Other duties as.... unforeseen in a time of a global pandemic.

March 15 our library officially closed.

It was a Sunday. We would normally open at 1:30pm. I walked in at 12:50 and was met by a coworker on the stairs. "We are closing" she said. "Thank God" I replied.

The previous Wednesday "45" declared a national emergency, the NBA shut down and cases were starting to pop up across the country.

Local schools started closing the next day.

Thursday evening I had a patron tell me, "Thank goodness you all are open so we can come here while school is out!"

Eeek! I thought to myself. We all know that libraries aren't the cleanest places in the first place. COVID-19 was bound to make them into petri dishes of infection.

Saturday was BUSY.

Sunday we closed. With about 30 cars in the parking lot and more streaming in as the minutes ticked by.

My days since then have consisted of lots of emails, Zoom meetings, lots of reading websites, copyright restrictions from publishers and creating videos for our library YouTube channel among other things.

I have also been balancing a spouse who also is working from home, two kids under 4 (one who is attached to me literally multiple times a day) and an uptick in anxiety and depression (who could guess why?!).

I am having to let go of a lot of things. Plans for work but also plans I had for my kids.

My baby won't have the 1st Birthday I had in mind, my son won't get to ride his first roller coaster this summer. I grieve these things we will miss out on but I am grateful for the things we do have. A home, jobs, our current health. Many have so much less now.

Wherever you are I hope you are safe, well, and pushing through one day at a time.