April 21, 1992

What I didn't watch on this or any other night on TV

For the third week in a row, I don't have a free morning.  I drive to the SCLS office to attend a LINK cataloging subcommittee meeting, which lasts only an hour.  Nevertheless, it's still one by the time I get to the library, where I remain until after 10.  JoAnna gets sworn in as a new county board supervisor, but I feel a need to attend the council meeting, and what an inept circus it is.  The Gang of 5 is still smarting from their recent setback and refuse to endorse the mayor's slate of candidates for the various boards and commissions.  I fear not only for the library but for city services in general.

April 7, 1992

During the morning, I can avoid thinking about the election because of the need to focus on my ETN presentation, which goes well.  Like the Nuts and Bolts program, I feel as though I have skimped on the preparation time, but my delivery is smooth and confident for the most part.  Amazingly, about halfway through the program, I have to put a lid on the discussion so I can get to the heart of my notes.

After driving home, I find that I have no appetite for lunch.  I take a container of yogurt out of the refrigerator and methodically spoon out the contents.  The afternoon at the library is fairly unfocused.  I leave at 4 to pick up both boys at daycare.  We eat out at McDonald's -- yesterday it was Burger King -- where I chow down three chicken fajitas, a fast-foot entree I actually find myself salivating over.  I'm actually feeling less stressed out, even a bit more confident about JoAnna's chance.  I endure a rather comical Common Council meeting, but considering these are the folks that will be voting on the library budget later in the year, it's a frightening display of pigheadedness and ignorance.  Before the meeting, Bruce Kaufmann addresses Don in such as way as to suggest that Don has the election in the bag.  I remain poker-faced but am chuckling on the inside.

The results are a long time comin'.  Yesterday Tim said he'd have all the totals tabulated by 9:15, 9:30 at the latest.  Guess again.  Considering the speed with which he gets the checks mailed out, I certainly should have known better.  Still hoping for speedy returns, I wait with Jim Wexler and Mike Duren in the administrative office.  Who should join us but Don and his wife, who seems a real friendly sort but studiously avoids eye contact with me.  Once they learn about the delay, they decide to wait things out at the Village Green.  I decide to join the party -- in progress at home, the tension mounting each time the phone rings -- and it rings, chirps, actually, every five minutes. Around 11, Jim calls with the news that JoAnna has won, the 1st, 3rd, and 5th districts he clarifies after JoAnna hands me the phone.  But the 5th is Don's district  so we are heartened.  Fifteen minutes later, Jim calls to ask to speak to the new supervisor from the 26th district.  I relay the news to JoAnna across the living room and a joyous communal cheer raises the roof. JoAnna takes the phone and I give her the hug of a lifetime and feel the pleasant sensation of my eyes welling up with tears of joy.  It's a feeling that rivals the birth of a child.  I'm so proud and elated that I hug everyone in sight.  It's especially nice to have JoAnna's parents with us to share this fantastic moment.  For them it will be a memory of a special time that ranks with the best.  It will certainly be for me.

March 31, 1992

TIME

Why is it lately that any time like this that I spend home alone, I get caught up in doing household chores.  I haven't done a thing with my journal notes in weeks.

It's less than a productive day at the library.  I get a call from Eddie's daycare.  He has a temperature of 102, so I get to spend a little bonus time at home.  Most of the evening is taken up with a Committee of the Whole meeting, which extends beyond the library's 9 p.m. closing time.  And wouldn't you know it.  Somebody wants to get into the library's meeting room after the front doors are locked.  Worse yet, she has to sit down by me and kvetch about it.

Tuesday, December 3, 1991

After a brief stop at the library, I drive to the system office to attend a very routine and comparatively brief Advisory Committee meeting.  (I just automatically start writing in the present tense.  So much for a change of pace.)

On the drive back to Middleton, I groove on a collection of 80s tunes that I recorded onto one tape and stop at Hilldale to buy JoAnna a special birthday present, a pearl-drop earring and necklace set at Marshall Fields.  At Moseley's, I buy a blank book for myself, into which I hope to start recording some meandering thoughts about my life.  Soon.  But not this week, I suspect.

I attend the council meeting that evening, and the budget passes without further change.  Julie Brunnette addresses the issue of reimbursement for nonresident use, which I amplify during the reports from city officials.  Sandy Allen is assigned to the library board.  The good news is that her mom is a big library supporter.

May 7, 1991

I think I'm going to get some work done before the Advisory Committee meeting, but JoAnna calls to inform me she forgot her purpose and -- naturally, there's a second part -- to ask if I'll drop it off at the office.  So I make a big loop through Madison on my way to Lodi.  The meeting is eventful.  I return to Middleton just in time for the volunteer luncheon.  When asked, I deliver some off-the-cuffs remarks about the first year in the library that are smoothly delivered and apparently well-received.  During the afternoon, I drop off my 50-page syllabus to Kathleen Weibel's office, stopping at Prangeway on the way back to Middleton to look for specific songs from 1969 for my latest taping project.  The evening is middling.  I talk with Jim Wexler after the council meeting.  The parking lot change order was approved -- that's the good news -- but the bad blood between Julia and the "chamber" wing of the Council could place the library in a precarious position at budget time.  

Middleton Common Council Swearing In (April 18, 2011)