Category: Me

And the sun even came out for me. How nice. :)

[Update: This is my first birthday since I became a virtual presence online, and I gotta say… it’s pretty nice. I’ve gotten birthday greetings from all sorts of people who probably got prodded by Facebook. I’ve gotten IMs and emails. I feel like a virtual celebrity (pun intended, even though it’s a very, very bad one).]

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Last week and next week both qualify for that title. Last week classes started. There was no “ramping up,” there was no sense that things would get busy soon. Things just got busy. Period.

What was even more depressing was that I spent most of Wednesday simply entering things into my calendar. Meetings got scheduled, reference shifts got scheduled, students started making appointments to see me, and little by little my whole Google Calendar turned blue (my chosen “busy” color). That was one of those days when I could have used an assistant to schedule things, reschedule things, answer my email, and generally free up my time so that I could do all the things that I consider to be fundamentally part of my job, like plan the very challenging class I’m teaching on Monday, or find the answers to the in-depth questions a couple of people sent my way.

To top it all off, a couple of us (me included) spent most of Thursday and Friday redrafting the document we’ve come to call our “White Page.” This page started off as a white paper on The State of Research at Carleton, which was to be handed over to the campus’ curriculum review committee. Then the Dean of the College asked that we please condense our paper into a one-page document, hence the “White Page” moniker. I’m lucky to work with people who are willing to write collaboratively, but the process is quite laborious and by the end of each day we wandered around like zombies, completely fried by hour upon hour of collaborative writing. Friday we were so lifeless that we could hardly get up the energy to leave work. We just stood around, staring at walls, and wondering why we weren’t leaving.

Meanwhile, I didn’t get to finish planning for that class I’m teaching TOMORROW… so guess who’s spent most of her Sunday afternoon and evening at the office.

Next week promises to be much worse. We have consultants coming to do workflow analysis as part of our project to explore cooperative collection development with St. Olaf. I have classes and appointments and only 4 unscheduled hours all week. And my parents are coming to visit for my birthday. The parents-coming-to-visit thing is WONDERFUL, but I wish I didn’t have to be so busy while they were here.

It’s a good thing I’m addicted to my job. That’s all I can say.

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… And all through the library not a creature was stirring, not even a … well, I hope there aren’t any mice here to begin with.

I’ve moved out of my office for the day because it’s just too lonely to sit for another day all by my self in the row of offices by the reference room. Not a single other office there is occupied. Everyone else has plans for the day, family to be with, or parties to prepare for. So me and my laptop have moved in with the library’s technology guy and media guy so that we can be comforted by the sounds of each other’s keyboards clicking away.

Next week is going to be quite a shock to the system after the tomb-like quiet of this week. I don’t know that I’m ready for classes to start. In fact, I know I’m not ready for classes to start. But I do know that I’m ready for my co-workers to come back and keep me company.

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I’ve been tagged. Phooey. Now I have to think up 5 things….

1. I never went to school until college. Home schooling was the best gift my parents could ever have given me not only because I learned well that way, but also because I learned that each learner is different (two of my three younger siblings were absolutely designed to thrive in the regular school environment).
2. When I did go to college I promised myself I wouldn’t major in a science or English, and I wouldn’t go to graduate school. I majored in English, and I went to grad school twice. Never believe anything I say.
3. I’m a big “24” fan, though I still haven’t seen seasons 2, 3, or the first half of season 4.
4. My parents both grew up in Japan and lived there until college, though I’m only a quarter Japanese.
5. My dad and I designed an MS Access database that helps you solve the game “Clue.” (Available upon request, but remember: your family may hate you if you use this thing.

Now I’m supposed to tag people… Well, Steve, Jason, the people at Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette, Tom, and “Jane“.

p.s. As a bonus thing you don’t know about me: I’ve been developing a language of my own, off and on (mostly off, recently), for the last several years. Words from that language make great passwords for all the online apps I use. And to update the passwords, all I have to do is conjugate or decline the original word. :)

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