Gremlins

Ok, I know today has astrological significance going far back into the murky mysts of time, and that this significance still garners modern cultural expression (Chinese New Year's Eve, for one--Mardi Gras for another, fasnach day). But WTF!? Today has been the single most demanding day I've worked here--we're swamped with students desperate for help, and all of the machines are going haywire. Two of the three microfilm readers are out of toner, and the printer on the other keeps printing out the previous print job over and over again regardless of what we do. Two microfilm reels actually broke this afternoon for no apparent reason, things are falling over of their own accord, CopyCo cards are losing balances unaccountably, the PCs keep crashing, and I've had enough.

Plus, I'm here until midnight because my grad assistant is from Taiwan and I kindly gave her the night off for a New Year's party (she wants to celebrate the Year of the Cock--don't we all?), and I came in before 2pm because we had a meeting and I have class T/Th, but because The Man has the flu I had to skip class and take his desk time, so I've got myself a ten-hour day.

Thankfully, The Boss is letting me comp time my shift tomorrow.

Cha is out with It's Australian for Beer! and The Seoul Shiksa to celebrate Mardi Gras this evening--which reminds me, those two fab femmes gave Cha a dove for her birthday last month to replace the dearly departed and nearly eaten Franklin. The new dove is extremely nervous and averse to humans, but I've trained him to hop on my finger now and he's begun to coo a bit. When I was conspiring with Seoul Shiksa before Cha's birthday we'd agreed that they would get her either a parakeet or a canary or a GC toward a more expensive bird we'd pick ourselves, but they got her a dove anyway. C'est la vie!

Wow, Valentine's Day is coming. Jeebus.