Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128069 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
I’m also a workhorse though. I’ve been scanning the job listings regularly in San Francisco—old habits die hard, and when I was finishing grad school I was glued to the job listings. While I haven’t found any openings yet, I can widen the search beyond the city maybe. Like San Jose, or Oakland, or Marin County. I can apply to anything within a fifty-mile radius, even though I don’t have a car. But I’ll deal with that issue later. I’m aces at applications. Not only did I apply to sixteen colleges (accepted at thirteen), I submitted my résumé for more than one hundred fifty jobs before I landed this one.
I have an endless well of application energy, and I will put it to good use tonight in the job hunt. Because I want to stay here. Close to this lovely city. And my brother…and Maeve and Fable and Everly.
As I leave that evening, heading onto the streets of the Upper Haight to catch my bus, I text Wes to tell him what happened today. Well, not my “blanket the Bay Area with my CV” idea. That would definitely seem clingy. Like, hey, you life-hacked a lipstick tube into a sex toy to get me off on the counter. Clearly you want me to stay in town, don’t you? Nope. I’ll keep those plans to myself. Instead, I tap out another note.
Josie: It’s a wonder I still have a job. Today at work I said the following out loud to my boss: “Librarians like it hard.”
As I’m getting off the bus twenty minutes later, his reply lands.
Wesley: Can confirm.
I laugh and blush all at once.
The idea takes a hold of me though—the stick-around-town one. That evening, after I whip up some carrot bacon, I spend an hour crunching on my veggie food while I write a bang-up cover letter to The Violet Delia Foundation for Library Digital Empowerment, letting them know what I’ve accomplished so far and what else I hope to achieve. I send it off, then hunt for library grants, just in case there are any I might have missed. I search for more grants on the way to work the next day too. But I only unearth a few I’d really qualify for—or really that this library, or any others in the city, would qualify for to keep me on. But I check the job boards for open positions as well. I’m ready to pounce on any.
Spoiler alert: there aren’t any for—gulp—entry-level librarians.
Sigh. Sometimes starting out just sucks.
But there’s plenty of time. I’ve got seven weeks left in this job. I’ll keep at it. In the meantime, I order some stickers for fun.
On Thursday at work, the digitization center is quiet after I teach one of the digital literacy classes, but my brain isn’t. Maybe meet me in the stacks isn’t such a bad idea. Not for a sticker though. For something else. I take some notes, and work on some ideas all day, then I’m out for blood at trivia night.
News flash: our team wins, and Thalia lifts her beer in a victory toast. “You’re hereby required to play on my team for the rest of the year.”
I smile even though I don’t feel it as much inside. It’s nice to be wanted, but wanting won’t get me to stay.
The next day after work, I take off for a girls’ night out with Maeve and Fable. I invited Everly, but of course she’s traveling with the team and they don’t return till Saturday night so she can’t join us.
When I meet up with my friends by Patricia’s Green in Hayes Valley, a cute little park and playground, I’m giddy to share my news. Is it news though? Nothing has actually happened, but still after hugs and hellos, I spill the beans: “I’m looking into a grant extension and searching for a job to see if I can stay.”
With her wild, blonde-streaked hair framing her pale face, Maeve gazes heavenward to the starlit November sky, pressing her palms together. “My prayers are answered. She’ll be here, goddess. She’ll be here.”
“First, I love that you pray to the goddess,” I say.
“Who else would she pray to?” Fable asks dryly.
“Exactly. And second,” I say, frowning, as reality kicks me in the ass again, “it’s a long shot. But I’m trying.”
Fable squeezes my arm. “That’s how you start. Maybe there will be something perfect for you.”
Librarian jobs aren’t easy to come by, and they don’t pay gobs. I know librarians a few years older than I am who work a couple part-time library jobs in the hopes of landing a full-time one with benefits. But you never know.
“We’ll see what happens,” I say, and since I don’t love hogging the attention, I make a shooing gesture to Hayes Street. “Let’s start.”
We’re doing a photo scavenger hunt together. Rather than competing against each other, though, we’re working in tandem. If we check off all the items in two hours, we’ll get cake. This is the kind of team-building activity that calls my name.