March 22, 2018

I got eight and a half hours of sleep last night. I woke up after six hours, but there was no way that was happening, so I rolled over and went back to sleep until my alarm clock went off. Then I ran on the elliptical, got ready, and went to work.

I had two walkthroughs when I got to work. New security cameras were being installed in the atrium, which involved drilling through concrete. It was super loud and could be heard throughout the library. There was a patron sitting on the first floor that was basically shouting into her phone, trying to have a conversation. After the first walkthrough I moved all of the tax forms and instruction books down to the old mail room, because were clearing off the shelves that I had recently moved them to. And during my second walkthrough I refilled the DVDs and talked to one of the third grade teachers I used to work with.

I was on desk for two hours after that. I opened up the Mister Rogers marathon and made it as small as I could and kept that in the bottom corner of my screen most of the day. It was muted but whenever I glanced down and saw fun things happening on the show it made me happy.

A patron came up and told me her mom was suffering from dementia and that her ability to read was beginning to be affected. She thought maybe graphic novels would hold her interest, so I walked her downstairs to our collection. We had a bit of a mishap right off the bat when I showed her one book with a hard sleeve, and we quickly learned why it was in that sleeve. The whole book ended up being one long folded page, which made it very unwieldy. I kept almost dropping it because it was really squirrely, and then I lost the back half, which hit the floor, while the front half was still in my hands, leaving a long trail of paper to the floor. It was good comic relief, and we both agreed that maybe that wouldn't be the best option for her mom. I explained our collection a little bit so she would know what to expect, and said if she had any specific ideas or types of books she was looking for we could search for them. I suggested maybe going with Peanuts (because everyone likes Peanuts) or something like that, just as an introduction, and if her mom liked it than we could throw in other stuff. That's what she ended up going with and I really hope it works out for her.

Not long after returning to the desk I helped another patron look up information on the history of our local hospital. That left a little time to catch up on the news and start working on my tech class coming up next week.

After dinner went upstairs for an hour (because the computers at the desk were taken) and I continued gathering information for my tech class. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do the class yet. I don't feel like there will be enough content to even come close to filling the whole two hours. But we'll see what I can come up with tomorrow. The class is on Tuesday and I just realized today that tomorrow is the last day I work until Tuesday, because I'm off on Monday. There's a decent chance I may be throwing some things together this weekend.

With the rest of the night I was on desk for an hour, then off for two, and spent most of that time working on the class. I also refilled the DVDs and audiobooks, and talked to some of the circulation people.

Not long before closing one of our regulars came up to use the phone because her coat had disappeared and it had her phone and keys in it. She called her friend, one of our other regulars, but she didn't answer. She she called the police to see about getting into her car, because her dog was in it. I didn't think about it until later but I think her dog had been in the car since I came back from dinner, because I had heard a dog barking when I was walking back to the library. The dog had sounded like it was outside though, so I didn't think much of it. We then had to wait on the patron because she came downstairs after the final closing announcement and went into the restroom.

When we were finally walking out there was a cop car and a van (either animal control or a locksmith, I wasn't really paying attention) in the parking lot. One of the circulation people (who was only with us because we had to wait on the patron and I sent everyone else home) commented on the scene and I told her what happened. She said they had a phone and set of keys turned in earlier and no one had claimed them, so I walked over and asked the patron what her phone and keys looked like. Her description seemed to match so I went back into the library and grabbed them. And they were hers. She had checked with circulation earlier about her coat but apparently hadn't mentioned the phone and keys. And I had assumed she had checked with circulation, so I didn't talk to them. I think the situation could have been handled better, but it had a happy ending.

After work I stopped by my Mom's house to chat about the next couple of days, because she's going down to stay with my grandma tomorrow and I'm staying at her house tomorrow night to take care of the dogs, before going down on Saturday to stay with my grandma. I'm mildly stressed about all of the unknown elements happening this weekend, but I'm looking forward to it.

I also picked up my new Chromebook, which I had delivered to my Mom's house today because I didn't want it sitting out in the open on my porch all night. They always place stuff at the top of the two stairs leading up to my porch, where packages can easily be seen from the street. It would be nice if they would put it around the corner of the stone wall along the front of the porch, which would basically take the same amount of effort and time. But alas. The Chromebook is even smaller than I was expecting but that makes it even better because I was wanting something small. I have only messed with a little bit but I think it will work out well.

Now I'm going to record my audio journal and go to bed. I'm tired.