We are officially back in school now!
Sunday was mostly relaxed around the house. With Gabriel visiting us for a few days again, it’s easier to be home with him, because if he’s in his cage he tends to bark almost like he’s shrieking. Plus it was so hot outside. I stepped outside to take the dogs to do their business around 1 pm and immediately after just one step into the sun was feeling the heat and it sucked.
Monday we had 9th graders from about 7:15-10:30. Then we had a little time to work in our classrooms, followed by a district meeting with our departments from 1-3 pm. I got a little more done in my library. Now working on a genre display for the display you see when you first walk in the library. Had some teachers say they wanted to bring their classes down to do a scavenger hunt activity so I’m working on getting something done for the library. The last librarian had one, but so much has changed about the library since she used it probably 4 or so years ago that there’s so much I’d have to change on it. I had meant to take our house guest Gabriel and drop him off on my way to work Tuesday morning, but since he’d been so good the last few nights, I decided to let him stay till Friday.
Tuesday was a kind of crazy day. We had a little bit of time to work in our classrooms in the morning before about an hour meeting as a staff. Then after that we had two hours of intruder training. I was dreading it after how stupid some of the stuff seemed last year, but fortunately they have a different group doing the training this year. It was as dumb, but it did still last two hours. I got my hair done after school, and then spent the night at home.
Wednesday was another hellish first day of school with laptops and coming in to the library first thing to see how it had been set up for that after my clerk and I had both left. The lack of communication in my district is so frustrating! But as I look back at the last two first days over the last two years, I see that the hellish bit is par for the course with this district. We’re still having the extremely high heat all week, it was miserable outside. So I was exhausted when I got home and just ordered Grubhub. Unfortunately for some reason the Chinese place I’d discovered last order seemed to be closed. I don’t know if they are closed on Wednesdays or what, but I was disappointed and went with the other Chinese restaurant I’d ordered from in the past.
Thursday was another day of hell. I had a point in the morning I could feel the tears building up. But it wasn’t until the afternoon when I was unfortunately unable to hold them in. It was only a few, and it was once my clerk and I were alone for like 5 minutes. So I went home and then met a friend for dinner, where I had two margaritas, well really one and a half, since I’m not much of a drinker I didn’t finish the last one and it got all watered down and blech. Then I didn’t get much sleep because the dogs kept waking me up. I decided I had to go ahead and take our buddy Gabriel back on Friday so I could get some sleep.
Friday morning started as crazy as the last two days, but did slow down a bit. Then one of the teachers who had seen my stressed out post on Facebook stopped by the library with a gift bag to cheer me up!
While the number of students coming to the library for laptop issues died down a bit on Friday, I found out they’d decided to give me an advisory group, of all the kids that leave the school to go to the career programs either in the morning half of the day or the afternoon half. A total of 52 kids. All I know is that I’d better not have to do what other advisory teachers have to do for parent conferences. Our house guest went back to the breeder Friday night, so I kind of got a better night’s sleep.
Saturday morning was cooler with a sprinkle of rain here and there. I went and got my oil changed and the first service done on my car. I do miss having a Toyota because the Toyota dealership near me has the fancy waiting lounge with free food and drink. The Buick lounge had free coffee, hot chocolate, and water. They had a vending machine with other choices. They did however wash my car and give me a chocolate bar.
Books Finished
The first two were ARCs from the publisher. The third one was an e-galley for the author’s review team. All should have been reviewed this past week as well.
New Additions to My Library
ARCs:
None
Audiobooks:
I’m weak, Audible was having a 2 for 1 credit, and since I’m listening to and enjoying the first book in the Bromance series, and I saw this was one of the choices, I got it. I’ve also enjoyed Lauren Blakely books too, so got this collection for my other choice.
Bookish Stuff:
One of the teachers brought me this cool bag on Monday! They’d found it at an outlet mall and thought of me!
E-galleys:
I read the first book in this duology, The Warning, earlier this year and wasn’t sure when this one was coming out. I saw it on someone else’s blog and decided I could fit it in before the pub date on September 5th, so got it on Netgalley.
Free E-books:
Both of these were free on Amazon
Physical Books:
I loved this author’s other book, Seoulmates, so I was so happy I had enough points and got on the Bookish First website early enough I was able to snag a physical copy of this. It came in the mail this week. Review should be first couple weeks of September since that is the pub date.
I was close to the Barnes & Noble where I used to work when I got my oil change on Saturday and couldn’t stop myself from at least stopping by. I ended up buying this book and some stickers.
What I’m Watching
I’m continuing to rewatch Outlander from the beginning for the umpteenth time, but it’s so cool now that I’ve been to places they used for filming and I can compare how it was in real life. I finished up the second season of The Summer I Turned Pretty. I loved how Conrad’s college roommate said how it was his brother Jeremy’s eyes that got people, because the actor playing Jeremy totally has the best eyes. I’m also jumping back in to Black Mirror with season 2 since I haven’t watched most of the series. I discovered that on the 3rd episode of the season, the actor who played Blackjack Randall from Outlander was in the cast.
Coming Up Next Week On My Blog
First was an ARC I forgot I’d signed up for a blog tour, and so I postponed its review till this Monday. Second was an e-galley I read for the author’s review team last week. Third, I listened to this audiobook at the beginning of the month, but am posting my review of it on the pub date here on the blog. Hopefully I’ve already posted the review on other sites by now. And as I mentioned above, I got the last one as an e-galley this past week and hope to have it read to post a review by the end of the week.
I should post my August DNFs which include some that I quit just because they were for the Gateway committee I was on and I figured I got enough from what I listened to, not that they were bad. I do still need to post my L-L-L post for August, it may be the same day as the DNF post. I also have a promo post, and my End of the Month post for August should be on Friday since we will be starting September!
Giveaways
Don’t forget that I do now have the nice little box on the right hand sidebar so you can check out giveaways all the time! My current monthly giveaway is HERE! Remember if I get over 100 entries in that monthly giveaway I add more winners, and so far this year I’ve had over 100 entries every month. And for July I had over 600 entries, so I picked 6 winners! So far this month I have over 300 entries, so I’ll probably have 3, or maybe 4 winners after it ends on Thursday.
I also started a Summer Seasons of Books Giveaway last month, so be sure to go enter that HERE. This giveaway goes until mid-September I think, so lots of chances to still get entered.
And I celebrated my 14th Blogoversary last week, and that giveaway is part of last week’s wrap up post HERE. It ends in a week or so too.
Final Thoughts
How has your August been, can you believe it’s September later this week? Did you read or watch anything good this past week? Get any good books? Here’s a sweet picture of my house guest Gabriel from earlier this week! He likes to sit on the floor by my desk chair when I’m on the computer. I wonder since he’s long hair if that’s cooler than being all snuggled up in the blankets like my other two do.
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Sorry to hear of the stressful week! But the surprise gift was a very nice gesture! It’s good work among good people! I hope this week things will be better and hopefully less stressful! I know I’m hoping the heat goes down a bit, the temps look doable but I don’t know about the humidity yet so it may not be any better. Here’s hoping!
Nice new reads too! Some new to me ones but I hope you enjoy each and every one of them!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
Yeah, it’s never been the kids or the people that I work with. Although admin is part of the problem more this year and last year it seems. It’s the amount of tasks I’m expected to do. I’m hoping the downward trend of technology issues continues this week so I can get more library stuff done! It’s going to be in the 80s this week, but yeah, who knows about that humidity! Hope you have a good week too!
Well thanks that the week is over and hope you have a smoother week ahead. It’s great you have supportive people who bring you some treats and gifts. And Gabriel.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
Yep, so glad it’s over. Hoping that it was just the crazy beginning rush and things will continue to calm down a bit so that I can actually be a librarian again. Thanks for stopping by!
Gabriel is so cute:-) I really hope your school year gets better. It must be worse because of the heat. I remember heat always made me cranky, lol. Have a good week!
He is a cutie! I guess he was a show dog, so of course totally acts like a Fabio, book cover model in a way, he just wants to be loved! I think that I need to just remember that the first few days of school will suck in this district. At least I hope that is how it goes! But yeah, this heat is NOT fun!
That was so nice of your coworker! Hopefully this week is awesome!!
I’m hoping for a better week! We shall see!
It’s been so hot! We were mild there for a while but have heated up some. And chinese food can be hard to find. All the good places here are across town lol so when I order around here I have to settle for just okay places. Sorry it was kind of a rough week. Hopefully this one is better.
I need to check out Black Mirror.
I would say the first episode of Black Mirror is one I kind of wish I’d skipped, but the rest have been pretty good. I’m so tired of the heat, happy for 80s this week, although they say next weekend it will be really hot again. Ugh.
I’m so sorry you had such a stressful week but it sounds like you have some amazing colleagues that understand and support you. Here’s to having a much better week ahead Lisa.
Thanks, one can only hope it is better!
So nice the teacher thought of you with the tote and the other teacher with the gifts on Friday! I hope this week is better!
I had another teacher who dropped by with a really nice post-it note too! So yeah, there are some great teachers in our building, it’s what makes things worth staying.
Sorry to hear you had some stress at work, but that was so sweet for a coworker to surprise you. I hope this coming week is a little better for you. My week was busy with a lot of fun things, including dinners out to celebrate going back to college and my 25th wedding anniversary. School starts back this week for my kiddo.
Sounds like you had a nice week! Hope your kid has a great first week back at school!
Aww Gabriel really is adorable, but I am glad that you can sleep again! Dude. I feel like every school district is a complete mess. I will post about it I am sure, but man, I have been dealing with three of them the past few weeks and I feel like the level of incompetence is terrifying! I hope that things calm down for you! If it helps at all, I have TWO first days of school- I went on Thursday, then start at a whole new job tomorrow on THEIR first day, so it’s double the anxiety and anarchy heh. I need to watch Black Mirror too- I always say I am going to, then I just kind of forget!
In my district it is a horrible lack of communication that I think is our main issue. And the whole not being able to do an all-staff email seems like part of it the more I think about it. Good luck on your second first day of school tomorrow!
How lovely to have such supportive colleagues, I hope it’s far less stressful this week.
Enjoy your new books!
Wishing you a great reading week
Thanks! It hasn’t been less stressful yet, but it is a Monday!
I always recall the first few days of school during a new year with a shudder – and I was in the classroom with the children… Which is clearly far easier than dealing with the administrative side of things. And it seems to have only got worse since my day. What bugs me is that the people often running things clearly haven’t ever spent much time in schools – never mind classrooms or school libraries… I hope it soon cools down for you – those temps you’re dealing with are simply crazy. I hope the coming week is much, much kinder!
I don’t know, I remember being in the classroom too! I think it is a lot of stress for everyone. Just seems like more and more gets added to our plate every year, stuff that shouldn’t be our job. Oh well. So far the temps are cooler, but it still feels hot!
Sorry to hear that you had a stressful week! I hope this week is much better for you. I like the book bag. Have a great week!
Thanks! I’m hoping for better too!
Sounds like a hectic and sometimes rough week. So thoughtful of some of the teachers to cheer you up with some extra goodies. I think Gabriel is so cute. Sounds like an interesting time when he visits though. I hope you have a great week at work and things become more routine.
Gabriel is a sweetie! I just wish I was in a place I could keep him forever.
Aww that is so sweet they gave you the gift bag to cheer you up! I hope this week is going much better for you ♥! And I love the bag you were gifted, so cute! Our August has just been go, go, go and I’m sad summer break is over. I love our beach and hiking days sigh.
So far today sucked, but I’m going to chalk it up to it being a Monday and hope for the week to get better. I will miss summer days of not having to be at school for sure too!
Sorry to hear your first week was so hellish. I hope next week is much better! I’ve heard a lot about Icebreaker! You’ll have to tell us if you liked it.
I’m hoping it is good, but don’t know when I’ll get to it, lol.
Ahhh that’s one thing I do miss about working IN an office (or a school or a library or whatever) those surprise gifts from caring co-workers when you’re about to jump off the ledge. I’m glad you have people at your work that think to do something nice for others on stressful days.
Having good co-workers is about the only thing that keeps me from just walking out on the job.
I have to do security training every year and sometimes it’s just painful when the program they choose is boring or just not well produced. How nice of that teacher to recognize you were struggling and take the time to bring in some gifts! She sounds like a good egg. 🙂
It’s nice to have co-workers who see those things and recognize them.