I'm a slayer, ask me how.

On my way to/from work there is a house with a flagpole out front. It doesn’t have the American flag flying from it right now. For the past few months, it has had a white flag that reads: Trump 2020: No More Bullshit.

I don’t consider myself a prude, but it did seem kind of wrong to have “bullshit” proudly displayed on a main road where families drive by and parents might not appreciate that word being sounded out by their child in the backseat. But, whatever, it is their opinion and it is clear what side the people in that house are on when it comes time to vote. I wasn’t offended.

But then last week a flag appeared underneath the white one. This one is dark blue, with Trump’s name emblazoned with the American flag’s stars and stripes. Underneath that is the phrase: Make Liberals Cry Again.

Now that bothered me. Because now it is not expressing an opinion about the amount of bullshit happening, but saying that you should vote for Trump to hurt other people, to vote out if a sense of malice, to elect him just to cause pain.

Why? Why does that seem like an ok thing to say? I have never said that we should vote for someone to hurt another person (well I guess Republicans believe that businesses are people so if you look at it that way…)

It just really concerned me because how could you even hope to converse with someone like that. The “no more bullshit” person sounds open to a debate, you probably won’t change their mind, but it sounds like their issue is with the government and how it is run. But the “make liberals cry” person? They are cruel, mean, and clearly don’t care if they cause harm.

And how can that feel like the side you want to vote for?

Remember my post from a few weeks ago about COVID related nightmares? Well, I got to live one this week.

We had a BIG delivery of some shelving items and the only door they could fit through was our front door. It was about 11am and the delivery driver called to say he was on his way so I was standing around, hoping it was a box that could be slid through our side door. While standing outside, a patron pulled up and asked if he could get his books and I directed him to the curbside area.

The truck arrived and just by the size of the truck, I knew whatever was inside was not going to be easy to move. The driver said he was going to need the big doors.

The front doors.

I figured it was a quiet weekday and this would only take a moment, we could do this. We opened the front shutters where the doors are and then wrestled with them to knock them off their sliding tracks so he could get in to the building. While I am trying to do this, the man from the parking lot walks in and starts telling me he can't get through on the phone number listed on curbside and I had to explain he needed to TEXT it (which, you know, the other 30 people who had been by before figured out).

I moved some furniture around and was able to guide the delivery into the children's area and the sign the paperwork.

And what do I see when I turn around? Some old dude at the desk, NO MASK, trying to talk to staff. I heard my staff trying to explain to him about curbside and he started to leave the branch, but then stopped in the lobby and started BROWSING FLIERS! I finally just shouted "SIR, WE ARE CLOSED" and he asked "Well, I can I look at these?" and I said "The building is closed, I had to open the doors for a delivery, we will see you in July."

ARGH! I pretty much stomped around for the rest of the day because I was so annoyed that this person did EXACTLY what I was worried people would do. Which makes me wonder if all the OTHER things I am worried about will happen.

But I think that was the most stressful day so far and it was really only about 30 minutes so yeah, could be a lot worse.

Well, if this whole pandemic has taught (or retaught?) me anything, it is that I am a creature of habit to the nth degree.

There was a reason that I had perfect attendance all through elementary, middle and high school. There was a reason I never get any better at my instrument.
There was a reason I went to every single class, lecture and lab in college.

If I’m not in a work environment, I am awful at doing work.

I am the kind of person that keeps their home life and work life as separate as I can. I mean, yes, most of my friends are from work, but I never bring work home with me and I rarely let it bleed into my every day life. I’m lucky like that, it is what attracted me to my job. I work 9-5 (and once a week 1-9) and then I am done. When I go on vacation, I will look at my work email and scan it for any emergencies (now that I’m a manager) but my staff knows to text me if there is something urgent because otherwise I am not working when I’m off.

So being at home and trying to work from home has been a challenge. Especially since when the library first shut down, we were just stuck in a holding pattern, with very little we needed to do apart from updating the signage when our closing dates were extended. And now that the date is finally feeling tangible, I’m starting to panic? Because I know there are things I need to do and get done and suddenly it feels like I need to get everything done right now even though I have a month but the way April flew by, a month seems like nothing.

When I’m at work, I am more self-motivated but apparently at home, I have little to no motivation because I have programmed myself to feel like being at home means time to relax. And I really don’t want to throw that off?

I may attempt to create some kind of schedule for next week, force myself to get up, do work. Because here is the thing, I think I am most productive from 9am-11am when I’m at work but when I am at home and have nowhere to be, I naturally sleep until 10:30am so therefore, though I feel well rested, I have missed my productive hours and tend to not want to do anything. (normal workday usually has me in my office from 9-1, eating lunch from 1-2, and then usually working on the desk or mingling with staff from 2-5 so you can see how my internal clock is set up already).

Anyway, how are you all holding up? Hope you’ve had better luck finding your work-from-home groove. Or, at the very least, reading this post makes you feel less alone in your struggle. ❤

I leave you with the tweet that inspired this introspective post:

pic.twitter.com/6IkDgzYkYj

— David Tomlinson (@EvilSoupdragon) May 2, 2020

Just found out my library system will keep buildings closed until at least May 4th. This isn't really a surprise, but it is still scary/sad. Maryland has been doing its best to keep this under control, Gov Hogan is one of the few Republicans to ignore Trump and I am sure, in the end, his actions will save a lot of lives in this state. I just wish everyone was taking this thing seriously and following suit rather than it being so random all over, which means the virus will continue to spread.

Anyway, I feel like I need to get some kind of routine into my day if this is going to be my life for the next month. I didn't realize how much work kept me sane? Like, just having that routine of wake up, go to work, see people, do things...I guess I'm not great at doing stuff that doesn't have a due date so my house is just a thing that is here. But for my own mental health, I gotta do something!

Tomorrow, Dicebreaker is doing a live stream at 3pm GMT (so 11am here) and I'm going to set alarm to wake up, take a shower, get breakfast and then settle in front of the TV for that. I know that sounds kind of lame, but I feel like it is a start because right now it's like wake up whenever, do whatever, sleep whenever and that can't be healthy. We do have online work meetings twice a week though so those days will be good for getting going earlier too.

It is raining today so no afternoon walk, boo! I am going to mail off my cut up t-shirts to Project Repat (which my Mom bought for a Christmas present) and spin by the branch to make sure the place hasn't collapsed.

And now, to shower!

February was a pretty good month. :)

I just really hope nothing stupid happens in Virginia today....well, stupider than what is already happening.

These people can hug their guns close all they want, but they better not point them at anyone.

I'm so scared that something awful is going to happen today...

Anyone else have the "holiday hangover" this week at work? I mean, having to work 5 whole days in a row? Why do we do this to ourselves?

And for some brilliant reason, we thought "Oh, that's the week after the holiday, we should start programming again!" but, of course, none of us had been around to plan programs because of the holiday falling in the middle of the week and just throwing us all off so this was a week of going into work and thinking "OMG WTF I AGREED TO DO THAT??!"

We all survived but I need to make a note somewhere to not let us do that again next year.

The weekend was a bit of a blur. Let's just say, Tim reminded me there was still eggnog in the fridge that needed to be drunk and you can't drink eggnog without a shot of something in it, so we mixed in some rum and that was Saturday.

Booked the halfway hotel for our drive down to Florida. It's on Florence, South Carolina. Got a really good deal booking it online and I sold my soul to become a "rewards member" so they gave me an extra 10% off. It is literally 6 hours and 40 minutes from Maryland to there and then 6 hours and 40 minutes to Orlando. I mean, THE MIDDLE. I'm feeling pretty good about it, TripAdvisor had high marks. Also, free breakfast.

The excitement for this week is that Tim will be getting his wisdom teeth out on Wednesday! They are erupted, he just has cavities and the dentist said, at this point, it just made sense to pull them out rather than worry about putting in fillings and maintaining that. So I will be off to drive him around and then find him soft foods once the oral surgeon tells us what he can and cannot eat.

But first, I have to face Monday (meeting with a headquarters person to talk about construction projects for my library) and then Tuesday (going to the high school for a meeting and then staff party yay!)

TTFN

So, I just booked a vacation for my family to Universal Studios.

Like, Tim and myself plus my parents, who both retired in June.

I'm realizing this will be the most non-stop time I have spent with my parents since I moved out of the house in the early 2000s. This is going to be an experience.

We're going to drive down, split that over two days because that many hours in the car is too many with 4 adults. Plus, there's lots of cute little towns to stop in from here to Orlando.

So, yeah two days down, two days in the park and two days back. End of January so that the park should be empty.

But it's Harry Potter land! It's hard not to have fun there. My parents haven't been to Universal Studios since 1995, I think, so lots of new stuff for them. And even in the few years since my last trip, they've added at least 3 rides - King Kong, Jimmy Fallon and the new Hagrid roller coaster.

Something to look forward to when it gets dark and cold over the next few months. And when I'm sitting in Wisconsin on Christmas.

PAX East tickets AND Star Wars movie tickets go on sale this week also. Somehow all of the exciting things are Dec/Jan/Feb for me in 2020! Talk about peaking early!

Oh, and BONUS: we had to get a new hot water heater this weekend LOL. TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

We are heading out to Wisconsin for the annual summer trip to visit Tim's family.

For those of you that have been friends with me awhile, you know what that means.

For those of you that are new, just a heads up that Tim's parents are very much anti-everything I am, politically. I will be hiding on here, possibly venting, to avoid exploding around them.

At least it is summer time and the weather should be nice so I can just go walkabout if I need to escape. Last time we went and it was "spring" so going outside would have made me look like a crazy person.

Anyhoo, I probably won't be commenting as much because typing on my iPhone and iPad isn't as easy as a keyboard. But I will be lurking when I need to escape.

Side note: I am trying to find a laptop though I keep missing all the deals! I want one that is not too expensive but just powerful enough to play some simple games, like Stardew Valley and what not. Mostly for work but I want it for fun things too, like trips like this, so I can get online and blog.

Wish me luck! Feel free to follow me on Twitter or Insta (same name).

First day was a success! Thank you to everyone who left me positive vibes in the last entry.

It was weird, driving in today, I felt...good. Confident. Like, fuck yeah, I did this, I'm ready for this!

Not cocky, I know I don't know a LOT but I feel like I know I can do this. It was a good feeling.

I got to work and the staff had already prepared my office:

( Read more... )