A Day in the Life: Wednesday

This week I am cataloging my daily activity for Hack Library School's "Library Student Day in the Life" project (#HLSDITL). You can read others' posts -- and see pictures and videos -- here. Maybe you want to write your own!

WEDNESDAY

7  AM: Hit snooze until 7:30. Checked email and Facebook, posted yesterday's HSLDITL link to the wiki. Listed mentally some of the necessary steps of today: talk to boss, blog about internship (it's an assignment), make actual to-do list. Skimmed 13 posts in Google Reader. Mulled over my level of shame and embarrassment at showing weakness. Oh, look, it's 7:47.

8  AM: All of the buses seemed to be further away than usual. Walked to a different stop and waited an extra 5+ minutes, which meant I got to work just a hair after 9. I'm reading Anne of the Island now, and I was amused to find, on page 12, Anne's fears about attending a college of higher education: "Mrs. Peter Sloane sighed and said she hoped my strength would hold out till I got through; and at once I saw myself a hopeless victim of nervous prostration at the end of my third year."

9  AM: No support cases of mine were reopened/responded to overnight! That rarely happens. It made my beginning-of-the-day workflow shorter than usual.

I met with team leads and received basic training in two tools that they use every day, but that I was entirely unfamiliar with. One deals with fraud issues I know how to handle; the other was mostly new material about handling governance proactively (rather than responding to appeals).

10 AM: Finished up training at 10:30 (whew, that was a lot of new stuff!) and met briefly with my boss.  [insert confidential details] She approved me for up to 5 days of leave and asked me to check in with HR to confirm. I am deeply appreciative.

11 AM: Back at my desk with tea. It felt good to have something warm to drink. Looked through the new unfamiliar tool to try out some of its functions. I handled a few cases with no discernible explosions. Next week I will be documenting the use of the tool for our internal records.

This ALA article about one of my favorite children's books popped up in my feed. Hooray for overturning book challenges!

I notified the HR Benefits person that I'd be taking leave, and she arranged/approved the "paperwork" in our timecard software.

I went through my personal queue and assigned the handful of cases awaiting more customer info to the general team queue. They may respond today or never, but that means they won't be sitting unseen in my queue while I am away.

12 PM: Lunchtime. Wednesday lunches are catered at the office. This week, we were served banh mi -- easy to grab a sandwich and go, which is what I did. It probably had soy. I don't care.

Texted my wife about the schedule change and came home. There is a meatloaf thawing on the counter. I guess I'll start that before she gets home from work.

1  PM: Called my parents' house and got the machine. When I tried my dad's cell, it turns out they were up here at my grandmother's house, and out to lunch. There's a lot of work to do about her estate (which is one reason I was calling, to see what plans had been made and where I was needed), and they are also moving out of their house, which was just sold. For a few weeks until the purchase of their new place closes, they'll be staying at my grandmother's house in the city.

I caught up on Google Reader and a little more Anne of the Island.

2  PM: My dad called back and I spoke with him and my mom and we filled each other in on recent developments.

My wife swung by on her lunch break and took the trash out (w00t!). I popped a couple of ginger chews to settle my stomach. (Stress nauseates me. Bad weeks at work feel like the first trimester of pregnancy... or so I imagine.) These ginger gumdrops are ADORABLE, but they're harder to find than these from the same manufacturer, which I found at Trader Joe's.

Updated this blog post.

3-5  PM: Watched Princess Diaries 2 (the disc played much better than the first movie), interspersed with TedTalks. Took a nap. Tried very hard not to feel guilty.
 
6  PM: Woke up from nap. Popped the meatloaf in the oven. Resumed facing the music. (That is, emailed 2 professors and 2 group members with my apologies and plans to get back on track this week/end.)

7  PM: Wrote my Week 7 internship blog post. I have to say, I am proud of that slide deck.

8  PM: Mmmmmmeatloaf. My wife does this sweet-smoky ketchup that's kinda-retro, kinda-trashy, definitely comfort food. We also had some of the broccoli from the produce box and baked potatoes.

Got a little lost in Tumblr cats and their (lack of) shame. Checked email. Read HSLDITL posts from other bloggers. They're on topic. And shorter than mine. But tough to read without bullet points and/or subject headings.

9  PM: Read some more of Anne of the Island and then read discussion posts for school. (For all y'all attending class on campus, this is our virtual form of in-class discussion, plus some assignment presentation.)

10 PM: Made a list of all the school stuff that needs doing. The most urgent stuff is the hardest. Damn.

Took a survey about groceries and earned $1.50.

More discussion posts. Read assigned articles on Yahoo!'s policy change on working from home.

Some Yahoo! remote staff may not be ready for reintegration.

11 PM: Surfed Netflix for background before acknowledging that I am too tired to do more homework.