Well, that's the easiest $25 I've ever gotten

So, last week, I get copied in a fairly plaintive email chain from our math department chair asking for help getting a parent a particular article. They ask if I can help, and the request is backed by our overall Head of School (part of whose job is to make parents happy people.)

When I get a minute, I....
- Open a web browser
- Click through to our JSTOR link
- Search on the quite unique title.
- Save a copy as a PDF
- Write up a short but pleasant email saying "Here, please let me know if you have any problems, and I'll send a print copy." and attach the file.
- Go about the rest of my day.
(As in, this might have taken five minutes, including loading time on various pages.)

I have since:
- Gotten a very pleasant thank you from the parent.
- Got a glowing thank you from my head of school

... and just now, the parent walked in, introduced himself, and handed me a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

So, erm. Yes. There are days this school is a little schizophrenic (little direct support/understanding of the stuff that takes me hours of boring work, for example). But there are also days when five minutes makes someone completely happy and amazed.

Everything in its place

Well, not quite. Got two more rounds of shelf moving in my future tomorrow.

(Oversize books to where they're going, then fiction to where the oversize currently are, etc. Probably about another 2-3 hours of work, though, so the end's in sight, and *all* of the non-fiction is done, including the reference, though I still want to weed a little bit in the oversize reference.)

But I just labelled the small 9 drawer repurposed card catalog box (we haven't used them for years) into an office supplies storage space in my back office.

The top two rows are quite predictable: they now have nice neat labels saying
pens - pencils - highlighters
paper clips - stapler and staples - hole punch

But the bottom one delights me, and might also amuse you. It reads:
good chocolate - snack bars - soda change

(In other words, the 'things that will keep a bad day from getting worse, or that are extremely useful when one is suddenly starving or exhausted at 3pm and have a meeting until at least 5')