I feel much better this morning

I even got to work an hour early today, so I could take my time getting settled, have breakfast, etc., before starting work. Why do I feel better? Well...

1. It's sunny.
   
2. I have all my meds, including the paroxetine, Adderall, and allergy meds, which I was out of yesterday and unable to take.
   
3. My blood sugar is better today, probably because I actually remembered to take both doses yesterday of my metformin.
   
4. I had a leisurely bath this morning.
   

At least I think that's why I feel better. I also set up a sharps container at my desk and put lancets and alcohol pads in the drawers since I check my blood sugar every morning, usually at work. I keep some with the metre, which goes with me everywhere, for times when I might be feeling bad or on weekends. It feels good to take care of myself. I'm not usually that good at it; I tend to put others ahead of myself or play the martyr instead, something I'm trying to get away from.

A snippet of the types of discussions

we have on our medical library discussion list, MEDLIB-L made it onto a Detroit consortium blog you might want to check out: Library users-physical v. virtual, and does it matter?

Trivial tidbit

Late tonight, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 am, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

Nifty, hmm?? How's that for a once-a-century convergence? Thanks to C for sending me an e-mail about it.

Oooh, it's nippy

It's going down in the 30s tonight, so I definitely won't be sleeping with the window open like I did through the weekend. I went out with Cerys and the lawn is freshly mown and smelling sweet, and the little brook behind my apartment building is bubbling. The sky looks pretty clear; the stars are out.

Okay, that's all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Today wasn't so much bad, as just not great. I'm probably just being a little whigny since I didn't feel well. I don't know if it was the weather or my diabetes or just post-birthday blues, but I'm sure I'll feel better soon.

Today was just kind of weird

I felt really well in the morning; the sun was shining, it was warm, and I was beginning to think I'd overdressed for the weather. I got to work feeling fine, but over the course of the day just felt worse and worse, and perhaps not coincidentally a front came in, bringing clouds and colder weather. By the time I got off work, I felt like I was in a stupour and just wanted to crawl into bed. It may have been my blood sugar, I don't know. But I just felt icky. I walked over to Walgreens and got some prescriptions filled and some bread and toilet paper (my big package of toilet paper went with my car when it was towed back to Danville, so I needed more).

I took a bus back to Eagle Creek, managed to stop by the library and pick up a book on hold, then walked on home from there. I ate a little cheese and crackers and then went on to bed for awhile. Now I'm up again and I feel a lot better, although I'm having some allergy problems. The weather is starting to clear a bit, too, and I'm drinking some water and getting some peanut butter into my system. But I think I'm going to take Cerys out and then head back to sleep, even though I'd like to do some reading. I just don't really feel up to it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

A remarkable career

Dear Colleagues,

We are saddened to learn that Mark Hodges, director of the Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center from 1972-June, 1995, died suddenly and unexpectedly on April 2. Mark was a dedicated employee of Vanderbilt and worked to grow the medical library from a collection of around 100,000 items in 1972 to over 200,000 in 1994. He also led the introduction of early electronic technologies and improvements in services such as document delivery and outreach. He was actively involved in planning for the award winning Eskind Biomedical Library building, completed in 1994, and established a separate Special Collections department for the EBL.

Mark was also an active member of the Medical Library Association (MLA), serving as parliamentarian for 7 years and obituaries editor for the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) from 2001 to the present. Mark was awarded the MLA Fellow title in 1995. He served as the MLA's unofficial historian and had the honor of giving the association's annual Janet Doe lecture in 1997. He was also a charter member of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries (AASHL) and active member of the Southern Chapter of the MLA (SCMLA). Mark also founded the Mid-Tennessee Health Sciences Librarian Consortium and was a fellow of the United Kingdom's Library Association. He was an active contributor of reports to the Library Association's bulletin.

He is survived by his wife, Judith, and son and daughter, Thomas and Sarah. We will miss his vast knowledge of the profession, gentlemanly manner, and gracious spirit.

Regards--
Nunzia Bettinsoli Giuse, M.D., M.L.S., A.H.I.P.
Director, Eskind Biomedical Library
Professor of Biomedical Informatics
Eskind Biomedical Library

Adding to the list of things otherwise educated people do

that really bug me. Today someone wrote on one of the lists I read: 'something peaked my interest'. It should be piqued. Another wrote 'right' rather than 'write'. Nevermind the loose/lose problem or things like a professor who once said 'epi-tome' (as in a book tome) rather than 'epi-to-me' (as in rhymes with me, or hyperbole) [see my rant from a few days ago]. :)

Granted, I'm not blameless. I often have to think about whether something lays or lies, for example. But in writing I guess I expect people to get it right, and especially homonyms just screw with people's attempts to express themselves intelligently. I'm sure if I ever become emperor of the world (or in my case, more likely the handmaiden and librarian of the emperor of the world), we'll get rid of homonyms altogether.

Why do I rant here? Because I can. It's my little corner of the Internet, a tabula rasa for me to express whatever I want, and that way I don't get into the etiquette vs. truth issues of correcting someone publically. I know, it's not like someone elected me the grammar police. But, gee, can we just have a little proofreading out there?

An article on the increasing problems

libraries are having keeping access to serials due to rising costs. It was written for the Louisville Courier-Journal, and includes information from the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky, with a picture taken at one of our other consortium hospitals, Baptist Hospital East.

Libraries cut back

I'm not sure how I feel about this birthday

It was pretty much the same as any other Sunday; I went over to a friend's to prepare for the game, then played the game, then worked at the gas station for a couple of hours. It really didn't feel particularly special. Maybe I've reached an age where it just doesn't seem to matter anymore. No, that's really not true. I wanted it to be a special day, but it really wasn't. Overall, it was a little disappointing, but only because my expectations were unrealistic.

Of course, I can't really complain. I took off Friday as a special day to myself; my mom and John gave me a DVD burner and are going to help fix my car; we're celebrating at work on Thursday with pie, and I had a cheerful 'happy birthday!' on a post-it on my register tonight when I came into work. One friend had to be reminded that it was April 2nd, and from there it dawned on him and he wished me a happy birthday (and then took delight on my being 'a year' older than he (we're actually eight months apart, so come October we tie again). Another didn't forget; he just tends to give gifts on his own whims rather than because it's expected, so at some point in the future I'll get a birthday present when I least expect it. Those are the best kind. I guess in retrospect it wasn't really that bad after all.

I just got in from the gas station

My goodness, it was busy. Between the traffic on Richmond Road rerouted from I-75 causing snarls and getting a lot of people confused as to how to avoid the mess and the fact that tonight is Powerball night and the jackpot's getting pretty big, we had all sorts of people in and very little down time, including one guy that I thought we'd have to call the police over. (Hint to those of you out there: no matter how upset you are over a promotion that was discontinued four months ago that would have given you 25 gallons in free gas, don't threaten to not pay. If you don't pay, it's considered theft and if the clerk also has your licence plate number, even if you leave it means a phone call to the police, fines, and the loss of your driver's licence. Also, if you want to bitch to corporate, well, that's what they get paid for. We're happy to tell you the number. But there is only so much a clerk can do for you, no matter how much a fuss you make, and even to some extent only so much a manager can do. Personally I would have made sure I had the coupon in hand before pumping nearly $80 in gas, something that wouldn't have been possible because it was discontinued so long ago. But that's just me.)

So, I'm glad to leave that all behind me. Now for a (hopefully) relaxing night at home, away from all that.