A little sad tonight...

On this day seventy years ago, my mother was born. I so wish she were still with us. Happy birthday, Momma.

Well...

Feeling a little bummed about the phone interview today, which I think I really did badly on. I can do the work, I look great on paper, but interviews of any sort - especially by committee - make me very nervous, I tank, and I just sound like a babbling idiot. I finally got a phone interview with UK for a job I really want and most everyone who knows me seems to think I would be great at it - especially nurses, the main patron of this position - and I really think I blew it. But I guess it's best to consider it practice and analyse what I did badly and how I could have done better, for next time. I will eventually convince someone to hire me and let me show them what I can do. And who knows, maybe they'll give me that chance despite it all. After all, I came out of my interview with the Shriners folks convinced I'd done badly, they hired me, and I worked there as a librarian for twenty years. :)

Tomorrow I pack

Well, begin packing, anyway. It's going to take awhile. I went by U-Haul and got a bundle of 25 boxes (for 73 cents each!) and some box tape. The plan is to begin in the living room, to pack the books that I want to keep, and then I'll be able to pack up the ones to be donated after that, in different types of boxes for now. The U-Haul boxes will be uniform and easier to store. I may eventually need to get some for the donated ones, but for now, I'm going to focus on what to keep, so I can start taking them over to the storage unit. The art will all go, too, although there's one triptych with two of the paintings that are too big for my car, I believe, so they may have to go last. And then there's YKWIA's self-portrait, which is on a larger canvas. But I think all the others will fit in my car. Then there are furniture/major items.

To keep:

• The kitchen island
• The microwave stand
• All of the bookshelves that come apart and fold up
• The bookshelf with glass doors
• The bookshelf that matches my computer desk
• The bookshelf my dad built
• The computer desk and maybe the printer stand, if I still have the triangular piece that goes with them, along with the desk's hutch
• The steamer trunk
• My aquarium
• The table (which comes apart)
• The curio cabinet
• The CD/DVD stand
• The boards and blocks the plants usually stand on
• The queen mattress and box springs
• Ma Craig's hourglass table (it has sand and works)

Not going:

• The cherry end tables
• The loveseat, which was 'found' by the Dumpster fourteen years ago, so it gave its all
• The entertainment center
• The tall Sauder bookshelf
• The short pressboard bookshelf
• The bed [it has a broken cross rail that cannot be repaired, after 30 years of service]

Maybe keep/maybe go:

• The dresser
• The two chest-of-drawers
• Two occasional tables
• The two steel shelving units in the closet
• The table I'm using as a TV stand [Brenda might be able to use it as a potting stand]

Taking with me to the house:

• The laptop and accessories
• My printer
• My floor speaker that is Bluetooth
• (Perhaps) one folding bookcase
• Two bins, one for clean clothes, one for dirty ones, to go in the closet
• Two small trash cans, one for trash, one for recyclables
• (Maybe) the TV and DVD player
• The plants!

I'm going to see if Brenda can take the fish. If not, maybe I can get Animal House or another pet store to take them. There are three pretty goldfish and a Chinese algae eater. Of course, some small things will go, like some clothes, my CPAP, etc. But most of the small things will either go to storage or Goodwill. That's all I can think of at the moment, anyway. But tomorrow starts all the decisions of what to keep and what to purge.

Well, I am the proud renter of

a storage unit. I went with Space Center Storage over on Stone Road. I tried first over on Richmond Plaza, which is closer to my current apartment, but they showed me the 10'x10' unit and it simply wouldn't be big enough, but the 10'x15' would be, and they didn't have any climate-controlled ones available. Because the items I need to store include books, art, and furniture, it's important for the temperature and humidity to be controlled. I set it up so the monthly rental fee and insurance (required) come directly off my debit card, in case something happens and I might otherwise miss that date. I also got a heavy-duty lock from them. I almost got some boxes but decided to check out U-Haul and they have them much cheaper. I'm going to go over there in a little while and get some boxes and tape. Needless to say, those were on the list from last week, which got interrupted by appendicitis. So if I take what I had left, let's see what else there is [with a couple additions]. I'd like to complete all of this by tomorrow evening:

1. Tour and rent a storage area for the move.
2. Obtain or at least line up some boxes.
3. Work on reducing/weeding books.
4. Take out the trash and recyclables.
5. Do some cleaning.
6. Do some job hunting.
7. Write up my notice for my apartment manager in preparation for the move, to be given on Sunday.
8. Pay my COBRA bill so it's in time for August.
9. Create a timeline/Gantt chart for the move.
10. Finalise my list of what from each room will go to the house, and what will go into storage.
11. Research movers, as neither my friends nor I, can handle the big stuff.
12. Find a missing book from the library that is camouflaged among mine.
13. Do laundry.

I did get a little rest, too, sleeping later than I planned today and taking a short nap later after coming back from the storage place. I haven't slept much this past week, we had an incredibly busy week (over 100 in clinic each day except Friday, and over 200 on the schedule for Wednesday). Next week is slower (yay!) and I'm off Friday for the delivery of the furniture over at YKWIA's. On Monday I have a phone interview from the University of Kentucky Medical Library for the nurse liaison librarian position I applied for in the spring. :) My boss is aware, and I'm going to have them call me on my lunch break.

Okay, I'd better pay my COBRA now (so there's time before the end of the month for it to credit), it was the main reason for getting onto the computer this afternoon, although I did want to blog, too. Then I'm going to go get those boxes and do some work on the apartment before running over to a friend's house to help him feed the animals and check on him since bending is not an option for him still. Have a good weekend!

This is cool

To see a total eclipse, I'd have to travel 109 miles southwest. I'd love to, I've known about this for years, but I'll probably be at work. But it will be almost total, almost 95%. Put your zip code in at the handy link and you can find out how much you'll see.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/7/25/16019892/solar-eclipse-2017-interactive-map

So...

I've been so busy taking care of various things that this evening I found an email from yesterday afternoon offering to do a phone interview for a job I applied for this spring with the university that is a medical librarian position working to meet the needs of their nurses. I replied this evening to express my interest and arrange a time.  Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

I should not have made such a lengthy to-do list

I was at the furniture store Saturday morning and as I was wrapping up the daybed purchase, I got a call from a friend, and I knew immediately something was wrong. He'd been having some pain the day before, and we thought it might be gas. But it had gotten worse. So I hurried over and called our family doctor, who advised going to the emergency room. That was very good advice, as he wound up having emergency surgery. With the exception of stopping by my apartment for a few necessities and a couple of showers, I have been over at his house or running errands for him to make him more comfortable for most of the weekend. Since this is the friend with whom I'm moving in, I guess you could say we had a trial run for living together. I hadn't originally planned to stay last night, so I slept in my jeans and a shirt, just taking off my belt and bra. At one point I woke up and I was halfway off the bed, as the dog had kicked me over, and my jeans were twisted so that the fly was on my right hip. Needless to say, I pushed the dog back and made sure I kept my ground from then on.

I'd set my alarm for 5 am to give me plenty of time to go home, shower, and get ready, but woke up at 4:30 to help him. I went ahead and fed the animals, as he can't really bend at the moment, got my stuff together, went home, got ready, dropped off some books that needed to go back to the library, and went to work almost an hour early. So now I'm sitting in the break room having a little alone time and catching up with news, etc. It's going to be a very busy week--four days of over 100 patients in clinic, with Wednesday having over 200! After work today I'm going to go check on him.

Okay, it's almost time to go upstairs and start my day. Hope you had a good weekend!

Things to do tomorrow

1. Weigh myself (I haven't in a while) -- Yay, I've lost 10 lbs!
2. Reconcile my finances. (It would have been nice to have been paid on Friday like I should have been, but it'll be Monday instead.)
3. Get supplements for a friend at Costco, who will pay me back.
4. Visit a furniture store to get a daybed for the move.
5. Tour and rent a storage area for the move.
6. Go to the library and return some books.
7. Obtain or at least line up some boxes.
8. Work on reducing/weeding books.
9. Take out the trash and recyclables.
10. Do some cleaning.
11. Run by the grocery and get mayonnaise for a friend and denture cleanser for me.
12. Plant mint and ivy at a friend's house.
13. Do the game notes.
14. Do some job hunting.
15. Write up my notice for my apartment manager in preparation for the move, to be given on Sunday.
16. Pay my COBRA bill so it's in time for August.
17. Create a timeline/Gantt chart for the move.
18. Finalise my list of what from each room will go to the house, and what will go into storage.
19. Research movers, as neither my friends nor I, can handle the big stuff.

That's enough, don't you think?

Worry tends to eat at you if you let it

I'm not sure it's a good sign that it's the middle of a Friday night and instead of sleeping, I'm mentally composing a tactful response to a work email string. I have also been scheduling at night in my dreams. I've never had so much trouble walking away from work and not worrying about things on my own time. I've always kept work, health, and personal life fairly balanced, and I'm having trouble now. I must find a way to bring it all into harmony again.

RIP Chester Bennington

You probably wouldn't think it by looking at me, a middle-aged librarian without a single tattoo and only one simple piercing in each ear, but I like Linkin Park a lot, something any of you who have read this blog for awhile probably know, though. I don't care so much for the screaming songs, but I do like the ones that blend Chester Bennington's and Mike Shinoda's vocals, particularly. I have several of their albums (my favourite is A Thousand Suns). The following just feature Chester Bennington, which maybe is fitting, given their subject matter and the fact that he was found this morning, having apparently committed suicide by hanging. His friend Chris Cornell had recently died, also believed to be a suicide, and he was found on what would have been his friend's birthday. Requiescat in pace.

So sad.