Morning of a Catholic Librarian

I've often dreamed of being a true morning person. Getting up at 5 am all refreshed-like. Doing daily devotional Bible reading, exercising, leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee and breakfast, all before tackling main tasks like bed fixing, hair brushing, and make-up putting on. Oh, and dealing with a crabby 3 year old. But much as I long for this, I'm not a morning person, I'm just not. I'm certainly better than I used to be. I'm up between 6:30 and 7 am on the weekdays, and 7:30 and 8 am on the weekends. This, compared to 10:30-11 from my more slovenly days is quite an improvement, I assure you. All the same, I struggle with forcing myself out of bed in the mornings, and I always, always, always push the envelope. Every day, I'm running around crazily 2 minutes before I have to leave, trying to do 5 things at once.

This morning was no exception. My mom often watches Henry on Fridays, so that adds the complication of having to drive him 25 minutes up to my parents' house and then 25 minutes from there to work, instead of the usual 5 minute daycare commute. I didn't get out of bed til 6:55 (bad girl!) and everything from there was painful. Everywhere I turned, Hank was whining or otherwise causing unpleasant disturbances.

"I no want to go potty." "I no want to sit at the table." "I WANT JUICE!!" "I no like that."

Fifteen minutes after we should have left, I finally get him tucked into his car seat. We embark. As I'm trying to (1) drive, (2) pray a rosary, and (3) listen to a podcast, Henry is peppering me with queries:

"Mommy are we on the highway?"

"yes honey."

"No we not. Mommy what is that?"

"it's the bridge honey."

"Mommy, does little Elijah live on the bridge?"

"No honey, he lives on Grand Island."

"Mommy are we on the highway?"

"YES sweetheart."

"No we not. Mommy, is this the highway?"

Long before Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, I had to start the Apostles Creed over 5 times. It was pretty rough. In the background, I had on The Catholics Next Door, podcast edition, which I love. How I long for satellite radio, where I could access The Catholic Channel any time my little Catholic heart desired. Sigh. We have local Catholic radio here, which I'm unendingly grateful for, so I shouldn't complain. But 3 hours of Catholic talk radio daily with cute and funny Greg and Jennifer Willits? I want that.

Anyway, now I'm all caffeinated up, and I haven't accomplished nearly the things on my to-do list that I wanted to. I embarked on creating some online student reference assistant training, but it's pretty slow going. I have to update and edit my own old Word documents, and it's fairly agonizing. Lately, I feel like I'm constantly putting out fires and never getting to the large, looming items, like, I don't know, publishing another article so that I can make tenure. Minor things like that.

Yesterday, as I was packing up to leave, a panicked-looking student wandered into my office.

"Um, I need some help. Are you the person I go to for that?"

*I pause in the act of stuffing my planner into my cute little bag* "Well, maybe." *winning smile* what do you need help with?"

"Oh, EVERYTHING!! I need to write a paper, and I need help with, you know, finding things in the virtual library."

I just knew I wasn't getting out there on time, but the student was happy and exuding much less anxiety when he left, so I guess I put my powers to good use.