Where Bloggers Live: A Day in the Life {Workday}

As the blogger and photographer behind Living Outside the Stacks, I independently select and write about stuff I love and things I think you’ll enjoy too. Living Outside the Stacks has affiliate and advertising partnerships so I get revenue from sharing this content and from your purchase. Thank you for your support.

Hey, y’all, hey. How are things? This month has been crazy busy at work. It’s Manufacturing Month – a big month for the technical and community colleges in our system. We use this time {Manufacturing Month, Manufacturing Week, and Manufacturing Day} to host open houses for potential students, business partners, and community members so they can learn about the programs we offer at our five campuses. Although it’s incredibly busy, I enjoy this time of year because it gives me a chance to get out and meet potential students and start making connections before they’re officially students.

Even during normal times, though, I spend a lot of time on the road, traveling between campuses, talking to instructors and students…

Sometimes, during my travels between campuses, I see some really interesting things and I have to stop and take pictures. A few months back, I came across this vintage car collection {warning, that links to the video, to see the pictures, click here} set up at a gas station display. The cars were such a pleasant surprise. But so were the dinosaurs! Those things are huge. I’m not sure why they’re in downtown Alexandria, but I support it and I’m on their side. There were some with feathers, some up in a tree, and a few breaking out of giant eggs.

ABOUT WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE

Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Over the next few months, we’ll share about our work spaces, home towns, and more!

I should note – because this is super important – the creative brain behind this project is Bettye at Fashion Schlub! Love her!

The Celebrity Bloggers

Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Iris at Iris’s Original Ramblings
Leslie at Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After
Sally at Within a World of My Own

Make sure you visit everyone to see where the magic happens!

THE THEME: A DAY IN THE LIFE {WORKDAY}

I get up every morning between 5 and 5:15 to walk and feed the dogs. Actually, I’ve gotten up this early ever since I was in the Army. Don’t get me wrong, there are days when I want to sleep in, but I can’t. My body, my mind, won’t let me. As soon as my internal alarm goes off, I’m up and ready to go. Anyway, feeding and walking dogs is my first chore of the day.

While they eat, I take care of basic hygiene needs like: washing my face and brushing my teeth. After they finish eating, I shower and stand in my closet for about 20 minutes trying to figure out what I’m going to wear. I’m one of those people. I’ve tried picking out my clothes the night before but then I look at them and I’m like nope, not feeling it today. If it were up to me, I’d probably wear a funky top, jeans, and clogs every day.

I usually get to work around 7:15 or 7:30, even though the workday doesn’t officially begin until 8. I use that time to get settled, drink my coffee, and read my email and see if there’s anything pressing that I need to take care of. I also check our social media accounts to see if there’s anything that needs an immediate response. If I’m clear on that front, I check to make sure that whatever needs to go out that day is scheduled so that I can focus on other things. If you follow me on Instagram, this is also when I post my morning coffee pictures.

I’ve worked at the community college for a little over 4 years now and, in that time, my job responsibilities have grown to include a variety of things. Officially, I’m the Director of Library Services and the Social Media Coordinator for the college. On the surface, it may seem like they’re not connected at all. But they are. Because I take pictures of our students, I get to know them on an intimate level. I photograph them in class – when they’re learning and developing their skills, and outside of class, when they’re relaxing. This requires a certain amount of trust. They know I’m going to show them as the professionals they are.

As their librarian, I share information and resources with them that I hope will carry them from our college and beyond. One of the topics I focus on is integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion into the programs that we offer. At the beginning of each month, I go through the DEI calendar to see what events/observances are coming up for the next month and I start putting together resources to share with our students. Once I’ve gathered everything I need, I put them together in a LibGuide. LibGuides are electronic research guides that provide library users with directions for how to locate information. You can see some samples here and here. After I create the LibGuides, I share them on Twitter or post the information to Facebook.

Because I get to do so much, I never really know from day-to-day exactly what my schedule will include. And I love it. However, today is one of those days, when I kinda have a rough idea of how things are going to go. Last week, the Student Life Coordinator at our Ward H. Nash Avoyelles Campus asked me if I could schedule time to to take pictures of the Student Government Association members from that campus. Of course, I agreed. So, I’m off to take their pictures. The drive is about an hour away from my home campus and, since I have to be there at 9:30 AM, I leave a little after 7 so I can get there with plenty of time to set up. I don’t post pictures of students on my blog, but if you’d like to see some of the pictures that I take for the college, you can see them here.

As the social media coordinator for our college, I take pictures at events hosted by our college and post them to our social media accounts. I also create graphics by request. The above graphic is one that I created for an event we hosted at our college yesterday. This is one of several samples that I presented for approval. The final image was used as a “billboard” on a celebratory cake, which you can see here.

Our college is a table sponsor of the Central Louisiana Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business Conference, so all the women who want to attend get the opportunity to do so. I try to attend every year, when possible. If you’ve never attended a women’s conference, I would encourage you to do so. There’s something powerful about being in a room full of women who are doing the danged thing – whatever that thing may be. There were presentations on leadership style and how there is no wrong or right way to be a leader. You can be talkative or you can be quiet {there is strength in listening}, just as long as you know your value and what you bring to the table. Some of the women talked about the importance of not just finding a mentor but being a mentor. Unfortunately, I had to miss the last sessions of the conference due to a meeting but I know it was informative.

The above images show some of the work of our welding students. The fleur de lis cutouts are from ornaments that were presented to the women who attended the Women in Business Keynote Ceremony and Open House at our training facility. And the broken heart is a plate on one of the welding tables.

My meeting was via Zoom and was about professional development opportunities for myself and the other librarian. I’m big on professional development and try to take advantage of every opportunity that I can. When I initially heard about this program, I wasn’t sure about the value in it for us. But after talking to the rep and seeing what all they offer, I’ve decided to schedule time in my weekly calendar to simply focus on this program. While they offer library related lessons, they also offer sessions about program planning, DEI, tech skill development, and so much more.

We recently started a DEI Book Club at one of our campuses, so I’ve spent the past few days working on a LibGuide of resources to go with our readings. We have LibGuides for all of the programs offered at our college as well as specialized guides related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and other specialized material. This is one of my favorite things to work on because it allows me to really get to know our collection and share those resources with our students, staff, and faculty. Our first book is Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. You can learn about the book and see the LibGuide that I created for it by clicking here.

Most of the time, my day ends at 4:30 pm. Sometimes a little later. When I get home from work, this guy is waiting for me. I don’t know what it is with me and squirrels, but he sits there and waits for me to get my camera out, so I assume he was a model in a previous life. Whatever it is, I adore him and he knows I’m not gonna hurt him.

After the squirrel and I finish our photo shoot, I change clothes and hop on the Peloton. That is the one thing that I do strictly for me. It’s my way of decompressing at the end of the day. I’m not gonna lie, not all rides are good ones. Heck, sometimes I don’t even complete a ride, but I like being able to block off time to get out of my head and just be. After I workout, I shower and make dinner.

After dinner, I watch TV and scroll Instagram or Facebook. I usually try to be in the bed by 10:30ish, but I don’t end up going to sleep until waaaay later than that. I’m not a good sleeper and I refuse to accept that it may have something to do with the amount of coffee that I consume.

So that’s it, a day in my life… As I’ve said many times before, I truly enjoy what I do. I work with some amazing people, who take pride in making a difference in the lives of members of our community.

IT’S YOUR TURN

Do you have a daily schedule or do you like to play things by ear?

THANK YOU

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I hope you enjoyed this post and learned something new. If you like what you read, please consider sharing this post on Facebook or Twitter. You can also share on Pinterest. While I pay for many of the items I share on this blog out of my own pocket, some items are gifted to me {I always disclose those items}.

Now go play in your closet,