Spring Breakdown
Some idiot told me to bring my pocketknife with me to DC - always a good idea to travel with a pocketknife, he told me. Despite getting away with it on Monday and Tuesday, i wasn't allowed to take my pocketknife into the Library of Congress on Wednesday. Now, the swiss army knife on my keychain is somewhat less than three inches in length - this tool doesn't pose any sort of threat to anything but paper envelopes and bits of food stuck between my teeth. But the security guard told me to leave the building and to not come back with my pocketknife. So i did. I was outside on the street trying to figure out what to do. I didn't want to hide it under a rock or in a potted plant, because if anyone saw me digging around and acting suspiciously, i'd probably have the FBI haul me off for questioning. I didn't want to throw it away either - it's a perfectly good knife. There was a bike rack nearby, so i left the knife on the seat of someone's bike. A gift for them from the security guards at the LoC. The next day as i was leaving the Library, i happened to walk past the bike rack and my knife was still there. I took it. Maybe it's a good idea to travel with a pocketknife, but not when you're in a city where every other building has metal detectors, security guards, and paranoia about terrorist plots.
The rest of my externship went well. I visited Smithsonian Folkways where they compile new bluegrass, folk, and world music albums. The archivist i shadowed there had a ton of CDs that had damaged cases and were un-resale-able, so he gave me a dozen CDs. Now i have Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Hawaiian drum dance chants.
The externship was useful, in a way. I have a better idea about library work. I'm not entirely sure if it's something i'd be interested in pursuing. All of the archivists, curators, preservationists, and everyone else with a fun job seems to be history nerds, and i'm not. I don't think i want to go to audio engineering school to learn how to preserve and clean up old audio. And everyone else i encountered has dreary data cataloguing jobs. Of course, i really don't know what i would enjoy anyway. Nothing seems terribly appealing.
I might try looking for a job with the federal government for a year or two, just for kicks, though all the openings i even come close to being qualified for are secretarial / paper-pushing jobs. Which i imagine is par for the course for someone straight out of college with no work experience and a soc. degree, but it's disappointing. I'll probably look at Americorps programs, and try following up with the PC(USA) young adult volunteer program, but i've been having a hell of a time really getting in touch with them and setting up times for interviews. I could definitely be more persistent, but i feel often that it's not worth the effort.
The best part of the externship experience was just being in DC and seeing my friend there. Although we rarely did more than sit in cafes and talk over hot cider or cold smoothies, it was fun for me. Now that i'm back in Louisville, all i have is a stack of books about pro-lifers. The paper is already boring to me and i've barely begun reading for it. I don't know how i'm going to manage 15 pages out of it all. Majoring in soc. was the stupidest thing i could've done. Maybe it works for some people, but its magic has quickly worn off of me. All i need to do is survive two more months.
My laptop's AC adapter is damaged beyond usefulness. This one lasted about seven months. Dear Hewlett-Packard: stop making crappy laptop AC adapters. Dear UPS: the status of my new adapter has been 'Billing Information Received' for over a day now. Pick the damn thing up from the warehouse and bring it to me.
Life is difficult.
The rest of my externship went well. I visited Smithsonian Folkways where they compile new bluegrass, folk, and world music albums. The archivist i shadowed there had a ton of CDs that had damaged cases and were un-resale-able, so he gave me a dozen CDs. Now i have Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Hawaiian drum dance chants.
The externship was useful, in a way. I have a better idea about library work. I'm not entirely sure if it's something i'd be interested in pursuing. All of the archivists, curators, preservationists, and everyone else with a fun job seems to be history nerds, and i'm not. I don't think i want to go to audio engineering school to learn how to preserve and clean up old audio. And everyone else i encountered has dreary data cataloguing jobs. Of course, i really don't know what i would enjoy anyway. Nothing seems terribly appealing.
I might try looking for a job with the federal government for a year or two, just for kicks, though all the openings i even come close to being qualified for are secretarial / paper-pushing jobs. Which i imagine is par for the course for someone straight out of college with no work experience and a soc. degree, but it's disappointing. I'll probably look at Americorps programs, and try following up with the PC(USA) young adult volunteer program, but i've been having a hell of a time really getting in touch with them and setting up times for interviews. I could definitely be more persistent, but i feel often that it's not worth the effort.
The best part of the externship experience was just being in DC and seeing my friend there. Although we rarely did more than sit in cafes and talk over hot cider or cold smoothies, it was fun for me. Now that i'm back in Louisville, all i have is a stack of books about pro-lifers. The paper is already boring to me and i've barely begun reading for it. I don't know how i'm going to manage 15 pages out of it all. Majoring in soc. was the stupidest thing i could've done. Maybe it works for some people, but its magic has quickly worn off of me. All i need to do is survive two more months.
My laptop's AC adapter is damaged beyond usefulness. This one lasted about seven months. Dear Hewlett-Packard: stop making crappy laptop AC adapters. Dear UPS: the status of my new adapter has been 'Billing Information Received' for over a day now. Pick the damn thing up from the warehouse and bring it to me.
Life is difficult.