Saturday, May 13, 2006, was my graduation with a Master of Science in Library Science (MSLS) from the University of North Texas. Mark wore a coat and tie for this event, too.
Continuing the story from yesterday - things moved pretty fast the next eleven days.
On Monday, May 15, 2006, I followed up on a couple applications I'd submitted for jobs I was particularly interested in, and determined I wasn't likely to get them. Late that day, I was contacted by Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, and asked to come for an interview on Thursday, May 18, for the Special Services Librarian position I'd applied for on May 11.
On Tuesday, May 16, 2006, Mark drove with me to Jacksonville, Texas, so he could check out the town while I had an interview at Lon Morris College, a private church-run junior college. The job had some interesting perks (not having to work in June or July, as I recall), but as it turned out, the college filed for bankruptcy on July 2, 2012, and the campus was auctioned off on January 14, 2013.
On Thursday, May 18, 2006, I interviewed at Tarleton, where librarians do not have faculty status. This interview was only a half-day, with the key part being the first hour spent with the search committee, the rest mostly being tours.
I don't remember much about the interview, other than I thought it went well. I received a call from them later that afternoon, as I pulled into the driveway of my brother's home for a long weekend in Austin. I was offered the job and I accepted it immediately.
So why was that?
Although we could have lived in Corpus Christi - and I wonder sometimes if Mark would have been happier there, closer to his best friend / "brother" Tom Utter - I don't remember discussing the decision much, other than Mark saying something to the effect that "it was just as well, as Tom and I would probably just get in trouble again." (Maybe I was afraid of that too.) Maybe the pay differential (if there even was one) did not offset the hassles of faculty status in Kingsville. Or maybe the Tarleton job just felt right - as indeed, it turned out to be just right.
On Friday, May 19, 2006, I was in Austin for cousin's daughter's graduation and party, and Mark was helping his son Drew move the sailboat from Lewisville to San Antonio (where Drew had accepted a new teaching job for the fall). I'm not sure what happened the rest of the weekend - if we got together in one city or the other, traveled back north together, or what - I don't have any record of that.
I do know that I was back at my cousin Tom's home in Grapevine by Sunday, May 21. I only had a few more hours to work to complete my assistantship contract at UNT, which I finished on Tuesday, May 23. The next day, Wednesday, May 24, 2006 (circled on my paper calendar for that month), I moved in with Mark at his apartment in Granbury.
As I wrote to my friend Poom on Monday, May 22, 2006,
"Tarleton State is in Stephenville, which is only 30 miles/minutes from Granbury! So, I will start moving in with Mark (Breathless) later this week. Today he is starting on the house hunt (we are planning to buy a house, or at the very least to rent something bigger) and I will join him to work on that later this week."
Great photo!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marian, and thanks for commenting!
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