It’s summertime and the living is NOT easy.

June is my off-contract month. What this means is, I work an 11 month contract and every year, I don’t work one whole month. I don’t accrue leave and I don’t get paid for it, but I am free for the whole month of June.

Except this year.

This year, we are in the midst of a huge software migration. We’re moving from an integrated library system (ILS) to a library services platform (LSP) and no, I don’t really know the difference between the two, except that our ILS was old and clunky and our LSP is new and clunky.

This software is the backbone of the library, basically. It touches everything we do: acquisitions, circulation, resource management, cataloging, search and discovery, etc. So migrating to a new platform is a pretty big fucking deal. 

We went live with the software on June 10. Pretty successfully! We hit some bumps in the road after go-live, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from such a huge migration. And in my magnanimity, I offered to work half of June so I could be here for the go-live date. But boy, have these two weeks in June been a SLOG. I miss not working.

Not working is great. Yeah, it’s fun not to work on the weekends, or to take an extra day at Thanksgiving, but four whole weeks of not working? Four weeks means you can really relax into the experience of not working. You can get used to it. You can even take it for granted.

Europeans everywhere are rolling their eyes but the Americans know what I am talking about. Usually you squeeze in as much vacation time as you dare take over the year and are told to be grateful for it. But four whole weeks with absolutely no expectation of work at all? Four weeks with all my notifications off and my out of office deflecting any expectation of me responding? There is so much time in four weeks! Time to do things and time to not do things at all! It’s glorious.

However, pushing my leave off to mid-June really impacted me. Guys. I am le tired. I am dragging my beat body into the office, trying to be cheerful and positive about the migration, when all I want to do is lie down on the floor and weep. My body and soul were so excited for June to come around again this year, but nooooo. We’re working. 

So yeah, this month is harder than usual, but there is satisfaction in doing hard things. I have achieved goals and accomplished things and I’m proud of that. I’m still totally here for not working though. Work sucks. 

I’m debating about picking up the Great Alta series by Jane Yolen. Yolen recently passed away and when I heard the news, I immediately thought of her book Sister Light, Sister Dark and how much I loved it as a kid. Then I went to Goodreads to see if I had reviewed the book and yeah, I did—three stars!! That’s a pretty harsh rating for something my memories hold dear. Here’s what I wrote about it in 2008:

Well… I don’t love time skips, that’s true. I guess 2008 me and 2026 me have that in common. And unfortunately, the series is not available through any of the libraries I subscribe to. It’s weird, sometimes I am really gung-ho about buying books, and other times I am incredibly reticent, as if spending $25 bucks on a couple of used books is gonna break the bank. And the Aries in me really hates indecision. You know what? Fuck it. We ball. I’m buying the books.

To be honest, it really has been all work and no play recently. I’ve been in a book slump and haven’t read much at all. One or two more of Jennifer Crusie’s books, a re-read or two of some biker romance novels... I’m hoping finally being on leave will kick start my desire to read again.

Aside from Yolen, I’ve got my eye on Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. “Lesbian astronauts” is pretty much all I know about it and that’s enough for me. It is Pride, after all.

The one good thing about a book slump? I haven’t DNF’d any of the very few books I have read this month. Yay?

Wallace celebrates summer with a giant bowl of cat grass! He loves the stuff.

The cats have really turned the corner on porchin’ time. Now when I open the door, they come running. Pumpkin went head first into the screen the other day, she was so excited to get outside. They even stay out on the porch when I leave! I have to chase them inside when it’s time to shut the door! Now that’s summer magic.

May 31, 2026. The last bowl of pasta I consumed.

I’m doing the Whole 30 diet and it isn’t that hard, except for maybe the noodles. Zoodles (zucchini noodles) and other veggie-based noodle substitutes just don’t cut it. Blessed are the carbs and all who consume them, but not me unfortunately.

What a roller coaster of a month. Work drama, reading slump, big money spent on used books, Pride, cat grass, and a diet that has me giving up noodles. Its summer time and we’ve already had our first heat advisory. I’m so grateful for the time off that my job affords me and I can’t wait to be poolside with a good book.

Love, Marcella.