May 31, 2016

This morning my alarm clock went off at six o'clock in the morning. I then laid in bed and may or may not have dozed off a couple times until finally getting up at 6:45AM and taking a shower. I then ironed my shirt and pants. And then threw my shirt and pants in the dryer. And then I ironed them again. Turns out I probably shouldn't have put so much effort into the pants because despite being wrinkle-free, they wrinkle as soon as you sit down. Oh well.

I waited until 8:30AM and didn't hear anything from my practicum supervisor so I texted her. That led to me going to the library at 11:30AM. Thankfully the campus is a lot less busy during the summer so I was able to park in the parking garage, which isn't too far of a walk from the library. It was also a nice day, so that walk was nice. It will probably suck on the days where it is hot as hell, but following this week I should be at the library by eight o'clock so it shouldn't be too hot by then. Hopefully.

I was at the library for two hours today and we started by going over schedules to try and figure out what would work best over the next few months. This being my supervisor's first day back from a two week vacation, along with being on a search committee for new librarians, today and the rest of the week is a little hectic for her. But, we discussed scheduling and then she took me next door to the office I'll be working in. The IT guy came down and got me set up with a username and password so I can log into the computer and I met my officemate, who is a librarian that my supervisor works with. I would say she is more senior than my supervisor but it would be hard not to be because she has been at the library less than a year. It would have been nice to have a more experienced supervisor because I think I would have gotten more out of the experience and they would have had a better idea of what they were doing, but it's too late now. And it'll be a learning experience for both of us.

All that took about thirty minutes and she had a meeting to go to so she emailed me a couple links to look through. My officemate went on her lunch break shortly after that so it was just me in the office for about the next hour. The first link was an example of what she wants to change the freshman library experience into. Rather than just a tour and a class on the catalog she wants to set up a mobile scavenger hunt. It sounds a lot more engaging than the boring tour or even a paper-based scavenger hunt. The other link was to an updated explanation of information literacy. It was long but more succinct than the stuff we had to read in one of my classes. Which is good because I read slow.

Not too long after my officemate got back from lunch by supervisor got back from her meeting. We all talked about random stuff for awhile and then they both had to go to a two-hour long meeting. I had already read everything and she couldn't think of anything else for me to do so we called it a day. Tomorrow they are doing an event with 4-H and I kind of invited myself to help out with that because I'm worried about not getting my hours in before the end of July. And the stress level is going to pick up next week when I start my job at the public library, so if I could at least get in a few hours this week that would make me feel a little better.

I had plans of doing productive things when I got home but none of those things occurred. I just wrote quotes in my journal and watched things online. Kind of disappointing. I'm going to regret these lazy days when everything starts crashing down on me later in the summer.

Tonight we had our first class meeting for the ALA conference class. It was informative. It sounds like business casual is the expected attire, which sounds warm in Florida. All but one of the shirts I just bought are long-sleeved so I might need to go get more short-sleeved shirts. And I need to figure something else out with the pants because my new pants are not going to survive a suitcase without become a wrinkled mess that an iron won't be able to fix. I also still need to get comfy shoes that can hold up to being on my feet all day. To give us an idea of the walking she said a light day might be 10,000 steps but she said it would likely be closer to 20,000 steps, and she has friends who have put in over 30,000. That's a lot of walking. Based on some rough estimates and calculations, that is over fourteen miles, which sounds absurd.

During the meeting my mom came to show me something in the paper but I couldn't look because I was trying to pay attention so I went up to look afterward. It was an obituary for a kid I was in Scouts with. He was a year behind me but only sixth months younger than me. He was such a happy-go-lucky kid and whenever I ran into him over the years he always had a big smile on his face. At the bottom of the same page there was a brief article that said he had been found with an apparent self-inflicted wound that was not caused by a gun. I can't really comprehend it. It's been several years since I've run into him but my dad just saw him a few months ago. I just don't get it. Often times life doesn't make sense and this is one of those times. I just wrote a quote the other day in my journal that says “Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many.” I'm not really a fan of growing old but the older I get the more I realize how lucky I am. It also makes me a little worried because every time someone dies unexpectedly it makes death feel that much more inevitable. I don't like it. And I don't like seeing my friends and family die. It just makes me feel so helpless. Or rather, it points out how helpless we all really are.

May 30, 2016

 Today went by really quickly. This morning I slept in and then read a couple chapter in the class book. Then I ate lunch. After lunch I spent two hours putting together a grill/smoker that my mom bought. It had so many bolts. And it was lacking the appropriate number of washers and locking washers, which was annoying. But I got it put together.

For dinner my sister came over and my mom put the new grill to work. She made burgers for her and my sister and I had black bean burgers. I will say they are better on the grill than they are just heated up in the microwave.

Dinner lasted quite awhile and afterward I didn't really accomplish much. I watched Primer, a bad movie about time travel that I couldn't really follow and for some reason I watched the whole thing. While doing that I continued to search for and write quotes in my notebook. I should have done something school-related but I didn't.

My practicum is supposed to start tomorrow but I haven't heard back from my supervisor. She said any time between 8:00AM and 5:00PM, Monday through Friday worked for her and suggested tomorrow as the start date. I got back to her with my eventual work schedule but that was during her vacation, which she won't be back from until tomorrow. I was hoping that she would at least check her email before getting back to work. I guess not. Now I think the plan is to wake up early tomorrow, get ready, and hope I hear from her. It'll be great.

May 29, 2016

 This morning I read two chapters of my book for class before writing a Thank You note to my grandma and getting ready for lunch. Then my sister came over and we drove to Panera to meet what turned out to be my aunt, grandma, dad, step-mom, brother, brother's girlfriend, grandma's sister, and my grandma's sister's daughter. It was good to see everyone and lunch was good. I had a veggie sandwich on tomato basil bread, which was really good. Before leaving I got a loaf of sourdough bread because sourdough bread is delicious.

This afternoon I did things. Which specific things I can't be sure. I also did things after dinner so we'll just lump it all together. I added several more quotes to my journal. I responded to an email from the lady who I met at the honor society dinner and sent a Thank You email to the professor who helped me with my resume and let her know I got the job. I wrote my discussion post for my capstone class. I watched another episode or two of Midsomer Murders. I also just finished watching Stonehearst Asylum, which apparently came out in 2014 but I don't remember hearing anything about it. I was in the mood to watch Shutter Island but it wasn't on Netflix and the first suggestion of Stonehearst Asylum, so I gave it a shot. And it was good. It makes you think not only about how we historically treated mental illness but also how we still view those with mental illness. I'd watch it again.

Tonight, after speaking with my friend on the phone, I finally tried out the three ink samples I got along with my mom's pen. That also meant I got to try out my glass pen, which is really cool. I used the glass pen to write the name of the ink and some squiggly figure-eight things and then used a Q-Tip to rub a large sample onto the page. That seems to be the thing people do when making ink swatches. If I keep up with it I need to switch to cardstock because the paper kind of rolls up with the big Q-Tip rubbing. I will say though, I used Rhodia paper and there was some ghosting on the reverse side but not any bleed-through. I was impressed.

As for the inks, I liked two out of the three and one of those seemed close to what I'm looking for. Of the two I liked one was a nice bright green but I want one that is almost black with just a hint of green that you don't immediately notice. The second one comes close to that with a thicker line, like that created by the glass pen. It is a little brighter, and obviously green when using a fine nib pen. I know this because I took the opportunity to fill up the converter in my Lamy Al-Star, which I have been waiting to use with one of my ink samples. I wrote a quote with it in my journal and I like the color but I think it would be more fitting with a broad nib. I'll keep looking but the ink in the converter should last for quite awhile so I'm in no hurry.

Now I'm going to write a quote or two more in my journal and then go to bed. Tomorrow morning I'll read more in the book and then do other things.

May 28, 2016

 This morning I went shopping for clothes with my mom. I thought it would be good to have a second opinion. And an opinion that might get me out of my box. We started with shirts and I tried on a few to make sure I got the correct size. Once that was determined a lot of time was spent trying to find that size in other shirts. I either have a very odd size or a very popular size because it was hard to find. We were eventually able to find ten shirts, I think all but two were buy one get one free and the other two were on clearance. Then I hunted for pants. Having learned from buying jeans I tried different sizes across different brands to try and find ones that fit. There were a lot of colors I liked that I couldn't get because the pants had a slim or skinny cut, which I think looks ridiculous. After several pairs I found some that fit well enough. I ended up going a size larger in the waist for one brand because I thought they looked better than the ones that had a “proper” fit.

The most annoying thing about trying on button-up shirts is having to pull out all the pins and cardboard, and unbutton the shirt before you can try it on. I realize all that crap makes for a better presentation but it is not friendly to those who need to try on multiple shirts. The pinned versions should be for display purposes and there should be simply folded versions made for trying on more easily. The most annoying thing about trying on the pants was the pointy anti-theft device being in the waistband of the pants so it digs into you when you try the pants on. I think a partial reason for wanting to get a size bigger was because the pointy anti-theft device wasn't as noticeable when I tried them on.

When I got home I hung up all my new clothes and ate lunch. This afternoon I did laundry, wrote quotes, and watched YouTube videos. And that is pretty much what I did for the rest of the day.

I read a little bit for one of my classes after dinner and practiced my penmanship. I caught up on YouTube videos and switched over to Netflix for awhile before watching Pepper's performance on the CaliRoots livestream. While doing that I got lost in Minecraft for awhile.

Tomorrow I am going to have lunch with at least my grandma, aunt, and sister but there may be some other people in attendance. Before and/or after that I need to work on a discussion post for my capstone class. Those are the major goals for the day. I also got the novel I have to read for my other class so I might try and get a chapter or two of that read. I want tomorrow to feel productive.

May 27, 2016

 I kind of did things today. The most important thing was sending several emails back and forth with my new boss to figure out my work schedule. Right now the plan is to have two evening shifts a week and have my day off be Tuesday. This way I can put a full day in for my practicum on Tuesday and put in two or three hours on my evening shift days. It's going to make for a really long summer, having to work at least eight hours every day, minus my trip to the ALA conference (which will involve schoolwork). But it's only for a few months. I can survive. Then I can focus on my job/career and maybe even being an adult.

I emailed the lady back from the honor society dinner and thanked her for sending me the pictures her husband took of me. I also told her about getting the library job because we had talked about the fact that I had applied for it. I was worried about my summer schedule immediately becoming over-encumbered but she spent last semester finishing her classes, working a full-time job, working a practicum, and getting chemotherapy. So people have survived worse than my current predicament.

I forwarded a bunch of my emails from my work email to my personal email. I created a backup the other day but I thought it would be more convenient to have them in email form, not an Excel file. I'm not sure when my work email will become inactive and I wanted to make sure I saved the important emails. I imagine the deactivation will occur sometime after I submit my formal resignation, or sign some form, or whatever it is I need to do to say I'm not coming back next year. I want to hold off on that as long as possible, though, because of my health insurance. I'm not sure if it will go through the summer regardless or if it will stop as soon as I resign. Just in case I want to hold out until I start my new job and the new insurance kicks in.

I posted my flight schedule to the discussion post for that class and tried to schedule my shuttle from the airport but the site was broken so I'm going to try again tomorrow. I also downloaded some stuff for that class and read a few things. The book we have to read for that class should be here tomorrow so I can start chipping away at that.

Tonight I practiced my handwriting. I started with an amazing 'i' and then pretty much went back to the not so great ones that I was making the last time I practiced. That was a little annoying but I did get a lot better at sliding my hand along as I wrote instead of planting it and moving it after each letter. I think I could nail the letter if I planted my hand on the paper to stabilize myself, but that isn't the goal. So the practice continues. I also wrote several more quotes in my journal. Writing with a fountain pen is still fun.

Yesterday I got Conveni Dream for the 3DS. It is a Japanese shop simulator, where you run a convenience store, hiring employees, decide the store layout, buy stock, and try to make a profit. It is fun but at the moment it is also frustrating. The owner of the store (I'm only the manager) keeps telling me to expand to attract more customers, but I have no idea how to expand the store. I can upgrade the shelves and things but I don't have the slightest clue how to expand the store. The game just came out yesterday and I haven't been able to find any help online other than the game trailer, which shows a bigger version of the store but doesn't mention how to go about expanding it. I also just screwed myself by hiring a third cashier and not being able to get a third register, so that asshole just walks around the whole time doing nothing and his salary is making me lose money every day. All of that along with some imprecise controls make the game a little frustrating, but it was also five dollars, so I can't complain too much.

Tonight I watched the livestream for the CaliRoots festival. I got to watch the full sets for Atmosphere, The Expendables, and Slightly Stoopid. So that was good times.

Tomorrow I am going to go clothes shopping for my new job and the practicum. Hopefully that is a painless process. I have an idea of what I want to eventually dress like as a librarian but my goal for tomorrow is to just get some new shirts and maybe a few pairs of pants. Keeping it simple.

Now I need to go to bed because I just got distracted looking at shoes and it is now after 1:30AM. Good grief.

May 26, 2016

 I slept in this morning and boy did I ever need it. I woke up feeling way better than I did yesterday, which wasn't much of a feat considering the physical and emotional toll yesterday had on me.

I ended up pretty much taking the day off because mentally I was too drained to do much of anything productive. I watched YouTube videos, clicked around the internet, and wrote quotes in my leather-bound journal with my fountain pen. There was also probably some other stuff that I can't remember.

I was a little productive today. I emailed the retiring sixth grade teacher the pictures of him as a kid that I edited for the slideshow, because I forgot to do that yesterday. I also emailed back and forth with my new boss at the library to try and figure out my schedule. Originally, before I got the job, I was planning on putting in two or three hours a day at the university library for my practicum. Now it looks like I might have to try and work an eight or nine hour day at the university library on my day off and then put in three or four hours before my evening shift, which would mean I would be working from eight o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night. Or I could work three evening shifts a week and put in three hours before that for my practicum and a few hours on my day off. Three thirteen hour days doesn't sound very appealing and wouldn't leave very much time for my other schoolwork. I don't even know if my practicum supervisor would want me there for an entire day. This is stressful.

On a more interesting note, I also emailed the PR lady I volunteer for about business cards. It looks like I might be getting some. That would be cool.

Now I'm going to finish the awful movie I'm watching (In The Name Of The King 3: The Last Mission) and then go to bed. I only saw a few minutes of the first movie and none of the second but I figured why not.

May 25, 2016

 Today was physically and emotionally draining. It really sucks leaving a job you love.

I was up until after one o'clock last night. I think it was closer to two o'clock. After writing my journal entry I decided to write a Thank You note to the second grade teacher who gave me the hilarious congratulatory card in response to my graduation announcement. I did a play on a birth announcement so she got me a congratulations on the birth of a son card but crossed out 'son' and put 'diploma'. Hilarious. I also wrote a Thank You note to the school librarian for encouraging me to go back to school for my masters and just being supportive throughout. I also kind of blamed her for me leaving work. I tried to keep the whole thing light but I did cry as I wrote it because that's when it all really started to hit me.

This morning I woke up at a decent time and got ready. When I went upstairs I almost started crying again because I knew it would be the last time I left for work at the school. And thoughts of that left me realizing about halfway to work that I had forgotten to eat breakfast. I can't remember the last time I forgot to eat breakfast.

When I got to work I went to give the second grade teacher her card and gave out some bookmarks as I went. Then I went to the library to give the librarian her card and gift, giving out more bookmarks when I ran across teachers. The gift was the green hoodie my mom got me for Christmas. It was meant to be a replacement for the one I wear everyday but I never got around to switching it out. One of the paras suggested it would be the perfect gift and I agreed. The librarian loved it but I told her to hold off on reading the card when I wasn't around because I am a sympathetic crier.

I then went up and tried to figure out the SPED printer and worked on that until the assembly. They have their own printer, not a district printer, and it has always been a pain in the butt. The IP address would randomly change, on at least three or four different occasions, and each time I would have to reinstall the printer. This time it changed to a temporary IP address for some reason and we weren't able to get it added onto their new laptops. I didn't have any time to look into it further but I might in the coming days just because it is annoying and I like to figure things out.

I got held up working on the printer and didn't make it down to the assembly until the gym was already filled up. I usually get down there while the librarian and music teacher are still setting things up so I can double-check the slideshow. I didn't have the luxury this time but oh well.

The assembly started with character awards, followed by a video and a slideshow by the school social worker. The video was made by her college intern and for some unknown reason she filmed the whole thing in portrait mode on her phone. She is a young twenty-something. She should know better.

After that there might have been something else but eventually it was time for my slideshow. There was a mild scare in the transition because the librarian had turned the projector off after the social workers slideshow but we ended up just having to wait for it to come back on. My slideshow went well. It played through without crashing and the bit near the end of each of the group slides where the picture layer and the video layer wouldn't quite sync up so right before the fade they moved independently, wasn't really noticeable. I tried fixing that last night but nothing I did worked so I gave up.

When the slideshow was over the librarian gave an impromptu speech, pointing out that I had made the slideshow, and then announcing that I was leaving and that I would be working at the public library next year. I don't recall all of what was said but that is when I did end up losing it a bit and cried, but only briefly, not only because of what she was saying but also because she was tearing up as she spoke. And again, sympathetic crier. Thankfully I thought ahead and right before going to the assembly I put some Kleenex in my pocket, so I was able to dab my eyes. I managed to avoid crying for the rest of the assembly and for the rest of the day, even though it did try and creep up on me a few times.

After the slideshow the principal had all the kids who weren't returning next year stand up to be recognized. Then She had all the staff who were leaving come up to the front. She talked about us, but not individually so that was good, and then had everyone clap for us, which turned into a standing ovation. Then we moved off to the side but the retiring sixth grade teacher stayed front and center to be recognized. She talked about him and showed him a plague that would be mounted near the stage in honor of him and the old music teacher, who returned for the assembly, in honor of all the work they had done for the kids with the performing arts. Then the rest of the leaving staff had to go back up while the whole school sang a song, which was accompanied by a man on the piano and the retiring sixth grade teacher's adopted son on flute. It was really nice.

Following the assembly was the traditional kickball game with the sixth graders against the staff. I had too much crap to get done in the lab so I missed it but I learned later the kids were completely dominated.

When I was leaving the assembly I was asked by the other sixth grade teacher if I could burn a couple copies of my slideshow for the twin sixth grade sisters who weren't able to be there today (although they were present via Skype on a laptop that their dad held up throughout the assembly). Then the social worker asked if I could burn sixteen copies of her slideshow for each of the kids who were in it. I ended up setting up shop in the back of the lab on two computer and the social worker's laptop. I had to render a copy of the social worker's slideshow, which took awhile, then put it on my flash drive, download it onto one of the computer lab computers, dump it into Movie Maker, which took awhile, save it so I could burn it to the DVD, and then wait. All the setup and the first copy took forever but it went really fast after that. I was able to get the first five done before lunch, which she wanted for the sixth graders. I was also able to burn two copies of my slideshow. I wanted two more to give to the sixth grade teachers but two of the DVDs I got from the librarian weren't usable. And it was time for lunch.

Most of the staff ended up going to the same restaurant and it wasn't the best. It took a long time to get seated, a long time to get drinks, a long time for our order to be taken, and a long time for our food to arrive. This was entirely due to one server being responsible for all twenty-four of us. And in the end, despite being starving, my meal was kind of a fail. I got pasta with mixed vegetables that had the option for chicken or shrimp. I obviously didn't pick either of those options and assumed because of this it would come as just pasta with mixed vegetables. Well, we all know what assuming does and I ended up being the ass with chicken mixed into my pasta. I didn't want to wait another half hour for new food so I just picked it all out, much like I have done with bacon in salad. And for all the work I probably had maybe a half a cup of pasta. It would have been really good in a larger portion and without meat.

After lunch we drove back to the school. My mom rode with me to lunch and coming back we also gave a ride to the gifted teacher. When we got back to school I got back to work on burning the slideshows and cleaning up the lab. I went through the recycling box and all the papers on my desk, sorting out the pieces that I could cut up for scratch paper. Which I then cut up for scratch paper. I also remembered to unlink my Dropbox from my work computer and delete the folder off the computer. And I remembered to grab my keyboard, which I nearly forgot about.

When I had finished burning the copies of the slideshow for the sixth grade teachers I went to give them to the teachers. I handed off the first one and ended up helping one of them set up printers on her new laptop. While I was up there I also tried to change the desktop background on the resource teacher's new laptop. It didn't work when I did it by right-clicking on the desktop and it didn't work when I tried to do it through a group policy. So I don't know what was going on. I'm already unimpressed with the new laptops, mostly because of the wireless constantly disconnecting, and there might be a chance the desktop background thing is just another annoying aspect of the new laptops. It could also be that the tech guys did something to make changing the background much harder. Which I think is dumb. Adults should be allowed to pick the background they want on their computer. There's just something about IT guys and treating everyone like idiot children that have to be protected from their own stupidity. I'm not a fan.

When I finally finished helping or trying to help people, burning DVDs, cleaning up the lab and putting the sheets over the computers, I went to clock out at 4:45PM. So much for a half-day. I think part of me also just didn't want to leave because I knew it was my last time there as an employee. And apparently the building didn't want me to leave either because I got an error message when I tried to clock out. It said my last action was clocking out and asked if I wanted to manually input a clock-in time. I did that but got the same error message when I tried to clock out again. I'm not sure if it counted my first swipe as clocking out after I manually typed in the clock-in time for if it was still messed up. I can remember clocking out before lunch and clocking in after lunch so my own guess, if it isn't the computer, is that I somehow forgot to clock in this morning. It would make sense with the error because when I clocked out for lunch I was actually clocking in, and when I got back I was actually clocking out, but I really want to believe that it wasn't my fault. I need to email one of the office ladies tomorrow.

After work I picked up Chipotle and then headed home. Not too long after that it was time for dinner. My food was good but that was probably aided by the fact that I was starving after only having eaten a tiny amount of pasta the entire day. We made it through the few videos I had to show and then my sister played some from a comedian who had a really funny bit about a guy eating pancakes out of a bag on an airplane. Then she showed a live Periscope of a couple storm chasers following a tornado that was happening somewhat close by, at least in terms of it being in the same state.

I spent the rest of the night just trying to stay awake. And somehow it is now 11:30PM. It has taken me a really long time to write this entry. But I'm going to call it good now and go to bed. I'm not setting my alarm clock tomorrow. Hopefully I sleep in.

May 24, 2016

 Today was the last full day of school. The librarian told me to get there early because they were having a breakfast for all the people who won't be back next year, and I am now included in that. My alarm went off at 5:55AM this morning with the song “Hot For Teacher”. I then turned it off and fell back to sleep until 7:15AM. So much for getting to work early. I did manage to leave the house about ten minutes earlier than usual so I did better than I thought I would.

Not too long after getting to work they made an announcement for the teachers and staff to go to the teacher's lounge. I was still finishing setting up the computer lab when the librarian and my mom came over to make sure I was going to the lounge. When I walked over a lot of the teachers and staff were already in the lounge and a lot of them started singing the graduation song. Then one of the paras pulled me over in front of everyone, the librarian said something nice about me. The para had hung up a piece of string and tied a bunch of pieces of paper to it with suggestions for life that she had written and that she was getting the other staff and teachers to write. That was pretty cool. And then the spotlight was off me and we all ate food.

I am hoping that tomorrow nothing will be brought up about me leaving at the assembly. They usually have the people who are leaving stand up and I wouldn't mind not standing. I'm not a fan of public recognition. And if anything is actually announced I might cry because I really like my job and don't want to quit. It's only the second job I've had but it is easily the best. I get to work with fun people who appreciate the work I do and I get to help kids. The only thing more I could ask for is decent pay, which I would never be able to get. And that sucks. So, if I could make it through tomorrow without crying that would be great. I think the entire school already knows I'm leaving so there is no need to announce it during the assembly, which I am counting on. The focus needs to be on the retiring sixth grade teacher.

To add a little more stress to me leaving the school, the tech guys were there today giving all the teachers new laptops. They also told me they were putting new computers in the lab next year. This means that none of the computers will have the shortcuts page I made, Type To Learn, Reading Counts, or the cool desktop backgrounds I made. Life will go on but it is annoying to know I won't be there to help sort things out.

Along with the new laptops today came multiple requests from teachers. One immediate issue for several of them was the wireless randomly losing connection. The fix seems to be manually disconnecting from the network and then connecting again. It's a problem that doesn't seem like it should be happening with brand new laptops. And it seems odd that it is happening with multiple laptops. It doesn't seem to be an isolated issue. Along with troubleshooting that I also helped teachers install Reading Counts and printers, and setup their email again.

I finished going through and cleaning up my work computer. I deleted most of the stuff on my desktop, cleaned up the Computer Lab folder on the faculty drive, and saved all the stuff I have made over the past four years to my Dropbox. I'm going to go over everything again tomorrow but my last step will be disconnecting Dropbox from the computer and deleting it.

Throughout the day I had most, if not all, of my regularly scheduled classes in the lab. That was unexpected for the last full day of the year but I didn't mind it. A last hurrah. The best part of this was one of the third grade classes that ended up coming to the lab at least twice today. The second time they got to have free time and several of them played a Snake-like game that I am not a fan of because it is open to the world and there are no filters one what other players can call themselves, and they occasionally call themselves inappropriate things. The kids were introduced to the game in Boys & Girls Club and I usually don't allow them to play it but because it was the last day and I didn't want to argue with them I let it go. Which is good because of a funny moment that occurred. There was a boy and girl sitting in front of me and at one point the girl called over to someone else playing the game and said that if they saw someone in their game named “Killer.Girl” it was her. Then the boy chimed in, completely seriously, that if they saw someone named “Bubbles”, it was him. I was very amused by this.

At the end of the day I went down and hung out in the library, from whatever time until about four o'clock. I talked with the librarian about stuff, showed her the slideshow, and put it on a couple different laptops for tomorrow. Then I went out in the hall for a little bit and talked to one of the first grade teachers and one of the fifth grade teachers. I had them, along with several other people throughout the day, sign their name in my autograph book. I started it a few years ago with my family and friends and thought it would be a good idea to get it back out. I still need to get more people to sign it tomorrow.

I want to give out some of my cloth bookmarks tomorrow so tonight I worked on finishing the ones I started however long ago but never finished. I made it through one but when I started on the second one the bobbin lost tension because it ran too low and it screwed things up. It took me forever to get all the string out from under the foot. Then I re-wound the bobbin and started on a different bookmark. I screwed up the tension on the bobbin and that screwed up the new bookmark. So I fixed the bobbin, correctly this time, and was able to finish four or five more bookmarks. That brought me up to twenty-three finished bookmarks, which should be plenty. Hopefully.

Now I need to go to bed because it is midnight and I don't need to oversleep on the last day of school.

May 23, 2016

 I accepted the library job this morning. It is going to make the next few months of my life much more stressful than I was planning on but I am also incredibly lucky to have a job before graduating. It's a good problem to have. I might reconsider that in the coming months but hopefully I can keep it in mind when the stress starts peaking.

I spoke with the school librarian at the beginning of the day and then spent the rest of my morning scanning old yearbooks at the copier. I took a break for lunch and then went back to the copier for at least another two hours. My feet got tired of standing there but after however many hours I got all twenty yearbooks scanned. Technically twenty-one because I scanned one year twice (because there were two copies of the book and I wasn't paying attention).

I had enough time at the end of the day to figure out the quotes I wanted for the slideshow for the retiring sixth grade teacher. I was also able to make the slides featuring those quotes. So it was a productive day.

The PR lady was back from being sick so I was able to volunteer after work. She had another volunteer there working on something so I sat at the next cubicle over and worked on the flyer map. Probably due to that separation, because we weren't able to get distracted by other things, I was able to finish the map. We decided not to draw actual routes on the map so I just had four different layers. One with all the locations on it and then three more based on where the businesses are located around town. The project ended up being a little more convoluted than I would have liked because Google Maps didn't work the way I thought it should, but I got it done and I am fairly happy with the results.

Tonight I worked on the slideshow. I added in the quote slides plus one more with the teacher's name. I also added in the music. That took awhile to not only choose the songs but also pick the order and then tweak them to get the transitions correct. And speaking of tweaking, I spent hours tweaking things. I went back and had to adjust some of the pans/zooms on the background rain video for each slide so it matched up with the slide it was behind, because most of them were off slightly. I then went through and added a short black slide in between each regular slide to create a fade-in and fade-out. You can usually do this by dragging the corner of the slide over, and I used that method on a few of the slides but on the ones with the rain background I was having trouble getting the pictures and the rain to fade at the same time. The illusion is that the pictures are on a window and it is raining outside. It kind of ruined that illusion when either the pictures or the rain faded too early. Adding a black slide in between made the whole thing fade into and out of the black slide so I didn't have to worry about mistimed fades.

When it was finally ready I rendered it. Almost twice because I noticed something about five minutes into the first render and canceled it so I could make some changes. When I watched the final video I noticed a few slides that still have some pan/zoom issues with the background but I imagine most people probably won't notice them. Hopefully. We'll see if it bugs me enough to try and fix it tomorrow. Hopefully not.

Now I'm going to go to bed.

May 22, 2016

 There is not a lot to write about today. I spent the entire day working on the slideshow. And that isn't much of an overstatement. I woke up at nine o'clock because I knew the slideshow would take me awhile and I didn't want to sleep through half of the day. Well, I did want to do that but I tried to do the adult thing.

Before I started on the slideshow I finalized my list of questions about the library job and sent those to the librarian. I heard back from her about a half an hour ago and she had answers for me. Turns out there isn't additional compensation for having my degree, but I also wouldn't have gotten the job without it, so it isn't completely pointless. I'm going to accept the offer tomorrow. She doesn't have a firm starting date yet but she is thinking the week of June 6^th, which will be a week after my practicum starts so I'll be able to settle into that and figure things out. I'll also have time to buy new work clothes, because I currently don't have to dress up that much for work and I'm assuming they want at least business casual. I actually need to do that sometime this coming week because I'll need to dress up a bit for my practicum as well, which begins next week.

As for the slideshow, I am very nearly finished. I got all the slides put in as well as the rain video for the background, added in all the pans and zooms on the slides and matched them for the rain video so everything looks right, made the credit slide (which I ended up making in Gimp instead of my video editing program), and downloaded all of the potential songs. I need to check but I think I need to add some fades between the slides for the kids. I also need to make a final decision on the music and put that in. And lastly, I need to come up with two quotes for the retiring teacher. I want to put one about teaching before his slides and then put one about retirement after them. Picking quotes can be hard. And it is also late. I'm going to put in a little more time tonight but I will have to finish it tomorrow. At work I can come up with the quotes and decide on the songs and then tomorrow night I can get everything added in and render the video. I nearly met my goal. But the real goal is to have it ready by Wednesday morning, so I'm kind of ahead of schedule.

I ran out of YouTube videos to watch today so I switched over to Netflix. I watched Ali Wong's standup comedy special, which was really funny at times and incredibly personal throughout, often times probably falling deep into “too much information” territory. After that I watched The Punisher because it has been on my list for awhile. I don't think I have seen it since it was in theaters. And I probably previewed it. I still like it and the music is still really good. It made me nostalgic for early-2000s rock.

Now I'm going to put in a little more work on the slideshow and then go to bed because it is almost midnight and I am tired.

May 21, 2016

 This morning I slept in and it was great. My only real goal for the morning was writing my introduction post for my capstone class. And I did that, so I had a successful morning.

This afternoon my sister came over so we could modify her new bird feeders. They are ones with cups for jelly on them but she doesn't like the perch so when she got them in the past she had me drill holes in them and we added dowel rods to make two new perches on each feeder. We did that today with both of her new feeders and one that my mom had for oranges. It was a little slow getting started getting all the stuff I needed to measure, drill, cut, and glue, but I eventually got in a groove and we got it all done.

I spent the rest of my afternoon and evening working on the sixth grade slideshow. I finished editing the pictures of the retiring sixth grade teacher and created slides using those pictures. I also made the slide for each teacher that will precede the slides for the kids in their class. The only slide left is the title slide, which I am going to make after I write this entry. I make the credits slide in my video editing program so I don't have to worry about that until I get the rest of the slideshow put together.

Tomorrow morning I am going to email my questions about the job to the librarian and then spend the rest of the day on the slideshow. I will actually start dumping all the slides in and working on the pans/zooms and transitions. The goal is to get it done tomorrow but that is going to make for a long day. Fingers crossed.

May 20, 2016

 How is it already the twentieth of May? This has to be the fastest month on record.

I worked on slides for the slideshow today and I now have slides for all of the sixth graders. One kid never brought in pictures and the other just came back to our school building a few weeks ago. Luckily both of them have been at the school for several years so I was able to find old pictures of them and compiled them into a slide for each of them. There is also the kid who just moved here from Mexico and I imagine the family either didn't have baby pictures with them or they didn't understand the request for pictures. I asked his teacher to try and get pictures of him and despite him apparently covering his face whenever he sensed a picture being taken, she did manage to get a few pictures of him. Now I just need to finish editing the pictures of the retiring sixth grade teacher, throw everything into my video editing program, remember how to make a slideshow, finalize the songs, and make a slideshow. I can totally do all of that this weekend.

When I wasn't editing pictures and making slides, there were classes in the lab. One of the third grade classes came in a couple times today to work on typing thank you letters for a field trip they went on recently. Being able to type a Word document and not really having to think about it is something I think a lot of people probably take for granted. At some point kids actually have to learn how to do that and it can be a little rough in the beginning.

I also made a worksheet for one of the resource teachers. I wanted to work on the slideshow all day but I can't resist making a worksheet.

I got a call from the librarian at the public library this morning. She asked me to call her back, which I did on my lunch break. But she was also on her lunch break so I told the lady who answered that I would try back later. I then emailed the librarian letting her know I had tried calling and that I would try again after work.

Fast forward to after work, I called her and she offered me the job. I told her that was exciting and it felt like I should ask questions about the job, but none were coming to mind, so I asked if I could have the weekend to think about that. She said I could and to just email her any questions over the weekend. So I've been researching questions about salary, benefits like insurance and retirement, business cards, and other ones that aren't coming to mind at the moment. After we talked on the phone she sent me a more detailed job description of what she saw my role being and it sounded very much like an extension of what I do now, dealing a lot with technology, which sounds like a lot of fun. And I would be getting paid real money. It also all seems very adult, possibly because of the real money involved.

Tonight was the staff barbecue and I actually went for a little bit. Originally I hadn't planned on going because I'm not a fan of social gatherings but the retiring sixth grade teacher was going to be there was going to be a little thing for him so I thought it would be nice to go. It could also potentially be my last gathering. I stood around a lot, like I do at any party, but I also talked to several people, when they initiated the conversation. I had a pretty good time.

We left early because I wanted to get home and record my introduction video. I made a practice video before the party and ran through my script several times afterward before I recorded it for real. And I managed it in one take because I decided not to be a perfectionist about it. I think it came out alright. I posted it immediately so I wouldn't have the chance to start over thinking it. Tomorrow I need to write my introduction for my capstone class. And then I can focus fully on the slideshow. And coming up with more questions to ask the librarian.

Now I am going to bed because it has become a real struggle to keep my eyes open.

May 19, 2016

 I had a couple classes not show up for lab today which gave me that much more time to work on my MAP spreadsheets. And that paid off because I was able to finish all of them, print them off, and deliver them. I thought my eyes were going to fall out after staring at tiny numbers all day but I am done with that and can check it off my list.

My next major challenge is finishing the slideshow. I think that is going to pretty much be my weekend. It would be nice to get it done over the weekend so I don't have to worry about it next week. And because it has to be done Wednesday.

I also want to scan all of the old yearbooks, and if I can finish the slideshow this weekend, I can devote my free time at work to scanning.

I am a little concerned about my laptop because recently its go-to state seems to be fan blazing. Nothing stressful is going on in the background, or the foreground, but the fan kicks on. The other day I took the bottom off and sprayed everything out with air, just in case a vent or something was getting blocked with dust. There really wasn't any dust present but it did seem to help for a little bit. Now it's back to blowing a lot. It's weird. And annoying.

I did other things today, like figure out an iPad wasn't charging in the cart because the cord had come unplugged from the back of the cart. As far as we could tell there was no way to open up the back of the cart so I had to reach through the top tray and blindly feel around for the loose cord and then blindly feel around for the USB plug. I got it in the end and the iPad started charging. It's a good thing I have long arms. I also installed a couple printers for one of the first grade teachers, helped one of the resource teachers figure out something with Excel, and there were also a few classes in the lab. It was a productive day.

After work I went to the public library to volunteer and the PR lady was still sick. She was sick yesterday so I should have figured she was still sick but I didn't check ahead of time. So I got there and was let in upstairs by someone on break after no one inside the staff area answered my knocks. I was walking over to the PR ladies cubicle when someone told me she wasn't there today. I was going to leave but then one of the librarians thought I could help one of the other librarians. That librarian wasn't around so I ended up helping the girl who handles all of the interlibrary loan stuff by taping address labels onto note cards to make sturdier address labels. Right around five o'clock I ran out of return labels so I put everything back and went to go check in with one of the librarians who was still there. They were getting ready to leave so I called it a night as well.

Tonight I was going to record my introduction video but instead I wrote a script for it. I'm not a fan of talking to myself while trying to stare into a camera. I feel like an idiot doing it. But I'll do it tomorrow. Hopefully. I have the script written, I just need to record it.

I also pulled the trigger on plane tickets. I got a flight that leaves mid-morning so I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to get to the airport. It also arrives about an hour before we can check into the hotel, so I figure that gives me plenty of time to get from the airport to the hotel. My return flight leaves shortly before noon, so again I don't have to worry about waking up in the middle of the night, and my mom and sister, who are picking me up, won't have to wake up in the middle of the night to come get me. The funding we are getting for the class only covers $250 for airfare which leaves me having to cover about $140, which kind of sucks but still $250 cheaper than it would have been. I spent a little more booking nonstop flights, so it will take me less than three hours to get to my destination, compared to five or more hours for some of the flights with stops at other airports. I also don't have to worry about navigating multiple airports and making sure I get to the new plane in time.

On a potentially positive note about the trip this summer, it looks like my roommate's in-laws live in Orlando and he might not be staying in the hotel. Which means I would have the room to myself. That would be great but I don't know how that will work out with paying for the room because I am only paying for half (even though I'm technically not because we are being reimbursed through the class). There is also the chance that even though he is bringing his family to Orlando that he will still stay in the hotel. That sounds ridiculous but I don't want to get my hopes up. Time will tell.

May 18, 2016

 This week is flying by. And I am tired. So let's hurry up.

A good portion of my workday was spent working on the spreadsheets. I nearly finished fixing the links for the scores on the second page for each class. I think I only have the sixth grade classes left and then I can start working on figuring out the changes for each students. That being the change in score for both tests and the change in percentile for both tests. Good grief.

This afternoon I focused more on looking up possible questions to ask during my interview. And glancing over possible questions that I would be asked, trying to come up with answers. I also looked through the library's website and read through some of their policies.

We had a band and orchestra concert this afternoon, which happened during the only two afternoon classes I planned on having. Because of this, I ended up leaving a little after three o'clock instead of waiting until 3:15PM or 3:30PM. This ended up being a good thing because I dragged my feet a little too much when I got home and ended up getting to the library only a few minutes before 4:00PM, which is when my interview was scheduled. I would have liked to be there a least five minutes early, preferably ten. Oh well.

I interviewed with the assistant director and the new head of the Adult Services department, who is the mom of one current student and one former student at the school I work at. I think the interview went well but I've thought that before and then never heard anything back, so I'm apparently not the best judge. They asked me all the basic questions, like strengths and weaknesses and all that, and I had answers for most of them. Hopefully good answers but much like presentations, I kind of zone out and go into autopilot during interviews and wake up when it's all over. When they had finished all of their questions they asked if I had any so I opened up my notebook and asked the seven or eight I had that hadn't already been covered. Those seemed to go over well. I think the most promising part was an offhanded remark the assistant director made. They asked me the obligatory questions about being able to bend and lift and push a cart, along with being willing to undergo a criminal background check. The assistant director remembered that I had just had one a few months ago when I started volunteering and said that would speed up the process. So if they're already thinking that far ahead, maybe that's a good sign.

After the interview I came home and changed out of my suit before going back across town to get Chipotle. I didn't want my suit to smell like Chipotle. On that first trip home I got denied waves by two of the neighbors. The first were in a car driving up the hill and I got ignored. The second was standing in the street and we even made eye contact but she just gave me an ugly look. To be fair, I think most of that was just her face, but they haven't really been friendly neighbors. And that isn't counting the husband calling the cops on me shortly after we moved in when I was sitting in my own driveway looking at the moon. I have no interest in actually becoming friends or conversing with the neighbors or even a full-on wave, but a slight raise of the hand as an acknowledgment of our mutual existence would be nice.

Chipotle night went well. My burrito bowl was good and they didn't skimp on the rice or beans. The one downside is that I ran out of lemon juice, so I need to get more of that. My sister brought over more hummus and pitas as a belated birthday present because she originally intended to make me two types of hummus but ended up messing things up a bit and had to make a double batch of regular hummus. So tonight she brought over the second one, which was artichoke hummus. Delicious. The artichoke flavor is very subtle and overall it isn't as tangy or tart or whatever as regular hummus. I think this makes it even harder to stop eating it. And I got more than that she originally planned because she accidentally put a lot of the liquid from the artichokes into the mix so she had to compensate with more beans. It all worked out because I ate way too much.

Tonight I was going to work on the sixth grade slideshow but then I got distracted by one of my summer classes. I logged in to see if anyone had posted their introduction videos, and two people had, but then I saw all the other information that had been posted. It looked like most people have already bought their plane tickets, which I hadn't even thought about. I spent a lot of time looking for flights and it looks like it is going to be a pain in the butt. The airport is two hours away so I don't want a flight at five o'clock in the morning but I have to be in Orlando and at the hotel before seven o'clock in the evening. Most of the flights that leave at a decent time have one or two stops and get there after seven o'clock. Based on the airport I'm flying out of, I only get $250 for plane tickets, so anything over that I won't be reimbursed for. The best, non-stop options were on Southwest but it was well over $300 to get both tickets. I'm going to continuing looking when I have more time to think about it, but I imagine my options are only going to get worse the longer I wait. I also saw that I have to pay $410 for my hotel room. I get reimbursed for that but at the time of check-in I have to either pay cash or put it on a credit card. I only have one credit card with a really low limit because it is used to pay my $20 phone bill every month, and she suggested not using a debit card because she said we would probably have a hold put on our account. So that's something to think about.

And too much to think about this evening. I'm going to bed.

May 17, 2016

 I got baby pictures from one of the sixth graders today which is unexpected because we started asking for them several months ago and it has been a really long time since I got any. It's also about a week before the slideshow is played, so very last minute. I think now there are only three kids that I didn't get pictures from. I was able to scan and edit the pictures I got today, so I'm back to being caught up there. I still need to compile everything. And finish editing the pictures of the retiring sixth grade teacher. It takes awhile to get everything put together when I just do a static background, and this year I was wanting to use a rainy window video as the background, which will take a lot more work. I'm starting to feel the stress.

I am also feeling the stress about my MAP spreadsheets. I don't think I'm going to have time to finish them. It's going to have to become something I bring home with me if I want to finish it because the linking thing has broken. That has added a ridiculous amount of extra time and effort to fix.

When I wasn't editing pictures or playing with spreadsheets, I had classes in the lab throughout the day. It was pretty uneventful. At least at this moment that is how I am remembering it.

This afternoon I got an email from the PR lady at the public library telling me I needed to call the head of adult services at the library because she apparently called me a few days ago and left a message about setting up an interview. I never got the message. At first I thought it may have been when I was traveling and didn't have cell phone service. But I just realized I put my home phone down on my resume so maybe she called that instead of my cell phone, which was listed on my application, and I tend to ignore the home phone because it is always telemarketers or politicians. I'll have to check the answering machine.

Regardless, I planned on calling the librarian after work but she ended up emailing me first, right before I left work. So I emailed her back. By the time I got home she had emailed again and after a couple more messages back and forth we set up an interview for tomorrow afternoon. I spent the rest of the night feeling nervous and woefully unprepared. I imagine those feelings will only continue to grow as the interview draws nearer. I've only had two interviews in my life and only one felt like a real one, with a three-person panel and interview-like questions. I thought that interview went well but I didn't get the job (thankfully) so I must have done something wrong. I am afraid of going into an interview where I get asked questions that I can't come up with a decent answer for. Every time I look at potential interview questions, in the comfort of my own home, I get stumped by them. And it will only be worse in an actual job interview. Which I have tomorrow. I don't know if there will be multiple people there or just the adult services librarian. I would prefer one-on-one but I imagine it is more of a panel interview situation. I'm worried that even though I've been totally entrenched in school for the past two years they are going to ask me a simple question about it and I'm going to completely blank. I shouldn't feel this anxiety because I volunteer at the library and have met all of the potential interviewers, but I still feel it. She gave me the option of having the interview tomorrow or next Tuesday. Having a week to prepare myself would have been nice but it would have also become all-consuming and I kind of want to just rip the band-aid off quickly. I'll also probably need all the time I can get next week to finish up the slideshow by next Wednesday. I'm going to review as much information as I can before tomorrow afternoon and then hope for the best.

Tonight I did some of that research but I also watched YouTube videos and played a little bit of Minecraft. I'm fixing up my small house in my new world and I finished my small garden. For my house I think I just need to put a roof on over the second floor and I'll be done. But I also want to add in a basement at some point. So I'll never really be done because there is always something to do. It is nice escaping into Minecraft again. If only for a little while.

Now I'm going to go to bed so I can get a decent amount of sleep and wake up tomorrow, well-rested and ready for my interview. Which won't happen until the afternoon but whatever. Oh, and I'm also worried about leaving work early enough so I can go home, change, and get back across town to the library. I always end up leaving later than I originally planned and I don't want to be late for my interview. Ugh. I don't like stress. I'm going to bed.

May 16, 2016

 Today was kind of a slow, long day. I had one near the beginning of the day and then my friend stopped by. He invited me to a baseball game but I've got too much crap to do at work so he stopped by before he headed out of town. We sat out in the lobby and talked for quite awhile before he had to leave. I like actually talking with people but I don't really get that outside of work anymore. And at work it is only every now and then. I need to make more friends that live in town.

This afternoon I had three classes in the lab. When I didn't have classes in the lab I spent time working on my spreadsheets and making a summer reading flyer and reading log for the librarian. I discovered on my spreadsheets that when I added new kids in some of the classes it screwed up my links on the other spreadsheet for those classes. That is super frustrating. At this point it would probably would have been quicker to just manually input all of the numbers. It will be a miracle if I can get it finished my the end of the year.

After work I got my hair cut and it was free as a graduation present from the lady who cuts my hair. That was pretty cool.

When I got home I didn't really do much but I eventually got around to working on the van picture that I said I would do for a t-shirt design for one of the kindergarten teachers. I need to get better at saying no. I took a break for dinner and finished the vans sometime before nine o'clock.

I practiced my penmanship for a little bit, writing eleven rows of the letter 'i'. At times I think I made improvements over yesterday but I am still pretty bad. I will continue to practice.

I emailed my adviser today because tuition was due and it didn't appear that I had been enrolled in the practicum because my tuition was quite a bit cheaper than previous semesters. She got back to me and said that she had received my paperwork and it all looked good but she had forgotten to enroll me. So she did that, my tuition went up a whole bunch, and I paid it. Hopefully for the last time.

I'm tired but I'm fairly certain if I were to lay down I wouldn't be able to fall asleep. I might jump into Minecraft for a little bit. Then I'll go to bed.

May 15, 2016

 I took the day off and it was somewhat guilt free. I slept in until ten o'clock this morning which was nice, but I still had a couple times throughout the day where I nearly dosed off. Yesterday was exhausting due to driving for three hours and all the graduation stuff, and then going out with my friend and being up until two o'clock in the morning. And I'm going to start the week of tired because it is after midnight now.

I played little bits of video games throughout the day, including: Castaway Paradise, Tera, Creativerse, and Minecraft. I ended up installing shaders and a new resource pack for Minecraft. I didn't really like the resource pack so I went back to my old one but the shaders were cool. They are more of a drain on the computer because it makes the game look more fancy and I haven't tried them since I upgraded my GPU. With my old one the game performance really took a hit with shaders on but today I was able to play with the highest level of shader with a far render distance and the game was still playable. I started a new world because I wasn't into building onto my other ones and I am now up so late because I got caught up with building a new house in my new world. It's probably a good thing that I haven't kept track of how many hours I have put into Minecraft.

I worked on my penmanship tonight and it was rough. I did a whole page of the lowercase 'i' lesson and if anything I was getting worse by the end of it. I major part of my trouble comes from trying to hold my pen “correctly”. I am supposed to just rest the tips of my pinky and ring finger on the table, not my whole hand, so that I can easily slide my hand along as I write. It's hard to make straight and slightly curved lines when you don't have the base of support from resting your hand on the table. And it was hard making the letter without being able to slide my hand as I went. I had brief moments where everything came together and it looked and felt right, but that was rare. I'm definitely going to need to keep working on that one before I move on to the next lesson.

I finished watching Deadpool today and I really enjoyed it. It was way more graphic than I was expecting, both in dialogue and violence but it fit the movie. It was also a pretty unique movie, especially for a superhero movie, in how the main character interacted with the audience and our real world, just like the comic.

I also watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens today. Also enjoyable. The action was good and I enjoyed the humor. I had already heard one of the spoilers but I wasn't entirely sure if it was real so it was still pretty surprising. I was also not expecting one of the revelations, so that was interesting. Now the next one needs to come out.

I steamed the curtains in my bedroom today. They've been wrinkly since I hung them up and since I still had the steamer out from my graduation stuff I decided I might as well go for it. I had to refill the steamer two or three times but I got the job done and they look a lot better. Now I just have to do the ones in my computer room.

There might have been something else I did today but it is now nearly one o'clock in the morning and I need to go to bed.

May 14, 2016

 I graduated today. Sort of. We'll count it though because in August when I am actually done with classes it will feel like a relief but not much like a graduation.

I got up a few hours before we planned on leaving town so I would have time to chill out and watch some YouTube videos before getting ready. I also steamed by graduation hood because I hadn't even thought about it when I was doing my robe and it also had fold marks. Not after I steamed it. I think tomorrow I might steam my curtains. It's just so relaxing.

After getting ready, I had a small tortilla with some peanut butter and we headed out of town. It all seemed very familiar considering I had made the exact same drive last night. The drive was thankfully uneventful and we pulled into the parking lot by the library at exactly 12:45PM, which had been the plan.

I walked in and hung out with my mom and sister for awhile in the lobby of the building where the ceremony was taking place. Then we parted ways so they could go find seats and I could go up to the third floor and stand around for an hour. I didn't put my hat on until about the ten minute warning because as more and more people made it up there it got hotter and hotter. When we finally started lining up we were at the end of the line for all the different schools but we also ended up by a door that was kind of closed but not really. One of the girls got curious and wanted to know what was behind the door so she opened it. It turned out just to be office space but it also came with a cool breeze from the air conditioning, which was welcomed.

The ball eventually started rolling and we slowly made our way back down to the first floor and into the auditorium. When we reached the lobby I heard someone call out my last name and when I looked up to the second floor balcony I saw my friend and his parents waving at me. I waved back and when I looked back down I saw my dad walking toward me. He had apparently just gone to the bathroom and came out at the perfect time to shake my hand as I went by.

The auditorium was packed and the actually didn't have enough seats in the section they blocked off for the graduates. I was in the last row and probably six or seven people ended up sitting in the back row of the next section over. There were also people when we were still up on the third floor, that walked past us going up to the fourth floor to watch the live video feed because there wasn't enough room left in the auditorium. It feels like the fire code was probably broken because all of the seats were taken and there were people standing along the walls.

It felt like the ceremony took forever but I think it actually went by pretty quickly. They were only doing graduate students, so even though the place was packed with us, there were still far fewer than there were at my undergraduate ceremonies. The biggest school graduating was Education and we in Library Science didn't get to see most of them get hooded because they all stood up at once and most of them remained standing, even though they were being called to line up one row at a time. There were a few smart ones who sat back down and waited until their row got closer but the majority remained standing, completely blocking the view of the last two rows.

At the beginning of the ceremony we had to stand up and sit down a few different times and each time I sat down I sat on my winged sleeves and had to pull them out from under me. Thankfully I wasn't alone in this because it was happening to the people around me as well.

After what felt like an eternity it was finally our turn. It didn't take long at all for it to be my turn to walk up the stairs, have my name read out, have my hood put on me, walk across the stage to get my empty diploma thing, and then walk off the stage. I didn't stumble or trip so I think it was successful. At two points on the stage they took our picture and after the stage we had to pose for a picture. Then we were given a box of chocolates, an alumni pin, and then we headed back to our seats. After a brief closing statement we were good to go.

We had to wait for the faculty to go first, and then every row in front of us, so my row was the last to leave the auditorium. When I got to the lobby I ended up going out the side door because the front door was just jammed with people barely moving.

When I made it around to the front of the building I walked up behind my mom and sister, who had their eye on the front doors, and asked who they were looking for. It startled my mom and I thought it was funny. I stood there and talked with them for a minute and then I headed over to see my friend and his parents, my aunt and grandma, and my dad, brother (and his girlfriend), and my step-mom. I posed for pictures and I think did a fairly decent job socializing. While I was talking to my friend and his parents one of my classmates came up and basically said how good of a student I was and gave me a whole bunch of complements. It was really nice of her to do that. I had a group project with her last semester I think and it was actually a good experience because everyone did their fair share. She's the one that works full-time at a library, has her own photography business, is married with a couple kids, and usually took three classes a semester. Which is ridiculous. But she's actually done with school now, not having to take summer classes, so that must be nice.

After we parted ways with everyone my mom, sister, and I went to Spangles for a really late lunch. It was delicious. Then we went to the gas station so I could get gas, something gas stations are known for. While I was doing that my mom decided she wanted Braum's, which is right next to the gas station. My grandma loves the place but I had never been there before. My mom and sister got mixes, which are like blizzards at Dairy Queen, and I got a strawberry shake because while driving I couldn't really get someone that required a spoon. It was a good shake but there were giant pieces of strawberry in it that kept getting stuck in my straw.

The drive back to town was also uneventful. When we got home my mom gave me a token of my graduation, since I said we shouldn't really celebrate until I'm actually done in August. The token was a card and a DVD of Deadpool. I had actually planned on watching it tomorrow, so that was perfect timing. After that I changed out of my clothes, caught up on all the YouTube videos from yesterday, started a load of laundry, and started watching Deadpool.

I got about an hour into the movie when I had to stop and get changed so I could head over to my friend's house. We went out to the bars with his sister and ended up going to at least four bars, which is a decent number. They were telling me a story from last night where the sister got really drunk, or “white girl wasted”, and instead of calling my friend (her brother) she called the house. Their dad thought it sounded like her but she immediately said her name was Sandra and that she needed to talk to my friend. At 2:30AM. My friend ended up calling her an Uber and that got her home. When we were leaving the house tonight her parents said I might meet her friend Sandra tonight, which was a much funnier statement after I heard the story.

We called it a night at midnight and they wanted Taco Bell. The first one we tried was closed so we drove back across town to the other one. That one was opened so I ordered them food and I drove them home. After dropping them off and getting back to the main road my car started messing up. The RPMs would go through the roof but my speed was topping out at twenty miles per hour. I didn't know what was happening but the road was empty so I decided to try and nurse it along to a side street. Then I figured out it was because instead of putting my car in Drive, I had slide it over to the manual shift mode. I hadn't noticed it on the side streets getting back to the main street because I hadn't gone faster than first gear. But when I tried to go faster than that it didn't work out too well. Once I slid it back over to Drive, all was well.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is nearly half past two in the morning and I have been tired since this afternoon. Tomorrow is my last day of freedom from school but my goal is to sleep in.

May 13, 2016

 Most of my workday was spent working on my spreadsheets. I finished adding in all the scores, minus the few kids who finished today, and got a start on going through and noting the changes in scores from the Winter testing.

I sat with one second grader while a para sat with another one as they finished their Reading tests for a second time. They both went way too fast through it the first time so this time around they had someone else controlling the mouse. I took over the mouse for the girl when the teacher left, only clicking on what she told me, not giving any hints away with the mouse position, and it was rough. Her score went up a significant amount, so it was worth the retake, but some of the questions she missed were hard for me to click on because they seemed so obvious. To be fair, I have had a few more years of education than her, so I'm not the best judge of what is hard for second graders.

My last class of the day was fifth grade and they broke out into the happy birthday song when I said it was recently my birthday. I managed to get out that it was actually last week so some of the kids switched it to a belated birthday song. I think their main motivation was avoiding typing practice but I'll take it.

I got out of the building a little later than I would have liked but it worked out. I went home and changed into my suit and green Chucks and then headed out of town with my mom for the induction ceremony. I am glad I decided to go because I had a good time. We ended up sitting at a table with a couple, the wife was being inducted into the society, and we ended up talking throughout the night. The husband was the talkative extrovert type able to keep conversations going which is nice when you are not the talkative extrovert type.

The venue was a large banquet hall in the student union and not too long after getting there they had all of the inductees come up and sit off to the side of the stage. We had to find out name on the chair, which felt like the first challenge because the order wasn't immediately apparent. I ended up getting called over by the one person I knew there, because she is in my cohort, and we were sitting next to each other. At first this made us think we were divided up by schools, not alphabettically. Later on we realized we were actually divided up by undergraduate, graduate, and faculty, and then alphabetically within that.

After we found our seats, a few people spoke about the society and then they started reading off our names. As they were read, the person got up, walked across the stage, posed for a picture with the certificate, then walked off the stage and shook hands with the other faculty people and got a pin and honor cords. No one was clapping as the names were being read out so the extroverted guy at my table tried to get it started by clapping for a random girl but no one joined in. Everyone else just sat there. It was awkward. I've never seen that happen before. People always join in. But apparently no one was interested in clapping for their friends or loved ones as they walked across the stage. It was kind of funny though and had to be really weird for the girl and whoever she came with, having some random stranger clapping.

After that we had dinner, which was good but not very filling. Then there was a presentation from one of the library school professors about the educational trips the library school takes, usually abroad (although this summer mine is domestic). You could tell that the president of the society this year is a library school professor because there was a strong library theme, especially with the presentation. I found it really interesting but I'm not sure if everyone did.

At the end of the night when it was all over things got a little weird with the couple at our table because the husband got real deep with religion and was trying to convince me to read the Bible every day. Telling me the God was the one truth, and as a librarian interested in finding the truth, I should look in the Bible. So it was a little odd but I'm fascinated by religion, even if I'm not religious, and have been known to talk to door-to-door Mormons and participate in Bible studies, so I'm willing to listen to what someone has to say. And they were a really nice couple. They brought a big fancy camera and the husband actually took pictures of me walking across the stage so I exchanged information with the wife who said she would email me the pictures. That's pretty cool.

The drive home was uneventful, as all good drives should be, and when we got home I made a fake chicken sandwich to compensate for the light food at the banquet. It was delicious. I then ended up talking to my friend for over an hour on the phone. He called to congratulate me on graduation because he isn't able to make it tomorrow, and then we ended up talking about all the random things. It was a good talk.

It is now midnight and I am going to go to bed because I'm about to fall asleep. The goal is to leave around eleven o'clock tomorrow so I'll get to sleep in a little bit, which will be nice. I feel like tomorrow is going to be a long and tiring day. But then it will be over with and I won't have to worry about it anymore. Something to look forward to.

May 12, 2016

 In a job interview, if I ever get asked what my weakness is, it will be saying 'no' to people. I keep taking on more random side projects at work when I still have the two big projects. Those being the MAP spreadsheets and the slideshow. The slideshow is definitely going to have to turn into a take home project because there are only eight days of school left, not counting the last half day, which is the day the slideshow needs to be done.

When I got to work I went down to the library to show the librarian my leather notebook. The book fair was already up and running and she had a long line of kids by the time I got there. There was still a line when the kindergarteners came in to check out books. And she got the last kid through right as her kindergarten reading group came in. She did manage to look at my notebook and I was able to give her a donation for the book fair, that will go toward letting several kids pick out books that otherwise wouldn't have gotten one.

Today at work I worked on the spreadsheets but got sidetracked a lot so only made it up to the second fourth grade class. So I'm over halfway, not counting having to go back and calculate the change in score for each student.

My first distraction was helping one of the paras with the copier. It was misbehaving. The next distraction was the sixth grade play. As always, it was surprisingly good. And I mean that in the best way possible. It is no offense to the sixth graders but I am always thoroughly impressed with how well the play goes. This years play was one written by the sixth grade teacher twenty-five years ago. Afterward he sent out an email explaining that way back then there was an empty building near the school and he convinced the owners to let his class practice the play there. And on the day of the performance the entire school walked over and they watched the play. That night they had another performance for parents and after the show they passed a hat around and ended collecting $600 which they donated to what became the current arts center. So, this play actually performed there. That's pretty cool.

At the last minute the librarian found out she needed to record the play with her iPad because the video camera wasn't working. The last minute part meant she didn't have time to track the tripod and mount for the iPad. I ended up holding it for the first half of the play and she took it for the second half. iPads are deceptively heavy, especially when you've been holding one up for over twenty minutes. My arms got so shaky. I need to do more pushups apparently.

One of the kindergarten teachers asked me to help design a shirt for his childcare business. He actually already had the design he just needed a picture of a van that he could make different colors. I tracked down a decent picture and then started tweaking it to make it look more like a clip art outline than an actual picture of a van. I've still got some work to do but I made a decent start.

A few kids worked on MAP tests today but none of them finished. Tomorrow is the last day and I'm not sure either of sixth graders will finish. It's kind of frustrating because they've had several weeks to answer a relatively small number of questions. But at the same time, I do not like standardized tests, especially when so much time in school is now wasted on taking four big standardized tests per year, three of which are in the second semester.

I wasn't able to volunteer on Monday because the PR lady had a thing and she had to leave early today as well so I got the day off. I really want to finish the map project.

Tonight I borrowed the hand-held steamer I got my mom for the curtains and used it on my graduation robe. The results were shocking. I've had the robe hanging up in my bathroom since Monday and it was still completely covered in wrinkles. There was no way I was going to try and iron it because they thing is one-hundred-percent recycled plastic bottles. That also made me weary of throwing it in the dryer. So I borrowed the steamer and the wrinkles slowly but surely disappeared. I couldn't believe how well it worked. It was also really relaxing, just listening to the sound of the steamer as I slowly moved it back and forth across the robe.

I spent the rest of the night working on my penmanship and watching YouTube videos. I've made it through the first straight line and the slightly curved lines, both left and right. The next page combines the two to make a lowercase 'i'. Progress.

Now I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow there is work. And then leaving work a little early so I can come home, change into my suit, and then head out of town with my mom to go to the induction ceremony. Oh joy.