June 6, 2016

 I went to bed late last night I kind of woke up early. I ignored my alarm clock for about a half an hour but then I got up and called my doctor's office. He is gone for the week but I was able to schedule an appointment with someone else for 10:15AM.

I got to the office five minutes early and they couldn't find me in their system. The lady called back to the lady in my doctor's area and she couldn't remember me so I was handed the phone to remind her that I had called in about my eye. That jogged her memory and apparently she had forgotten to put me in. I waited for that to happen and have it show up at the front desk, which it eventually did. Then I waited.

Maybe five minutes later a girl came out and called my first name so I got up and walked over, but then she asked me my full name because another guy had also walked over. Turns out she was calling for him. My name isn't that common so that isn't a problem I have run into before.

I ended up waiting twenty minutes before another nurse came out and called my name. And it was actually my name this time. We then walked back, she weighed me, took all my vitals, and asked me what was up. When she was done with that she told me the PA I was seeing was running a little behind so I might have to wait for a little bit, and then she left with the guy who was shadowing her. I ended up waiting for at least a half an hour, possibly even longer, before the PA came in. I kind of think they double-booked 10:15AM, but it was already after 10:30AM before I was called back and after eleven o'clock by the time she came in. She was probably just backed up with all of my doctor's regular patients. Either way, it took forever.

While I was waiting I stared at picture on the wall of a curving road in the woods. There was a double line running down the center of the road, which is normal, but the line on the right wasn't filled in. There were just two skinny lines marking the edges of that line. At first I thought it has just old and faded but the longer I looked the more it seemed intentional. I never seen a dividing line like that.

When the PA came in my first thought was that she looked like what the fifth grade teacher from a couple years ago would look like in her 40s. Just a random thought.

Her best guess about my eye was that it was a stye and that it was slightly infected. That is kind of what I was thinking but none of my home remedies worked. She gave me a prescription for an ointment, because it is apparently stronger or better capable of dealing with the slight infection that developed over the past three months. She also said I need to apply a hot compress three times a day. I tried the hot compress a few times but I didn't maintain it, which maybe I should have.

Instead of driving directly to pick up my prescription I decided to give it a little extra time and went to the bank to figure out how to raise the limit on my credit card. Turns out I need to take in a printout of my last pay stub and write on it what I want my new limit to be. Then it will be given to whoever approves it. Or doesn't approve it. More on that later.

On my way to get my prescription I mailed the Thank You note I wrote my professor. At the pharmacy they said they needed another fifteen minutes, so I drove around town for fifteen minutes and then went back to get my prescription.

When I got home I had lunch, ironed my work clothes because wrinkle-free is a joke, and then got dressed and went to my practicum. For the first time I was actually early. I walked to the library anyway and took the extra time to update my calendar with the stuff my supervisor sent me, and replied to an email from the lady who is going to get me a key to the office I'm working in. After four years at the school I never got a key to the computer lab but after a week at my practicum I'm getting a key. To be fair, I never asked for a key at the school, but still.

At two o'clock I walked over to the reference desk so I could shadow a librarian. It was actually one of the librarians I interviewed for class. The interview was through email but I did briefly meet him during the library tour I went on for school. Anyway, the shadowing went well. When I got there he was working on one question through IM, finding an article for someone. He wasn't able to find access to it through the library's website and subscriptions but he did eventually find it on the author's page on ResearchGate. I kind of went through that process yesterday when trying to find an article. It is good to know my train of thought when trying to find an article is somewhat similar to that of an experienced librarian.

Not too long after he finished that a student came up to the first line of help at the reference desk, which are the two desks that are staffed by student workers. They are there to answer the basic questions but if a question is more in-depth the librarian, who sits at a desk farther back, is called in to help. The student had just been given an assignment for his military history class and he needed to write a paper based on a particular leader or battle. And it may have involved looking at one particular source and analyzing how the information was presented. The librarian asked him several questions to help narrow down what the student was actually interested in and then started looking stuff up.

The student wasn't entirely sure what leader or battle he wanted but he knew he wanted to go older than the Civil War or the Revolutionary War because he had already learned a lot about those and he wanted something more interesting, possibly ancient. The librarian ended up searching a few things and then when the student suggested Hannibal the librarian went to Wikipedia just to get a list of battles to see if any of them jumped out. Then he searched the catalog to see what kind of books the library had. After writing down a call number we all went up to the fourth floor to find the book. There ended up being almost a whole shelf of books involving Hannibal.

The things I took away most from what the librarian said was trying to figure out exactly what the patron wanted, confirming that the information found was actually of use to them, and then ended with making it clear that they could come back if they needed anymore help. Simple, obvious things but important things. I hadn't really thought about the ending before so I'm glad I got that information today because I'll be doing reference work at my new job. The interaction with the student today reaffirmed my desire to be a reference librarian because anyone can come up with a random question and it will be interesting. I'll get to briefly explore all sorts of things that I might not have even thought about otherwise. Very cool.

After an hour at the reference desk I went to meet my supervisor for our meeting with my officemate about the assessment project they're working on this summer. It was an interesting meeting. I did kind of feel a little lost because the actual assessment hasn't started yet and they were talking in a lot of generalities based on information I haven't seen yet. But I was able to keep up with the general idea of things and the process thanks to the statistics and psychology classes I took years ago.

The basic idea of the project is that we will be taking data from library orientation sessions that occurred in conjunction with a few different freshman classes, and using it to hopefully determine the effectiveness of the orientation sessions. Fairly straightforward but it also sounds like it will take a lot of work. It will be interesting though and good experience for me.

The meeting lasted about an hour and afterward I headed up to the top floor to sign a couple things so they could put in my request for keys. Then I headed home.

I ended up not really accomplishing anything with the rest of my day, at least in terms of school stuff. I had hopes but I was also tired and unmotivated. I did do things though, like started using the ointment on my eye. It is super weird trying to rub ointment on the top/inside of my lower eyelid, and then hope that as I blink it will move around to the needed areas on my upper eyelid. It seems like I should be putting in on my upper eyelid but I'm not the doctor.

I also tried to apply for a credit card just in case raising the limit on the one I currently have doesn't work out. I recently found out I have excellent credit but despite that, and the fact that I am constantly getting credit card offers in the mail, I was denied the credit card I applied for tonight. I think that happened to me originally when I was trying to get my first card, which is why I went through my credit union to get a card. I applied tonight online and it said I needed to call a number to answer a few more questions. That was a waste because she just confirmed my income and my monthly housing payments and then said I was denied. I know I didn't make very much working at the school but I also didn't spent very much. And I have excellent credit. I don't get how college kids end up with several cards and a mountain of debt. I can't even get one card. I saw somewhere that applying for credit cards can negatively impact your credit score, and I figured I would just be denied at other companies also, so I didn't even try applying for another one. Instead, I shook up the ink cartridge in my printer, in the hopes that it would stop saying it was empty (which it did, so hooray), and printed out my latest pay stub so I can take that to the bank tomorrow and hopefully get my limit raised so I can pay for my hotel room in Florida, without having to take a giant wad of cash with me.

It took forever for the mail to arrive today but it eventually did, at 7:26PM. I know the exact time because my latest fountain pen and notebook stuff was due to arrive today. The ultimate goal of my order was to get a notebook and a more travel friendly fountain pen for Florida. The pen is a clear Kaweco Sport with a green cap. It is even smaller than I was expecting and I like it. It has a screw-on cap so I am less worried about it coming off in my pocket and if it leaks it will all be contained in the cap. For the notebook I got an green Apica wirebound notebook that is about 7”x9” and has thirty sheets of paper. I wanted something smaller and more sturdy than a regular notebook, and one with paper that was fountain pen friendly, and I succeeded. I think it will be perfect for the trip. Lastly, I got a giant yellow Jinhao 159 because it was on sale for almost half off. I couldn't resist.

I also got a couple new ink samples with my order and I tested those out with my glass dip pen. The Private Reserve Sherwood Green looks nice but it is a little too blue green for my taste. I really liked the Private Reserve Blue Suede, so if I ever want a lighter blue I will have to keep it in mind. For the Kaweco I got their Palm Green cartridges and I am liking it. It is slightly brighter than the Diamine Sherwood Green which is what I have in my Lamy Al-Star at the moment. I'm still leaning toward the Diamine Sherwood Green as my go-to green, and one I would buy a bottle of, but I'm still on the hunt for one that meets my needs even better.

Now I am going to iron my clothes for tomorrow and then call it a night. A good chunk of my day tomorrow will be spent at the campus library for my practicum. They are doing a mini-conference just for the campus libraries so that should be interesting and informative.