The librarians, session 22
It's been a few weeks since we last met. Two weeks ago, nearly everyone else had conflicts, so we canceled. Last week, the director was guest-conducting at the assistant director's school, so we canceled. This week, it was just Harold and Marian and me. I got there about 7:15 and could tell they were there, as the gate was unlocked and Marian's purse was on a table, but they weren't around. Knowing we had music to file downstairs, I checked and found them in the band library. Mrs. Paroo has been trying to keep up with things, but she is woefully behind. (We have actually started stacking up piles under her table at this point.) Knowing Amaryllis had expressed an interest in helping with the cataloging, I brought it up to her in band the other day (when I play piccolo, she sits behind me), and so that might happen. Between Mrs. Paroo's job and her being the band manager now, she doesn't have a lot of time, so anything to ease the burden will help.
Down in the library, I found Harold and Marian adding to the shelves. Harold had a stack of music and would hand one over, saying its starting letter. Now, he and I had gone through and moved stuff around on the shelves, but we're going to need to do it again; the A-D shelf, at the very top, is already almost full. We kept adding more As. Poor Marian kept trying to shift things over--I would end up helping too, grabbing and moving from the D end--but it was pretty hard. Toward the end, when Harold would have another A, Marian would yell out, no more As! But we'd still find room to fit them in. Still, we'll need to shift the shelves again at some point. The Ss have their own shelf, at the bottom of the first shelving unit, since there are so many of them; that will need to go to the top of the second shelving unit, and the T-Z shelf will need to move down; that should give us enough room for a bit. And we still need to alphabetize all this music as well. This will help clean up some things, too, as when Harold and Marian were sorting, they treated all the music like it was in English, meaning foreign articles like "la" and "un" probably were skipped over. Well, since it's *not* English, it's better to keep it under L or U, rather than the next word. That's how we'd sorted them before. So, sounds like we'll have some extra sorting to do once we get down to actually putting everything in order.
Meanwhile, as we were finishing down there, Harold pointed out that the band had gotten a new copier this week. Very exciting! I've had to do a fair amount of copying since I've joined the band, and I do a fair amount of copying at work as well. This new copier is amazing. I just want to pet it. We got to see it in action because Harold's wife acquired some family info from an aunt, and Harold was tasked with copying it. I ended up doing most of the copying, but we were all really impressed with how fast it was. Some of the pages were double-sided, and this new copier can scan both sides at once, rather than needing to flip it around somehow. It still needed to flip the page for the copying part of the process, but still. And, regardless, it spit out the copied piece of paper quickly. That was pretty cool. Harold must not use the top feeder much, because he was going to open the lid, set the page down, close the lid, then copy for pretty much everything. I was a little concerned about the paper, since it was looseleaf and on the old side, but it went through just fine, so the double-sided pages, I just fed those through, and then the same with the single-sided pages. We were done pretty quickly. So impressive! It even has a fancy touchscreen, too. Of course, it's taken me four years to figure out the other copier, so we'll see what happens once I have to deal with non-8.5"x11" paper.
That was probably the most exciting part of sorting on Thursday, though we did finish off one of our two remaining stacks of full-size band music. We have just one! I don't think it's possible that we could have plowed through and done it this week, even if we were all up to it. Harold and Marian were tired, so when I announced I couldn't go on past a certain point, they were happy to stop. I had to quit a little early because *I* hadn't been sleeping well, and it was catching up to me there. My brain was all doofy and I worried I might fall asleep on the way home, which luckily didn't happen. The good news is that the lightbulbs got replaced so we could actually see this week; the ones in the middle of this area, directly over where I've been working, have been out for a while. Not good.
Once we finish with this last stack, we'll start sorting through the march-size stuff, looking for certain composers. We have a bunch of totes that much of that music is in, so likely the totes will be dedicated to X composer, Y composer, Z composer, and so on. I suggested perhaps sorting the rest as well; why go through it again in the future? We could put A-C together, D-F, what have you. I likely won't be there this coming week, so I won't know what'll happen when they start. Harold suggested getting more totes so that might help.
Prior to sorting, I ran a few errands and spent my Christmas gift cards. At JCPenney, I managed to find something I've been looking for for ages--a pair of decent brown shoes for work. I'll need to get inserts to make them more comfortable, but otherwise they should be fine. I'm so excited. The last pair I bought developed a crack in the sole, which then caused me to have plantar fasciitis, which I don't recommend when you have to be on your feet all day. I've had to wear my flats more because of it, which isn't great. Having a third pair of shoes should be better. I also picked up a pair of sleep shorts that can double as workout shorts (they're really the latter, but I use them as the former). Like, I can wear them outside at camp and not be embarrassed to be seen in them. Better, since they were having a sale, it was as if I got the shorts for free. Next, at Kohl's, I've been considering getting a robe, so I picked one up. I've also thought about getting something yoga-pants-like for hanging out at home--like the shorts, to replace older clothes that can't be worn anymore. However, I have to go a size up in yoga pants because otherwise they cling in inappropriate places. Yikes. I found a pair that will work, though, and again I wanted them to pass the camp test. Not sure I'd actually wear them at camp, but who knows. And, a bunch of my work socks developed holes in them, so I sprung for a six-pack of trouser socks. My final stop was Office Max, right next door, as I've been looking for a pencil box of sorts for work. I haven't been able to find anything similar to what I have at home--bought years ago at Target, most likely--but they have the Really Useful Boxes and, as I figured, there was something close enough. Sweet. I've wanted it for when we go out on our work things and need to bring along office supplies so that it's easier to find everything. A cardboard box with no lid, not the best solution.
Down in the library, I found Harold and Marian adding to the shelves. Harold had a stack of music and would hand one over, saying its starting letter. Now, he and I had gone through and moved stuff around on the shelves, but we're going to need to do it again; the A-D shelf, at the very top, is already almost full. We kept adding more As. Poor Marian kept trying to shift things over--I would end up helping too, grabbing and moving from the D end--but it was pretty hard. Toward the end, when Harold would have another A, Marian would yell out, no more As! But we'd still find room to fit them in. Still, we'll need to shift the shelves again at some point. The Ss have their own shelf, at the bottom of the first shelving unit, since there are so many of them; that will need to go to the top of the second shelving unit, and the T-Z shelf will need to move down; that should give us enough room for a bit. And we still need to alphabetize all this music as well. This will help clean up some things, too, as when Harold and Marian were sorting, they treated all the music like it was in English, meaning foreign articles like "la" and "un" probably were skipped over. Well, since it's *not* English, it's better to keep it under L or U, rather than the next word. That's how we'd sorted them before. So, sounds like we'll have some extra sorting to do once we get down to actually putting everything in order.
Meanwhile, as we were finishing down there, Harold pointed out that the band had gotten a new copier this week. Very exciting! I've had to do a fair amount of copying since I've joined the band, and I do a fair amount of copying at work as well. This new copier is amazing. I just want to pet it. We got to see it in action because Harold's wife acquired some family info from an aunt, and Harold was tasked with copying it. I ended up doing most of the copying, but we were all really impressed with how fast it was. Some of the pages were double-sided, and this new copier can scan both sides at once, rather than needing to flip it around somehow. It still needed to flip the page for the copying part of the process, but still. And, regardless, it spit out the copied piece of paper quickly. That was pretty cool. Harold must not use the top feeder much, because he was going to open the lid, set the page down, close the lid, then copy for pretty much everything. I was a little concerned about the paper, since it was looseleaf and on the old side, but it went through just fine, so the double-sided pages, I just fed those through, and then the same with the single-sided pages. We were done pretty quickly. So impressive! It even has a fancy touchscreen, too. Of course, it's taken me four years to figure out the other copier, so we'll see what happens once I have to deal with non-8.5"x11" paper.
That was probably the most exciting part of sorting on Thursday, though we did finish off one of our two remaining stacks of full-size band music. We have just one! I don't think it's possible that we could have plowed through and done it this week, even if we were all up to it. Harold and Marian were tired, so when I announced I couldn't go on past a certain point, they were happy to stop. I had to quit a little early because *I* hadn't been sleeping well, and it was catching up to me there. My brain was all doofy and I worried I might fall asleep on the way home, which luckily didn't happen. The good news is that the lightbulbs got replaced so we could actually see this week; the ones in the middle of this area, directly over where I've been working, have been out for a while. Not good.
Once we finish with this last stack, we'll start sorting through the march-size stuff, looking for certain composers. We have a bunch of totes that much of that music is in, so likely the totes will be dedicated to X composer, Y composer, Z composer, and so on. I suggested perhaps sorting the rest as well; why go through it again in the future? We could put A-C together, D-F, what have you. I likely won't be there this coming week, so I won't know what'll happen when they start. Harold suggested getting more totes so that might help.
Prior to sorting, I ran a few errands and spent my Christmas gift cards. At JCPenney, I managed to find something I've been looking for for ages--a pair of decent brown shoes for work. I'll need to get inserts to make them more comfortable, but otherwise they should be fine. I'm so excited. The last pair I bought developed a crack in the sole, which then caused me to have plantar fasciitis, which I don't recommend when you have to be on your feet all day. I've had to wear my flats more because of it, which isn't great. Having a third pair of shoes should be better. I also picked up a pair of sleep shorts that can double as workout shorts (they're really the latter, but I use them as the former). Like, I can wear them outside at camp and not be embarrassed to be seen in them. Better, since they were having a sale, it was as if I got the shorts for free. Next, at Kohl's, I've been considering getting a robe, so I picked one up. I've also thought about getting something yoga-pants-like for hanging out at home--like the shorts, to replace older clothes that can't be worn anymore. However, I have to go a size up in yoga pants because otherwise they cling in inappropriate places. Yikes. I found a pair that will work, though, and again I wanted them to pass the camp test. Not sure I'd actually wear them at camp, but who knows. And, a bunch of my work socks developed holes in them, so I sprung for a six-pack of trouser socks. My final stop was Office Max, right next door, as I've been looking for a pencil box of sorts for work. I haven't been able to find anything similar to what I have at home--bought years ago at Target, most likely--but they have the Really Useful Boxes and, as I figured, there was something close enough. Sweet. I've wanted it for when we go out on our work things and need to bring along office supplies so that it's easier to find everything. A cardboard box with no lid, not the best solution.