February 5, 2018

 This morning I woke up, ran on the elliptical, ironed my pants for the day, got ready, and went to work. I then did all the usual opening stuff, including sharpening pencils, and I added some more DVDs to my display.

I was on desk for the first two hours and I talked to the teen librarian for a little bit, which led to me creating a bookplate to put in the books we are giving away at our adulting classes. I haven't finalized it yet but throughout the day I got closer. I also caught up on emails and continued working on my tech classes pages on the website.

I took a short break from editing after my desk shift to print off some edited tax help handouts, because someone over the weekend noticed that one of the days listed was Monday and it should have been Tuesday. That was probably one of the only things I didn't edit on the handout this year, and it changed from last year, go figure. So I printed off new ones and replaced the ones downstairs and at our desk. And then I went back to editing the website.

The editing took me up until lunch, which I ate up in the cubicle because I didn't want to deal with the snow or the cold. It gave me a chance to watch the final episode of Black Mirror, which I hadn't gotten as far into as I had thought. It was yet another episode where I had kind of almost figured things out but then they kept adding levels to it. Such a good show.

Not long after getting back from lunch a young woman came up and said there was a car parked next to their bus in the handicap area and they couldn't load their wheelchair people (she was there with a group from one of the special needs organizations). She was wondering if we had a way to find the person parked there, and technically we have to intercom system but that is only for extreme emergencies, so our only method would have been to walk around the library and ask people, which would have taken forever. Instead, I suggested they back the van out of the spot and park it along the sidewalk the juts out between the two handicap areas. She thought that would work so I grabbed my coat and she went to round up her people. I was really just there as a library representative in case traffic got backed up too much, and luckily only one car had to wait and they were patient and understanding when I went over to explain it would only be a minute. The other worker backed the bus up and when they were about to load the second/last person on, the patron who had parked next to them came out. Perfect timing. It all worked out in the end and the two workers were two of the nicest people I think I've ever met.

I was on desk for an hour and not long after that started I got a call from circulation saying there was a man downstairs who wanted large print books and they thought it was a reader's advisory sort of thing. He had just gotten out of the hospital and was sitting down in the used book area. When I got down there he was talking to one of our regular patrons so I stood there for a moment, not really being acknowledged, but when I started walking away to grab some paper he shouted after me asking if I was going to help him. I grabbed the paper and came back and then he started explaining that he wanted large print books and started pointing to books on the shelf just in front of him, which were the books we had for sale, and not large print. I tried explaining the large print thing but he just kept naming a book he could see on the shelf, so I grabbed that and said it looked good. He then point out another one and asked me what it was about. I had no idea because it was a hardcover book without the jacket. These were books that had been intentionally set aside to be used for book craft projects, not to be read, but he didn't seem to care. I handed him the books and then he immediately handed them back to me so I could take them to the circulation desk for him. All-in-all, it was a very interesting interaction.

With the rest of my desk time I helped a patron print, another patron use the copier, I read an article, and I continued editing the website. I'm now adding in information from past workshops, and getting ever closer to being all caught up for the semester.

I then had two walkthroughs. On my first walkthrough a patron stopped me and asked if I had written any short stories yet, in reference to my newspaper article from Sunday, and said she had really liked the article. It's always nice to hear that kind of feedback. When it comes to the articles I know some of my coworkers read them (mostly because I have them proofread them) and my Mom reads them, but other than that, who knows. So yeah, it's nice to know at least one other person out there voluntarily reads them and likes them. On my second walkthrough I asked an older patron if she needed help because she was staring at the YA area and looked kind of lost. She just smiled and said no, she was just having fun. Can't really ask for more than patrons having fun wandering around the library.

On my way home I stopped at Target to pick up some stuff and because I was hungry ended up buying unplanned Oreos. I got the thin ones and they're actually not too bad. When I got home I ate dinner, watched videos, clicked around the internet, and eventually played a little CoD: WW2. I have come to the conclusion after getting completely destroyed in multiple games of hardcore Team Deathmatch, that pistols are not great in hardcore game modes. Or at least on bigger maps. Or when the other players are actually good. I think my odds would have been better in a regular game mode where I would have had a better chance. Live and learn.

It's now close to eleven o'clock so I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed. I open again tomorrow and I would like to get more than six hours of sleep tonight. Even if it's only six and a half hours of sleep. We're supposed to get more snow tomorrow but it isn't supposed to hit until midday, so I won't have to worry about it on my drive to work, which is nice. Who knows about the drive home, though.