Utility player
03.04.04 (3:58 pm) [edit]Here at the "unbusy" library, I've become something of the utility infielder. I keep getting shuffled around from desk to desk filling in whenever someone else needs a break. It's great that they think I have such versatility, but frustrating too when I have to keep jumping up from whatever project I'm working on and move to another spot. :roll: I think I've gotten to actually sit and work at my own desk for less than thirty minutes at a stretch today. :(
Tonight I'm working the children's reference desk, but I've already sat over here two other times today for a couple of short stints to cover breaks, meetings and just plain shortages of reference staff out here on the main floor.
The hardest thing has been getting re-oriented at each desk I've been asked to work, especially when I've had to leave the other staff member logged in on the terminal because they're in the middle of something online (a book order for example). I keep looking for my favorites and end up having to search again for the site I was on for my work (paperback ordering), or wanting to check my email and having to log-in using the web based version of our email program (slower and clunkier).
At the children's desk here, I'm also having to deal with the bizarre placement of the monitor, keyboard, mouse and telephone. Instead of moving the desk in a rational manner to provide the best vantage point for keeping an eye on things, the librarian who's desk this normally is, has placed the CPU under the desk where it's constantly in danger of being kicked; placed the monitor, keyboard and mouse in such a manner as to make the computer impossible to use unless one is straddling the drawers of the desk; and finally, he's placed the phone at the far end of the desk, necessitating a 3 foot lean and grab whenever the phone rings. I feel like a contortionist working here . . . :evil:
No wonder he needs a pad on his chair for his back . . .
At least tonight for dinner, I found out that the Chinese restaurant down the street makes decent
Singapore Noodles (I even found their recipe online in the local paper). :D A little pricey, but great for helping to clean out my still stuffed up sinuses from being sick. :DTomorrow, I'm off again from work, but I have to work on Saturday and were having our Dr. Seuss celebration that afternoon - should be a real zoo, if the other libraries that have had their parties already are any indication of how things will go here. :(
But there's no rest or relaxation in store for me tomorrow. I'm helping to move my grandfather's furniture into storage in the basement of my mom's house because we've had to move him again. This time it's from his assisted living apartment into the nursing care facility at his senior complex. Last time it was from his regular senior apartment to assisted living and that was only about eight months ago. At least now when he goes, there won't be much physical labor to do . . .
Okay, it's official. After writing all this and thinking about the shortened weekend I'm going to have, I've decided to goof off the rest of the night now. :wink: