Tales of a Librarian

 So I talked with the librarian who worked with the repair guys for the microfilm reader.

Two repairmen came yesterday an hour and a half late.  The spent two hours.  They did not fix the microfilm reader.  They couldn't figure out what wasn't working.  Despite it being agreed (and we being charged for) a "full service appointment" they did nothing beyond attempting and failing to fix it, so other things like cleaning the very dirty camera to the reader were not done.  We were charged $500+.  One of our campus IT guys who was present during all this fixed it on his own after they left.  Also, they spent a great amount of the time they were here attempting to get us to sign up for a $750/year service contract.

I am not a happy library director.

Apparently the microfilm machine vendor is coming today.  Arriving soon.

She is the single most annoying vendor I have ever dealt with.  She shows up with little to no notice and insists you drop everything and listen to her.  Last time she was here, she had dropped by without notice because "I happened to be in the neighborhood" and kept insisting on doing her sales pitch even though we told her we had a large event happening in ten minutes and said we can't speak now.  In the end, we ignored her as well all prepared for the event (with her still trailing us).  She left when the freshmen came in en masse only to go to the public library and harass the library director there, who was trying to do story hour for the kids.

Sadly our microfilm reader broke and she's tagging along with the repairman.

She actually beats the vendor on the phone that tried to threaten me with a faculty member he misgendered (and how I am friends with) and the one EBSCO VP who kept trying to tell me how to do my job.

I really don't need to deal with her today. 

 So I'm a couple weeks late in posting it, but the weekend away with my husband was amazing.  It was incredibly relaxing and so good to have that time to connect.  I'm hoping to do that once a year at least-twice a year even better.  We've lost that important "us time" lately and really need it.  We've also started doing yoga together (but we've been slacking on that lately) and watching Brooklyn 99 together.  That show is hysterically funny and I strongly recommend it.  Plus we've been playing a game called Northgard online with some friends a couple nights a week, which is also quite enjoyable.

I've been also trying to carve out some quality me time now and again, which isn't easy but I'm eking it out here and there.

I had the worst stomach bug a week ago.  It took four days to get better.  Blah!

I tried talking to my mother about maybe getting some help for her anxiety, but that conversation went nowhere fast. :(

 In more positive news, I'm going to a B&B with my husband next weekend, just the two of us.  We have a close friend watching the kids while we're away.  We really don't get much time just the two of us since the kids were born.  I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to this!

 The app that I found that works with dreamwidth hasn't been working lately.  I've written posts several times this last month and they never posted.  Oh well.  It's annoying to type out posts on my phone, but with work and the kids it's not always easy to get to a chance to write on my computer.  

Today I have a surprise day off thanks to some car troubles.  I brought in wood for the stove because the temperature is suppose to drop (isn't it already cold enough?!)  It's currently 18F/-8C and I got about halfway through before my fingers and toes got too cold to continue.  After posting this and warming up, I'll go back out there and finish the job.  By Saturday the high is supposed to only be around -1F/-18C and the low around -10F/-23C.  It's already hit -18F/-28C around New Year.  Yuck!  They're also expecting 40mph/64mph winds gusts and windchills around -35F/-37C.

So, it's cold.  At least we're not supposed to get most of the snow from the blizzard that's supposed to hit the east coast.

I've written a bit more fanfic this past year (I'm amycooper on ao3) than I have for a while.  I'm hoping that continues on into this year.  It's good to write, you know?  It's been mostly SGA and Due South stuff.  Nothing particularly long.  Still, something.

I visited my family for the holidays.  I think I'm going to try talking to my mother about seeking some treatment for anxiety.  She's always had issues (it runs in the family-both my maternal grandparents have OCD) and it has clearly only been getting worse for her.  She's always been anxious but she's clearly having some difficulty making basic decisions right now.  

I hadn't been to my dad's house in two years.  Dad was really drunk before I even got there and proceeded to harass my 2yo to the point that she fears him now and he and my stepmom spent a good while mocking and making fun of their neighbors after they stopped by to give them cookies in the most racist way imaginable because they were Korean.  It'll be AT LEAST two years before I'm back.  To be honest?  At this point if they didn't have my niece and nephew living with them, I probably wouldn't bother with them at all.

Finn's doing well in school (though reading is still a struggle, but he's starting to improve).  Amelia really loves her daycare.  Both kids made out like bandits for Christmas.  My husband and I are going away, just the two of us, later this month.  I can't wait.

 So my brother is due in court at 10am (1.5 hours) today.  (Read my last post entitled "Mia" for the backstory.) 

My mother just called me.  She's kind of freaking out.  She said that my brother said he'd rather his daughter go in foster care than with me because I live so far away (4 hours) and he'd never see Mia.  With foster care, he'd be able to have visitation.  My mother tells me this and then says I could tell him I'd drive her down every other weekend.  And I told her, I really can't.  The kids are involved in things and we work (infrequent) weekends.  I really can't promise that.  To which my mother said, "Well, if the court orders you, you'll have to."  Gee, thanks Mom.  I mean, I know she's flipping out because she's afraid that she'll never see Mia again, but I also have obligations at home.

Anyway, my mom is at work, not with my brother so he's doing this solo.  Whatever happens and whatever he decides, she's not going to be there to influence things.

 I had another meeting at Finn's school.  They report that the 504 plan is working well and that Finn's having an easier time doing his school work and such.  They're still concerned that he's behind and reading but that may be because well, he probably should have had the 504 plan earlier.  We'll see how that goes.  But overall, a positive meeting!

I've received a number of emails from another person with the same name.  This time it's the one from Michigan.  There's also one in Georgia and another from Ontario.  *sigh*  Last time, you may recall, it was the mother (maybe grandmother?) who didn't read what I wrote and took everything I said as some sort of rejection to go to someone's funeral.  At least in that case, I could understand that a death in the family is stressful.  This time it's a series of emails about an office move.  I emailed back and never got a reply, just more emails about the office move.

Now, I know that it isn't my fault these people apparently don't read.  But I do feel bad for the other person with my name because they're the ones that are likely to suffer from all this.  So I called the numbers on their signature and left voice mails, both to her apparent boss who never reads, but also to her bosses bosses since the boss forwarded some of his emails and he had his phone on his signature too.  We'll see if I get any more emails.  I feel bad for Heather, especially because I suspect the aggravated maternal figure from the last debacle was also trying to reach Michigan Heather.

Also- for those of you confused.  My RL name is Heather but I go by Amy often on the internet for, well, it's a long story.  Either name works.