Settling into Semi-Retirement

I was laid off from a full-time job more than two years ago. I collected unemployment for a while and have worked in a variety of part-time jobs. Finally my life seems to be settling into somewhat of a pattern that I enjoy.

This is what my schedule looks like for the next few months: Two mornings each week (Wednesday and Friday) I attend the senior exercise class in town. I share leading the class with another woman. Sometimes I lead the entire class; sometimes we each lead a part of it. Now that there are two classes each week, she'll be leading more. If I find myself short of time, I may not go to both.

After exercise class, I head out to the Massachusetts Library System-west office where the MassCat office is located. There I spend the rest of the day on database maintenance and original cataloging for member libraries.

Thursday evenings I teach LIS415 for Simmons GSLIS-west. I spend most of Thursday (and some of the other days not otherwise accounted for) preparing for that class.

For the next few months, I'm contracted to teach one Continuing Education class/month for the Connecticut State Library or the Mass Library System. The workshops will be Cataloging Equipment, RDA, and an overview of cataloging for "accidental catalogers".

That leave me plenty of time to read (current book: Dearie), work on crossword puzzles and cook. Now that the weather is getting cooler, I'm baking muffins and quickbreads. I also made a pan of lasagna and included a layer of roasted summer squash. Yum.

This is the life - hope it continues this way for a long time.

A Day Off

It's been very busy for the last few weeks. I've either been cataloging, giving a presentation on cataloging, preparing a presentation on cataloging, or - hardest of all - agonizing that I need to prepare a presentation on cataloging that I'll be giving in a few days. All of the presentations are now over.

This morning I taught my exercise class. I have some errands to run, but otherwise my day is free. I'm hoping to get some housework done. With all of this rain followed by sunshine, the yard needs attention, too. Where to start? I'm also way behind on my crossword puzzles. There are two per week that I work on from local newspapers and right now there's a stack on the coffee table just waiting for some free time. Maybe that's what I'll spend the rest of the day doing.