May 2004

Five Years Gone - What Can I Show For It?
We Are Five

Five years ago I was a union member, living in New Jersey, working at an Ivy League library, and hanging out at my local coffee shop. Now, after a few curves in the path, I'm back in a union, back in New Jersey, working at a library in an Ivy League school, and hanging out at my local coffee shop (although much less frequently than before). With so much in my life reverting to its old state, it's easy to wonder where I've been in the meantime and what, if anything, is different now.

The most blatant difference is my relationship to Grandpa. But marriage is too obvious a change to document. That the answer to anyone asking me "where have you been since…" if the timeline is December 2000 or earlier. No, as much as Grandpa has added to my life, marriage itself is unworthy of an annual retrospective. (Who really wants to barf every May when they read Evil Robots?)

My library job five years ago was laid-back but low-level. I shelved books and dealt with other "stacks issues". It was cool for the time. I got an hour lunch, morning and afternoon breaks, free classes, plenty of access to quality free reading material, and a fun group of people to spend the day with. It didn't pay well and there wasn't much resume material to develop, but it was alright.

Somehow, when I moved out of Jersey, I went from shelving books to working as a member of a three person library circulation staff involved with interviewing, hiring, and training student workers. I don't know how I got such a promotion but I'm glad I did. It was still pretty laid-back with an excellent group of co-workers, but it also provided some technical experience and showed more of a capacity for thought, management, etc. Later, burnt out on libraries, weird work schedules, and a long commute, I left to work at a nonprofit doing hotline social/legal service work. At the nonprofit, I was also webmaster. No one else there had much tech skills; so I was lauded as a guru even if it was a bit of an overstatement.

Then (dum-dum-dummmm) the bad thing happened. Grandpa lost his job after the evil new Governor of Maryland found out he was a democrat, and I had to move back to New Jersey.

I couldn't find any social service work, so I went back to the old standby, the library, but I rarely have enough work to keep me occupied. If I'm tired of twiddling my thumbs, I get to spend my spare time learning new techie skills like working with Unix.

In my "everything old is new again" world, I'm not sure jobwise that I'm really much better off. What would you prefer: (a) doing tedious work while chronically joking around and getting free classes as a benefit or (b) doing tedious work with very little distraction and no free classes? Maybe I'll get a decent paying job with my new skills once this is done, but for now it's like a Bush economy meltdown.

Instead of leaving you with that sad tale, I'll tackle another question: What's going better than five years ago? The answer is I'm setting up for a great future once Bozo's out of office.

I'm working on getting into grad school; developing a solid resume for social service, library, or computer work; being stingy enough to pay off old debts; eating well; and getting into good physical shape. Grandpa & I both have functioning (and non-stolen) bikes now, so we can ride around through the park together on a nice spring day. I do yoga twice a week or more. I've figured out how to enjoy a baseball game and how to make great stir fry. I have time to read, write, think. And, best of all, now that Grandpa's back to work, I bought myself some comfy new shoes. Peaceful arches can take the weight off of an otherwise brain-numbing day.