Back to Work

I reported back for my first day yesterday.  The past two days have been productive but exhausting.  I couldn't keep my eyes open after getting home from dinner tonight.  Our new principal is a bit of a clean freak so it's going to be an interesting year.  I wish I could say that my library is always neat and organized, but I tend to operate in what I call organized chaos most of the time.  My desk is rarely tidy, but I can tell you where that paper is that I'm looking for - it's in that pile over there.  The verdict is out on the principal so far.  I'm just hoping she doesn't micro-manage.  If she lets me do my job, I'll be ok.

Tomorrow starts three days of meetings with other librarians which will hopefully be refreshing.  It's nice to be able to work with colleagues that are also friends.  We tend to commiserate with each other.  The only thing is that I won't be able to go to lunch with my "group" tomorrow as I'll have a working lunch with our library organization officers.

Matt works late on Tuesdays and doesn't get home until about 10.  I might be asleep by the time he gets home.  It's going to take a few days for me to get used to working and not being totally exhausted at the end of the day.

Back to School

To answer DKZody's question, school starts for students on August 24.  I report back for work on Monday.  I get two days on my own in the library before all the teachers return.  On those days I'll have to get equipment set up in about a dozen rooms in preparation for district inservice that is happening on our campus starting Wednesday.  I also have to get the library clean, pull textbooks out of a million boxes, and update the fixed assets information since the new principal wants every room in the school to be known as a number (instead of "office") or ("band hall").  

Yesterday Matt and I braved crowds to go clothes shopping.  Matt really needed new pants and it is the tax free weekend.  Kohl's wasn't too crowded and Matt found 4 pairs of pants.  I found a pair of pants and a blouse.  After that we headed to the outlet stores in San Marcos.  That's where it was rather crazy.  It took us 15 minutes to find parking.  Matt was finally able to find new shoes at the Nike Store.  I found two pairs at the Sketcher's outlet.  After that we headed home.  It was really hot - over 100 degrees.  This is the hottest part of the year for us.  This is when I moved down here 4 years ago and it was about 106 degrees then.  Our summer has been relatively mild until now.  Hopefully it will start cooling off in another few weeks.  

Today I slept in since I was up fairly late last night.  I'm going to have to start training myself to get to bed earlier.  Being in Reno last week and on Pacific time has thrown my clock off a bit.  I went to get my hair cut at 12:30.  She cut it quite a bit shorter than last time, but I'm ok with it since my hair grows really fast.  I went to lunch at a place called Fire Bowl Cafe and then went to Michael's.  They had all their Scrabble paraphernalia on sale for half price so I picked up lots of pencils, pens, notebooks, and such to use as incentives for my students in my Scrabble class.  

Now Matt and I are trying to decide what to do for supper.  We seem to be very indecisive tonight.  I haven't gone to the store to get groceries yet so there's not much to cook.  

I guess I'm a Scrabble player

So Matt and I left for Nationals a week ago.  Somehow I got on a roll and played very well in my division - at least up to the new format of an elimination round.  Day 1 I went 6-1.  Day two I think I only lost two games.  By the end of day 3, I had a record of 15-5, I think, and I was in second place going into the elimination bracket of the top 8 competitors.  Unfortunately, I lost the first bracket to the young man who ultimately won in my division.  (I did beat him twice, however.  Once in the preliminary rounds and once in the elimination round when we played best out of 4 games.)  After that I was vying for 5th-8th place.  I had a record of 3 wins and 3 losses and ended up in 7th place because of the spread.  (Number of cumulative points after 6 games.)  I won $300 and hope to get the check in another week or so.

Matt didn't do very well.  He had a lot of bad luck in drawing tiles.  He was happy for me though.  We did have a nice time visiting with fellow Scrabble friends and going out to dinner.  The best dinner was at a nice Italian restaurant.  It was so much food and I was frustrated I couldn't box it up to take back to the hotel.  Our room didn't come with a refrigerator.  I found that during the week, I couldn't eat a whole lot.  We did try the Mexican restaurant at the hotel but it was fairly bland.  It seems that places outside of Texas really don't know how to do Mexican food very well.

We went to the movies while there and saw Mr. Holmes.  Matt needed a night to decompress and not think about Scrabble.

Our last day was very long.  I had to play 3 rounds in the morning and then I had about 3 hour break.  I went to the awards room where they were live streaming the final rounds in the first division.  It was interesting to watch two master players at work.  I discovered that they each took quite a bit of time before making their plays.  I'm always worried about my time so I often try to play fast when I can.  I had to wait for awards of course so once I received my recognition and they finished announcing for my division, Matt and I rushed out to catch the shuttle to the airport.  It was just before 3:30 and the shuttle was supposed to leave at that time.  Luckily the shuttle was delayed so we did make it.  Our flight was at 5:30.  We had a layover in Las Vegas that was supposed to only be about 2 hours but turned into about 3 1/2.  We were supposed to get in at 1:15 a.m. but didn't make it until a little after 3:00.  Once we got luggage, took a shuttle to the car, and got home, it was almost 4 a.m.  We slept in until almost noon the next day.

Today we went clothes shopping since it is the start of the tax-free weekend.  Matt really needed new pants and shoes.  He found four pairs at Kohl's while I got one pair and a blouse.  Next we headed to the outlet stores in San Marcos.  There it was really crazy - took us 15 minutes to get a parking spot.  Matt was able to find some shoes at the Nike store.  I found two pairs of shoes for myself at the Sketcher's store.  We headed home around 3:00 and then went to an early dinner around 5:30.  Tomorrow I've got to see if I can get my hair cut again and then head to Michael's for more Scrabble stuff.