One of Those Days

Today was one of those days..........................not bad really...it actually was a pretty good day all in all....but on the other hand a lot of things went wrong. By a fluke in the schedule I ended up having several days in a row off...(no comments..Megan...next time I promise :) ) which I needed. We have been short staffed at work and consequently we have all been working extra hours. The hardest thing for me was being there for closing every night...because I don't normally work all day from opening to closing...and the patrons were starting to get me annoyed! hahaha why...because no one ever gets out of there on time, and we can't do what we need to do to close until everyone is out of the building. We give everyone a 10 minute warning...this usually jump starts about half the remaining people...then you have the others that just keep looking , talking...playing chess...whatever...and then at the very last minute come up to check out,pay fines, update cards, etc. We have a few minutes built in...but I will tell you 9 times out of 10, we do not get out on time. And Susan puts in lots of overtime....unpaid....trying to tie up loose ends and get things ready for the next day. I don't mind pitching in...but at some point you have to say...this is all we can do in this amount of time...with this amount of people. Ok...now that I got that off my chest...haha today was like one of those bad dreams you have where you are trying to get somewhere and things keep happening to prevent you from getting there.
I woke up well rested and happy that after a few days off I was starting with Story Time. I had planned a farm theme and had a variety of things planned. I had some books...."The Cow Who Clucked", "Old McDonald", "Where is The Green Sheep" and "Where's Wooly?" (a lift the flap book). No problems there.....I had a tape yes you read right...a cassette tape..haha) with Sharon, Lois and Bram singing "The Farmer in the Dell" and a bag full of puppets to use with the song. (farmer, wife, child, nurse aka Little Red Riding Hood dog, cat, rat and cheese. I also had a Hap Palmer song "Flick a Fly". Dianne had been working on a Cow windsock...and said she would make enough pieces for my group to make it too. So far so good.....however...................
When I arrived...there were no tables set up in the room...just a few stacks of chairs around the room....oh...and a motorized scooter parked right where I normally would sit. Okay...I can get past that...so I started setting up tables; and Joe came in and put the stacks of chairs away. Next I had to get the craft pieces set out. I quickly realized that there were probably not enough ready to use and I didn't feel like scrambling around to get it done...so I went to plan B. I had thought about showing a short "movie"...(from my favorite Weston Woods) Rosie's Walk" so I decided to use that and save the cow windsock for next week. Okay...moving right along.....I did a test run on my taped song...and....the tape player did not work. Nothing....and I really did not want to sing the Farmer in the Dell....hahaha so that plan was scrapped too.
I bought a bulletin board set a few years ago for Old McDonald...all the animals are pictured reading books....I thought I could have the children put the pieces up..instead of our usual matching game...one little problem....half the pieces were missing...when I FINALLY found the darn thing stashed away behind a bunch of other stuff. Ok scrap that...just read the book. So...things were not turning out as I had hoped...but I still had enough to make it work. The scooter....we couldn't pick it up (well...I thought we could...but no one else did...)but Joe got a drop cloth and put it over the thing...and I parked my chair in front of it. (Nice!) and then...we were off. When I started there were 7 children...and that was perfect because there were just enough flaps so that each one of them got to come up and lift a flap.
When I was about half way through the second book...3 more people came in...and then the woman who had left the scooter appeared to retrieve it (with Mona and her daughter in tow)...so that was unveiled and she putted out...and thankfully it really did not cause too much of a distraction for whatever reason. About 20 minutes in another mom showed up with her son and daughter. I like this mom...and the kids...but come on. I did have to laugh...one little boy looked up at them and said "you missed it."...very matter of fact. Haha We did another story
and a letter matching game and then the movie. After all the things that went "wrong" things actually went pretty well. When I walked out of my program to go to the front desk...it was chaos. We had not had a volunteer that morning....the new employee was working...luckily she was in Circ at Melbourne Library...otherwise she probably would have quit! The boss and Mona, who usually fills in at lunch time, had unpacked the courier boxes and emptied the book drop...and that was great...except there were carts and books everywhere...it was crazy. I do think it was unusually busy...but I also think they just kind of panicked. It took about an hour to clear things up and then...everything calmed down. The new gal went to lunch and Heather and I finished getting everything back in order. I found the glasses I had set down misplacedwhen I first got there...so all was right in the world.. I could see! yes!..hah and tomorrow we do it all again! But you know what...I am already cutting out cow parts for next weeks craft...my books are already picked out and ready to go, I fixed the problem with the tape player...so we may get to do the puppets next week...the scooter is gone...hahahahah... The new person didn't throw in the towel....I think I can manage.