days_unfolding

I was having stomach cramps, so I decided to lie down. This time I did oversleep, but now I feel well-rested. I need to eat dinner, and then will run to the store.

It looks like we will do a phone interview with the new Library Director candidate.

Added: The muscles on the left side of my back are aching. That was the side on which I had my book bag yesterday. I didn't think that it was that heavy, but I also put the tome of the conference proceedings in there. Why, oh why, do conferences have to print such large volumes? If I need a door stop, it'll be a good one.

Well, I didn't have much packing to do. Just my book bag. And I have clean clothes hanging in the bathroom for tomorrow. And I have a list written out of things that I need to grab tomorrow morning (sandwich, soda, cell phone charger, etc.) because I'm going to be groggy.

I spent more time running around figuring out how to pay a bill online when I only had cash. Answer: prepaid Visa card (which isn't cheap when you add up the fees). I need to open an account at a local bank.

Oh, and I decided that I should stay at the cheap Airbnb near Pere Marquette that doesn't have Internet because I have a cell phone that I can use as a hotspot. Duh. I love ways to do what I want to do without spending a lot of money!

Anyway, I need to feed the hordes and wind down to go to sleep. My alarm is going to go off obscenely early.

I didn't get much sleep last night because I had some stuff to do before I went to sleep, and had to get up early for phone interviews for the Library Director position. The interviews went well. We're going to bring in two out of the three for on-site interviews. The third candidate told long, rambling stories about things that happened during his career, and we were kind of shell-shocked afterward.

My boss keeps forgetting that I'm going to take next Monday off. I think that she thinks that I didn't tell her about it, but today was the third time that I mentioned it.

I almost forgot to gather the things that I needed for my presentation on Sunday, but I did remember.

I'm feeling exhausted, so I'm going to fed the hordes and crash.

I feel a little bad in saying that it was a pretty good day, given what happened in London and Virginia, but it was pretty good. It stormed on and off, but I enjoyed the storms because we haven't had one for a while. And the farmers need the rain.

I had a lot to get done at work today, and I did get a lot done. One of the things that I needed to do was take a picture of myself to post online with a PDF of my poster presentation. So I brought my "good" camera (it's not a DSLR, but it has a lot more features than your average point-and-shoot camera) to work along with a "selfie stick". Many of the results were hilarious. Maybe I'll post one or two of them later. I did wind up with a couple of pictures that I could live with, and I'll upload one to the conference Web site tonight, although I might try to take a few more pictures tomorrow.

I also experimented with recording a voiceover because the conference folks suggest posting a short one as well. Given the amount of info that we're posting on the site, though, why bother coming to the presentation?

The printer hasn't finished printing the poster, though, but there still is some time. (The presentation is a week from this coming Sunday, in Chicago.)

I ran errands over dinner, and picked up Zara's and my meds. Better living through chemistry :)

Oh, my dad thinks that creating an Illinois Road Trips blog and a book is a great idea. He said, "And if the book sells, you can branch out to other nearby states!" Whoa, Dad. Writing a good guidebook to Illinois is going to be a lot of work. But it's nice to see how enthusiastic he is about it though.

I drove up to Bloomington and got my car's oil changed and a new windshield wiper put on. While I waited, I called the vet and made an appointment for Harlee on next Friday. The printer got back to me about the poster. I checked with my boss that the cost was okay, and I e-mailed him back to print the poster.

Afterward, I ran errands. I drove toward AT&T to get a new cell phone charger. I had been having problems charging my phone, and I thought that it was a problem with the phone, but my car cell phone charger worked perfectly. When I drove up to AT&T, I noticed Noodles and Company nearby, and decided to eat lunch there. Mmm, Pesto Cavatappi. Then I went to AT&T to get the charger.

Then I went to Meijer to look for socks. Either the cats are eating my socks, or my laundry basket has a portal to another dimension, because my socks keep disappearing. I buy the same socks at Meijer so, if I lose one, its mate will match the other socks. I bought a bunch of them, so I should be set for a while. Then I went to PetCo and bought Harlee some Cat Attract litter and some more of the good food that she likes.

I didn't get a chance to get a map of a trail in Bloomington, but I can print the map.

Now I'm home, and I'm resting a little before I throw my laundry in the wash.

I sent my poster for the big library conference to the printer tonight. Gulp. But I went over it with a fine-tooth comb, and it should be okay.

I just realized that I forgot to turn the lobby lights off at work, but Security will see them and turn them off. I hope.

I also started on Python class number 3. (My boss said that I could spend some time working on the classes at work.) I also enrolled in an authority control class. (Authority control is how we cross-reference the various names that someone is known by under only one name.)

I sent a note to my boss's boss about my schedule for the fall. I am registered for one online class, but also an on-site class on Tuesdays, which was going to be one of my days off. Well, now that my boss is leaving, I don't know how that will work. I can register for a Web page development class online instead. I'll see what she says.

I forgot to call the vet to make an appointment for Harlee. She's due for her shots, but she also is still hiding in the closet, so I'm worried. But she's visible now, and complaining. She's eating her food. I don't think that she has drunk water since this morning though. I left a note on my computer at work to be sure to call tomorrow.

There were some good sessions today, and I got some new ideas. However, I was feeling jet-lagged because it's an hour later here, and I got down to breakfast at 7:45 AM. (I usually get up at 11 AM CST.) So I blew off the keynote address, and took a nap instead. It helped.

Tonight, we went to see the Cincinnati Reds baseball game. They won, which I gather from the locals was unusual. I enjoyed the game, to my surprise.

Cincinnati is very pretty. I definitely want to take a pleasure trip here sometime. I'd like to go some Labor Day because they have fireworks over the Ohio River, and a rubber duck race on the river.

I'm waiting for my meds to kick in, so I can go to sleep.

Today was...weird. We plunged into our conversion project. My boss seems happier now that she's given notice. I contacted my boss's boss, and told her that I'd be happy to post the job listing to various library e-mail lists, but that I'll be off next week. She thanked me, and jokingly asked if I'd be willing to be on the search committee. I said that I definitely wanted to be on the search committee!

I was so overwhelmed that I forgot to practice my presentation tonight, and work on my poster presentation. Not good; I can't drop any balls because of what's going on. I did write a short Python program; I need to finish the class up by the end of the month.

Mimi and Zara got into a brief yowling fight when I got home. I distracted Mimi by telling her to cut it out, and Zara took off upstairs while Mimi was distracted. I can't deal with that right now either.

Boy, I will be glad when the presentation is over (a week from today), so that I can at least cross that off my list.

It's way too hot up here, so I'm going to do some stuff downstairs for a while.

I overslept this morning by 45 minutes, and made it in 7 minutes late to relieve the front desk worker for lunch. I consider that a moral victory. Forgot to take my morning meds, so I was tired all day.

Good news though. I've been trying for years to get appointed to one of the committees of librarians selected from members of our consortium, and this year, I finally made it. I guess that I'm heading in the right direction in developing my career...two presentations and a committee appointment...

I almost forgot to take dinner tonight. I usually go at 5:45 PM, but had planned to go at 4 PM because I got in early. I left at 5:30. Oops. So now I'm not hungry yet.

I also forgot that we're working only seven-hour days in the summer, and worked eight. I needed to be on online chat from 7 - 9 PM though, so I don't know how I would have been able to work seven. I'm on salary though, so it doesn't really matter.

I worked a little on my poster presentation. I'm planning to work a lot on it on Sunday.

I need to scramble to run errands and do laundry tomorrow because I need to meet with my co-presenter on Saturday to discuss the intro to our (live) presentation. Life is going to be hectic up though the time that we do the presentation (a week from this Tuesday).

When I got home, I enjoyed lying on my bed, playing with my phone, and snuggling with two cats. Home is where the heart is. I'm feeling more guilty about Mimi because there was a picture on Facebook of a sad dog who has been bouncing from home to home. That's Mimi's situation. I'm her third human. Well, I'm not doing anything about her right now. And she's been mellow tonight.