Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Saturday, June 04, 2011

If all else fails, and you're just too tired to blog

go on to bed at 8:30 and wake up at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night and do so. :) Really.

The last few days have been really long for me. Wednesday is kind of a blur. I did some errands that went a little long before work, then got pizza because I couldn't get money out of my account for lunch, and that was a big mistake. I ate on it all day, but for dinner I forgot to take my Novolog, and by the end of the night my blood sugar was over 400. Needless to say, I went ahead and took the insulin then. I have decided that it is impossible for me to do well with pizza, unless it's sold by the slice and I can eat it in moderation. To keep ordering it expecting different results would meet the definition of insanity. :( Considering how much I like pizza, this is a bummer, but I largely cut out ice cream, my main food nemesis, eating it only on rare occasions and not keeping it in the house.

Thursday I went in to work at about 8:45 because I'd come in a little later the day before, and since I was up I went in a little earlier to account for any time the bus might be late, although now with the new schedule, that doesn't happen as a general rule, since I get off the bus about five minutes till my shift starts. I was actually there early enough to eat breakfast at the cafeteria, something relatively nutritious such as scrambled eggs and a (small) biscuit.

The IT department was able to fix a couple of extremely small yet annoying things on my computer for me that morning. One was that all my tasks in Outlook doubled. Another was there was a notification of a problem with a USB cable that came up every five seconds. I discovered that I am much clearer in the morning, when I can wake up. This was pretty decent considering the night before I'd had double vision and felt awful. But work went really well.

Thursday night I finished the job search for a friend that I do every week (the search had aborted due to high blood sugar the night before, because I couldn't see straight). I promised to look into something that came up. Then I went on to bed, because all that energy in the morning had evaporated some time ago.

This morning, I got up early and went to Central Baptist Hospital. There was a meeting of the Kentucky Medical Library Association there at 10:30. I'd misread the agenda to mean I needed to be there by 10 (I supposed I got into my head that was when I should be there because that's when I normally start work.) Anyway, I took an earlier bus to make sure I'd get there on time, so since I was there by 9:30, I decided to eat breakfast (Total cereal and 2% milk, if you're interested). I then went to the gift shop, which was probably a mistake. I found a little wrist wallet that has room for my essential cards, cash, and my cell phone, something I can take with me to the lunchroom rather than my giant satchel of doom.

The meeting was one of the best concocted things the librarians at Central Baptist have ever put on--and they're good. We came into the auditorium and they had soothing ocean scenes playing. Two massage therapists were giving hand massages. When it was my turn, the guy gave me a lovely massage, especially working on the forearm, which was pulling my hands and keeping them stiff. He gave me some pointers for self-care. I took their brochure and card because I really liked their style and their business is near me. They are called Healing Hands Therapeutic Massage and are located in Patchen Drive. Their rates seem reasonable. I've never had anything beyond a chair or hand massage such as at one of these sorts of events, and with my various areas of myofascial pain, I'm thinking of going. I picked up a card for YKWIA, too.

Then we had a representative from EBSCO give a presentation on their new interface that will be launched for ebooks in July, which was very informative. Then one of the massage therapists got up and gave us tips for self-care to help since we have jobs where we sit for long periods. He gave us a small bouncy ball (one you might get out of a gumball machine) and encouraged us to use it for stress relief on the hands and feet.

We had a wonderful meal of fettuccine (with grilled chicken on the side for those who eat that sort of thing--Lonnie at CBH is pretty much like me, and chooses not to eat meat, so he's very conscious of that when planning menus). We had steamed vegetables and rolls, a salad, and there were several desserts. (I did have a bit of carrot cake, I'll admit.) Everything was delicious.

Then we went into our main business meeting. They were looking for an appointee to represent us with the Greater Midwest Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine on their Regional Advisory Council. I was very intrigued by the opportunity and offered to do it. It's a long term commitment, running several years, but one of the perks is they pay your travel to come to a meeting in Chicago each year to work on various issues, so there's no need to try to get travel built into an institutional budget, etc. or outlay a lot yourself. Of course, it does mean flying, but it's a short trip that I've done before. But although I've been to Chicago's airport, I've never been in the city, so I'm excited. And I'm already interested in one of the areas the RAC works one. I have a counterpart in Chicago from our system who will be thrilled that after all these years of corresponding we might actually get to meet.

After the meeting, I came back to the hospital (that's four hospitals I'd been near today, two I'd been in), got in about four, and worked on data entry until it was time to go home. I was shocked to learn that one of my co-workers had died. That's the third person to have passed in the 14 years I've been there. It's so odd to think that the person you see in the hallway one day will be gone forever the next. I didn't know him well, but he was a fixture, having been there a long time. I'm keeping good thoughts for his family.

After work, I came home and did some downloading to my phone (I had to move some things to the memory card because I've already used the phone's storage) :) and to the Kindle, did the investigating and called a friend briefly to let him know my results. I started to watch TV but couldn't bring myself to spend $6 on a new movie (I probably will watch it, but just not tonight) and went on to bed, waking up at 2:30 this morning.

So it's been an eventful few days. Tomorrow and Sunday are pretty full, too. Tomorrow I have to get my rent in, get some quarters, pay a fine at the library (I'm going to stop trying to watch an entire season of the British 'Being Human' until they make it a free 7-day loan), pick up some medicine, get something from the grocery for a friend, go over there, help with a few things, and try to get back in time for Doctor Who, although realistically speaking I'll just make sure it's ready to record. :) Oh, and I still have game notes to do, although really, that should only take an hour or so. It was mostly getting the folks who'd been trapped in Yog Suthoth home and properly taken care of and caught up. Then Sunday is the game prep and game itself. Next week there are no major things planned, so hopefully I'll get some blogging of the news, etc. in.

Sorry this post was so long, but hopefully I've caught up. I think I'll go back to bed and get up early and start all the various things I need to do tomorrow. I don't think the pharmacy opens till 8 and the bank isn't open till 9, at least for getting change. (They won't send quarters through the pneumatic tube. They're no fun. When I was a kid there was a store in Danville called the Hub. They had a centralised cashier who sent all the money to the various service desks through a smaller pneumatic tube than you see in a bank. I loved that. Sadly, the Hub is no longer a fixture in downtown Danville (although the people behind their demise were shunned by the town for years afterward, it was so beloved). But the building survived. Now it is a bookstore/cafe for Centre College.

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