Welcome to My Blog

 I am trying again. Each time I start a new blog I wonder what I am doing. Do I have the ability to show up for myself? Can I really put content out there knowing it is really just for me? I would love it if someone would read and follow...but in the end I am showing up for myself, honing my craft.

I fancy myself a writer. I have always wanted to write. When I was young it was journalling (very intermittently), plays, and character development. I did some poetry in my moody teens and early twenties. I loved to research topics. I found my profession at age 7. I knew I wanted to be a librarian. I thought writing and librarianship to be the magical partnership that would sustain me until I passed from this world and onto the next.

Life has different plans of course. I left high school thinking I would never enter another classroom again. Ten years later, I entered my undergrad at University of Cincinnati in History and graduated in 2002. I took a year off to figure out what to do next and ended up working in the Langsam Library at the University of Cincinnati. I was on my way to my dream job. I started Kent State University in 2003 for my Masters in Library and Information Science and graduated in 2005. Now that I was official, I wanted to work as a professional librarian, not just to work in a library. So, I was hired by the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and worked as a branch librarian at the West End Branch for a little over a year. I would have loved to have stayed there forever, but when I was born in Ohio, I wanted to leave Ohio and that opportunity came in the form of my husband getting a job in Spokane, Washington. So, off to Spokane we went. I worked for a technical school known as Apollo College and helped get them accredited by establishing their first library and research area for students. Once it was complete, it was clear to me that it was time to move on, so I got hired by the City of Liberty Lake to work in their municipal library. I thought this was my place to settle in and kick back but no, I felt the urge to return to school. I started at Eastern Washington University to get a Masters in Business Administration only to discover that Accounting was the thing to break me and I regrouped to get my Masters in History with the focus on Archives and Public History. As I graduated from Eastern, I worked at the Eastern Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives and then was hired to work as the Southwest Regional Archivist in Olympia for the State Archives. This career path was exciting and rewarding but soon I was feeling like I was ready for something else.

Fast forward to now - its March 2023. I am in the midst of my GAP year. I think that is what I am calling it. On October 28, 2022 I walked away from my State Archives job to take a break. I have been working since I was 10 or 11 (more on that at a later date). I am 52. Maybe this is my midlife crisis. Maybe this is my menopausal breakdown, my hysteria. I had dreams of taking a break, traveling, and seeing the states. I purchased a small teardrop camper. I started to slow down...and my health has taken a turn. People ask if I have retired. Nope. I fully expect to return to gainful employment. I am not sure what it will look like. I am thinking about what I would want to do. I am circling back to some of my childhood dreams. Writing was one of those.

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work on a book while I worked for the State Archives - and it released March 13, 2023. Here is a link if you want to check it out. It is about Spokane Parks. When I lived in Spokane, part of my graduate work involved some research for a historical app called Spokane Historical. Some of the stops on this app I did in lieu of a thesis about Spokane Parks. Once I got into the history of the parks and park development I was hooked. While at the Archives, we received a donation of older negatives from the Spokane Parks Department and this was perfect for an Arcadia Publishing Images of America historical picture book.

So what next? As I figure this out, I want to continue to work on my writing. Maybe there is something else inside of me. Until then I will write on this blog, and maybe someday,
someone else will find it interesting.