The End of The Year

One year ago, I was wrapping up my education at Emporia State University.  I had finished and delivered my capstone, and walked at graduation.  A lot has happened since that point.

The job I spoke of in my last post never gave me a start date--they still had intention to, but the background check took inordinately long for reasons beyond my control.  I was offered a different position in the meanwhile, and accepted it.  It's full time regular work for the State, which is a bit more stable than the contract position I had been waiting on.  The position title is "statistical analyst", but I got the impression that the work would be more oriented toward database and spreadsheet management, and the manipulation of data and information to extract and synthesize reports.  Needless to say, I am in disbelief that I found such an awesome position--digital information is kind of my thing.

(Note: when people ask you what you do with studies/degree in Computational Linguistics and/or Library Science, this is what you do with it.  You manage and analyze digital text, information, and databases.  This work is not highly specific to any one career field--just about every business or organization has information or databases and a need for someone to maintain and interpret them.)

I have to say, I was hoping to be "back by popular demand" in academia by this time, but it hasn't happened. I've been busy trying to get a stable job, and thereafter house shopping with my husband and thinking about coordinating the move.  We haven't found a house yet.

I published two books this year so far, and plan to publish one more before January.  That's something to be proud of.

Another new job

Since my last post, I have now accepted *another* new job--it's a contract position for the government, but it is regular, full time with benefits, which was a step more secure than the temporary non-benefited position I had been in.  I'm not sure when I will begin the new position due to the background check, but hopefully it will be soon.  I was hoping it would be before the end of this week, but now I'm not sure how realistic that is.

My husband started a new job in late July, but unfortunately the job is is on the other side of Denver from where we live.  His commute is horrible.  As such, we started looking for a house that was closer to his work; we found one in August, and we are having a structural engineer look at it today.  If the basement and foundation check out, we might put in an offer.

I have achieved my goal of publishing a novel, and I am set to have two more out by the end of this year.  I'm a little surprised that the book is actually selling, and not just to friends and family.  I did publish it under a pen name, so anyone reading this who wants further details will have to email me.

New Job

A quick update on my life:  I started a new job in late June, working as an evidence technician.  It's been an adjustment for me; both the work culture and the subject matter are extremely different from what I had at my last job.  I'm waiting for things to settle in before I pass judgement on if this is something I can do for an extended time.

My garden is in growing in force, and this year my husband requested that I plant more flowers than edibles.  Things have yet to bloom, but the ornamental look is different and pleasing.

I have decided to move ahead with publishing some of the books I have written; the first is due out in August, with two more to follow by the end of the year.