January 9, 2018

 I got six hours of sleep last night and somehow managed to get up and out of bed at six o'clock and run on the elliptical. Unfortunately my right knee started to bother me around the seven minute mark so I only made it to ten minutes. I think maybe I should alternate days, running every other day, and on the off days doing some other form of exercise, giving my knees time to recover. We'll see.

I opened and did all the usual opening stuff, including sharpening pencils, because that's my favorite thing about opening. And then I was on desk for two hours. I spent a lot of time with emails, both catching up on my own from yesterday and handling a lot of purchase requests and another personalized reading list request. I also answered phone calls and read a few news articles.

I was off desk for an hour before lunch and that hour flew by. I caught up with one of my coworkers and we talked to our boss about work-related things. One of those things is that in the near future, hopefully, is that the public computers are going to start shutting down five minutes before we close, rather than right when we close, something that several people have pushed for. It's going to take awhile because things have to be done, but I'm pretty excited about it. Too many people stay on the computers until the second we close, and I think they should be exited the building as we close, not getting all their things together (and even trying to use the restroom).

The hour when I got back from lunch also flew by, mostly because I don't think I sat down for more than five minutes. I went upstairs to get the outreach box but couldn't find it, I printed off brochures and went upstairs to fold them on the folding machine, I went upstairs again and found the outreach box, I went down to the basement to get the van key, I picked up the credit card for the parking garage, and I went back upstairs to get candy to add to the outreach box. Constant movement.

And then we went to the university for the outreach event. We talked to fifteen people and it was an interesting experience. We went to the same event in the Fall, when there were a lot more students, and it was a different experience. This time around, none of the girls spoke to me, or really even acknowledged my presence. They all walked up and started talking to the other librarian (a woman). Maybe it was a cultural thing. All the dudes, however, spoke to me, not her. Interesting. But it was good times and hopefully we see some of them at the library in the future.

As soon as we got back I immediately started helping a couple of very entertaining women with the microfilm machine. Their father was adopted and I helped them find the first obituaries for some of their biological relatives. It was pretty cool. Once I got them settled in I went and returned the van key, turned in my receipt for the parking garage, and returned the credit card. When I got back I helped the women again and then it was five o'clock. Yet another disappearing hour. It was kind of a weird day in that respect. It was over before it felt like I really did anything.

When I got home I did a few things and then I had dinner. My mashed potatoes survived really well for day number two. Very rarely do leftover mashed potatoes reheat well, at least in my experience. But these were great.

After dinner I researched new laptops because one of the hinges on mine broke last night. I figure it is only a matter of time before it breaks even more and bad things start to happen. The most annoying thing about it is that I use my laptop for the video game discussions, so I need to at least be able to close it and transport it and be able to rely on it for the two we have this semester. We'll see what happens.

Much like my day, might night kind of disappeared on me and now I am tired and want to go to bed, so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed.