A Day in the Life, cont.: Saturday

This week I cataloged my daily activity for Hack Library School's "Library Student Day in the Life" project (#HLSDITL). Because most of my library school stuff tends to happen over the weekend (even though this week is atypical), I've decided to continue for a couple of extra days. You can read others' posts -- and see pictures and videos -- here. Maybe you want to write your own!

SATURDAY

9  AM: Woken by the oven door closing. My wife was home from her overnight shift and apparently up to something in the kitchen. I'd had a rough night, so I cuddled in bed with the cats until she slipped in for a hello/goodbye kiss and headed back out to work her day job. (Weekends are like that around here: she works 32-40 hours over 3 days, and sleeps hard on Sunday night.)

10 AM: Got up, put away dry dishes, set the slow cooker for 8 hours with a beef pot roast, fried up some eggs and had them with a small trimming from the roast that she'd set aside in the oven.

Caught up with Facebook, one Reader feed, and Blogger stats. The kittencam is noisy today -- lots of chirrups.

Damn straight, Bill. (OMG that was 17 years ago???)

Captain Awkward and the Awkward Army discuss whether one has to sacrifice one's health for grad school success. Timely. Again, I recommend the CA classic reminder to be nice to yourself.

Started this blog post.

11 AM: Sniffled through the comments on the CA post.

Got dressed and washed my face/brushed my teeth/combed my hair so that I would look decent enough to walk downstairs when my friend drops by after lunch to pick up the stuff we forgot to bring her yesterday. Then put my bathrobe on over the clothes, BECAUSE I CAN. And because it is warm.

Had a whinge about school again. Tried to remind myself that I just need to do the basics and pass. (Trouble is, "the basics" this semester are perhaps the highest they've ever been.) Threw up half of breakfast (stress tummy). Brushed my teeth again. Washed my face again.

Read discussion posts for school (they're unending!) and started on writing new abstracts for the research group.

12 PM: Oh. Friend is not coming over today after all. (But I got dressed!)

Tumblr is a timesuck. So is feeling sorry for myself.

Too hot with the bathrobe on.

1  PM: My wife came home at lunchtime and reheated the other piece of meat, which was essentially shoe leather. I shared a tangelo with her so we won't get scurvy. My tummy hurts. She read me a story before she had to go back to work.

Bad news about an acquaintance who's in the hospital, comatose.

2  PM: Time for a reading break with Anne's House of Dreams.

Then back to reading articles about youth and libraries. My research question will be about how library programming treats play as a facet of learning.

3  PM: Posted an abstract for a 2002 study on the library as a public space -- that stuff is fascinating.

3 brief surveys for e-Rewards.com.

Obituary in my email for a former teacher's father. I haven't been in contact with her for some time, but she and her family must be grieving.

4  PM: Reading reading reading.

I ate a glob of whole raspberries that had frozen together. It smells like dinner in here.

5  PM: Reading reading reading.

OMG my eyes hurt.

6  PM: A friend's cat (16 years old, declawed, largely defenseless) was attacked and killed by her neighbor's dog. WTF? I know we're in Mercury retrograde here, but WHY DOES ALL THIS DEATH KEEP HAPPENING?

Citing sources for the Tumblr report.

7  PM: Polished off a bowl of pot-roast-potatoes-and-carrots stew. Tasty!

Wrote more Tumblr report and had my wife read it over. Started a conclusion.

Added to the intro section and rearranged the order.

8  PM: Caught up on the Captain Awkward comments. SO many grad students balancing life and work and school and stress.

The second loaf of bread came out of the oven -- this time it had risen a bit and was a lovely golden color, and cooked all the way through. My wife can bake bread! I congratulated her, then sent her to bed for a pre-work nap.

More Tumblr -- this time incorporating stats from Pew Internet Research.

9  PM: Deciding whether to format my Tumblr report as an APA research paper. I'm never quite sure how to credit authorship on these things. I am an SJSU student, but I'm acting as an intern (which is in some ways like an employee) of Chicago Public Library. I haven't had my name on anything else, but this report is more in-depth than the previous assignments.

I posted the slide deck to Brainshark, using the description "an introduction to Tumblr microblogging, created for the YA services of Chicago Public Library by an MLIS intern at San Jose State University". That ought to cover it.

10 PM: Formatted Tumblr report. 11 pages or thereabouts. I still have a section on general social media to fill in. Think it's time to leave it for now, though, and switch to something else.

Put the now-cool leftover stew in the fridge. Refilled the cats' water dish. Found a kitty to cuddle.

Added to the challenge cards spreadsheet (it became a spreadsheet). I'll go to the library again tomorrow.

11 PM: Flipped back and forth between challenge cards and Tumblr citations for a while. Reference lists get to me; they need to happen in small chunks.

Woke up my wife so she could get ready for work. Made a nest for myself in the blankets. *thump* zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz