All settled!

So, we moved into our brand new apartment on Friday. It was 90 degrees outside. And according to Google maps, our street doesn't exist. So that was fun. We spent Saturday and Sunday unpacking and buying necessities--groceries, a bed (that will be delivered tomorrow morning!), kitchen stuff that we didn't already have. About our not having a bed: we've been sleeping on 5 blankets piled on the floor. It's getting old. But tomorrow night, we'll have a new, super comfy bed!

Monday was my "first day of work". I went to the county courthouse at 8 am to do county orientation--since I'm a county employee. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. For anyone reading this who's ever done the 2 day orientation with the super happy, high five lovin' guy at UIHC, this was the best orientation EVER! The woman who ran it was a happy woman, but not annoyingly so. She's a people person, and that's obvious. Plus, there were only 11 people there. And we got an hour for lunch, and we were right downtown, so I went to a coffee shop and got myself a sammich and some chai. Nice little lunch break. Except the parts where I thought I was going to get killed trying to cross the street at the roundabout. :) After orientation was over I walked over to the library to say hi to Nora (my supervisor) and met a couple of my coworkers who were still there. Mostly I went to find out what time I should be there on Tuesday. Afterwards Jason and I went to Wal-Mart and bought a card table to use for his computer and my sewing machine and a TV stand. The TV stand manual said it would take 1 person an hour to put it together. Unless, of course, 2 of the pieces that should have holes in them don't. Then you have to put it on hold until you call the company and they send you replacement pieces. Luckily we haven't been able to buy the TV we want yet. (Mostly because it costs about 600 bucks that we don't have right now.)

Favorite parts of Monday: Jason saying "Make some friends today!" when he dropped me off; the woman who ran orientation's name is Patania--really, I couldn't make that up.

So, Tuesday at 9 am I officially started work at the library. For those who aren't like Allison (who looked it up already), here's the library's web site. I work at the Headquarters branch. There was a sign on my desk welcoming me, so that was nice. And on the weekly schedule that tells who's on which desk when and who's going to meetings it said "Welcome Erika!" at the top. Yay! Yes, I "work" in a cubicle, BUT it only has 2 "walls". "Work" so far means read manuals: Procedures manual, Safety and Security manual, Reference Services manual. "Walls" means my desk (which is actually really high) and the front of the librarian's desk behind me. My coworkers are all super nice so far. I've met 2 of the people I'll be supervising, but not the third. Lois and Barbara (the one's I've met) are both old enough to be my mom, so that will be new. I basically followed Nora around all day while she talked at me. We went to the law library in the courthouse for a couple of hours so the librarian there could go to the doctor. Then we went out for lunch and a great Mexican place.

Favorite parts of Tuesday: yummy enchiladas for lunch; the woman in the law library who said "My husband wants an uncontested divorce, he's crazy" and then called him a bigamist.

Wednesday included more manual reading. And I got to learn about different staff training opportunities available to me. Next week I'm going to something on Monday morning to learn about the staff view of the catalog, Monday afternoon is a training thing to learn how to use the brand new calendar on the web site (including how to only look at the staff side). Tuesday and Wednesday morning I have New Supervisor's Orientation. Whee! I also got to learn about the library's web site and the intranet, including how to find the incident report page and how to look up incident reports--that's a little like reading the old Iowa City police blotter online, when they actually told you what happened (like "suspect ran out in front of police car, danced around, and ran off"). We also had a staff meeting.

Favorite parts of Wednesday: having people not in my department remember my name in the staff lounge at lunch; Teddy Grahams at the staff meeting--I haven't had those in ages!

Today I read some more. And got my own login for my computer, so I could have a background of my choosing. I got signed up for Pandia (in-house IM). I remembered to bring a bottle of water with me today, which unfortunately meant more bathroom trips, but at least now I remember which hallways to turn down for the bathroom! It's in the basement, and I get a little lost down there. Today was Ice Cream Day, so there was lots of ice cream and all sorts of toppings, and root beer for floats. Next month there will be a Sandwich Day, and in the summer one month they have Hot Dog Day and the branch manager has a hat with plastic hot dogs glued on that she wears that day. I got my library card today, and that was really exciting.

Favorite parts of today: getting mail (thanks Gma and Gpa!; FINALLY getting the door to the Information Services workroom open!!!! That door hates me and I finally was able to open it today!