In case anyone was wondering

I have reached that point of ala where I just want to sit down and sleep. It probably doesn't help that my roommate is a snorer. Oh dear god is she a snorer. I seriously considered smothering her to death just to get a little rest. I have a couple interesting sessions planned for today, but I'm thinking more and more that I'm just going to go take a nap or do something that doesn't require thought (like blogging?). I don't think I'd get anything out of the talks anyway.

I'm going to try to get back to GR early tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. There's an earlier flight that I can get onto on standby without paying extra, but I'm not sure how full that flight will be. But hey, it's worth a shot. I could pick up the cat, take him home, get a nap in, and pick up my CSA with time to spare! And then probably go out to dinner because I'll be damned if I'm going to be able to cook anything when I'm this tired.

ALA Bound!

So I'm leaving for our nation's capital and ALA bright and early tomorrow morning. It feels like I'm booked solid, but really I've been semi-careful about not getting in too far over my head. I have lunch with a new colleague, dinner with some old colleagues, and I am leading my first ever committee meeting. Yeah, I may have taken on a little too much.

But hey! I'm going to check out Capital City Brewing on Saturday night to unwind from a day of meetings and be smug in the knowledge that Founders and Hopcat are WAY better (to say nothing of the Winchester, but that isn't a microbrewery, so I can't quite include it). I will probably not be blogging, but I will be pretty active over on Twitter (@epsyck) and on facebook. The funny thing is that even with a ton of meetings and other things that I'm responsible for taking care of, I'm most worried about how the cat is going to handle spending 5 days boarding with the vet. He's in good hands, but if the weather keeps getting stormy or if the cattery attendant is male, he's going to be very stressed...

Just for the record...

I am a terrible professional blogger. Clearly. It has taken me months to get back here to post something. Unfortunately, I have a very good reason why.

Things in Michigan are a bit crazy for those of us working with government documents. The huge budget cuts we're facing thanks to the recession and the collapse of the manufacturing industry in certain parts of the state mean that the Library of Michigan is currently unable to remain our regional. So for the past couple of months, on top of all of my regular responsibilities, I've been traveling around the state going to meetings in hopes of understanding what's going on and making sure that our library's voice is heard. That's a lot to handle in your first year as a professional, but I THINK I've managed to do it without making a complete fool of myself.

In other news, I'm heading to ALA next week! I'm going to be ridiculously busy of course, but I think it'll be a lot of fun. I have a committee meeting that I think I might be co-leading (which I am really hoping I don't completely fail at since I will probably know half the people there - Slavic librarianship is a small small world), a meeting with my co-editor for lunch, and several library-themed cocktail hours. And I just found out that my GODORT buddy is the co-editor of Documents to the People. So, um, that's kind of amazing.

Professionally things are really going great. I love my job, even though sometimes it drives me crazy. (Mostly that's my fault - I've volunteered for a lot of things to help build up my CV for my reappointment in February. Unfortunately, more things just keep popping up. So I've made myself slow down a little, and it's becoming a bit more manageable.)

In non-work news, my CSA has started and it's a blast so far. I'm supposed to cover that on my other blog, which has also been languishing, but hopefully I'll pick it back up! I really do like Grand Rapids and my career and all the craziness that's been happening in the library world. It's always an adventure.