My weekend

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone. I guess summer is here. Somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature, though. It was gray and wet all day yesterday and today, although I will admit that Sunday was pretty decent. In any case, I was pretty productive, I’m pleased to say.

Saturday

• Went to the Portland Farmer’s Market, where I spent 15 minutes looking for parking close to the market so I didn’t have to walk too far on my bum foot. Still had to walk four blocks, which is a long way when you have a broken foot. But the market was great and I came home with lots of great produce.
• Went to REI to pick up a pair of sandals that they had on sale, only to discover the store didn’t carry them. The clerk checked the website and we discovered they were out of stock there too. Damn! These sandals had removable footbeds (rare in sandals), so I could have worn them with the new orthotics I’ll be required to wear soon.
• Went to Jay’s Wide Shoes where I asked to see their orthotic-friendly shoes. Was shown a few pairs of hideously-ugly sandals that cost $150. Left the store in shock.
• Came home and spent several hours taking pictures of my farmer’s market bounty.
• For lunch, I tested a dehydrated backpacking meal I’d picked up at REI. I always thought those things were disgusting, but now that I’ve bothered to actually try one, it was pretty good. I have more flavors to test.
• Sat on my back patio for the entire afternoon (it was actually warm out….shocking!) and caught up on MANY months’ backlog of photography magazines.

Sunday

• Went to the Joe’s sale and spent more money than I should have on camping gear.
• Caught up on more magazine reading.
• Caught up on some book reading.
• Did a load of laundry. Did not fold the laundry.
• Spent several hours selecting and editing the photos I was going to enter in two different photography contests.
• Spent several more hours on the computer, doing what…I cannot now remember!
• Watched Miss Austen Regrets, which was not that good.

Monday

• Started folding laundry. Did not finish.
• Started cleaning room. Did not finish.
• Went with my parents to my aunt’s house in the Willamette Valley to celebrate one cousin’s homecoming from Iraq and another cousin’s high school graduation.
• Came home tired out and talked out. Vegged for the rest of the evening.

Okay, so I didn’t get the laundry folded or my room cleaned. But I still feel pretty productive.

What I do

When I had dinner with my library friends the other night, they asked me what I do at my current job. I had never thought about all the various tasks I do at work. I just know that it seems I do a lot of different things, which is actually good. So, if you’re curious, this is what I do at work (in no particular order).

• Collection development: I buy books. This is one of my favorite parts of the job. I’m responsible for half of the adult non-fiction collection, and I actually really like buying non-fiction.
• Book displays: I keep the “What We’re Reading” (staff picks) display stocked and come up with several monthly book display themes (like my two current displays: gardening and outdoor recreation).
• Weeding: This is technically part of collection development. It involves getting rid of outdated, beaten-up, or no-longer-popular books. We’d run out of room if we didn’t do this constantly.
• Computer classes: My library already had an impressive repertoire of computer classes they offered before I started working there. So I don’t have to create the classes from scratch, but I have been tweaking and updating the material. I teach one Saturday class a month, and my colleague teaches one Thursday evening class a month.
• Desktop publishing: Because I taught myself a little about Publisher and I like doing it, I somehow gained a reputation for being great with graphics. I create posters, brochures, bookmarks, etc. for upcoming programs, holiday closures, book displays, you name it.
• Community room gallery: We have a monthly rotating art exhibit in our big Community Room. We find artists by putting out an annual call for artists. I inherited the gallery responsibilities about halfway through the process this winter, and I had the job of helping to select artists from the applicants, contacting them all, and scheduling them all.
• Programs: When a librarian retired in December and her position was eliminated, I ended up inheriting programming. I find musicians, performers, speakers and the like to come entertain our patrons. We aim for one program a month. I’ve never done ANYTHING like this before, so I’m learning as I go.
• Advertising: I write up press releases for our programs and art exhibits and get them to the local paper and the Oregonian.
• Blurbs: The city sends out a weekly update on e-mail that includes news and other noteworthy items for the area. It also includes departmental updates when departments have news to report, and since there is always SOMETHING going on at the library, we always have at least five or six blurbs (as we call them) for the update.
• Master calendar: Along with my colleague, I’m in charge of getting all our events and programs on the master calendar. This calendar is tied to our web page, so it’s important to keep it updated. I also send a list of events and programs to the city each month for inclusion in the monthly update (not to be confused with the weekly update) that goes out with residents’ water bills.
• Website: Although the technical part of the website is my colleague’s duty, I help keep it up-to-date and accurate.
• Reference desk: I spend roughly half my time (16-20 hours a week) on the desk, answering questions, directing people to the bathroom, helping people on the computers, etc.
• Forms: I was in charge of tax forms during tax season. I’m also in charge of reordering other forms and putting them out, such as voter registration forms, Tri-Met schedules, drivers manuals, etc.
• L-Net: We staff this online reference service one morning a week. People from all over log on to the website, ask reference questions, and we research them on the spot (using internet resources) and answer them. Unfortunately my library has pulled out of this for the summer, although I hope we return to it in the fall.

So there you have it! I’m sure I’m missing a few little things, and there’s always one-time projects that come up, like making new signs for the ends of the bookshelves when we shifted books. We’re rather understaffed at the moment, so there’s always something coming up that needs to be done, but the variety is good!

TGIF!

I’m so glad it’s Friday and that I have a three-day weekend ahead of me. Last night I had dinner and melon ball martinis (OH MY GOD SO YUMMY) with two library pals from my on-call days. It was fantastic to see them again. I couldn’t believe we were at the restaurant for nearly three hours! As the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun. Eight more hours of work, and then I have a whole long empty weekend ahead of me.

I can’t go hiking, of course. I can’t even go for a walk in Forest Park! I won’t be seeing Greg this weekend either. It’s been a very long time since I’ve had a whole empty weekend like this. I’m trying to look on the bright side, though. If I COULD go hiking, the trails would be clogged with Memorial Day weekend trekkers. The weather will be okay, not fantastic, so I’m not missing out there. And by having to stay home, I can catch up on some reading and journal-writing. It probably wouldn’t hurt to do some cleaning too. I really miss taking pictures, so maybe I can go to the park and take pictures of the ducklings. I’ll dig out my list of back-burnered projects and see what I can accomplish this weekend.

Vote!

Today is voting day. It will be craziness at the library, as people drop off their ballots. (For you non-Oregon readers, we have a vote-by-mail system. If you don’t mail your ballot in time to arrive at the election office on voting day, then you have to drop it off at a ballot drop site, which the library is.) I voted, but I feel bad that I didn’t make as informed a vote as I could of on most of the issues. The ballot was damn long, for one thing. We had no less than 27 things to vote on, what with the presidential candidates, judges, county commissioners, senators, representatives, county sheriff, ballot measures, and more. Whew! I shamefully admit that I didn’t do as much research as I should have to make the most informed decision possible. I will try to do better next time!

Plunge into summer

After a cold, wet, gray spring, Mother Nature has decided to cease with the winter weather and has plunged us directly into summer. It got up in the mid-90s both Friday and yesterday, breaking records for the earliest 90+ degree day in a calendar year. It’s quite a shock to the body, since we’ve had no warm weather to prepare us and the last time it was over 90 degrees was September 10: over eight months ago. But I’m not complaining. I’d rather sweat than shiver. This weather is great, and I can feel my seratonin levels rising every time I step outside.

As for the mono, I am feeling a lot better. The awful sore throat is almost completely gone. I can talk, eat, drink, and swallow without pain and it is a wonderful miraculous thing. I will never take my throat for granted again! It will take several weeks for my body to rid itself of the mono, so I still need to rest and take it easy. Not hard to do, since I can’t do much with my bum foot. With this beautiful weather, it’s pretty frustrating to be laid-up, but sitting on the patio with a glass of ice tea and a book isn’t all bad.

Hanging in there

I stayed home sick today, hoping to get enough rest that I could work at least partial days the rest of the week. My throat still hurts like hell the majority of the time, but the severity comes and goes. I had no idea that the primary symptom of mono was a wretched sore throat. I always heard about the fatigue thing (which I DON’T have), but not the sore throat. It is truly horrible to have so much constant pain in your throat. Simple things like talking, drinking, and eating become major problems. Yesterday at the doctor’s office, the nurse told me that sore throats have been making the rounds in general lately, some of them so severe that people have to be hospitalized and put on fluids because they can’t drink. I have felt very close to being at that point in the last week.

Greg was with me all weekend, which was really nice. Not having him here during the week always sucks big time, but especially now when I’m so sick and pathetic. Today he sent me a beautiful bouquet of half a dozen red roses, which was incredibly sweet.

It’s only 7:15, but I’m going to take some pain meds and go to bed. Once again, I wish only to be unconscious.

I have mono

I went back to the doctor’s office again for the third time in less than a week. I tested positive for mono. My throat still hurts like crazy. I really want to be not conscious right now.

Green green Gorge

With my bum foot and this nasty sore throat that I can’t seem to shake, I’m not up for hiking or anything these days. So yesterday morning Greg and I headed out to Tom McCall Nature Preserve to check out the wildflowers, many of which can easily be seen just steps from the car. I stayed close to the trailhead and took some pictures, then waited in the car with my book while Greg wandered further afield with his camera. We also stopped at Bridal Veil State Park, where lots of beautiful little wildflowers are blooming. It’s wonderful to see color in the world again!

Driving to Bridal Veil was practically euphoric. The historic highway that takes you there is beautiful any time of year, but especially now when everything is incredibly green. I didn’t take any photos of the highway yesterday, but see below for one I took last year in May. Around here the trees are only full and leafy green May-August. The leaves turn color and fall to the ground in September and October, and by mid-November the trees are bare. This means that our deciduous trees are mostly bare for five to six months of the year, which is pretty depressing. After such a long period of brown colorless nature, it is absolutely wonderful to see leaves and color again!

Sick day

I called in sick to work today after throwing up several times this morning. I suspect the throwing up is from the vicodin I took last night, the vicodin that once again did not make me sleepy or relieve my pain, I might add. My throat was so swollen that I could feel the pressure in my right ear. So I went into the doctor’s office again. They gave me a high-powered antibiotic shot on my bum that stung like hell and will hurt for several days. They also prescribed me an anti-nausea medicine and some steroids to make the throat swelling go down. But I was warned that might actually have mono. Apparently they can’t test you for mono until you’ve been symptomatic for 10 days, and it’s been less than a week, so they couldn’t tell me for sure. I managed to make it through childhood without getting mono, and I thought I was in the clear now. Maybe not. I’ll find out next week.

No sleep for me

So I guess I’ll never have to worry about becoming addicted to vicodin. Whew! There’s a huge weight off my chest. Yeah, so the vicodin had NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER last night. Not only did it not knock me out, but it didn’t relieve the pain either. I felt like I had taken nothing at all. I slept fitfully, waking up every few hours wanting to weep in pain but forcing myself not to do so because it would only make my throat hurt worse, if that was even possible. I finally stumbled out of bed at 6:45, realizing that whatever sleep I was going to get had already come and gone and that I might as well just get up. The only thing that got me through the workday was the chloroseptic sore throat strips I bought on the way to work. They numbed my throat for short periods of time, although eventually they started giving me an upset stomach. My boss let me leave work an hour and a half early, and I’ve been hanging out in my apartment in a painful daze ever since. I can’t decide if I should try a larger dose of vicodin tonight (I didn’t take quite the full allowed dose last night) or just take NyQuil.