Tag: new job

What’s New

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings11 Comments

I haven’t posted in a few days so I thought I should take a minute to share what’s up on this end.  I apologize for the lack of graphics. My allergies are bugging me and the decongestant is making it difficult to even type, much less attempt to look for graphics.

My new job is going well. I’m enjoying it and am thankful every day that I no longer have to work with the public! Some days are busier than others. Some days I don’t have that much to do and some days I’m swamped, but that’s the nature of being at the mercy of when items are delivered. I’m learning to pace myself on the swamped days and appreciate the slower days.

I’m still working on my room, but I’m getting closer to being done. I’ve set the end of September as my goal for being done. I took a 5-day weekend around the 30th/1st and plan to use those days to shift furniture and do the final touches. I’ve done well sifting through books I own and getting rid of some that I’m just never going to use/read again. Ditto with some of my art supplies. There are some resale shops around here that will take art supplies so I’ve been getting some together to donate. Those are the two things that take up the most space in my room so working on paring those down to manageable levels feels really great. I’m not done, by any means, but I’ve got a huge chunk done.

This past weekend was a long weekend here in the United States as we celebrated Labor Day. I worked in my room part of the time, but on Saturday, I took my dad to the Thunder Over Michigan air show with the Blue Angels as his belated Father’s Day present. I’ve been taking him for a few years now. We had a great time and hopefully later in the week or this weekend, I’ll have my pictures ready to put up. Some need a little help with shading and color since the cloud cover came in and made everything in the picture go grey.

A few weeks ago, my doctor put me on steroids to deal with an allergic reaction. That will be the last time I ever voluntarily take steroids. It basically made my psych meds inactive so even tho’ I was taking them, I felt like I hadn’t had psych meds in days. NOT a good place for me. It’s taken me almost two weeks to feel better again after stopping the steroids. That was definitely a lesson learned.

What’s going on with all of you? If you’re in the US, did you do anything special for the holiday weekend? If you’re not in the US, did you do anything fun on your weekend?

 

End of the Month Update – JULY 2017

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings1 Comment

I realized I never did an end of the month update for July. It’s very late, but here’s a condensed version.

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Personal Life

July was a crazy month for me as I began training for a new job. I’m now in my 2nd week in my new position and loving it. 🙂 I still work for Ann Arbor District Library, but now I work in acquisitions and cataloging instead of on the desk. I love it. 🙂 Cataloging is what I concentrated on in library school so this job is right up my alley.

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Books Read and Reviewed

While I read 13 books in July, I only reviewed 5. I plan to write mini reviews for another 6 of those at some point in the semi-near future. Those 6 are all part of one series so rather than try to write full reviews for each one, I plan to just write mini reviews for them with a general overlook at the series.

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Site Metrics

Even though I had fewer reviews and fewer posts in general during the month of July, I still had two more visitors than June, plus lots of likes and comments. I’ll take it! I’m gaining more followers and I appreciate you all hanging in there while I pulled my hair out and went a bit crazy in July!

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Looking Ahead to August

Yes, I know, we’re well into August. Here’s what’s on the agenda for the month.

Vangie-Vale-concept-final

 

I finished this book over the first weekend of August and you can read my review here. It was a lot of fun and a great summer read. I’m looking forward to the next one(s) in the series!

 

BearNightingale

 

I’m currently in a buddy-read of this book with Jay from this-is-my-truth-now. It’s a great book and I’m enjoying it immensely! When we’re finished reading/talking about it, I’ll post a review.

 

WorldOfTheInnocent

 

This is the first of two books that I’ve been asked to read by the authors themselves (and/or their publicists). I’m looking forward to it as it looks like something different from what I normally read!

 

Civilianized

 

This is other book that I’ve been asked to read by the author/publicist. This is also something different from what I normally read and sounds quite interesting!

 

 

Outside of those 4 that I know I’ll be reading, there are some blog tours that I’ll be hosting spotlights and guest posts for. I’ve also promised a friend that I’d read through the first three chapters of his novel and give feedback. We’ll just have to wait and see what else I end up posting about this month!

What are you reading or looking forward to reading this month?

HappySummer-BeachBears&SandCastle
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New beginnings

Valerie @ Valerie's Musings8 Comments

As we start a new year as Americans, I’m also starting a few new things in my life. Some of it I started last month, but I’m counting those as still new enough to include in this post.

I’m actually starting to feel like I’m finally getting used to and flourishing as an adult. I’m a little slow on the uptake being that I’m already 41, but it’s still a good feeling!

In the last month, I’ve started cleaning out clutter and reorganizing my room, creating an art/photography workspace in the basement, working with a financial counselor to get my finances in better shape, and finally getting a combination of medications to really help with my mental illnesses (it’s difficult to find the right combination because you have to try each med and they can take a minimum of 4-6 weeks to really work and then you have to hope you can tolerate the side effects).  My room is coming along slowly but surely. I didn’t get much done this past weekend, but I plan on tackling it this coming weekend and trying to work through another section.

The biggest news is that I’m getting a NEW JOB!!! 😀 😀  I’m super, super excited about it. I’m still working at Ann Arbor District Library, but I’ll be taking a position in the Acquisitions/Cataloging department instead of on the public desks. Right now (through the end of July), I’m training during the first half of my day and then after lunch/dinner, I’m working on one of the public desks. August 1st, I will take over in the position. It is a lateral move in the company as far as pay is concerned so I won’t be getting a raise, but it will hopefully mean a lot less stress.

I’m really excited because my concentration in library school was cataloging. While I may not be doing a lot of original cataloging (creating records from scratch), there’s lots of copy cataloging to do (downloading catalog records from reputable sources) and cleaning up records. I’ll also be putting in the orders for items and processing them when we receive them. I’m not the person choosing what gets purchased, I’m just the one making the purchase orders and actually ordering/receiving the materials. 🙂

While I will miss some aspects of working at the public desk, I’m looking forward to having less stress in my life. Working with the public makes me so exhausted that I can’t really do much of anything else. By working in an area that doesn’t have to deal with the public, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to “have a life” outside of work, or at the very least have the energy to enjoy painting ceramics and taking nature walks again!