Too much, and yet nothing to blog

I have hit the wall, metaphorically speaking, more than once during my quest to meet the challenge of writing everyday; posting on this blog. I can honestly say some days the topics were stretched too thin, some days there were topics that maybe should not have been put on the blog for God and everyone to see, some days I actually sounded a bit intelligent, some days I was a blithering idiot, and some days I forgot the mandate from my high school English teacher that "one sentence does not a paragraph make." She would be happy to see this paragraph at least has three sentences. Today? There is an over abundance of topics bouncing rampant around my brain that I actually have too much to blog about. Not only am I unsure where to begin, but also unsure what to include.

My week started with such hope. I had five blank days on my work calendar; a feat unheard of for the second week in November. They were a vision of beauty and a joy to behold.

I should have known better . . .

First a quick phone call on Monday and a meeting scheduled for next week moved up to Thursday of this week (today). I felt woefully unprepared, so I shuffled the piles on my desk to compose a detailed outline, sent it to the boss for an official "OK,” printed copies for library participants, and emailed the revisions to be disbursed amongst the larger committee. Crisis averted and resulting meeting painless.

One of the more challenging, and rewarding, aspects of my job is managing ten student workers and two GA's. I have management experience and am not unused to the trials, tribulations, and yes joys of work, scheduling and conflict. I hire good people, provide them with training, and give them the opportunity to do the job they were hired to do. Most of the time this philosophy works splendidly. When it does not, employees are warned, disciplined, and if necessary, fired. It is very rare a student is fired. As a result, the group is together for several years and often form a bond, they work as a team. As such, it is often both wonderful (no tattling and whining) and frustrating (if I don't know what's going on, I can't do anything about it) when they are reluctant to bring problems to my attention. Generally speaking and dependant on the student involved, problems are brought directly to me. Other times, they feel more comfortable expressing issues to the GA's who handles it, brings it to my attention, or does both. Because students feel a sense of camaraderie, it is challenging for them to tell the difference between ratting out a friend and bringing issues to me that I need to know. Today was one of those days; do what’s right, let me deal with the consequences, and make sure no one feels guilty for doing the right thing.

Add in search committee responsibilities and a binder with over 20 vitae's to review and evaluate.

Round out those things with the every day necessity of weeding, shelf shifting, working on web design, writing juvenile book reviews, and just running the resource center.

I'm ready for the weekend.