May 7, 2018

Last night I got maybe four and a half hours of sleep if we're being generous. I think it was a combination of the heat in my house and also sleeping through most of the afternoon. That certainly didn't help.

When I got to work my locker was covered in green paper with a big Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy logo in the middle of it. That was pretty cool. I was also told there was something for me in the fridge in the breakroom. And by something, they meant a large birthday sack filled with the ingredients for sweet potato and black bean enchiladas. That was pretty cool. I got the stir fry recipe and ingredients last year and have made that recipe several times since, so I'm looking forward to this one.

I was off desk for the first two hours so I refilled my audiobook display and then headed up to the cubicle until nine o'clock. I listened to music, read a few news articles, and worked on the personalized reading list. And then I was on desk for two hours. I worked on the personalized reading list, helped patrons, talked to my coworkers, and sent an email with catalog screenshots to the cataloger for several books I found while weeding on Friday that had discrepancies with their labels and the catalog.

After lunch I had two walkthroughs. After each I went up to the third floor with a laptop. Both of the computers at the desk were taken, there was someone in the cubicle, and there was a meeting in the meeting room that we have reserved for when everywhere else is taken, so I sat out in the open area on the third floor, before actually going into the technical services area, back against the wall with the plants. I thought that would make a good place to camp out for awhile now and it lived up to my expectations. I spent that time working on the personalized reading list. That was the theme of the day.

We had a half hour meeting today with just the librarians in our department to talk about what each of us had going on at the moment. We have the department meeting on Wednesday but we're going to start having short meetings with just the librarians because next month we will be having department meetings with the tech center people, because they're now part of our department, and they'll only be an hour long, instead of two hours, so we won't really have time to cover everything. Hence the short librarian meetings. I think it's a good idea.

There was no one in the meeting room after our meeting so I set up in there. In the last hour and a half I managed to finish the personalized reading list and get it sent off. I also had a little bit of time to start working on a button design for the librarian who will be giving a tour of what to do during a tornado drill later this week and next week. The staff who participate and return the short quiz get a button. That wasn't enough incentive to get everyone to return the quizzes from the first instructional thing about our catalog, but maybe this one will do better.

When I got off work I went upstairs to the bathroom (because it's not a public bathroom) and applied sunscreen to my exposed skin. Then I grabbed all my stuff, including the giant bag of enchiladas ingredients, and headed to my car. That's where I changed my shoes and shirt before heading to the academic librarian's house. She let me store the ingredients in need of refrigeration in her fridge, and then we headed out to go for a walk on a trail. I was somewhat familiar with the area and had actually walked on part of the trail way back when I was dogsitting for my friend's mom. My right knee felt a little angry after it because there was quite a bit of awkward downhill bits, but we'll see how I'm feeling in the morning. I'll probably skip the elliptical, which is unfortunate because I've skipped several days recently, and stopped after twelve minutes this morning because my right knee was bothering me, but I'm still trying. And other than the downhill parts, it was an enjoyable walk. I do like being outside, I just don't have much excuse to go out there.

After the walk we drove back to her house so I could get my food, and because she lives there, and then we talked for a little bit. She's going out of town for a week and she flies back next Thursday, but her ride isn't coming back until after the weekend, so she invited me to come stay the weekend. Other than picking my friend up at the airport a few years ago and stopping at a really good Italian restaurant that looked like it was pulled right out of mobster movie, I haven't really done anything up there since I was a kid. It has also been a long time since I've really gotten away from town, not counting my weekend with my grandma. But that was also a great weekend which made me appreciate getting away for a little bit. So I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also beginning to think that maybe she might like me. I am notoriously bad at picking up and/or acknowledging signals, but I'm beginning to suspect. I doubt we'll make it through the weekend without things being decided one way or the other, but I have impressed myself in the past with my ability to ignore the obvious, so I won't be holding my breath.

We talked long enough that I ended up giving her a ride to her dinner with her friends because she would have been late otherwise. On my way home I stopped at Jimmy John's for a sandwich because it was eight o'clock and I didn't want to spent the rest of the night cooking enchiladas. When I got home I put away my birthday ingredients, ate dinner, and watched a few videos. Then I played a little CoD: WW2 before writing this. And now I'm going to bed because I'm freaking exhausted. Hopefully I'll fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.