Sometimes you just have to give in to your feelings. Right now, I am stewing in some anger.

I am angry about the Delta variant. I am angry that our indoor mask mandate had to come back. I am angry that I now have to get my almost two-year old to wear a mask at daycare. I am angry that vaccination rates are not higher.  I am angry that my University is making plans to open - in-person - for the fall semester but will probably have to promptly return to online classes.

I'm angry that this has been going on for over a year. OVER. A. YEAR.

I'm also angry that, aside from promoting vaccinations and wearing a mask, there is literally nothing I can do to help fix this. 

So, I am going just to sit here for a little bit and stew in my anger. I'm going crankily eat goldfish crackers and vent when I read stories about case rates. I'm going to fume and I'm going to be happy that I can just let myself feel my feelings.

What are you feeling right now?

I had no meetings this week. I thought that would be awesome, but it turns out that it made the week feel oddly slow. Also, I miss talking to people who are not my husband or kiddo.

Here's what I looked up this week.

• Vault Penalties - As we were watching women's gymnastics, I was curious what the penalties and deductions were on the apparatus.
• Traffic Calming - There is debate in our neighborhood about reopening a service lane that has been closed during the pandemic. I wanted to bring some facts to an argument about how streetscape design (humps, bumps, tables, and greenery) can slow down cars. 
• Tunisia at the Olympics - When a Tunisian swimmer won gold, I was curious about the country's history at the games.

I'm sitting at the living room desk right now. It's weird. The Husband and I used to swap every month but, since I don't mind the smaller desk in the bedroom we both set up permanent shop. He needed a room with a door today, so we swapped. Now all my monitors are backwards, I'm working with a different keyboard and mouse, and the AC unit runs more often. None of this is bad - it just feels weird after being in the same space for so long.

​Plus, the office chair is taller and my feet don't touch the floor. The perils of being on the shorter side.

Here's what else has my attention.

WORK

• I made the first round of suggested edits on the University customer service initiative proposal. I'm going to see if a few more come in before I give it one final go over before submission to the faculty committee.
• In preparation for the fall semester, I am reviewing and editing all the existing content in our Library 101 course. It's a good thing I am doing this as I have already fixed several broken links and grammatical errors. Following the review, I will add some new content.
• Still reviewing the recorded sessions from the Northest OER Summit.
• I will be presenting at an IN-PERSON (!) conference in October. I created and submitted my travel forms. Fingers crossed everything goes through AND the conference decides to remain in-person. I've never been to Monterey, California.
• Doing a lot of learning, testing, and tweaking of CSS and HTML to get our new website to look just how I want. It's painstakingly slow but I think the results will be more than worth the effort. Our current website is in need of an overhaul and this project is going to result in just that. The last time I did this much hand coding was when I had a few Geocities webpages in middle and high school.
• Putting together slides and a script for OER video to share at our all faculty professional development.

PERSONAL

• Debated some fabric swatches and ordered a pull-out couch for our kiddos room. Once it's safe again (thanks, Delta) we'll be able to host overnight guests... when the couch arrives... some time in October... if the production chains hold...
• Cleaned up, weeded, and merged my Trello boards. It's easier to find things now and I was able to evaluate projects and set priorities.
• We started the process of putting together all the legal documents we should have now that we're parents. This has been on my mental list for far too long and I am excited to get the ball rolling.
• Tweaked my LinkedIn page. It's better now?
• Started watching the YouTube videos on the Career Contessa page. I like professional/personal development stuff like this. There's a nice crossover with my work and personal lives.

The Sunfire King
Sylvia Mercedes

This is the sequel to The Moonfire Bride. I am pleased that I decided to purchase both titles at once because the first book ended on a cliffhanger and I didn’t have to wait. These are delightful, high fantasy YA novels. Perfect for summer reading.

A Thief Among the Trees
Sabaa Tahir

This title is a standalone graphic novel based in the world of Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series. The art is beautiful - rich in color and dynamic action. The story only makes sense if you’ve read at least the first book in the series. Definitely recommend the series if you like YA and fantasy.

A few months after we moved in to our condo, I suggested to the board that we create a central community library. People liked the idea. We now have a bookcase that operates on the Little Free Library principle that people can take and leave reading material as they wish.

Since this was my suggestion, I volunteered to manage the library. Once a week, I neaten the books, weed worn books, pull titles that have been sitting around for too long, and clear out back issues of magazines. (Readers of The New Yorker and National Geographic seem unable to recycle old issues. They always appear in massive piles.)

I knew I would love our community library, but the love is different than expected. I thought I would love having access to new books. Instead, what I love is encountering the small, everyday reading my neighbors are enjoying. Each week, there are new issues focusing on current events, home decor, travel, retirement, health, and crafting. Sure tons of popular magazines, like TIME, Newsweek, and Good Housekeeping show up, but I also see titles like Texas Wildlife, Family Handyman, and Art in America.

There must be a British ex-pat in residence because I discovered a new to me title, The Simple Things, that comes out of the UK. It's a magazine that rejoices in slowing down, being mindful, and enjoying life's small pleasures. It's a delightfully cozy read and I am always excited when a new issue shows up in the pile.

What everyday reading to you enjoy?

*Googles* "How long will this glorious weather last?"

*Answer* You live in DC and it's July.

*sigh*

Here's what else I looked up this week:
​

• Montgomery Bus Boycott: We were watching an episode of Doctor Who and the text crawl on the opening screen sent me searching.
• The Ton: I knew it was French but I needed to recall what it meant in the context of Bridgerton. 
• London Season: I'm surprised, after how many romance novels I've read, that I've never searched for the exact time frame of the London season. It ran from late January to early July.
• Irish at Heart: I was gifted three months of this subscription box and was curious what might be headed my way.

After giving myself an extra long weekend, I'm back at work. Should have given myself one more day off...

Here's what currently has my attention.

WORK

• I'm working on the backend, style coding for our website overhaul. It's not going well. I'm trying to integrate parts of our current website's coding but it's not always labeled. It's a lot of cutting and pasting, testing, and deleting. I'll eventually get it, but it's rather aggravating at the moment. Just do what I want already!
• I finished my part of the resource guides and gave everything an edit. Now it's just developing the material to market and share them to our faculty.
• For my webinar watching, I've moved on to recordings from the Northeast OER Summit.
• I submitted a proposal to speak at the 2021 Library Marketing and Communications Conference.

PERSONAL

• Did a little pampering for my birthday. Got a haircut and a pedicure... and had someone else clean our home. It was a nice break.
• Whilst cleaning some digital files, I found a database of books that I read prior to my blog tracking. I'm cleaning it up so that I can add it to the Reading List as undated entries. It's going to take a while, but I am enjoying the walk down memory lane. So many missing romance novels and college course books!
• I spent some time managing my Evernote. I formatted new notes, deleted some stuff I don't need, and went on a tagging spree for recipes we've made.

I'll be heading back to the office soon. Probably time to get back on the lunch meal prep train.

My birthday is in a few days. When it comes to gifts, I prefer food and/or services over things.

This year, I asked to have someone else clean our home. After over a year of doing it ourselves, I wanted a month where everything got cleaned by someone who is not me. So, on Tuesday, we have a team coming in. I am more excited about that than I am about the vacation days I'm using this week.

We hired this team once (right after our kiddo was born) and they cleaned things I didn't know were included - our oven, the light fixtures, under the carpets. If they could reach it, it got cleaned. I had never seen our place look so amazing. The results lasted over a month. It was wonderful not having to worry about cleaning when we had a new baby.

This cleaning team is only part of my gift this year. A few days ago, we had another crew come in and do the windows - inside and out. Since we live on an upper floor, cleaning the outside is not the easiest thing. Our windows do all that flippy-opening stuff that helps, but it's still hard to clean the outsides. We did it ourselves last year and our five (large) windows took nearly two hours. There were still streaks and smears on the outside that we couldn't get off. This crew did the same task (panes, gutters, sills, and all) in 15 minutes and the windows sparkle. I mean sparkle. I'm actually terrified birds might fly into them.

What is one chore you'd prefer to pay someone else to do?

I was in a meeting this week where we ended up discussing "learning how to learn." It's a meta-topic but so very important. I'm always amazed by how I random learn things when looking up other things. Those accidental lessons are so important.

Here's what I looked up (and learned) this week:

• Sunscreen Recall - I wanted to see which bottles were on the list so that I could check our stash.
• CSS Code - I need to do some custom CSS coding for work. It is not my forte. I wanted to see if there were snippets of code I could steal and adapt.
• Montessori Toys - The kiddo's birthday is coming up. I was trying to track down age-appropriate gift options to send the grandparents.
• Corian Countertops - We're in the very early planning stages of a kitchen redo. So early, all we're doing is considering the overall look we want. I like the idea of Corian countertops, so we reviewed possible colors.