So I got as much of it together as possible and uploaded it today. Do you know what I got for my efforts?

Ungrateful little...but I did take it again, just to be nice. I'm that kind of girl.

I also had to contend with other little piddling things all day. We have a librarians' meeting tomorrow morning, so I had to finish up the minutes for the last one, which I had to run. The reference desk computers had managed to slip off the network, so I had to find the problem (pulled plug) since Tech Lady doesn't work on Mondays. Cataloguing sent up the mother lode of newly processed books, so we had to sort through those and pull out the ones that they screwed up. All these things contrived to prevent me from preparing for my two storytimes, which were hazards in and of themselves, since the first one was full of kids just back from Spring Break, and the second one featured a train going past halfway through the first story. "Choo-choo, Mama, choo-choo!"

When I came back from my dinner break, I was startled to find that one of the long benches from our book table had apparently gotten up and walked away. I did a quick search; it was, verily, gone. I checked with the librarians and clerks, and nobody had seen anybody walk out with a bench under their arm. Honestly, this is not a book, a tape, or even a chair. It's a bench! It's a major piece of furniture! You can't just slip it under your coat and abscond with it.

After letting me wander around looking like an idiot for about ten minutes, a page finally said, "Oh, yeah. It broke, so we took it down to the maintenance guy." Well, thanks, guys. Next time, leave a note when you run off with my furniture! Naturally, I was relieved that nobody had stolen it, but I was a bit cheesed off that nobody had seen fit to make mention of the incident to me.

I am tired, but I'll live. It feels good to know that those ten minutes of furniture hunting were probably the only minutes I wasted during the entire day.

I've been able to relax a bit more at work, too, because the bird is no longer butting his little head into the window behind me. The maintenance man put a piece of white film over the window, largely decreasing its attractiveness level in the eyes of the birds of our community. I'm relieved, and for more reasons than the fact that the pecking was driving me batty; I didn't want to have to explain to any watching kiddies why the bird had keeled over after a particularly vigorous attack, and was now lying motionless on the pavement beneath. ("He tired himself out, see, and now he's sleeeeeping...")

There will be tension when I get home, because what with all the web stuff, I didn't manage to get to the bank to deposit his paycheck like Eric had wanted. Oops. I'll have to get it tomorrow at lunch, assuming I'll get much of one; today I worked through it.

Eric's been exceedingly tense lately. It seems like whenever I'm chatting with somebody online, I usually have to leave them with the line, "Eric's yelling about something; I have to go." He's really anxious about work-related things; he worked overtime twelve out of the last fourteen days. This week his plant is being visited by a few of the great-granddaddy bosses of the company, and that has Eric shaken up, though I don't know why he should be overly concerned. After all, his reputation is that of a "Golden Boy," which was actually his nickname at the old plant.

If I could do something to relieve his tension, I would. Sex doesn't work, though I've tried. It seems as if the wisest thing I can do is to stay out of his way, and hope things improve soon.

Now I know how my thesis advisor must have felt.