- Library Assistant/Cataloging, Wells College Library, 1986-2003
- Paralegal, John McKeown, Attorneys at Law, 2004
- Electronic Resources Librarian, Ithaca College Library
Long Form
I was born Karin Elizabeth Hurlbert on Thursday, September 24, 1964 in Detroit, MI, which makes me a Libra, just barely. I graduated from Thurston High School in Redford, MI in 1982. During high school I ran track and cross country, swam and played soccer and powder puff (flag) football.
I went off to Wells College in Aurora, NY to study German literature. I also played soccer at Wells -- until I tore my right thigh muscle -- and that was the end of that. I graduated from Wells with a BA in German and a whole bunch of honors: summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Distinction in the Special Field of German, the Student Library Prize and 2 Helen T. Lowe-Porter translation prizes. I'm really rather proud of my accomplishments and I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging too much.
During the summer between my sophomore and junior years, I worked at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, NY. There I met my future husband, Jack. He's rather a privacy fanatic, so I won't be saying much more about him. We were married on September 28, 1985, the third week of my senior year, and just 4 days after I could drink legally! My mother was convinced that getting married would spoil my grades, but I pulled all As that year and graduated with both a husband and a 3.85 GPA.
After graduating, I took a position as a cataloging assistant at the Wells College Library. My job changed a lot over the years, and I learned a lot, but it went from being a dream job to being a nightmare the last couple years, and I should have left long ago.
I did my coursework at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY during the 1987-88 schoolyear, while pregnant with our first child; Michael Dietrich (9 lbs., 5 oz.) was born over spring break on March 18, 1988. I finished out the semester, by hook or by crook, but I didn't continue the program at that time.
On August 30, 1990, our second son, Garret Duncan (9 lbs., 1 oz.), was born. I even wrote a poem about his birth. We think it is very funny that Duncan means "dark (haired) warrior" -- Garret's a tough guy, but his hair is very blond!In the spring of 1994 I began work on my Master's thesis. My topic was a German vampire novel: Hanns Heinz Ewers' Vampir. I finally completed it and graduated from Cornell in May of 1995.
In the spring of 1997 I completed an intensive internship in book repair and conservation in the Cornell University Library's Department of Conservation and Preservation. I am now a certified Conservation Technician. I started a modest book repair program at the Wells College Library, and the handwork was a wonderful and satisfying counterbalance to all the techno-work.
We now live in the Fingerlakes region of upstate New York. Jack lives on an old farmstead, where we raise our kids, dog, rabbit, ducks, and many chickens. Our rooster was a really fine bird named Big Boy, but he passed away in the spring of 1999. One other chicken of note was our silly little Chickpea, who was a spangled Hamburg with no tail! She died the same week as Big Boy and our girl cat, Anja, who had kidney failure. Her mother, Uli passed away peacefully in the summer of 1998, and our tomcat Kater Bumble died in his sleep in 2003. Then there's Friendly (a chicken) who sometimes perches on your shoulder like a parrot. In the spring of 1997 we added 3 ducklings, (one lost to a weasel a week before the other pets died) and in 1999 we added a mini rex Rabbit named Clover to our menagerie. Jack now has a small tabby named Puss-Puss, who recently had 5 kittens, and I have two kittens myself -- Black and Dumpling.
I have a nice apartment in Sherwood, after losing my lovely college housing on the lake along with my job. Our divorce was final the second week in March 2003, days after I lost my job at Wells. Since our separation we remain best friends and work together well.
The kids are happy and growing -- Michael loves to read and work with computers. He does some programming in JavaScript, and just before he turned 14 he finished writing his first novel. He and I have been taking fencing lessons in the summers since 2002. Garret is very active and loves to help his Dad with work around the house and barn. Both boys sometimes help their dad on theatre jobs as well. Garret loves to cook and help with the animals. When he works, he is a really hard worker. I like to read and watch horror movies and discuss them on-line with all my friends on the Horror list.
As for my marriage and divorce, I don't care to talk about that much online. Sad but inevitable. We get along very well still, and have succeeded in building a good post-marital relationship, both for ourselves and for the kids. They are doing well with things, and seem to enjoy having 2 households.
In 2001, I decided to go to library school. I didn't have any money, but it just had to happen. I went to grad school at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. It was a gruelling program, working full-time at Wells and going to school full-time via distance learning, but at the end of summer 2002 I earned my MLS with a 3.83 GPA. I am now a Real Librarian, even if I don't have a job.
When I had actually earned my piece of paper, it seemed to have made my co-workers very uncomfortable, to say the least, and the less said about that, the better. That was the nastiest, most hostile, horrible thing I have ever been through in my professional life, and I am glad to be leaving it behind. I am now in a new position where my skills and experience are appreciated and respected, where what I do well is what is needed, and where I earn a decent wage.
In April of 2003, I tried out and made the Syracuse Sting, a
women's professional tackle football team in the WPFL (Women's Professional Football League). After a very
challenging pre-season, during which time I broke 2 fingers and a rib, our regular games began and we did well,
finishing the season as divisional co-champs, and only missing the playoffs by one 6-point touchdown.
(Photo Copyright Jack LaMont, taken August 16, at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida -- hundreds more photos of
that game can be found on the
Florida Stingrays site.)
I, however, did not fare so well. On September 6, 2003, in Springfield, Ohio, I tackled a runaway quarterback. My foot caught on the astroturf and did not come over with us. Instead, my leg twisted and my left leg bone exploded inside me, shattering into what my surgeon called "more pieces than I could count." He put me back together with a long metal plate, a bolt and 11 pins -- and no promises I'd even ever walk again. My x-rays look like an erector set. Two months I spent in a wheelchair, and some more time on a walker and crutches, but I did walk. I also learned there is no safety net, and got by on absolute zero income and no assistance for 3+ months. By sheer determination, in February of 2004, I was running again -- painfully, lopsidedly, like a little old woman, but I ran. I worked my way up to 3.5 miles before patello-femoral syndrome set in my right knee and I had to rest it a few months. I've only just started running again.
[Here is where I wrote a few kind words about the wonderful fella I've been with since June 2003; but some of his "friends" are such jerks that they teased him and caused so much trouble and grief about it that he asked me to remove that part. They apparently have nothing better to do than sit around looking up my name on the Internet, to which I say Get a Life! I will say only that we are happy together, with or without bonehead acquaintances.]
I somehow eeked my way through the hard, slim times, worked for 4 months as a paralegal in a bankruptcy lawyer's office, and finally had not one but two job offers, and would have had three, I am quite sure, had the third one not had budget troubles and hired no one. I turned down an excellent job at RIT due to the long commute it would entail, and took what I think is turning out to be a more interesting job -- pays quite a bit less, but still twice what I made at Wells, and the commute is only a little over half an hour -- as Electronic Resources Librarian at Ithaca College. Meanwhile, Wells doesn't look to be in any terrific shape -- admitting for the first time publically to have had fewer than 300 students and openly discussing the (last-ditch effort) possibility of going co-ed. I feel like I was tossed overboard in time to be kept from going down with a corrupt and sinking craft. It was hell, and no one was doing me any favors, but I am ending up with the better end of the stick.
If you are really interested in my accomplishments, see my Resume, or you may prefer to read about my Interests.
And those are the highlights of my life so far!
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Last modified: September 12, 2004