations, for moving back to Canada.
As the time approached, there were other big disruptions in my local life, especially with one of my closest friends getting a job in Qatar. he would up moving only a few weeks before I did.
In the end, I didn't secure another job, and I took an epic road trip back to Canada, assisted by very excellent people who I appreciate extremely. Kennesaw and Persianpenname drove me up to Kentucky to meet Nary, with Maze and Jola in tow. I'd shipped my stuff (a highly pared down version of my belongings) to Detroit in a storage pod, which I planned to collect from Nary's place in Windsor, and schlep to London, where I would be staying with my sister and BiL and my two adorable, energetic nephews.
Amazingly, all went according to plan! Except the part where I was basically a jobless mooch >.> Really, I helped my family out as much as I could by taking over some household duties (mostly dog related), and helping my sister with the kids. I also started volunteering at a 'local' museum (The Museum of Ontario Archaeology). I was hoping to be able to keep something relevant on my CV, and it had a collection that was more relevant to my interest than some of the other options. The only downside was the commute - the trade of was a having lot more knitting and reading time!
I had some other things to fill my time as well - I joined the gym where my sister was going, and met a bunch of local geek girls through her. Also, being so close to Nary has meant that I've gotten to see a lot more of her in person, which is lovely. Probably one or the other of us gets to visit about once a month or so?
By September, my financial straights were getting pretty dire - I has some help on that front via some timely birthday money, and then I got my awesome cousin to sign the paperwork I needed to send my Texas teacher's pension fund money. because by the time I was ready to retire I was not going to remember that was a thing :p
And then, finally, I got a job! \o/ A local job! \o/ The museum where I'd been volunteering was hiring for a project they are partnered with, which is an archaeological archive/digital archive/research institution. I managed to get a digitization assistant position, I think mostly based on my "I've used a FARRO arm before" experience >.> Plus the fact that I was a known quantity, and I hit it off well, I think, with the project manager. Anyway, Job!
The job itself is a little frustrating in some ways, but I am trying to stay focused on the projects that are assigned to me, to document what I am doing as much as possible, and not take it to heart or personally when i think about what might happen when I'm finished. It is a contract position, and it finishes in June. So basically I'm in the same boat I was at the beginning of last year...
There are some other things I've missed talking about - I'm still on tag wrangling staff, which has some interesting things going on at the moment, and for which I need to pick up my own slack. I've done a fair amount of writing this year (not quite 50k, most of which was for exchanges or challenges). I've done a lot of knitting. I've even managed to read a few novels! I hadn't really intended to from the start, but I pretty much only read female authors this year. I figured I may as well when the first two books I'd read were Heyer and Jemisin, and the only one I was planning on buying was by Wells. Add Okorafor and those are the only authors I read all yer, basically, though multiple books by...some of them >.> I'm terrible at reading, okay? I started another Jemisin, because it was pocket sized, but the next thing on my list is the Night Vale novel. And who knows from there?
I feel like there is more I could talk about, but nothing I have organized thoughts about right now. If anyone has any questions, though, I can do my best to answer!
I knew my contract was coming up at the beginning of June, and I spent a lot of time worrying about that, sending out job applications, etc. I also worked out a backup plan, with a couple of variations, for moving back to Canada.
As the time approached, there were other big disruptions in my local life, especially with one of my closest friends getting a job in Qatar. he would up moving only a few weeks before I did.
In the end, I didn't secure another job, and I took an epic road trip back to Canada, assisted by very excellent people who I appreciate extremely. Kennesaw and Persianpenname drove me up to Kentucky to meet Nary, with Maze and Jola in tow. I'd shipped my stuff (a highly pared down version of my belongings) to Detroit in a storage pod, which I planned to collect from Nary's place in Windsor, and schlep to London, where I would be staying with my sister and BiL and my two adorable, energetic nephews.
Amazingly, all went according to plan! Except the part where I was basically a jobless mooch >.> Really, I helped my family out as much as I could by taking over some household duties (mostly dog related), and helping my sister with the kids. I also started volunteering at a 'local' museum (The Museum of Ontario Archaeology). I was hoping to be able to keep something relevant on my CV, and it had a collection that was more relevant to my interest than some of the other options. The only downside was the commute - the trade of was a having lot more knitting and reading time!
I had some other things to fill my time as well - I joined the gym where my sister was going, and met a bunch of local geek girls through her. Also, being so close to Nary has meant that I've gotten to see a lot more of her in person, which is lovely. Probably one or the other of us gets to visit about once a month or so?
By September, my financial straights were getting pretty dire - I has some help on that front via some timely birthday money, and then I got my awesome cousin to sign the paperwork I needed to send my Texas teacher's pension fund money. because by the time I was ready to retire I was not going to remember that was a thing :p
And then, finally, I got a job! \o/ A local job! \o/ The museum where I'd been volunteering was hiring for a project they are partnered with, which is an archaeological archive/digital archive/research institution. I managed to get a digitization assistant position, I think mostly based on my "I've used a FARRO arm before" experience >.> Plus the fact that I was a known quantity, and I hit it off well, I think, with the project manager. Anyway, Job!
The job itself is a little frustrating in some ways, but I am trying to stay focused on the projects that are assigned to me, to document what I am doing as much as possible, and not take it to heart or personally when i think about what might happen when I'm finished. It is a contract position, and it finishes in June. So basically I'm in the same boat I was at the beginning of last year...
There are some other things I've missed talking about - I'm still on tag wrangling staff, which has some interesting things going on at the moment, and for which I need to pick up my own slack. I've done a fair amount of writing this year (not quite 50k, most of which was for exchanges or challenges). I've done a lot of knitting. I've even managed to read a few novels! I hadn't really intended to from the start, but I pretty much only read female authors this year. I figured I may as well when the first two books I'd read were Heyer and Jemisin, and the only one I was planning on buying was by Wells. Add Okorafor and those are the only authors I read all yer, basically, though multiple books by...some of them >.> I'm terrible at reading, okay? I started another Jemisin, because it was pocket sized, but the next thing on my list is the Night Vale novel. And who knows from there?
I feel like there is more I could talk about, but nothing I have organized thoughts about right now. If anyone has any questions, though, I can do my best to answer!
lazy