February 19, 2018

Last night I got somewhere on the wrong side of six hours of sleep. It was not enough.

I got to work at eight o'clock, checked email, and talked to my coworkers until it was time to head over to the auditorium for the meeting. The first presentation of the day was about active shooter training, presented by someone from Homeland Security. Despite the subject matter, he made it pretty entertaining. It was also much less depressing than when I was working at the school and having to hide during lockdown training with a bunch of scared kids. It helps that I'm not a childrens librarian.

The director then talked about our goals and went into more detail about the upcoming remodeling project. And at the end of that, one of our volunteers stopped by to talk to us about his love of libraries. I've seen him around, and helped him a few times, but didn't know much about him other than the fact that he volunteered at the library. He ended up telling us his history, being a dentist in the military and living all over the world, and how important libraries were at each step along the way. He also told us that everywhere he goes he looks for the library, and he has a library card collection that is about 500 strong. That's pretty crazy considering he goes into every library to get the cards.

We ended up finishing half an hour early so we got an hour and a half for lunch. That meant I had time to go home. I was able to eat and play Staxel for a bit before having to go back. It would really be nice if I could add the two fifteen minute breaks I don't take to my lunch time. Then I could go home every day.

Before starting the afternoon sessions there was a brief dance party to wake everyone up. The new PR lady turned on the Just Dance video for a One Direction song and divided up the room so each section had one member of One Direction. A lot of people really got into it. A lot of people did not get into it. I just stood there, which probably looked extra subdued because I was standing next to my boss who was really getting into it.

The two sessions after lunch were both presented by the same guy, who was actually a presenter at last year's meeting. The first was on professionalism and the second was on team building. I nearly fell asleep a couple times but that was mostly because I was tired. But also a little bit because the guy has a very laid back way of talking. Thankfully he is also pretty funny so that kept me going.

My work day ended with taking care of all the emails that were in our department inbox, mostly purchase requests but also a few other things.

When I got home I ate dinner (another sandwich and Cheetos with chopsticks) and then watched videos until it was time for the HOA meeting across the street (actually at one of the nursing homes that we deliver homebound books to). Only eight other people showed up plus the manager, so not a great turnout, but it was my first meeting so I don't know how typical that is. I did learn some things, though.

My neighbor's house is owned by a guy who lives in a different town and his daughter and her friends live there (he was at the meeting tonight and seems like a pretty nice guy). He has been getting quotes on siding because the back of the house needs new siding, so we're going to go halfsies on it because my house is up for a new coat of paint this year and that can't happen until I get the back of the house re-sided. I can also take care of the yard grading and landscaping, if I want, without much grief from the HOA because they're pretty laid back about things that are super obnoxious. After the manager left we voted to keep him on as manager but it was mentioned that he is notoriously late on cashing checks (which I experienced firsthand) and he isn't great about keeping up with new homeowners (also experienced firsthand). But he used to live in the neighborhood and he is friendly with people so that works in his favor. Also, I was elected HOA secretary, because everyone else had already done the three different positions (president, vice president, and secretary) more than once over the years and didn't want to do them again. But we only have one meeting a year and my only responsibility is to take the minutes at that meeting, type them up, and send them to the manager. So not a lot of responsibility.

When I got home I played a little CoD: WW2 and while working on a contract for Gun Game got into a lobby with a dude who was almost exclusively meleeing. It was kind of annoying because in Gun Game, getting meleed sets you back to the previous level. In one game a few of us were set back eight times. I would have been more annoyed but I didn't get put back on a shotgun more than a couple times and the guy was funny about it in chat. He was finishing up the weekly order of playing 80 rounds of Gun Game and he was getting bored. The games would have gone by a lot quicker had he not been setting everyone back, but to each their own.

I spent the rest of the night completely sucked into Staxel. I didn't mean for that to happen but it was a class “just one more thing” situation. I made a lot of progress on my house expansion and I spent a lot of time watering crops. I like the money I can get from a big field, but it takes forever to water and it can be really difficult to see when certain plants are watered, and if they aren't watered than they don't grow as fast. They need to fix something there. I ended up going into the menu and switching into third-person because I can get a better angle and more easily see which plants aren't watered. But even that can be tricky if it is a tall crop. It would be really nice if there was a sprinkler.

And it is now 2:45AM. I'm off tomorrow, thankfully, so I'll be sleeping in. It is also nice being off because we got a lot of icy rain late this evening, so I don't have to worry about that.