This is what it has come down to. .

What I do in the confines of my office.

Let me be very honest here, over the past two years of my life I ran a facility that was not only larger than this one, but with more complicated office dynamics, student staff drama, and all in “20” hours a week. I put 20 in quotes because that was more like the suggested number of hours you should spend in your office, when in reality some weeks it was closer to 50, and others closer to 10. Just depends on the week.

On top of doing pretty much the same job I am now, I also took a full course load that included up to 9 hours of class, 10 -15 articles, 3-5 chapters, and at least one paper due every week.

Needless to say this semester, my VERY first one without ANY classes à

I am BORED, BoReD, bored, bOrEd. Seriously. So what do I do to pass double the hours they want me to spend in my office. . ??

Well I do what any person who sits at a working computer would do all day. . . SURF the INTERNET!. .

And here are some sites that I have found are interesting, funny, and at times REALLY relevant to what I do.

Related to my job/career:

Student Affairs

Being a "First Responder"

Res Life FOR Life

What my Staff is like

Blogs that speak to me personally:

ARRGGGGHHHHH

Sorta Kinda How I FEEL

Things I read just for FUN!:

HAHAHA this "kid"

I feel smarter already

The address of this site says it ALL

Any ways, I try to stay off Twitter and Facebook while in my office. But Tumblr is my newest addiction.

Other things I do while in my office:

            Make paper ART ( putting my origami skills to work )

            Write lists ( like ToDo, grocery, and budgets )

            Organize my paperwork ( for the bazzilionith time )

 

AND  I occasionally have a dance party ( but only when Pandora plays a good song )

 

Advice --> the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

     My sister said something very interesting to me the other night. In between “mouth breather” tirades, conversations with her dogs, and  random jokes she mentioned that she doesn’t really know me as being a part of a relationship. Which in our case is true because we really only became super close after my last seriously long term boyfriend and I split. Though there have been a few forays into the relationship world since then none of those has lasted past a few months. And none of those men even got near to meeting my crazy family. This precluded her asking me advice about a few issues arising in her relationship. (nothing that will derail the awesome wedding coming up)

     So why is it that all of my friends, coworkers, residents, and that random girl at the grocery market all come to me for advice on relationships that I feel I have no real basis to help them with.  Well apparently I am a good listener. And a good advice giver.

     A part of my frustration stems from the ever increasing bizarreness that my twin brothers dating life has taken on.  From an early age he has always dated what I lovingly term “CRAZIES”. Seriously there was the one girl in high school that insisted on talking to me on the phone to a) make sure that he didn’t have another girl at the house, and to b) tell me to be nicer to him.  Then there was the girl that lied about her age and he ended up arrested! Oh and the clincher the one who convinced him to marry her at a courthouse wedding in Hawaii then a week later, after flying back to the Midwest, called him up and stated “I don’t want to be married anymore.” The last episode in this ever increasing depressive series was the girl he had never met in person express valid points about his friends and thus incited him to break up with her.

     A comment my dad once made a few years ago while my twin was living with him left me and my sister utterly confused and slightly nauseous. He said “your brother is never without a female companion, and every so often that female changes. Unless he isn’t sleeping with her” Just thinking about our brother in that light led to a few gags.

     But so far only one girl has managed to stay just friends with him, and her name is Pat, short for Patricia, which I am eternally grateful for.  (Can you imagine if your brother got together with a girl with your same name? creepy)

 (this is how I imagine my twin on a date)

   Of course throughout all of this I have always been the one that my lovely twin called, and asked advice. Well no more. I have given up giving advice where it isn’t heeded.  I mean come on what better advice is there then the awesome clichés “love will happen when you are not looking for it”, “don’t rush into things”, and my favorite “stop thinking with your little brain.”

   So back to everyone coming to me for relationship advice. Well I have a secret to confess. I love giving advice. Yup that’s right this girl right here is a bonafide Leo who just loves to mask instructions on how to better your life in the ever asked for “advice”.

    Looking at it, I realize that my sister comes to me for advice about her relationship, not because I have a stellar track record, but because I know her. Like so well that I can tell you that at this moment she is nodding her head. (because as a devoted sister she reads these posts despite being a non facebooker or tweeter)

     Thus I will still be doling out advice about all things. Even if I my experience with them are minimal or fast receding into poor memory.  But just to be clear this is how I feel about unwanted advice given to me. .

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Hurrication? HA!

Like a Hurricane + Vacation. . . .

Over a week ago I walked into my job and in less than 5 hours was on the road headed to Jackson Mississippi to avoid an oncoming hurricane. Let’s just say that I was less than pleased.

After arriving at Millsap’s College, a version of Tricia that my colleagues had only guessed out came roaring forward. I marched 100+ students in a line to their new accommodations, assigned them rooms, gave them meal cards, and info sheets in under 45 minutes.  All with the help of some coaches.

You see I was not alone in this endeavor, and for that I am ever grateful. I had my two coworkers, three police officers and four coaches. The coaches were there to watch over the athletes who made up over half of our group.

While I was enjoying sleeping in and roaming the campus, the athletes had to practice. EVERYDAY.

The accommodations were sparse but better than what we expected. Our contract with Millsap’s mentions cots in a gymnasium (NOT what I signed up for like EVER!) Luckily for me and everyone else we were put in a closed residence hall with beds for most everyone, and a room all to myself.

I can’t say I did much while at the college, I met up with some colleagues in the field, watched endless episodes of How I Met Your Mother on NetFlix, and every day at 8pm performed roll call.

However by Thursday night what seemed like a long week was really only three short days, I was ready to GO HOME.

One instance in particular made me re-evaluate just how much I was willing to do for this job.

You see SOME people lack all common sense, and when told that they needed to evacuate, somehow managed to believe that this was a day trip. Either that or this one kid owns nothing but the clothes on his back. We will give this child, (and I don’t care how old he is after the way he acted he is a child) the name of John.

John brought nothing with him but his laptop. So on the very first night my awesome coworker ran to the nearest Wal-Mart and bought this kid, sheets, blanket, towel, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and a pillow. All on his own dime because John didn’t have any money.

On Thursday night right before Roll Call, and thus “curfew” a young man approached and asked for a ride to Wal-Mart as he had not brought a blanket. I said sure after Roll Call.

After a fairly quick Roll Call, I and one of my staff members (as I was not about to go ALONE with a stranger) go to head out. To my surprise 6SIX6 people follow us out. Say WHAT!? This guy had told his friends where he was going and they invited himself.

To my shock me telling them no was not enough to deter John from getting into my car. That’s right he just up and GOT INTO MY CAR. Needless to say I said from very unprofessional things, ranging from how rude, to an I can’t believe this. Despite this terrifying outbreak, he stayed in the car with some lame excuse about needing an ace bandage. After a very short trip to Wal-Mart and back a few things dawned on me-> 1. He never bought that ace bandage, and 2. He used his own money to buy cigarettes and soda. This the guy who had been wearing the same clothes all week.

Ladies and Gentlemen, his actions still make me angry, and still confound all of my coworkers.

Needless to say when Saturday rolled around I made sure that those kids were on those busses in record time, less than 15 minutes.

Luckily for me John does not live in my hall, he lives across campus as the private housing option. HWOOWHOOWOWOW

Also, as well, tambien this Hurricane managed to cancel a trip my best friend was planning to come and visit me. L Oh well at least I got a lot out of this Hurrication. Like a cold.