As a freshman in college one of the first things I did was set up an email account. I already had a hotmail account before college (it didn’t get used much[oh, how that has changed, thank you gmail]) but I needed a school account. I went by Liz (still do) and so my email was L and then my last name. Well. Lowercase l looks a lot like uppercase I when written and not typed (or in any sans serif font, those little serifs help out so much with this problem!). I’m always worried when I fill out forms, like say, for a library card, that some 15 year old volunteer will enter it with an I and not l. It’s never happened. Still I worry. I tell you this (highlighting the library) because the Library is struggling. I set up eAlerts instead of getting letters. I could say it was to go green, but really it’s because I hardly open mail because everything else is online (opening an email takes way less energy then opening a paper envelope. duh). Well. I have never gotten an email from the library. And this time it messed things up. A brand new book that I’ve been waiting months for came out in February and I put a hold on it (online of course [which I can finally do because the library computers decided to accept the same 4 digit pin I’ve been trying to feed it for two years{this computer and I are locked in a death battle(am I using these parentheses and brackets and squiggles correctly?)}]). And the book came. And the book went. Because I got no notification. I could go onto my account everyday and check. But the point of the Alert is so that I don’t have to because the window of fulfillment on this hold: Now until October!! I’m not logging through 4 screens everyday for 6 months just for a book. Even a book I really want to read. Plus these alerts are also supposed to be sent when my books are almost overdue so I don’t have to pay a fine (If you added up my lifetime of overdue fines, I think you could pay for a wing in the library. Or at least an encyclopedia). Back to my point. After 5 weeks on the waiting list, I missed my chance at the book. And I only knew this because I logged in to put a hold on another book and saw that the first book was in and had to be picked up by the day before. I yelled at the computer a minute and then put it back on hold. The status updated 6 days ago to “In Transit”. It’s still “In Transit”. It has to come from a central MA library. My guess is it’s coming on the back of a turtle that is traveling from the Galapagos Islands.

The washing machine in the house I live in drains into a basement sink. We’ve ocassionally had water on the floor, but thought that it was the drain hose lifting out of the sink. I weighed down the hose with a container of detergent and the flooding stopped for about 6 months. Then last week the washer didn’t drain completely. The level dropped so we didn’t think anything of it. Except on Saturday the water was back sitting around the bottom of the washer. I ran it again, empty, and then the water was on the floor again. Darn. With my roommate home, we tried running it again. I was sitting on the couch watching tv. Something I don’t do very often without cable and DVR because there are so. many. commercials. but tonight I was sitting there and then I heard water hitting something stone. Sure enough it was from the basement. I went down and a 10 gallon sink was over flowing at a ridiculous rate. I had two options. Let more water pool on the floor where it still hadn’t dried since yesterday. Or stick my hand in the water and see if the drain was clogged. I shoved my hand in the sink. I pulled some stuff out of the sink, including part of a broken headband and the water started to drain. And. Well. No more water in the washer. If only we had kept the drain clean I could have done laundry yesterday when I had the whole day, and not have to cram it in every night after work tonight. Often I hear the voices of my mother and grandmother in my head. Except it’s not voices. It’s them shaking their heads.