Last night in San Diego

Today was mostly the same as yesterday, except for the food, which I will update you on at the end of the message.

No boxes came, Chris and Jean scrambled around to get me tracking numbers, but it turns out that there was some weather delay and the boxes ware scanned en route in LA late last night. UPS couldn't or wouldn't do anything to track them further, and said that we couldn't reroute them (directly to the port agent or to Honolulu) until there was an arrival scan. I haven't decided if its time to go to plan B, and what plan B might entail or if I'll just keep the dream alive at least until we leave Hawaii.

The main exciting thing about today was that the 25 students who will be work-studies on the voyage arrived. The library is getting six, all sweet, pretty girls. So I know that the library will be well trafficked by the male students. I liked them all instantly, and gave them a little customer service talk which they seemed to respond to. Tomorrow after breakfast they'll be reporting for duty. They're committed to 200 hours of service for which they receive a $6500 credit to their tuition. That's not a bad deal. I'll be putting them to work initially with some shelf-reading, straightening out the book donations, doing some work with the records of the travel books (some are in the system as reference, some as reserve, some as travel). Some other odd jobs, too. I'm not going to train them in circulation yet because 1) the patron database isn't loaded and 2) I don't really know how to use it that well myself, yet.

Another little accomplishment today was I got all of the "donated" textbooks off-loaded from the ship as well as some other donations that looked liked they'd out lived their usefulness. If there's not a better plan for the textbooks at the end of the voyage I'll try to arrange to have them removed at the end too. I don't know in the last minute chaos if I'll have time. That's something nice, it's pretty easy to get stuff removed from your life, especially if you drag it all out so it's an eye-sore and safety hazard.

I could have spent a few more hours in the library this evening, probably. But I knocked off about 6:30 after I'd met my work-studies and went and met Alden Jones for dinner at this nice, fancy mall near the harbor. The ship is really nice, and there's not that many people on board, yet, but it still can feel kind of cramped. I really needed to get off for a bit, and I think I'm going to make a mental note that getting outside and getting some exercise everyday is essential for my sanity.

When I got back from dinner, I noticed Shamim Sisson in one of the rooms talking with Bob Viera, the executive dean. She's here to give the students the drill on the Honor Code. It was really nice to see her, someone from home. She'll be with the ship until Honolulu.

Now I'm in my room, and I plan on making it an early night after a little TV (I've gotta get my final fix), and crosswords. It's going to be a Donna-Reed-in-It's-a-Wonderful-Life librarian night, not a Parker-Posey-in-Party-Girl librarian night.

Breakfast: Mushroom and Ham Omelet and Bacon
Lunch: Pork Chops and broccoli and cauliflower
Dinner: Off the ship, Shredded beef tacos with beans and rice (very delicious)