A Wandering Eyre

If you want to know what is going on with the Rochester clan, and let me warn you we do nothing the easy way, please go read Defying Genetics.

If you are waiting for snarky Jane to return, please continue your holding pattern.

–Jane, getting used to the routine of the NICU

(picture inclusion with a nod towards Helene Blowers)

This post has been a long time coming. If all works out accordingly, this post will be published directly after or right before I hand the interested parties my letter of resignation from the University of Houston Libraries where I have worked for three and a half years. I am sad to be leaving my friends and colleagues behind, even though I will see most of them often enough. Those who know me or have been paying attention will not be surprised at my departure. I have needed, searched for, even longed for a change in work scenery for quite awhile.

I am trading my crazy, traffic filled commute for domesticity and working from home. Instead of a Social Sciences Librarian, I will be a stay at home wife, mother, and Geek Librarian At Large. In addition to changing diapers and walking around with a baby attached to my chest, I plan on engaging in the following professional activities:

Friends and long time readers will surmise correctly that I am going to continue to do the things that I love the most about being a librarian, teaching and advocating for technology education in librarianship. Due to the impending arrival of Baby Rochester, I am placing a hiatus on most professional travel for almost a year and half. I expect my next conference to be ALA Annual 2009, though one never knows what life will bring you. Box of chocolates, anyone?

I plan on writing at least one more post reflecting on working in an academic library, based on my experiences in the one that fostered me these last few years, and the kind of job I would love to have some day. Those should be coming along shortly.

Until then, I am excited about this new phase of my life, happy for the change of pace, and pleased to be able to finally tell you, gentle readers and friends, my plan.

–Jane, tickled baby boy blue

Karen Schneider, who has always given me great advice, is sharing some of her wisdom about being “famous.” Timely, the post is, being just before Midwinter, when we will all scurry around trying to meet old friends and new ones in chilly Philly.

I really enjoyed the post and was reminded of all the people, like Karen, who have helped me in the past few years.

I liked that she placed “famous” in quotes. Famous is a meaningless thing compared to our lives outside of the limelight. What really matters is how we live our whole lives, not just what we do at conferences, in front of audiences, and when people are looking. I love all the things I do as a librarian, but getting to lounge on the couch with these handsome boys is better then anything else I have ever gotten to do.

Karen also mentions Bette Davis, who played the best bitches on the silver screen. I am partial to her portrayal of Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves Davis, old movies, or good, old fashioned, evil women.

My favorite piece of advice from Karen’s post was to help others. I think, whether you pull weight or not, helping others is always important. There is always someone who could use your hand or a smile.

–Jane, hopes she lives up to her ideals on more days than not

Mr. Rochester took an indoor weather station to work today that has a clock and a temperature gage on it. He had this to say in an email to me:

By the way, I really like having my thermometer on my desk. And now I have 3 clocks on my desk all synchronized within <2 seconds of each other. Awesome!

Ladies and Gents, all you need to do in order to turn on your engineer is synchronize your clocks. Works like a dream.

–Jane, does not get the appeal, but whatever makes him happy *shrug*

Mr. Rochester and I have set up a family blog, Defying Genetics, for our friends and family who live too far away to hear and see frequent updates about our growing clan.

I wanted a place to put more family type things and I thought I should separate that space from this one. Follow along over there if you want or care to or stick here for your usual dose of sarcasm, soap boxes, and silliness. I am sure there will always be some crossover, but I had to have somewhere else to post ridiculous amounts of baby and dog pictures. The drinking librarian pictures can stay here though.

–Jane, hopes Baby Rochester gets the good genes

A mundane update about me, because really, it is all about me, you know.

I had a fun weekend filled with tree trimming and house light hanging. Mr. Rochester could really care less about either, but I adore them so that he perches on the ladder while I hand him gutter clips and the next string of lights. He even helped with the tree this year. Lovely. In other Rochester news, we are having a healthy baby boy. Mr. R is glad to have escaped a house of giggling and princesses this round and I am glad to have escaped the threat of having my daughter want to be a cheerleader.

Now, if you were unfortunate enough to have spent your formative years cheerleading, please do not be offended, but what would two nerdy geeks do with a cheerleader? Just consider that and move on without getting all huffy. I was a band nerd for the love of Friday.

I then packed off to Sacramento, CA to teach the first of many workshops for InfoPeople. The workshop is on using Web 2.0 tools and ideas for staff training. It went off well with a very participatory group with a myriad of good ideas of their own. I am going to make some tweaks for next time. If you live in California, I will be back every week in January teaching the same class.

If you have received your copy of American Libraries for December, my little face appears twice! I wrote the “On My Mind” column this month on freedom and literacy in libraries. There is also a picture of me a few pages later, p. 48, at the Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium from this summer. In that picture, you can see me laughing as I lose horribly at Mario Kart. It was fun, even though I failed to be victorious, twice.

Now, I am back in Houston, enjoying our “cold” weather (it is 50 today) and contemplating what to tackle on my to do list first.

–Jane, had some last minute emails from students who did not prepare well for their research papers

All of the principles have been told and I think it is time to tell the Interwebs.

In a flight of fancy with a dash of what-the-heck-were-we-thinking, Mr. Rochester and I are expanding the Rochester household. We should have a bundle of Human Beta somewhere around the end of April. I think it will end up looking something like the picture on this site, but the grandparents are hoping for something like this.

I shall now answer all the questions people have been asking so I only have to do it once:

I am lucky biotch and have had no morning sickness (mine is an evil laugh!)

yes, we are going to find out if it is a boy or girl

yes, I will tell you

yes, we have some names in mind

no, I will not tell you because I do not care to hear what you think about them

no, I have had no weird cravings yet

I feel great, but I take a lot of naps, which may or may not occasionally occur in various places in my library

Besides being busy in general, this site has been quiet, because by the time I get home and eat dinner, it is nearly time for bed. I know I am supposed to have more energy soon and I am at least hoping I can stay up long enough to watch the Daily Show again. John Stewart, I miss you.

–Jane, happy to be keeping a secret no longer

I have always loved the mountains in that visceral way that some places seep into your soul. The mountains make me feel like no other place I have ever imagined or seen. I have not been in the mountains for a handful of years and every year they pull on me. This year, I am finally able to return.

The puppy is with his grandma, who will feed him things he never gets at home and spoil him rotten. Mr. Rochester has packed all of our camping things into action packers, the tent has been checked for holes and cleaned out, the sleeping bags are ready, the food is waiting, there is ice for the coolers, and liquor packed (because this is vacation, you see). Tomorrow, at approximately 2 am (yes, as in, the morning), Mr. Rochester and I are climbing into our SUV and driving to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Though I am taking my laptop so that I can write, I will not be online. Ever. Miss me a little or not as you choose. I will take lots of pictures, come back with stories about how we narrowly escaped being eaten by bears, and how Mr. R had to drag me down every trail in the parks.

–Jane, is taking graphic novels and articles for a lit review as reading material

Mr, Rochester and I have recently held many conversations about Macs. Many of them are spurred by the recent Apple commercials and some of them are due to the fact that many of my friends have Macs.

You see, dear readers, I live in a PC household. I have nothing against Macs and see their uses, but as a gamer, I like PCs. Mr. R, on the other hand, holds a hatred for Macs that I believe could only be eclipsed by his hatred towards the Dave Mathews Band. It is a virulent sort of hatred.

Aaron McKenna, at Gear Digest, has an interesting take on the PC v Mac phenomenon, but it is the link inside the article that amused me. He links to a Guardian Unlimited article whose author, Charlie Brooker, hates Macs with a passion that rivals Mr. Rochester’s. The entire article is worth the read, but when Brooker mentioned the game that has annoyed me most in my life, I knew he was a kindred soul.

Myst, the most pompous and boring videogame of all time, a plodding, dismal “adventure” in which you wandered around solving tedious puzzles in a rubbish magic kingdom apparently modelled on pretentious album covers, originated on the Mac in 1993. That same year, the first shoot-’em-up game, Doom, was released on the PC. This tells you all you will ever need to know about the Mac’s relationship with “fun”.

–Jane, amused by it all

I enjoyed Seattle and I would like to live somewhere else other Texas in my lifetime. I have been plotting various ways to get Mr. Rochester to pick up our tent stakes and move.

I think I may have found the perfect job for my rocket scientist. Who knew that Jeff Bezos was running a company that built rockets. In my head I can only think how random it is.
What do you think Mr. R? Do you think Pullo would enjoy Washington?

–Jane, thinks a change of scenary might be just the thing