This morning I slept in and then read a book for awhile before
getting up, getting ready, eating lunch, and going to work. In my
hour before delivering books I called my patrons to tell them we
would be coming and watched some video game trailers, trying to
decide which game I want to pick for my discussion in January. I
also spoke with the librarian who taught the class last night and she
said it went pretty well. Eight people showed up, which is the
maximum amount for an evening class, so that is good. Only seven
people signed up but based on the description I think the eighth was
a local college kid who works as a Dell representative. I talked to
him earlier in the week because he was interested in coming to the
class to help out, which sounded good, but he also wanted to promote
Dell, which is against library policy. I let him know this and said
he was more than welcome to come to the class, or possibly teach
classes in the future because that is something he was interested in,
but that he couldn't promote anything. So it sounds like he showed
up, and was able to answer a couple questions that the librarian and
tech lady weren't able to, which is cool.
Our book deliveries went well. I drove the minivan and we made good
time around town. I think we would have set a record but it took us
half an hour at one of the nursing homes because one of the other
librarian's has a very chatty patron. My patron next door to the
chatty one is still sleepy. I was briefly concerned because as I
came down the hall her door was wide open and I was afraid something
had happened. I was relieved when I saw her furniture was still
there. She opened her eyes when I said her name and looked at me a
couple times when I got the books, but most of the time she was just
slouched over sleeping. The chatty lady told the other librarian
that my patron has been having some health problems recently. That
is sad to hear but at least it is an explanation for why she seems to
sleep constantly. Granted, I only see her for a few minutes once a
month, so maybe she's the life of the party the other 99.9% of the
month. The chatty patron also mentioned that four residents have
died at that nursing home in the past week, so my initial worry about
seeing the door open was not misplaced.
My new patron reaffirmed her status as my favorite because she gave
me verbal feedback about the books and she also wrote feedback on
each of them, which is the point of us including the feedback
bookmarks. It is so much easier to pull books when we get feedback
on what the patrons like and don't like.
After I delivered to my patrons I went out and loaded up the van with
the old books. I have learned that immediately leaving the building
when I am done is the best thing to do because it is always nicer
outside than it is in the hot stagnant hallway. When the books were
loaded I kept the back door open and sat there reading a book until
the other librarian was done.
I was also encouraged to leave after one of the staff came down the
hallway pushing a resident and explaining that she lived there and
had her own room. I guess the resident thought her daughter lived
there and couldn't figure out why she was there. Pretty sad.
When we got back we unloaded the books, pulled out all the bookmarks,
checked the books for damage, I cleaned off the books from my patron
who is messy, and we moved them over to the counter where Circulation
checks them in. I had about thirty minutes to kill before I went to
dinner and I didn't accomplish to much with that time, other than
taking a book up to the head cataloger so she could change the number
on the spine.
Right before I left we had a guy come over who had reserved the
auditorium and he was fairly upset. He said he needed to hook his
computer up to the projector but the tech guy didn't have a key to
open up the compartment where the plug in was. He said after the
tech guy left he tried the door to the compartment and it apparently
wasn't locked because it came right open. When the tech guy came
back and saw that the guy had opened the compartment and plugged his
laptop in he told the guy he couldn't use the auditorium anymore and
would have to leave. The guy was upset because his meeting was
already fifteen minutes behind schedule and now he was being kicked
out. My boss went off to get more information and see what she could
do and I had to leave for dinner.
When I got back from dinner I got the real story. Turns out the guy
had lied to us when describing what happened. Before leaving, after
not having the right key, the tech guy said he was going to go see
what he could do, whether that was moving the guy over to the other
meeting room or bringing in a TV the guy could connect his computer
to. As soon as he left the guy started messing with the compartment
door. It was definitely locked and he had to do something he
shouldn't have been doing in order to get the door open. He had also
apparently been doing more once the door was open than just hooking
up his computer because I guess he was trying to figure out how to
turn the projector on when the tech guy came back, saw all that was
happening, and told him he would have to leave. (We all learned that
it is apparently a policy with the tech people that if a patron
reserves a room and messes with the technology in the room instead of
getting help, then then lose the privilege of using the room). My
boss, once she discovered the real story, gave the guy a pretty
severe talking to but didn't want him to leave angry because that
reflects poorly on the library, so she said he would get a pass this
time but in the future he needed to ask for assistance. But karma
can have a fairly quick turnaround and in the end the tech guy
couldn't get the technology working because of whatever the guy had
done while messing with it. And even after getting the pass, instead
of accepting fault, the guy explained to the group of people there as
my boss and the tech guy were leaving, that it was was the fault of
our technology. Nice guy. Also, in trying to create smalltalk, my
boss asked him about what his meeting was about and the guy was real
evasive about it. My boss is fairly certain he was probably there to
sell stuff, which is against our policy, so his name is probably
going on a list. We don't actually have a list but yeah, I don't
think he'll be back.
Tonight I finished updating all my homebound information so I'll be
ready to go next month. I also helped a middle school girl figure
out the look of her PowerPoint presentation. Made me feel nostalgic
for working at the school. It took awhile to figure out how to do
what she wanted to do but we got there eventually. Most of it was
also an avoidance tactic on her part because she was really concerned
about the aesthetics of her presentation when she hadn't even started
adding content yet. And I know what she was doing because I do the
exact same thing when I just can't bring myself to start doing the
actual work of a presentation. If we were actually in a school
setting I would have told her to focus on adding in the content and
then worrying about the design of the slides afterward, but now my
job is to help patrons with their questions, so that's what I did.
And that was the bulk of my evening. It was really quite. For a
little while I looked through one of the new cookbooks we got, Thug
Kitchen 101. I only heard about them recently when one of the
people I watch on YouTube cooked one of their recipes. The writing
is entertaining and I'm intrigued by some of the recipes in the book,
so I've added it to my list of books I want to read. I'm hoping that
with getting my own house and my friend gifting me a year-long
subscription to eMeals, that I'll actually get into cooking.
My sister said she'd go with me to the store and help me shop for
ingredients since she is well versed in shopping for ingredients.
I'm really only good at buying bread, peanut butter, and frozen food.
I need to be a better adult.
Oh, speaking of because I was just reminded by my last sentence, it
was either my boss or one of the other librarians who was in a
meeting today and it came up that some of the staff would like me to
give my budgeting class again. Like a lunch thing where staff could
bring their lunch to one of the meeting rooms and I could give the
presentation. My sarcastic response was that three of the staff
members were already supposed to come to the class but none of them
showed up. But, I think the idea is pretty cool. I spent a lot of
time coming up with that class and only four people came to it, and
only three of those four were glad they came to the class. So I
welcome the opportunity to present the class again and make my effort
on creating it a little more worthwhile.
Tonight when I got home from work I watched YouTube videos and looked
at a Brylane Home catalog with genuine interest. In particular I was
looking at curtains and blankets and bed covers because now I have a
queen size bed. The house came with curtains and blinds for all the
windows but at some point I would like to add my own style, aka
green. It's weird being a grownup.
Now I am going to go to bed because it is late and I need to wake up
in the morning. The plan is to load up my vacuum cleaner and go over
to the house and vacuum up all the new carpet debris before the couch
and bed are delivered so I don't have to move them around afterward
trying to vacuum. I would also like to start moving some other stuff
over there. My sister got her rental today until her car is fixed
from the accident, and it's a minivan. So much room for moving my
crap. It would be real convenient for moving all my books but I
still don't have any place to put them yet so I would end up just
stacking them on the floor and having to move them again when I
figured out the bookshelf situation. We'll see.
I also want to get my oil changed tomorrow. But I need to go to
sleep now.
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