All play and no work make Jack a mere toy

I've had a number of people ask me what my days are like now that I have a new job, so to appease the masses (a girl can dream, right?) I shall break it down for you.

7:00am- The alarm goes off. Now usually by this point, I have been in a state of near-awakeness (I don't care that blogger says it isn't a word, it is.  You heard it here first folks!) for anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour.  A cruel joke my body likes to play on me.

7:55am- I leave the apartment and walk down to South Temple, where I catch the bus at...

8:06am- I don't know who decided that buses should come at such weird time intervals, but there you have it.  Not 8:05, 8:06. About 2 stops after I am picked up, there is always this group of mothers who get on with their overly excited, sugared-up children who yell, scream, run around, and pull the cord for every stop but their own.  The mothers get offended if you look at them or their children in a disapproving manner.  Look out the window.

8:32am- Exit the public transportation unit and walk the rest of the way to work.

8:37am- Share awkward small talk (or even worse, NO talk) with people in the elevator.

8:45am- Settle into my cubicle. This involves opening my various programs needed for the processing of transcripts, checking e-mail, clocking in (except they still haven't figured out how to get my time card to work), plugging in headphones for later use, and ultimately figuring out where to start in the work load.

                   To give a quick overview, I deal with transcripts.  People mail them, ship them, e-mail them, fax them and forge them.  I get to open them, sort them, figure out who they belong to and if that person even has a record with us, print them, enter them into our database, scan them, rename them and file them (you're wishing you were me right about now huh?)

9:00am- If we weren't able to get through everything the previous day, that is where we start.  This is typically renaming, which involves combining scanned files together and labeling them according to the student, their ID#, which transcript it is, and the school it is from.  Highly exciting.

9:15am- Right about now is when I get a phone call from one of the Enrollment Counselors.  One EC in particular has called me every single day (sometimes multiple times) looking for transcripts that he can't find (which usually we don't have in the first place)and who goes along his merry way when I tell him that the reason he doesn't see it, is because it's not there. (Profound, I know).

10:30am- I am in charge of all the transcripts that are faxed in (which requires going to 3 separate places to find them), and get countless people asking if they're in yet.

12:30pm- MAIL!  Influx of transcripts.  I get a handy-dandy letter opener, date stamp and staple puller and have my way with them.

1:45pm- Still playing with transcripts

2:30pm- Put a bandaid on a new papercut

3:50pm- Answer more transcript questions while entering other transcripts

4:30pm- Take the piles of freshly entered transcripts upstairs to the scanner.

                  Scanning......scanning......scanning........scanning......

5:00pm- Renaming (you'll remember this from earlier in the day)

5:30pm- Clock out and shut down.

                   UNLESS.......someone asks you 3 more questions right then, in which case...

That gets pushed back.

Board the bus home.

6:30pm- Sanctuary!

Glamorous?  No.
I am a glorified paper pusher, but I am so happy to be there.  I am appreciated, depended on, I have more than enough work to keep my occupied, and I have so many possibilities ahead of me, but more of that later, this has been a long post, and I'm sure I already lost most of you.  Congrats for making it through Mom!  I'm sure you're about the only one who did!

Vindication

I went into my old work today to pick up my last paycheck
I really wasn't looking forward to stepping foot in that establishment, especially after how I was treated after all was said and done.
I walked in and immediately received a hug from one of my previous co-workers, and shouts of joy from two others as they saw me.
One of my co-workers said that things haven't been going that well since I left, and a lot of people are pretty upset about the whole thing.  Apparently it has been a harder transition than they thought, and things aren't getting done the way they used to.

I'm glad I went in.  :)

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Recent achievements of those around me:


My roommate Kelly got accepted into Grad School at Westminster!

My mom received a job offer from Bridgerland Applied Technology College where she goes to school.  She hadn't even applied for a position, and they pulled her in for an impromptu interview.

My friend Shannon interviewed for, and was offered a position at her work that coincides with her degree, and is really quite perfect for her.

Congratulations!

Let's bring you up to speed, shall we?

In the last 2 weeks, a few things have occurred.
Among them are:

I received a job offer from Western Governor's University to work in their Transcript department, in a brand new position they just created.  The position is full-time, with benefits, major improvement over my previous situation.  I did have to wait a couple weeks to receive my official offer letter, and my start date is the 23rd of this month, so I am looking forward to that still.

In the course of putting in my 2 weeks notice at my previous job (where I had zero respect, low pay and not-so-good daily interactions with co-workers) it was brought to my attention that certain people felt I was stealing from them (news to me), not a very fun way to leave a place I'd worked for 3 years.  I have never had my integrity put into question like that, and I hope it never occurs again.  So instead of enduring the next 2 weeks with people who felt I had stolen from them, I pretty much quit then and there.

So there I was, jobless for the next 2 weeks.  What is a girl (who currently isn't in school) to do?  Well, I finished reading 2 books and started another, I stained my kitchen table and chairs (a project 2 years in the making), I did some blog-stalking, traveled to Las Vegas with my fabulous roommate, watched movies with friends, ate sushi, returned to volleyball, made greeting cards, experimented with tofu (again, this time slightly more successfully), stayed up late and slept in.

In all actuality, I am going a bit stir-crazy.  I am not used to not working, and although it may sound nice not having to go to a 9-5 (or in my previous case, a 6-3), I am excessively grateful that it is quickly coming to an end.

Hit the Road, Jack!

The last few weeks have been interesting to say the least.
In need of an escape from the usually mundane and predictable nature that is my life, Kelly and I decided we needed to get out of town.
We looked up airfare, train tickets, cruise deals, car rentals, restaurants, shows, you name it, we looked at it.  We finally decided on Las Vegas as the cure for our mid-winter blues.
Come this time tomorrow, we will be hailing our way to Nevada for some much needed relaxation and rest.
My cousin was able to hook us up with an amazing deal on a hotel a block away from the strip- Amy, you rock!

Viva Las Vegas baby!

Really?

Have you ever had a really bad day?
The kind where you get home, take a shower and then put on your comfy gym clothes?
Well, that was my day today (part of it at least)
Kelly and I ended up going to the store, and while there, I picked up one of those Nestle Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream thing-a-ma-who-zits.  The last time I had one was when I was around 7 years old, so I thought I'd try it again.
So there I am standing in line to purchase aforementioned sugary goodness, sans make-up, hair fresh from the shower, and wearing my gym clothes.
I place my bar on the conveyor belt, and the guy behind me puts up his 6-pack of Heineken. It comes to my turn, and the guy behind me tells the cashier that he is going to pay for my dessert, to which I protested.  He prevailed however, and purchased my ice cream bar for me.  I felt like I should have been in a bar and the ice cream bar should have been an Apple Martini.
And I should have at least had make-up on.

Deal

I'm peeved.
Earlier, I was elated.
But now I'm peeved.

And that's all you're going to get right now.