BACK TO WORK

Vacation is over and it's back to work.  Jerry (the branch head) was on vacation today.  And surprise -- Sheila (the children's librarian) called in sick.  Oops!  So that made me in charge.  I called the extensions division and told them we had no librarian.  I talked to the Area Administrator (my boss' boss) and she said we could close and go somewhere else, or we could stay open and I could be librarian for the day (an out of class job with more pay).  I asked the other library assistants and the guard what they wanted to do and they all said stay and open.  Can you tell we all hate going to other branches?  So I said we would open and I would be the librarian.

Guess what -- I loved it.  This is what I really wanted to do, what I went to college for.  I just never got the chance.  *Sigh*  

I got a call later on that a librarian from the Rodriguez Branch could come for the afternoon (1-5).   She did.  Her name is Liz and she has been with the library for 4 months.  But it was so good having her there to help out.  When I got in this morning there was literally 24 inches of paperwork on my desk waiting for my attention.  By not having to sit at the librarian's desk all day I was able to whittle most of it down.  It is now a manageable level that I can finish up tomorrow.

When we were leaving tonight Walt, the guard, said it was a good day.  I said that I am a calm person and if you don't overreact to everything (the way some of my co-workers do), people don't overreact to you.  Diane told me it was very lonely without me last week and that I was the heart of the library.  How nice!

I'm going to go get dinner ready.  Joe was feeling better today and actually went food shopping while I was getting ready for work this morning.  So I am having baked chicken thighs with the new hickory smoke barbeque sauce I got in Lancaster last week, corn on the cob and the rest of the green beans I got in New Jersey on Saturday.  Yum.