Rowan's Round of Days

A part time librarian job paying $20-37 an hour had this lovely paragraph:

"Position requires prolonged sitting, standing, walking, reaching, twisting, turning, kneeling, bending, squatting and stooping in the performance of daily activities. The position also requires grasping, repetitive hand movement and fine coordination in using a computer keyboard. Additionally, the position requires near and far vision in reading written reports and work related documents. Acute hearing is required when providing phone and personal service. The need to lift, drag and push files, paper and documents weighing up to 25 pounds is also required."

Clearly, public librarianship is not a job for me, or any other disabled person. It is like they thought of any disability and made a line to cover excluding disabled people of that class.

So Thursday I went up to the Adocentyn Library to do an afternoon of cataloguing so I could stay over in the East Bay for a Friday conference. I finished off my own books and started on Gus's boxes. Wow, that feels like an accomplishment! I had a lovely solo dinner at the Suzette Crepe place on Solano (yay, buckwheat only crepes) and then stopped at a nail salon to get my nails redone, followed by a drink at the Ivy Room (a boring sports bar as it turns out). But hey, it was a great "me time" kind of evening. My giant air mattress blew up beautifully and I slept well. So no more worrying about where to stay when I do my two day library volunteer stints.

Friday early I headed over to the Brower Center, UC Berkeley, to a conference called, "Making it Count: Opportunities and Challenges for Library Assessment" put on by the Librarians Association of the University of California on issues in academic libraries. <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/lauc/conference-2013> Keeping a hand in the field even if no-one seems to want to employ me.

Steve Hiller, Director of Assessment and Planning, University Libraries, University of Washington talked on Library Assessment from Measurement to Impact and Value. (Check out his library's fact sheet at <http://www.lib.washington.edu/assessment>.)

He started with a quote from J.T. Gerould of the Princeton libraries from 1906, stating that the basic questions of assessment were essentially, "Is this method the best? Is our practice adapted to secure the most effective administration? Are we up to the standard of a similar institutions?" The emphasis for the first decades of library assessment was mostly about size - how many volumes, how much growth. These are easy to collect inputs, but don't tell us what users were able to accomplish because the library exists.

So the emphasis has changed to try to capture the impact of the library on the individuals, community and organization (impact and value). Hiller mentioned he had been on the ISO committee for ISO 16439 (Methods and procedures for assessing the impact of libraries). Nothing about it on the ISO site though, under development. There is an article about it available on Emerald though that I think I'll bookmark to read later <http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=17041642>.

But anyway, his point was that we are moving beyond internal performance and satisfaction to advocacy to a variety of stakeholders, creating narratives. And he invited everyone to consider the August 2014 conference on library assessment in Seattle with the warning it sells out months in advance.

There was a Panel Discussion featuring Merrilee Proffitt, OCLC; Joanne Miller, California Digital Library; and Lyn Paleo, Evaluation Research and Training. I didn't take very good notes, although all three talks were interesting. The link I captured about UC libraries was <http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/facts-and-figures>. Looks very old school by Hiller's talk. Also I would like to read an OCLC published on archival collection assessment, co-authored by Merrilee Proffitt. <http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/library/2012/conway-proffitt-rbm.pdf>

We broke for lunch and I had several interesting conversations with different folks. Another librarian who also had a patent background suggested I join Patent Information Users Group <http://www.piug.org/>. Several people commiserated about how hard it is to find library jobs and mentioned they are often hiring MLS holders into paraprofessional positions. No librarian likes that circumstance.

I went to an interesting afternoon breakout session by Lynn Jones and Susan Edwards (UC Berkeley) called "Every number tells a story: using data to make collection decisions" about their experience with needing to close the Education and Psychology library (for seismic issues) and doing various metrics to figure out how the students and faculty of the Educations, Psychology and Social Work departments used campus libraries. It was very interesting but complicated and I don't think I can summarize it here.

The closing keynote was given by David Fetterman about his "Empowerment Assessment" ideas used by Fetterman & Associates, an international evaluation consultation firm. His idea is that assessment shouldn't stop but be used to push an organization's goals forward. He has done all kinds of cool projects and was selling his latest book, _Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages: Hewlett-Packard's $15 Million Race Toward Social Justice_ about closing the digital divide. He also talked about an anti-smoking campaign for youth in Arkansas. I chatted with him a bit at the wine reception afterward. Some of his techniques reminded me of appreciative inquiry and other techniques I've learnt over the years. No jobs link on their website though. *wry grin* Or even training opportunities. I'd like to read his most recent book and also _Ethnography: Step-by-Step_. I sent samples to my phone but both are kind of expensive. I just don't have the textbook price thing down.

I also had a nice chat with Stephanie Rosenblatt of Cerritos College who had given a breakout session I had to miss. We may network some more. Yay.

After the nice (bar the grey day) wine and snacks reception on the terrace of the Brower Center I headed off to Adocentyn when I met Don & Anna and wandered down Solano to find dinner. We ended up at the Solano Grill and had a lovely dinner and conversation. Then I, predictably, grabbed some takeaway from Aangan and headed home. I had stayed late and missed the rush hour but traffic is always bad on that corridor. I need a teleporter really badly.

The rest of my week was rather muddled. After leaving the hand doc and having lunch I starting having auras and nausea and feared a migraine. So I headed home to my darkened room. And waited, and waited. Twenty four hours of auras and nausea later, I started to feel better. But then I slept the afternoon away. By dinner I really did feel better, but off kilter. I think the off kilter thing effected my whole weekend. :(

Saturday was the NROOGD Ingathering. I had put it in my calendar for noon and was up and packed to stay overnight in the east bay so I didn't have to drive up both days. Unfortunately, I left my cooler bag of potluck items on the chair in the kitchen. Got all the way to Marin and realized I didn't have it. Stopped to buy more food at a lovely market. Got to Deborah's with a bag of unrefridgerated food and realized I was two hours early (the meeting actually being at 2pm). She wasn't home. I sat on her steps for awhile and then just decided to head over to the East Bay to the library. If I had had the cooler bag, I could have just gone off and found a restaurant. But my "I must bring food" headset limited my choices.

So I spent the afternoon cataloguing the books I had brought to catalog at Sunday's work party. The library got pretty cold and my spoons were amazingly low. Instead of sleeping over I decided to head for home about 8pm. After an awful drive, I got home and fell in bed. Sunday I didn't have any energy at all and slept in and decided no way I was driving back to Berkeley.

I feel like the lamest thing ever. Oh well. Today (Monday) I have an interview with a recruiter so I had best get to filling out forms and getting my paperwork together. I so cannot imagine presenting well as a "go getter" today but hey, all that acting has got to come in handy sometimes.

On Saturday morning we visited the Cliffs of Dawn at dawn. We were run off from actually getting out to the point by a guard (the attraction doesn't open until 10am) but we sat amongst the statues in the park and watched the sun come up.

This picture (more views on flickr) is a statue of Ixchel on Isla Mujeres near the park where the ruins of her temple stand on the southernmost point of the island. It is the most eastern point of Mexico and hence the first place the dawn touches.

In Mayan times women came to the Island which was entirely sacred to Ixchel. She was midwife and bringer of fertility. There are round pools at the base of the cliffs where the women bathed to be granted fertility and also to give birth. She is triple aspected with the midwife being the old woman. Her maiden aspect is often shown with a rabbit. I imagine this modern statue is in her sovereign mother form.

The plaque at her feet says:
Ixchel
Fue la principal diosa Maya
Diosa del arcoiris, del agua de la fertilidad, de la abundancia, de la luna, del amor y de la medicina.

Which I make as:
Ixchel
She was the main Mayan Goddess
Goddess of the rainbow, of the water of fertility, of wealth, of the moon, of love and medicine.

I left offerings at Chacmool to open the way and offering for Ixchel with a prayer for abundance in my life's work.

After sunrise we made one last pass along the beaches and then ate breakfast and caught a boat to the mainland and a van to the airport. The airport was quite entertaining and I was sorry they wouldn't leave me a wheelchair so I could explore. I did get a t-shirt & hat from Margaritaville Cancun. LOL But there were an amazing array of product demo people on stilts, in giant heads and wearing grass skirts that occasionally passed in the distance that I would have liked to have seen closer.

I'm home, pretty bushed, need to catch up on my metadata class... so I probably won't be online much. But wow, that was an amazing vacation.

I wished for un-sore and vigorous in the morning, but I didn't get it. I have a cramp in my piriformis muscle. I'm definitely beter than last night but it hurts to walk. A 20 minute boat ride (and in the bay the boat hits the swells, boom, boom, boom) and then a deep reef dive is not on my agenda anymore. *sigh*

I feel bad for making Kurt go off on his own, but that is what we can for, the diving. Evidently last night's night dive was amazing, with lots of wildlife - rays, eels, fish, a sleeping shark and lots of turtles. I think today they are going to Punta Negra. At least there are enough divers hanging around that I think even without me there are six on the boat. And having a divemaster for a buddy is kinda fun too. They have all kinds of tricks to show you (e.g. snap you fingers near a brain coral and it will pull its polyps in).

I am going to be good and watch some metadata videos and work on my class. Or maybe sleep a bit more first. This getting up early to get onto the bay before the wind picks up and there is so much competition for sites is wearing on me.

So yesterday we did tool around town and stop in a few shops. I got a black and pink hibiscus coverup (made from a sarong) sewn for me on the fly but an enterprising shopkeeper with a sewing machine.

After we headed back to the hotel we finally hit the swim up bar - I have wanted to be at a swim up bar for years. Bucket list item checked off. We had a drink that was basically rum and diet coke but with a splash of triple sec and kahlua. And then Kurt had a very multicolor drinked called "sky" that looked like a sunset (and was probably way to sweet for me). We met the nice couple from Birmingham, England we had chatted with the night before and decided to have dinner together. Evidently the original plan had been to serve dinner by the pool and have an "aqua show" but the thunderstorms made them move dinner inside. Thus we were invited in the middle of dinner to go out by the pool to see the show. And they cleared our places and had to make us dinner all over again. But we had a fun visit anyway.

Then off to bed fairly early as we had an 8:30 dive. Kurt finished his last qualifying dive and off we went (yes, I was let back in the water) on a wild reef dive with Gil leading Kurt and I through arches in the coral. I wore the gopro, so I hope to have underwater pix of him diving soon. We came back, grabbed a quick lunch and I had a 90 minute hot stone massage.

Now I'm just chilling and working on pictures. I may try to get into WoW just to see if they'll cut me off for being in a foreign country like they did when I was in Europe.

Russell and I were handfasted 30 years ago, September 17, 1983, in the apple orchard at Eclectia with 70 or so guests. I did the invites on the computer with my mad graphics skillz. A friend sewed Russell a new wedding robe. I wore my favorite velvet dress. We exchanged rainbow headbands (head), plumeria leis (heart) and had our hands tied together (hands). I baked 7 trays of lasagna and tossed salad for the feast. We had 7 chocolate grand marnier cakes from Cocolat. A chef friend gave us two trays of antipasto as a wedding present. We bought a case or three of champagne. Friends brought instruments and jammed. It was a wonderful party. But it was very DIY and we couldn't afford a honeymoon for another year.

So for our 30th anniversary I really wanted to have a fancy GIANT ANNIVERSARY PARTY (as it said in my calendar on the 14th). I have spent the last couple of months finding a venue, buying a dress, arranging a band and generally putting a fair bit of energy into having a party. Evidently the universe was listening because OMG WE HAD A REALLY, REALLY WONDERFUL, AMAZING, FABULOUS, TRANSCENDENT PARTY!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Sorry for shouting. But wow, I couldn't be more thrilled and satisfied by the result. I had had various ideas about bands for the event and had checked into some 60s cover bands but ultimately went with our friend Fontain and "Fontain's MUSE" the band that is she and her husband Farhan with occasional other folks. When they lived in San Jose our bellydance troupe, House of Inanna, was their "house troupe" and we often performed at their concerts. They do amazing trance-dance music with a beat.

So, I dont' dance with House of Inanna any more but evidently Fontain and our troupe leader, Petra, conspired to put together a set list and the five dance sisters I had invited to the party put together a SHOW!!! Wow. Just, I have the best friends evar.

And people came, around 60 people. Friends who were at our original handfasting and friends we've made since. Friends who are local and friends from afar. I had hoped my parents could come but my Dad's medical woes made that impossible. But my brother Ralph came up from San Diego.

We had it at a local hotel at whose restaurant, The Island Grill, I am a regular. The Grill catered it and the food was luau themed and amazing. People kept telling me they couldn't believe this was hotel food.

And we all danced. And chatted. And looked at photo albums of our past. And drank champagne and ate and chatted. And danced. And watched dancers. Rinse, repeat.

I really wish I had hired a photographer but other than that I am very happy with the event. We billed it as "Russell & Rowan, First 30" (so said our cake anyway) and promised to have another in 30 years. LOL We probably won't wait quite that long, but it was definitely a party to last a decade or two.

I have decamped from San Antonio and arrived in Las Vegas. Russell is working at Photoshop World and will be out to 9pm tonight. I have availed myself of a long soak and a nap and am now deciding between room service and wandering off in search of provender.

The trip to SA was filled with family goodness. Not only did Martha & Katie come down from Austin but Paul and Annette came down from Dallas. Annette visited her sisters Sunday night and Paul and our family went out for Moroccan food. The food was good and the service wasn't -- fulfilling all the reviews on Yelp and Urbanspoon. The food was really good. I think if it was in my neighborhood I would only do takeaway though. The service was just that bad. The next morning we visited some more and then Paul and Annette headed back to Dallas. It took them nine hours! Ack. Mum worries they'll never come visit again since this is the second really back commute home. I hope she's wrong. It is so nice to have family around. I know Mum misses being just around the corner from Martha when they lived in Austin.

Dad go the results of his cytology and we know that whatever is going on with his lungs is neither TB nor cancer. No idea what it is yet, but those were the big scary things and it is good to have them ruled out. He goes back to the doc again tomorrow for more tests and another draining of the pleura if needed. The first few days after his last one it hurt to cough but he is getting his wind back.

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time taking iPhone pix of pictures in early family photo albums. Mostly just pix of me for my "Rowan's life" set but some of my family too. And lots of school class pix that I had no idea existed! I'll process those over the next while and put them on flickr.

Hmm, I think I will venture out and see what I can find to eat. The room service menu is very dear and limited to boot.

Since the EDD cut off my unemployment and I don't have to keep my nose to the grindstone about looking for work... I decided to head off to Texas to see my family and help Spike with a WorldCon event and hopefully get to WorldCon.

Upon arrival, I found out that my dad has a pleural effusion and would need to get it drained the next day. A liter and a half of fluid has been making him rather short of breath. He thinks he had an embolism or something when they were in Brazil last October. They had at the time suspected and ruled out a heart attack but didn't check his lungs. Gah. People kept telling him of his shortness of breath that it "is just old age" and I think he is feeling justified to know that there really was a problem. OTOH, he is also wondering about cancer or a recurrence of TB (which he got as a medical resident) and other things that are kinda scary. I had really hoped to drag him off to WorldCon since he is First Fandom and it would be fun to show him a modern Con, but he isn't feeling up to it.

Yesterday we had the kick-off events at the San Antonio Public Library. There were panels and readings by authors at 1 and 4 and a panel of editors at 2:30. My job was to shuttle them back and forth from the Convention Center to the Library. It is about a mile but the temperature got up to 101F and we really weren't going to ask them to walk it.

1:00 - 2:30 pm Kathleen Goonan, Tanya Huff and Walter Jon Williams
2:30 - 4:00 pm Liz Gorinsky, Lee Harris and James Patrick Kelly
4:00 - 5:30 pm Robin Hobb, Catherine Asaro and Elizabeth Bear

I had been wanting to get Tanya Huff to sign my lending copy of _Enchantment Emporium_ which Song had returned to me just a couple of weeks ago... but I couldn't find it anywhere. I got her to sign my ipad cover instead. How cool is that?!

It was actually really fun to be their driver and I enjoyed chatting with various of the authors and eavesdropping on their conversations between themselves. And the panels and readings that I caught were really good.

Then at 6:30-8:00 pm we celebrated the publication a new anthology, _Rayguns Over Texas_. About 16 of the 25 authors in the anthology where there to talk about their work. I got them to sign a copy of the book for Dad. It looks like it will be a fun read.