Back to Work

Today was the first day of school for DeKalb County. I could tell when I saw the school buses on the the neighborhood streets and the increase of traffic on the roads. For me, it was the first day back at work after taking two days off last week to go to Dallas. I am always happy to go back to work. I suppose its because I enjoy my job so much. Or maybe its because I enjoy the people I work with. Probably a combination of the two.

The day passed very quickly. Part of my job right now is to receive new periodicals as they come in the mail. Needless to say there was quite a stack waiting for me when I got to work this morning. After I got it all checked in and shelved, I started to work on the ATLA Serials Exchange. The American Theological Library Association organizes a serials exchange database for libraries to offer extra copies of periodicals to other libraries that may need them. I have been managing Pitts' participation in this program over the past year. Every two months new issues are posted on the database and we usually receive a lot of requests for newly posted issues. Due to an unusually large amount of postings that we made this time, we had quite a few requests. I pulled all the requested items, packaged them, and got them ready for shipment. By the time I finished this it was already 4:00 p.m.! I finished the day by eliminating an odds and ends pile that I had not been able to attend to before I left last week.

Other things to note about work today: Armin (interim head of cataloging) was back from his three week trip to Germany. He brought back some German chocolates, one kind with brandy inside. I thought he meant brandy mixed in the chocolate, kind of like a truffle. Boy was I surprised when I bit into it and found a shot of brandy dribbling down my chin! Lucky for me it was clear brandy, which did not stain my shirt, and was also not too fragrant so I didn't have to smell like liquor the rest of the day. I ate lunch by myself outside, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. This afternoon, there was a meeting of the library powers that be (aka Pat, Armin, Doug and John) concerning the applicants for the cataloging opening. After the meeting, Armin came looking for me to schedule my interview. I mocked the appropriate surprise and pleasure at the offer, which was quite amusing for both of us. My interview is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I will be the first interview. Best to get it out of the way and set a high standard for the other interviewees.

Darryl cooked dinner tonight: an Indian curry recipe that I had planned to do myself. It had banana and coconut in it which made for a very interesting flavor. Darryl followed the recipe so well that I told him he might have to worry about me assigning him other new dishes to cook every now and then. After dinner we went to a choral concert. Margaret, a woman who works at Pitts, is a part of a summer choral ensemble that sang Brahms' German Requiem. The performance was nice and it was good to get out of the house and do something for a change.