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NCBI for Librarians training.
I am two days back from the week long NCBI for libraians training course at NIH. It was a fabulous experience being among so many librarians and scientists trying to get a handle on the some of the most complex repositories for biomedical data. The people there were wonderful. I recommend anyone with science liaisonship to take it. The ultimate purpose of the course is to train the trainer. So part of my implementation will be to train fellow librarians on what these resources can do. And I will spend the next several months sketching out a plan for that. Our faculty are already lifting heavy loads in their tenure…
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Reprogramming
I am thinking that I need to reprogram my brain. I have spent too much time dwelling on issues, and interpreting circumstances negatively. That habit means that most of the time, I walk through my day expecting and looking for its events to disappoint me. And surprise! They do and the experience becomes a giant self-fulfilling prophecy. As an example, I found myself ruminating about an interaction my husband and I had yesterday. I had seen one of the Equinox yoga videos (this one), and during our evening bath, I shared what I thought about it. What I experienced was watching a very fit, strong, and talented woman going through…
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The Belgariad
I went for comfort reading this week. I wanted to find something that wasn’t taxing, provided some good feelings like comfort food. So I turned to Davind Edding’s Belgariad. The first time I read this I was in high school and loved it. At the time, it was the fantasy I was into along with Christopher Stacheff and re-reading LOTR. That particular trio was was reading in constant rotation about once a year in between other things or homework. I kept up this cycle through early college. Shortly after my daughter was born, I ran out of reading time. I was still in college, so I had texts and homework.…
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Unmoored
I am unmoored. I have finished reading a book series that I haven’t read in a long time. I had a weekend with friends that involved dinners that I didn’t cook, pedicures, and bingo. Through all of this, I am only half here. It’s a description of this winter as a whole. I spent some time getting my new routine streamlined so that I didn;t have the stress of constanting thinking about little decisions and trying not to forget things. But now, between the work that is still building and commute, I feel drained and uninvolved in my day. I would liken it to being in the rapids, eddies and…
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5pm and daylight
I just realized it’s February. In my time, that is the backside of the gauntlet of events that starts sometime late October. But these weeks have flown by. I am starting to come out of a work shell. When I left today I noticed that it was still daylight. This little observation usually means that I have made it though the toughest part of winter for me. I also realized that despite my uncertain future (Thank you Governor Rauner!), the weekend trip with my sister and a few friends will be coming up in about two weeks. We aren’t even leaving the suburbs, but we are holing up in a…
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End of a week
Friday is the Hallelujah it’s over day. The day I look forward to these days. While I love the direction my life is going, the time committment to it is staggering. I am ever edging closer to needing to either get a better handle on time management or acquiesce to working off the clock. I am resisting the latter with every ounce of my being. Time is the ever elusive thing that I am chasing. I never have enough of it. I have endless things to fill it with. Tonight I will do none of those things. I will pick up dinner on the way home and a gallon of…
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Time and department heads
Of course I don’t consider 2015 to be this horrible, impending doom that I implied in my last post. I’m not heaping a load of expectations on it either. I try very hard to remember that time is just a human construct, an attempt for us to make sense of our world. I do think that I spend a significant amount of time figuring out how to manage time, how to make the most of my time, and how to make sure that I am useing my time wisely. That’s a lot of paying attention to time. This has become particularly important at work. I have workshops to create, and…
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Nine days
Nine days into 2015 and job insecurity has set in. Nine days into 2015 and I am trying to make my brain turn back on. Nine days into 2015 and I worry that my weekend won’t feel like a weekend with all the usual that has to get done– plus some. Nine days into 2015 and I feel behind on sleep Nine days into 2015 and the headaches are back Nine days into 2015 and I have to consider extensive planning for the next six months Nine days into 2015 and I am spinning plates at home and at work. Nine days and the interrupted list from late 2014 still…
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Work clarity
I don’t to talk about work, but that is the only thing that my brain wants to do right now, so I will work with it. I’m half way through a busy work week and I have a lot to get done before it is over. One of the meetings that I had gone to was a special faculty meeting that was to discuss the changes in promotion and tenure form and to outline the current, elected committes available to run. The first applies to me, the second doesn’t. What I got out of the meeting was the clarification on what I was to be evaluated on during my next…
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2015 work in review
I didn’t realize it, butI was starting to get anxious because in a month or so, I need to start a dialog with my director about contract renewal. I have a ton of things to do this semester and I am only at the earliest begining of all of it. I won’t bore you with the details, but the fact that I have so much work to accomplish and yet my renewal is around the corner is making monkeys in my head. Last summer, I spent some time outlining the goals that I would have this year. I used the performance evaluation form that was in circulation at the time,…