FREE ICE CREAM!!!

The best day ever.

Free ice cream at lunchtime AND free ice cream after dinner!

This afternoon the school held an ice cream social for everybody who helped out with freshman advising this month. I made a chocolate and vanilla sundae with strawberry topping, nuts and chocolate sauce. YUMMMMYYYY!

Then, after work I went to the grocery store to get a salad for supper. Attached to the store is a Starbucks with a sign in their window that read "FREE STARBUCKS ICE CREAM ALL DAY!" Well, what's a girl to do but go in and get more free ice cream?

The only thing that would make this day any better is a sign reading "Free Ice Cream AND Free Puppies!!!"

Brain Dead

I am EXHAUSTED today!

After getting a full 8 hours of sleep last night, I am just DRAGGING. I worked hard yesterday during the final day of freshman orientation and registration at my university. I was just supposed to print out class schedules but have wound up doing actual student advising for the entire month of June!

Because yesterday was the final registration session of the summer, most of the freshman courses were filled and it took a while to get each student registered for classes. At one point, a girl I was helping started crying. I felt so bad for her. At each session, the students have been through a day and a half of a whirlwind orientation and the very last thing they do before going home is register for classes. They are dog tired and their brains so packed with new info their heads are spinning.

If I were just a normal temp in the registrar's office and not a recent graduate of my school, I would never be able to help out these kids like I have. I offered suggestions on cool classes to meet core requirements. I gave tips about my favorite professors. I eased worries by letting them know if their classes met in buildings close together or far apart. I told them where to find good pizza and coffee.

Even though I get frustrated sometimes, I really like helping out 18-year-olds. Because I've never been a parent, I don't see them as "just kids". Since I spent so many hours in classes with students half my age (or more), they became my peers. As a result, I think there is more of a give-and-take communication between us. Or at least I like to think so. Every once in a while, I am startled by their ignorance at a pop culture reference I make and have to remind myself of the difference in ages (and generations!).

But, sometimes the age-gap narrows. Like yesterday. One of my advisees hailed from Connecticutt. I asked her if she lived in "Stars Hollow" and she smiled and said "I love that show" I was so thrilled I could share a "Gilmore Girls" reference with an 18-year-old!

Thinking about that connection makes me smile and feel a little less brain dead.

What I Like the Most about the South

Thank goodness there's something I like about the South.

Every day I toy with the idea of moving back to the Northwest and mostly every day I feel wistful about the climate, beauty and liberal attudes native to the area.

But, if I move back, there is one thing that I will miss about the South. And that thing is this: strangers who look you in the eyes and say "Hi".

I am a walker. I commute to work by foot and urban walking is my preferred form of exercize. Along the way, when I pass people I usually greet them, either with a smile, a wave or a friendly "hi" or "hey". Here in the South others frequently greet me, first. It makes me feel good, acknowledging the humanity in others.

In Seattle, I walked two to three miles a day, 3 to 5 days a week for about 10 years. And I have to say that in that time, not ONCE did someone say hello to me first! Usually, when I would smile and nod my head, I would encounter a downward glance or an uncomfortable tight grin. Never a full-on friendly hello. Seattle's preferred walking path is the asphalt ring surrounding Greenlake. If you live there, think about it. Have you ever said hello to the people you pass more than once as you make your way around the lake? No, it's like a circular cavalcade of drones, going about their business, alone in a sea of others.

What's the deal? I frequently felt like a freak when I ventured out for my walks and said hello to others passing by. Sometimes, even ashamed. What's up with that, anyway? Why don't Northwesterners say hello to strangers? Heck, I'm white and they're all mostly white so it can't be a racial prejudice thing! Is it really, as I've been lead to believe, a Nordic conservative attitude? Loosen up, people!

And I don't even consider myself a people-person! Just a little friendly contact is all it takes to brighten my day. Now that I know its not my fault, if I do move back to Seattle, I will make it my mission to start a "cheery greeting" campaign, to urge Northwesterners to start saying hello to strangers. It is nothing to be afraid of, people!

The Professor and his WIFE

I know he got what he deserved. I've seen his kind before. Heck, I've fallen hopelessly in love with his "type" before.

You know the type: brilliant, handsome, articulate, gets your sense of humor and you have a great connection with him...but no way would he ever find you attractive. Instead, he goes for either Asian women or very beautiful women (not that Asian women aren't beautiful...but if you've ever lived in Seattle or Vancouver, you are well aware of white men who only date Asian women).

This time, I didn't fall for him, only shared common interests with him. He happened to be my professor at the time and steered me in a direction I should have been going my entire adult life. I had seen him with his young beautiful, blond girlfriend who seemed rather inarticulate and whom I assumed had the profession of either beautician or aerobics instructor.

Boy was I wrong. She was also a PhD and a professor and about 12 years his junior! From the first time I met her, she was hostile towards me. What I didn't know at the time was that she was pregnant with Mr. Professor's son and felt threatened by my common bond with her husband. Something I didn't understand, as I've become quite used to being the woman men are "just friends" with. Especially cute, smart guys.

After they were married, I thought maybe she'd warm to me. Occasionally, she has. Once, she even inited me to sit with them (and the new baby)at a lecture. But today, I ran into the little family at the farmer's market and she was, once again, very cold and distant to me. She dragged her husband away, before I could even talk to him about his research abroad.

He's mentioned, in passing, that maybe they got married because they were both new to town and felt a little lost.

I really think he got what he deserves. I look at him as a representitive of all men of his type. Only this one got caught. Now he's in an unhappy marriage and saddled with a (OK,absolutely adorable)kid. I do feel a little sorry for him.

But, I wish we could continue our friendship.

Diploma

I got my diploma today.

This week, working in my University's Registrar Office, I've mailed out HUNDREDS of diplomas. Then, when mine was handed to me, suddenly, it looked different from all the rest.

The University of North Carolina

confers upon

Ansapo

who has honorably fulfilled the requirements prescribed

by the Faculty and the Board of Trustees, the degree of

Bachelor of Arts

Magna Cum Laude

together with all the rights, honors, and privlieges thereunto appertaining

I started to cry.

22 years after the rest of my peers got their degrees and I started hanging my head whenever someone asked me "Where did you go to college?" I got mine.

It means so much to me.

It's Going to be a LONG Month

While I was able to get a job following graduation, It is with the University - run by the State of North Carolina.

This means that I only get paid once a month and the pay period runs from the 11th of the month until the 10th of the next month. The checks are distributed on the last day of the month. So, I won't get my first non-student paycheck until June 30th. Since I started work on the 23rd of May, my check will only be for a partial month. I won't be able to pay off all of my monthly expenses. I'll be left with a deficit. I currently have $72 in my bank account left over from last month, when I took out a $1,200 loan from my credit card to cover bills.

My first decent (in relative terms) paycheck won't arrive until July 30th. This leaves me with a grand total of $ 72 for the next six weeks for groceries, gas, medicine, cat food (!), and anything else that pops up. I can forget about movies, going out for dinner and getting my car tuned-up and having the brakes checked (yikes!).

I am re-thinking the decision I made a few weeks ago to buy a new pair of shoes, using the $200 graduation gift from my mom. At the time, I treated it like "found money" and bought myself something I not only needed, but wanted. These shoes are made in Germany and not only look nice enough for the office but are comfortable and supportive enough for my walk to and from work each day.

I know this period of absolute angst over money will end but this will be the 3rd summer in a row that I have had a very rocky July! I just want it to stop.

Being broke has kept me isolated. I don't have the resources to check out local music or indy film happenings at the local coffe shop/nightspot. I can't just "hang out" in a coffee shop (or bar...not that I would) and try to strike up a conversation with somebody. I can't drive to a town 50 miles away and visit with my best friend. It is hard and if you've been there, you know.
I CAN go to the library, limit myself to $15 a week for groceries at the farmer's market and try to enjoy cooking. There's always TV to watch but it keeps me inside my apartment - not a bad thing when the temperature rises above 90 degrees. I also love spending time with my cats, Saturn (who I profiled in a previous blog) and Panda, an adorable black-and-white-kitty with white fur over one eye, black fur over the other and a black nose. He is a master at Cat Dancer, a great goalie and his antics make me laugh.

I'm not destitute, just frustrated. If this is a learning experience to help me grow, it can stop now! I'm big enough, thank you very much!

Waiting for the work to begin

I'm graduated and (semi) employed now, having begun a long-term temp position in the Registrar's office at my medium-sized Southern university.

Now that I have a degree (which should arrive next week...) I am taken more seriously by employers and I am FINALLY getting the analytical-type of work I crave. No more receptionist/multi-tasking/heavy-interruption/ask-permission-to-go-to-the-bathroom-so-somebody-else-can-get-the-phones types of jobs for me, fingers crossed.

But, in order for me to grasp the intricacies of my work, I need to wait for others to complete their parts of the process so I can be trained on mine.

So, I wait. And surf the web. And brush-up on my Excel skills with online training. And sneak a few M&M's. And read my predecessor's notes. And walk sloooowwwlllyyy to the ladies room.

15 minutes and it will be lunch time.