Visual Aid
So - I've been saying I want to be an old/rare book and manuscript librarian. Here's a visual aid of the kind of thing I work to one day work with.

Conclusions
This is a sort of continuation of an entry I posted earlier today, so if you haven't read that, read the other one first.
People told me it would be a good experience to apply forthat rare book and manuscript job. I think they probably thought the interview would be a good experience. But even interview-less, it's been good.
I had a talk with the deputy director here about my concerns, described in the earlier post. He pointed out that the letter I got was very probably a form letter, and it didn't mention degrees because, it being the sort of job it was, they had assumed every applicant would have a master's in something.
Then we talked about my ambitions and the archives track at the uni where I'm in the MLS program. What occurred over the course of this part of the discussion is that I realised that the archives track may not get me where I really want to go. I don't really want to be an archivist (sorry, Chavez). I want to be a librarian of old books and manuscripts. And they have classes specifically in that stuff in the library school at Carolina.
I can take classes there through my current school, but it would be a pain in the ass to have to customise my own program and then do all the paperwork to take classes at Carolina. I've started thinking about getting all the basic classes at my current school and then transferring.
Which reminds me - only one of my professors from this past semester has posted a grade for me, but that one grade is an A.

The Latest Concern
Yesterday I got a letter from the personnel office at the main campus library. The letter turned me down for the job in the rare book and manuscript library that I applied for last week. I didn't really expect to even be interviewed for it, but the reason the letter gave for turning me down causes me some concern. It didn't turn me down because I don't have a master's degree. It turned me down because I don't have any experience in "rare book and manuscript librarianship."
If I graduated and got my degree tomorrow I still wouldn't have that experience. There is no internship on the archives program I'm in and no electives.
It's just like deja vu. When I got my BA in English in 1993 I was convinced I could get a job in some sort of publishing or advertising. When I applied for those jobs the reason I was given for being turned down was a lack of experience.
I will be one unhappy camper if that happens again once I get this MLS.
In other news, I just found out my car has a transmission problem it would cost more than the thing is worth to fix, and a collection agency has started hasseling me about an ancient debt I thought was dead and buried.

Evening from Hell
When I got to my building after work yesterday I had nothing in my box but junk mail which went immediately into the trash. When I went inside, the elevator wouldn't work. As I climbed the stairs to the third floor I realised all the lights in the halls were out. When I got into my apartment I tried the hot water. There was none.
I saw the link between the lights and the hot water because this same thing - I don't think I wrote about it here - happened a couple weeks ago. That time it lasted two days.
I picked up the phone to call the landlord and I had a message. I listened to the message. It was another of those goddamned automated messages about "an important business matter." I've been getting these for months. The message doesn't give the name of the company involved, only a phone number. I've already reported it as a violation of the Federal Do Not Call Registry, and they're still calling.
I lost it. I star-69'd it.
It turned out to be a collection agency. They'd contacted me over a credit card debt which the original holder (Nationsbank) wouldn't respond to my inquires about setting up repayment in 2000. It was supposed to have dropped off my credit history last month. I didn't think they'd pursue it anymore after that.
The guy I spoke to got all hoity about how I owed them money. I told him I was sick of getting these messages, and he said, "Oh yeah? Well, you're gonna get this message tomorrow, and the next day, and the next!" I really wish now I had said, "Okay, there, Howard Dean." I started in on how the message they left misrepresented his company and he hung up on me.
Then I called my landlord, and the message I left him wasn't anywhere near as nasty as what I felt like leaving.
I reported the collection agency to the Do Not Call Registry again this morning.