Introducing Kilroy

Well, it’s late and I’m sleepless, so let’s see about chapter 2…

One thing I forgot to mention, my family turned our house into a B&B when I was in high school; it’s pretty much the only practical thing to do with a huge, rambly Colonial-era house that is WAY too big for 4 people (and for all you Ghost Hunters fans, yes, I’m pretty sure there was *something* in the attic). We lived in a very touristy town, and I spent years serving breakfast to people from all over the world. My parents used to love when we would have European guests; they could dust off their language skills and share stories.

Anyway, on to Seattle. I graduated from college into a recession, having decided at the very last moment that I wasn’t going to law school. Lacking a Plan B, I decided that if I was going to be jobless and possibly homeless, I might as well be somewhere cool, and it didn’t come much cooler than Seattle in 1991. I flew away with nothing but my dad’s old Army duffel bag full of clothes and the phone # of a family friend who lived outside Seattle. A few days later I got in touch with the family of a college friend, whose mother was also an alum of the same school, and they offered me a place to stay while I figured out my next move (an act of generosity I am still hoping to be able to repay, or pay forward, someday).

The downside was, I was desperate not to impose one day longer than necessary, and so I jumped at the first job that came along, a mind-numbing, soul-destroying position working for a personal injury lawyer. I imagined my alma mater taking back my diploma, and for good reason. I spent my days answering phones and dealing with clients who assumed that, as a female, I wasn’t quite human.

After about 3 years of this, I had a midlife crisis at the grand old age of 25 and forced myself to figure out what I really wanted to be when I grew up. The answer, surprisingly, was “a librarian”. I always figured I wouldn’t work in a library, because libraries were for fun, which goes to show how little I knew. Luckily, the University of Washington had a good library science program, which I paid for with generous year-end bonuses, paid under the table by my very understanding boss. It took three years, working full time and going to school part time (and for the last 6 months doing an internship as well), but I did it. The internship was with the Seattle Times, where I discovered that news research was what I was meant to have been doing all my life (my father was thrilled), but that led to a dilemma; news librarianship is a small field, and jobs in Seattle were nonexistent. If I wanted a job I was going to have to move, and that was complicated by the fact that for the first time in my life, I had a boyfriend.

<More to follow, unless I’ve bored everyone to tears>

I had been told that it would be at least 3 weeks before CNN had an answer, so imagine my suprise when the interviewer called 2 days later and asked, “Can you move to New York?”. <gulp> Luckily, Ted and I had already talked about what we would do if I was offered the job (or *when* I was offered, as he put it). He said all the right things about how I had to take the job, and we would figure out a way to make it work. So when the call came, I said yes. My boss walked in the next morning to find me sitting at my desk which had been decorated with balloons and Congratulations banners; he took one look and said “you’re leaving, aren’t you?”

<more later. sorry for the short chapter, but I have to do some work 🙁 >