I feel like I’m neglecting this blog–SNL videos and class assignments aside–but there hasn’t been much to say: I’ve been sick for about a month (bronchitis and a never-ending cold), which has left me completely drained and not really feeling up to the time, energy, and brainpower requirements of my classes. I kind of just want to take a weekend to sleep and eat soup and drink hot tea, you know? But being behind on most of my projects (by my own estimation, not in any official capacity) leaves me no time for that kind of nonsense.
But, you know, such is the life of a grad student. It was the same in engineering grad school, only I didn’t enjoy the reading. (I really do enjoy what I get a chance to read. I wish my professors had been a little more realistic in assigning books for the semester–seriously, there were students complaining about 100 pages a week per class, in some online forum, and I kind of wanted to smack them–but if I get around to finishing the books I’ve merely skimmed [or less], I will be a better librarian for the effort. They are really fantastic.)
One interesting point: I learned that specializations other than Archives actually do matter at Pitt. I couldn’t register for the Academic Libraries class without being in the Academic Libraries track, which vexed me, the self-declared generalist, mightily. But it looks like it will not be a big deal to jump into the specialization–the paperwork was easy, anyway! Financially, I might have lucked into something: the only Academic Libraries “course” I had planned not to take was the field placement (3 credits, 150 hours working with a local library under the supervision of someone who has their MLIS–and, as far as I can tell, I can’t get the 3 credits for my internship, because it is a separate program that pays a portion of my tuition per semester), which I could sign up for in the spring and finish in the summer. Since summer is pay-per-credit, having five classes in the spring and three in the summer would save me a few thousand dollars–SCORE!
As an added bonus, I found someone at CMU who may be willing to take on an intern. (I found him by asking “Do you need an intern?” out of nowhere, when he told me what he’s working on. It was opportunistic, if not downright rude, but it may have worked out OK.) The project I’d be working on would be kind of ideal, in that it would fill in a gap in my goals and interests that my [awesome] Engineering & Science Library internship doesn’t quite fill. It’s some digital stuff; I’ll explain more if this whole thing pans out–which looks promising, but maybe I shouldn’t count my chickens prematurely.
So, there’s good, and there’s bad, and, as always, there’s up-in-the-air. I’m excited about the stuff I get to do and worried about the group projects that need to get done and grumpy about the class on Halloween night (I’m not even joking, 5:30-8:30pm, the first Halloween in years I’ve lived where trick-or-treaters might show up, I’m going to be in a classroom) and tired from not being able to breathe for a month.
Also, I have a midterm on Monday. I’m stressing about it, mostly because that’s just how I am. I hate midterms. Knowing what I do now about the structure of library school, I will immediately drop any other midterm-containing elective as soon as the syllabus finds its way to my hot little hands. (Unless it’s the Intellectual Property class; not even a midterm could keep me from taking that!)
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