June 2, 2018

This morning I woke up, got ready, and dropped the academic librarian off at her house on my way to work.

It was our summer reading kick-off day, so after counting money with the assistant, I went over to the children's area to set up a Makey Makey, potato piano. I like the whack-a-book game better but the theme for summer reading this year is music, so the piano made more sense. It was a little tricky figuring out which keys activated each piano key, we had to look at the code, but we got it sorted and as far as I know everything worked out pretty well.

I was on desk until 11:00PM and in that time I caught up on emails, helped patrons, and briefly talked to the academic librarian who stopped by to work on a presentation. I also talked to a guy I graduated from high school with and ran into several years ago at the grade school because he was an IT guy for the district. He apparently quit around the same time I did, went out to California for a year, and now he's back in town working for a software company and he's happier. Good for him.

Then I had a walkthrough and covered a break at the tech desk. I followed this by refilling audiobooks and DVDs, made a cheat sheet for summer reading prizes, and printed/folded fifty brochures.

I ate lunch in the third floor meeting room and I hooked my Chromebook up to the giant TV so I could watch YouTube videos. In the last fifteen minutes I was joined by one of the tech desk workers for her break and we watched the first video in a new Neebs Gaming series, where they play Far Cry 5 and film it as if it is a documentary. It's pretty funny, and the tech desk worker laughed a lot, so I think I've created a new fan.

I was on desk for two hours after lunch and spent the majority of that time starting a list of romance books for the romance display. I briefly thought I lost the list, because I was compiling it on our website while logged into my account and at one point my account timed out, but when I logged in later, the list was there, so it was only a minor scare.

After that I covered another break in the tech center. The academic librarian was teaching a class in the classroom, and when she was done, I went in and turned everything off and talked to her for a little bit. Then I ran upstairs to grab the personalized reading list notebook because it is summer and we have been getting a lot of requests recently. And then I helped a patron find a travel book. He said every year he goes on a roadtrip with his daughter and was looking for some non-touristy places to stop. After that, I requested a new book by John Atkinson, where he uses two comic panels to summarize classic books, and it looks really good.

A family member for one of my homebound patrons stopped by and said they were wanting to pause the service for awhile. This is the patron who gets sixteen large print nonfiction books each month, and we were getting really close to running out of books. The pause is not a surprise because she has been having some issues the past few months, but I'm hoping for the best.

Throughout the day I unintentionally updated my catalog tutorial because I kept finding previously unknown icons for the various materials in our collection. I added them to the slide I have all the other icons on. I also figured out a way to find all of the possible icons, by editing the web address for one icon with various other numbers, and pulled out all the icons. They aren't labeled with the material they represent, but I figure I'll be ready if I come across something else.

After work I picked up the academic librarian and we headed out of town to go to an outdoor concert. It was a nice drive. We laid a blanket out in the grass and ate a dinner which the academic librarian prepared. It included roasted vegetables with rosemary, and roasted green beans with lemon. They were all vegetables but two distinct dishes. Both were really good. Her friend was playing in the symphony and she stopped by to talk for a little bit before the concert. It turned out to be a really beautiful night and the music complemented it nicely. I never would have thought to drive out of town for a concert after work, but it was definitely worth it.

June 1, 2018

The academic librarian had to go to breakfast at 6:00AM this morning but she brought me back a veggie eggs benedict and it was really good. Then I dropped her off at the public library and headed home, because I had the day off.

My main focus for the day was catching up on this, my typed journal, because I have been falling behind due to my new relationship. I'm still keeping up with my daily notes in my notebook, however, which allows me to easily type this up, but I still have to find the time to do it. I'm getting it figured out.

I got sidetracked from my journal by trying to figure out why my refrigerator was making a bunch of noise. I tried to pull the front grill off the bottom but couldn't get it figured out. In the process I turned a thing that ended up not being something I should have turned, because it led to a minor flood. I don't know what I did, but I think it overflowed the drip pan, which then ran all over the floor. It was kind of a good thing because my floor needed a good cleaning, but it was still annoying. Also, I can see the water shut off between my counter and fridge but it's just far enough out of reach that I have to pull the whole refrigerator out in order to get behind it and reach the valve. While back there I took the cover off the bottom, and was able to use the shop vac to suck up all the excess water from the drip pan. I still don't know why the fridge is so loud all of a sudden.

Sometime after that the academic librarian biked to my house, which is impressive because it is all the way across town and there are hills. We watched the Laurel & Hardy short Me and My Pal, about a jigsaw puzzle, and then she took a nap while I continued typing my journal. Then I dropped her off at the park for a concert with her boss and came back home to eat dinner and watch the Doctor Who livestream on Twitch for awhile, before going back to pick up the academic librarian.

May 31, 2018

Last night I went to bed early and slept late. It was fantastic. Then I made eggs for breakfast and hung out with the academic and librarian until it was time to go to work at 1:00PM, an hour later than normal to make up for the weekend.

I was off desk when I got to work and spent it catching up on emails and talking to my coworker. During the next two hours I was on desk and caught up on the news, helped patrons, and worked on prize labels.

After dinner I was off desk for an hour. I made a new personalized reading list sign-up sheet and talked to my coworker about library things, mostly. Then I was on desk for an hour and decided on a new design for the summer reading prize labels. They looked much better than my original idea. I was able to finish making them and when I printed them out they were the perfect size, thanks to measuring the prize jugs first. When I got off desk I put out a new jigsaw puzzle, refilled audiobooks and DVDs, read articles, and printed out my DVD display sign so I will be ready to put it out on Saturday.

When I got home I played CoD: WW2 and in one of the games I got completely destroyed. It was due to a combination of factors but it was impressive. I'm glad that isn't how things usually turn out. After that I went and picked up the academic librarian and we went back to her house. She ate some sketchy looking homemade yoghurt and then started making some more. I will not be partaking.

May 30, 2018

I dropped the academic librarian off at her house before heading to work for our all-staff meeting. It lasted about a half an hour and it was mostly about the new name badges, with a brief bit about safety updates to the phone (the addition of a panic button and a PA button, so we don't have to type in a code to use the PA). The new badges will be active next Monday and will be used to let us in the building and on a few doors in the building. Should be safer and more convenient than keys.

I talked to my coworkers for a little bit until we opened, then I went down to our new work area in the tech center. I spent the rest of the morning coming up with a display idea for the DVD display next month and making several versions of a potential sign for the display. I didn't do anything crazy in the design, just looked through a bunch of stock images, but I like it. I also got a brief start on making labels for the prize containers for summer reading.

I talked to the academic librarian for a few minutes before heading to my Mom's house for lunch. I was on desk for two hours when I got back. I handled interlibrary loans and a phone call related to academic articles, once again thanks to the university library fire. I also responded to an email from my boss about the tour I gave to grad students last year (set up by the academic librarian), because they want to do it again but were interested in more academic resources, because of the university library fire. That damn fire. And I helped one of the other librarians set up the summer reading prize table by putting the plastic skirt on it, and suggesting putting the big signs on an easel.

I refilled audiobooks and bestsellers during my walkthrough and then taught another tech desk person how to reserve rooms. And then I was on desk for an hour. I made a sign, helped patrons, and read the news.

Picked up Chipotle after work and that took awhile because they were training a new guy who was super slow, hopefully because he was new. Then I headed to my Mom's house. We ate, watched videos (despite it taking forever to get the videos to work for some reason). After dinner I drilled holes outside and put in hooks so my Mom can hang some more stuff on the back porch. I also reset the router because my Mom has been hearing a lot of stuff about resetting the router to disrupt possible malware.

When I got home I was able to play a little CoD: WW2 for the first time in what feels like forever. Then I went and picked up the academic librarian and came back to my house.

May 29, 2018

This morning I got ready and dropped the academic librarian off at her house, then drove around a little bit before heading to work.

When I got there I found out the schedule had changed and I wasn't actually supposed to come in until 10:30AM (to make up for the coming weekend), not 9:00AM. Instead of leaving, I decided I would just take a two and a half hour lunch. But then later in the day my boss wanted me to train someone in the tech center how to reserve rooms, so that through a wrench in that plan.

Because I wasn't on the schedule, I went upstairs until eleven o'clock. I spent that time reading articles, catching up on the news, working on a personalized reading list, and listening to music. Then I had a walkthrough and taught the tech person how to reserve rooms. My boss thought it would take at least forty-five minutes, but it took maybe ten minutes, because it's actually a pretty simple process. It gets more complicated when creating events, but just reserving a room is straight forward.

I talked to my coworkers until my lunch break, which I got to add a half hour to, so I went home, because that extra time would cancel out the travel time, and I could actually enjoy a nice break at home. Twitch has started a marathon of the original Doctor Who series, so I started watching that. I don't know if I would have been a fan. The original Doctor had some annoying vocal ticks, like say “hmm” a lot.

When I got back to work I was on desk for two hours, which I spent catching up on the local news and working on the personalized reading list. Then I was off desk for an hour. I printed the signs I made for the summer reading prize table, and then finished the personalized reading list.

We had our monthly librarian meeting, which lasted about thirty minutes, and we mostly talked about summer reading. I spent the rest of the hour reading library magazines.

I met the academic librarian downstairs, because she was there working. We walked her bike to my car, set the rack up and loaded her bike, stopped at her house to get some stuff together for dinner, and then slowly got around to eating dinner at my house while watching another episode of Psych. Then I took down my projector so she could borrow it tomorrow for her presentation, in case the room she had didn't have access to a projector. And then we got sidetracked by talking, which is always fun.

May 28, 2018

Today I was off work for Memorial Day. I woke up early so I could take the academic librarian out to the airport (where she was going to rent a car). I got picked up by my brother, Dad, and sister back at my house around 8:00AM and we headed out of town.

Our first stop was the Beverly cemetery. There was a small ceremony for Memorial Day that involved a group of old veterans shooting their guns. Their guns were loud and it gave me chills, picturing these old men in their late teens, firing their guns for real, fighting for their lives. I can't even imagine. After the ceremony my grandma and aunt showed up. We put flowers on my grandma's parent's and brother's graves, and then walked around the cemetery while my grandma pointed out the graves of various family members and friends. The funniest one was a guy who used to be a plumber. She said he was the only plumber for miles around, but there wasn't really much need for a plumber back then.

We then drove several miles away to Hammer Cemetery, where we saw more past family member's graves. We wandered around a bit and then sat under a tree and talked for awhile. It was mostly my Dad, aunt, and grandma reminiscing about going to these cemeteries on Memorial Day when my Dad and aunt were younger.

On the way back we drove by the old farm that my grandma and grandpa used to own, and through the small nearby town, all led by my Dad who was working of his memory from when he was four years old. We didn't get lost, so it worked out pretty well.

We stopped at Spangles on the way home, and I always enjoy a change to eat at Spangles. I ate too much food, but it was worth it.

When I got home I took a nap. Then I talked to my friend out in California for a bit until his phone cut out. We've been playing phone tag, so it was good to talk to him at least a little bit.

After that I went to my Mom's house for dinner, which was good times as always. I went back home for a little bit after that before going grocery shopping with the academic librarian and then going back to my house.

May 27, 2018

Today was a nice lazy Sunday, especially compared to the active day yesterday. Slept in and then made a poor attempt to catch up on writing these entries while the academic librarian worked on her online music class. Then we ate lunch and started watching a Danish movie called Adam's Apples before taking a nap in her tent, which we set up in my living room.

Throughout the day I also did laundry, and washed a bunch of dishes, so that was productive. For dinner I made spaghetti and then we finished watching Adam's Apples. It was a good movie, but an incredibly dark comedy.

And that's all I have for today. After yesterday it was nice staying in and doing nothing, but it also doesn't leave much to write about.

May 26, 2018

I helped bake sourdough bread before getting ready this morning. The process actually started in the middle of the night, because why not. I didn't make the starter or the dough, but I provided the oven and the pot to put it in, so I'm going to take some of the credit for how it turned out.

When we were ready we drove out to a farm that has four camels, with the goal of combing the camels. By the time we got there the camels were taking a break, so we hung out in an old barn and ate a cookie. Then we went up to a loft room that looks like it was straight out of an Indian Jones kind of movie. Like a worldly adventures room from the 1930s or something. It was pretty cool. And then we combed a camel. Camels are big. And at one point one of them came up from behind me and bumped me out of the way so she could smell the academic librarian. Just a little bit scary, but I survived.

We went back to my house for a little bit after that, giving me enough time to change out of my damp clothes (because it was hot at the camel farm), and then we headed out of town again to go to a birthday gathering at a cabin by a lake. I was a little worried it would be out in the middle of a field, so the cabin was a nice surprise. Although we spent most of the time out on the back porch, so I was once again hot and damp. We ate good food and then the instruments were pulled out. Ten different people had instruments, and some of them switched between multiple instruments. The academic librarian brought her accordion, there were guitars, mandolins, a banjo, harmonicas, and a saw, which was probably the most impressive. At one point the lady on the saw played Happy Birthday, including the “and many more” addition at the end, and it was great. The saw is like a theremin, but actually good.

We left around ten o'clock, and there was talk of camping, but the campsites were closed, and I was really hot and tired after a long day, and really just wanted to take a shower and sleep in my own bed, so we headed back to town.

May 25, 2018

After several nights of not getting a lot of sleep, I was out like a light as soon as my head hit the pillow last night. I slept through the night and it was great.

The morning at work disappeared. I talked to the other librarian about a lot of work-related things, and also things that were not work-related, and I helped research a couple different reference questions, because they were coming in fast this morning. One of them was from the city looking for an ADA document of their own, which they had misplaced and hoped we had a copy. We apparently used to have it many years ago but got rid of it several years ago (along with a lot of other city documents) because we're not an archive and no one ever used them. The other questions was about a mysterious trailer park that used to be in town fifty or sixty years ago but I only found passing references to it, nothing that substantial.

I met with my boss for our monthly meeting. There wasn't a lot to talk about but I would still say it was productive.

I helped the academic librarian with a question about metadata. I couldn't find anything useful in our collection (which isn't surprising), and ended up sending her the example for one of my metadata assignments in grad school. I also tried helping her with an ebook situation on her phone and laptop. And I got a request from a patron to find a picture of his Marine Corps platoon from 1981. That didn't go anywhere. I found a lot of possibly useful sites but the class number he gave me proved elusive.

I went to the academic librarian's house for lunch, which was again nice because the travel time is significantly less than going to my Mom's house, so I get more of a break without having to stay at the library.

On a walkthrough after lunch I got cornered by one of our regulars down by circulation. The academic librarian knows her and it apparently came out that we were dating, so I think that was the reason for the initial contact, but them she rambled on about a lot of other things. Among the stream of consciousness was an offer to teach me a song with the academic librarian's name in it, and a request to help her transport a piano. I was eventually able to get away, but it took far longer than it probably should have.

Then I continued looking for the Marine Corps picture, before going on another walkthrough, refilling the audiobooks, and covering a break in the tech center. After that I talked to one of the other librarians for almost an hour. There was a lot of random stuff, but also some work stuff, so I feel okay about it.

I spent the last hour on desk, read the news, and worked on a personalized reading list. Then I went home, ate dinner, eventually picked up the academic librarian, and watched an episode of Psych before going to bed.

May 24, 2018

This morning I woke up, got ready, and dropped the academic librarian and her bike off at a coffee shop. Then I drove around for a little bit because I was a tad early for work. When I got to work I had two hours off desk. I pulled more books for my biography display and then sat behind the desk and talked to two of the other librarians. In a completely natural way it came up that I'm dating the academic librarian, and it really wasn't awkward at all. What was slightly more awkward was having to go tell two teens to put a little more space between them, because they were being a little too friendly in a public place.

I had three walkthroughs in a row after that. I refilled audiobooks, talked to people in circulation and childrens, talked to a man sleeping outside our front door on one of the stone benches (which seemed really uncomfortable but he seemed to be enjoying it and it wasn't against our policy, but we kept checking on him just to make sure he was doing alright), talked to my fellow librarians more, and kind of got a start on a new personalized reading list.

I went to my Mom's for lunch and she happened to be in the garage when I opened the door. She was pretty confused by the bike rack on my car, so I told her about the academic librarian, and I don't think I've ever seen her so excited. It was nearly at a comical level, and it was ridiculous, but also pretty cool.

After lunch we were shown how to set up the technology in our different meeting rooms, and then I was on desk for two hours, after taking a bunch of new donated games down to the basement. I spent a decent amount of time tracking down an academic article for a patron. We're getting more requests for scholarly things due to the university library being out of commission due to the fire. We can handle some of those but our library isn't really equipped for that, so it can be a bit frustrating not having the ability to help people. I got lucky with the patron today because I found a pre-publication version of the article online. I also had some time to actually start on the personalized reading list.

I had a walkthrough after that, covered a break in the tech center, continued working on the personalized reading list, and did my best to stay awake, because I was tired, and when I'm tired I have a tendency to want to fall asleep.

After work I picked up Chipotle, swung by my house to pick up the autographed books from Alan Lightman (because I didn't want them sitting on my porch if it rained), and went to my Mom's for dinner. We ate, talked, and watched videos. Then I drilled a couple holes in a new bird feeder so my sister could add dowels to it, and fixed a mildly dangerous fire trap behind the TV, because my Mom had way too many things plugged in.

May 23, 2018

Woke up and ate leftover pizza in bed for breakfast. It is almost as good cold as it is hot. After that I had just enough time to run home and get ready before going to work.

I had two walkthroughs when I got there. I refilled the audiobook and talked to the academic librarian a little bit. She stopped by to work because the campus library won't be available for the foreseeable

future.

I was on desk for two hours after that and most of that time was spent helping patrons. I answered a lot of phone calls, helped a patron print our list of possible book club kits, and helped a patron open Solitaire after he was trying to find a crossword puzzle by typing his phone number into Google to log into an account that he didn't actually have. It was odd. I also helped one of the other librarians edit her new handout, and I talked to her husband about the job he just got. It's as a middle school science teacher, so he doesn't start for awhile, but he will be starting a masters degree for teaching this summer.

I was off desk for the next two hours so I went upstairs to the meeting room. I caught up on the news and created signs for the summer reading prize desk.

For my dinner break I went to the academic librarian's house. It is a few blocks from the library so I was able to enjoy a longer break.

I was on desk for an hour when I got back and caught up on the news. Then I was off desk for two hours. I checked out a couple books, read the local newspaper, and spent a lot of time making new end caps for the newly shifted books. I was a little smarter about it this time, so it went slightly faster than my previous attempts, and I got everything right on the first try, but it is still a pain in the butt.

I picked up the academic librarian after work. I also picked up her bike, so now I have a bike rack on the back of my car. I've never had a bike rack on my car, and haven't had a bike since I was a kid, but it makes me look like I'm ready for adventure. I need to go on more adventures.

May 22, 2018

Not a lot of sleep again, and then I dropped the academic librarian off on my way to work. As we were headed across town, I had the realization that she made me want to drive the speed limit so that I am with her for a little bit longer. That was pretty cool. Then I drove around a little bit longer to kill a few minutes before heading to work.

I was off desk for the first two hours so I went up to the meeting room and updated the webpage for today's tech class. That went pretty smoothly, and I was able to read a few articles, as well.

I then had a walkthrough and covered the tech desk for about twenty minutes so that worker could take a break. I also made a sign for two of our meeting rooms because even though the construction happening in and around them is obvious, we keep finding people in them. The last straw was a patron today who had to walk by a ladder and all the other stuff, and then told me he didn't realize it was off limits because he “didn't see a sign.” So I made a sign.

The tech class was after lunch. Two people were signed up, one didn't show, there were two walk-ins, and I had made four copies of my handout, so that worked out perfectly. The class itself went pretty well. It could have been better, but even if I thought it was perfect I would have wanted it to be better. There's no winning.

Following the class I spent forty-five minutes behind the reference desk, talking to my coworkers before going down to cover the tech desk for an hour. I was able to catch up on the news, read a few library articles, and talked to a couple teens about their game volume and talking.

I was on desk for the last hour and learned about a fire at the campus library. The best guess is that it was started accidentally by a worker welding on the roof near the ventilation system. It didn't seem to be that bad at first but then the news kept getting worse. I was getting updates from the academic librarian, as well as my Dad who was getting updates from his scanner I assume.

After work I went to the academic librarian's house. We decided to have our first official date and tried to do typical date things. We went and picked up a pizza from downtown (tomatoes and broccoli), sitting at a picnic table outside while it was being made, which was really nice. Then we stopped at the library to checkout a couple DVDs. We ended up eating the pizza on her porch and talked about random things, but spent a lot of time talking about old video games that she played growing up, which was unexpected but really cool. Also, the pizza was really good. I had never had it from that restaurant before but I want to have it much more often in the future. She also received continuing updates on the library fire, which only got worse.

When we were done eating we went for a walk around the neighborhood. This ended in a stop at her friends' house. We were invited in by the husband while his wife put the kids to bed. He offered us pineapple, and I don't think I've had cold pineapple in quite awhile, but it is still very refreshing. His wife eventually joined us and we had a good conversation until about 10:00PM, when we heading back to the academic librarian's house.

May 21, 2018

Last night I got about four hours of sleep. Then I had to get up early so I could go get a haircut before work. Ideally I wouldn't schedule a haircut before going to work at 9:00AM, but I was overdue and this morning was the earliest possible time. I had just enough time afterward to come home and change shirts before work. On the way to work I dropped off the academic librarian and made it to the library with time to spare.

I had two hours off desk when I got to work so I went upstairs to the meeting room. I caught up on emails, and I was able to switch weekends with one of the other librarians, so now I can go to a weekend symphony thing next month. I also had a little time to play around with Google Maps stuff in preparation for the upcoming class.

I was on desk for two hours after that and that was basically completely spent working on Google Maps stuff and helping the occasional patron.

And then I had a four hour lunch break. The person in the tech center who was supposed to work tonight was sick, and it was last minute, so of the two of us who were there, I volunteered to work a split shift and cover the tech center tonight.

This worked out pretty well because on the way home I was able to go to the grocery store, which was a much better time than going at 6:00PM. The produce selection was pretty sad in the middle of the afternoon, but at least it wasn't crowded. When I got home I took a nap before eating dinner and heading back to work.

I covered the tech desk for the next four hours and it was kind of nice. There is a lot less responsibility compared to working at the reference desk, so I was able to do zone out and work on things, after covering the regular tech desk responsibilities. I set a patron up on the creation station, helped a patron print, figured out how to properly turn off the projector in the auditorium (by using an iPad instead of the remote), made a list of audiobooks so that one of the other librarians could pull them for me (because I hadn't had time with my modified schedule), figured out which keys opened which doors in the tech center with that same librarian, and also helped her unjam the shredder.

All of that didn't take too much time so I was able to put in a decent amount of time on the Google Maps class. Thanks to being able to zone in, I was able to get all of the screenshots I needed and this allowed me to finish the handout/presentation for the tech class. This also made the night go by pretty quickly, which is always appreciated.

On my way home I picked up the academic librarian and we quickly called it a night.

May 20, 2018

Today was a pretty straight forward day and there really isn't much to write about. I slept in a little bit (but still didn't get much sleep), and then dropped the academic librarian off at church. Then I started my laundry, cleaned up around the house, took a shower, and clicked around the internet, one of my favorite pastimes.

After lunch there was a two hour nap, which helped quite a bit with the lack of sleep, and then we made sourdough French toast for dinner and watched Psych. So not a very exciting day, but it was very relaxed, and I needed that after being social and so far outside my comfort zone yesterday.

May 19, 2018

Last night I slept pretty horribly. Like four hours kind of horribly. Most of it was due to sleeping in a new environment, but I also spent a lot of that non-sleeping time talking to the academic librarian, which was good times. It was like a sleepover, lots of talking and not a lot of sleeping. Also, there was a storm, and the window was open, and because I was awake, I got to hear the rain roll in from off in the distance. That was pretty cool.

When we were all up, we hung out at the house until lunchtime. We went to lunch at a hippie vegan place in the basement of a church. I got a roasted potato burrito, which ended up having multiple types of potatoes in it, and it was very tasty.

After lunch we went to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It's huge, with a lot of different exhibits, and there is even stuff outside. We walked around for quite awhile and it was really interesting. The piece I liked the most consisted of two light bulbs hanging from the same hook on the wall. After a time, the second bulb turns off. It is meant to symbolize the loss of a partner, and was created in memory of the artist's partner who died of AIDS. Really sad stuff, and it got to me.

From there we went to the National WW1 Museum. We didn't actually go into the museum but it has a good view of the downtown skyline and Union Station. I got some good pictures. We also saw at least three different wedding parties having their pictures taken.

On the way back to the house we stopped at Trader Joe's. I have never been to Trader Joe's before and it is an experience. They have such a wide variety of food and it all looks really good. I think it might be a good thing we don't have one in town. And it would definitely be a mistake going there while hungry.

When we got back to the house we again hung out in the backyard for awhile before packing up and heading home around 5:30PM. We stopped at the academic librarian's house to pick up pizza ingredients and then came back to my house. We made pizza, watched The Good Place while we ate, and eventually watched one of my favorite Laurel and Hardy shorts, Berth Marks. It is hilarious every single time.

May 18, 2018

Last night I slept horribly. I think it was a mix of anxiety related to the weekend and the book situation with Alan Lightman. I also think I stood to long yesterday while covering the tech desk and my legs were feeling very restless.

And on top of that, I got up early, so I could leave early, and go to the UPS Store before work. That trip turned out to be entirely useless and pretty frustrating. I explained that an author was sending me books and I wanted to send an envelope or box with the shipping paid for to him. Or maybe contact the author's local UPS Store and set something up so the author could drop off the books and I could cover the charges. The kid behind the counter wasn't having it and wasn't interested in trying to help me figure something out. He told me they would never ship books in an envelope so that wouldn't work. I have gotten dozens of books in envelopes, so that was obviously bullshit. Then he said he needed to know the dimensions for the inside of the box and the weight. I said I could look up the size of the books and he said he didn't care about the books, he needed to know how big the box would be. I tried to tell him that if I added up the size of the books we would know how big a box I needed, but he kept saying he didn't care about the books. It was like a broken record and we just went around and around. It was probably the worst customer service interaction I've ever had. UPS is known for their precision and accuracy, and that has helped them become a dominant force around the world, but their customer service (based on this very insignificant interaction) is atrocious.

I was off desk for the first three hours when I got to work so I went upstairs to work in the meeting room. The first thing I did was send Alan Lightman an email, updating him on the shipping situation. I am still hoping we can figure something out. It would have been much easier if I had been able to directly ship him a book with a return label, but time constraints didn't allow that, and I had to ship him the books from the original sellers, so now we're here. After the email I spent the rest of the time looking up information for the tech class next week.

I had two walkthroughs during the noon hour. I used the folding machine upstairs to fold a bunch of brochures. It took me a little while to get it set up again because it seems like every time I use it, someone else has used it and moved things from where I had them previously, but I got it figured out. I also talked to the person at the children's desk for awhile after each walkthrough, and talked to my coworker at the desk to round out the hour.

After lunch I covered the tech desk and mostly just looked at articles. Then I spent the rest of the hour, about a half an hour, sitting behind the desk and talking to my coworkers.

I spent my two hours on desk mostly working on the tech class for next week. I started coming up with my idea for a slideshow that I could then use for a handout. I took a lot of screenshots and did a lot of tweaking of the slideshow to make it look how I wanted. The summer reading site also crashed multiple times today, so we dealt with that throughout the day.

I spent the last hour of the day talking to my coworker. The entire hour. And we covered all the random things. None of which were work related. It was nice.

Near the end of the day I heard back from Alan Lightman and he said he would pay for the shipping. How cool is that? That was a huge amount of stress lifted from my brain going into the weekend. I'm definitely sending him a Thank You note. And I'm going to find out how much it cost to ship (which will require going back to the awful UPS Store) so I can include a check.

When I got home I did all the things. I packed, changed clothes, washed my windshield (because it has been dirty forever and this seemed like a good excuse to finally clean it), ate dinner, and finally left the house around 7:45PM. This was forty-five minutes after I planned on leaving but I wasn't surprised by the delay.

The drive went smoothly, largely due to the GPS. That thing takes a lot of stress out of the end of a trip when you're off the highways and interstates and dealing with exits and side streets. The GPS did suggest an illegal/impossible U-turn, but other than that it was spot on. I also needed a little help with the house because the numbers weren't clearly marked for most of the houses on the street, but the academic librarian's friend jumped up and waved her arms in the front yard after I had parked a few houses too far down. We went and sat on the back patio for awhile before calling it a night.