Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A Day in the Life Of...

I'm totally copying Jami on this one. shhh....

A Typical Day for Moi

Actually, my schedule changes on a day to day basis so maybe we'll title this a typical Monday.

A Typical Day for Moi
A Typical Monday for Moi

There, that's better.

6:43 a.m. Wake to sound of roommate's alarm. Try to convince myself that it's Saturday and she accidentally left it on. She gets out of bed and turns it off.
6:45 a.m. Wake to sound of my alarm. Hit the snooze. Begin to doze.
6:50 a.m. Wake to sound of my alarm. Turn it off, and swing my legs down beside the bed, muttering under my breath. Poke roommate. Pour our breakfast cereal.
This process is repeated every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but sometimes the roles are reversed.

7:20 Sleepwalk to class with roommate after pulling on clothes only a half a step up from our pajamas.
7:30-8:20 Sit through Intro to International Politics, alternately being poked by and poking Catherine to keep focus on what Prof. Targ is mumbling.
8:30-9:30 Visit the elliptical machine in my residence hall exercise room.
This only occurs if I have gotten at least 5 hrs of sleep the night before. Otherwise, I go back to bed until 10:30. Guess which one happens more often.
9:45-12:00 Shower, put on actual clothes, catch up on reading, lunch.
12:30-1:20 Attend Oceanography lecture. Learn about ocean sediments. Try to care.

1:30-3:20 Go to Cafe Royale, order a chocolate chai and read Apollonius or some other classical work for my next class.
3:30-4:20 Discuss said classical work in Classics on Film. Realize anew just how odd the professor is.
4:30-8 Procrastinate on homework and get dinner.
OR
Work Meghan's shift at the office and think fondly of dinner I will not get to have for another few hours.

8:00-9:00 Sit through weekly WRH Club Board meeting and vote on stuff. I actually never have anything to contribute since my position is just a figurehead and all actual responsibilities left with the population of freshman I was supposed to oversee.
9:01-9:02 Check mailbox and grow excited to see actual mail but it turns out to be another credit card offer. Think fondly back on '06 when I recieved a care package in the mail from a beloved aunt. Wonder if my barren dusty mailbox will ever recieve anything so wonderful again. ahem.
9:05-9:30 Do the USA Today online crossword and sudoku and amaze myself at my fantastic mental prowess.
9:30-12:00 Actually do homework. Visit with my roommate whom I'm seeing for the first time since our class that morning. Watch the Daily Show or the Colbert Report and talk politics.
12:00 A quiet descends.
12:30 Begin to dream of Saturday when I can sleep in.

Interspersed in my day is usually sporadic email checking, phone calls to my family, giving tours of the res. hall, watering of the chia plant, and frantic visits to the computer lab to print off the latest paper that's due in 10 minutes.

I have a planner the size of a billboard, you would think I would be more organized. What I forget to pencil in, however, is motivation to follow the schedule. Ah such is life.

I believe we have entered into the "actual homework time" so I should go. Even though it's Tuesday and Monday's schedule is entirely thrown out of the window.

But before I go, I have to clarify who deserves to win the Superbowl. The Giants. No contest. If you side with the Patriots, the terrorists win. I'm pretty sure Bush covered that in his Union Address* last night.
Ha. Bet you wish you stuck around for the whole thing like I did, am I right?

Thought so.

*I actually have a whole other post on the State of the Union address but it's pretty politically involved and there's probably zero point zero interest in my opinion about that out there in the blogosphere. So I'm not going to post it unless there's a big demand. By that I mean if the 2.5 other people that read this besides my mom want to see it.

Monday, January 21, 2008

alas she speaks after a long silence

blah.
well obviously I survived Dead Week. and Exam Week. Grades weren't ones for the charts but I'm at peace with them. Winter Break was fun and eventful. Went to VA to visit Mom's parents and then unexpectedly to NY because Eva was in a snowboarding accident but you'd know about that if you read my mom's blog. Sam and I came home on New Year's day, drove in a blinding blizzard the whole way and I went to work for the rest of break. I nanny for a family of 8 in my neighborhood whenever I'm home on break. It's crazy, hectic, and sometimes I want to lie on the floor in the fetal position, but the pay is the best, the schedule is very flexible and I love those kids. I've been working for them for about two years and I keep saying next summer I'll get a steady 9-5er for the work experience but I really can't beat what I've got. Last summer for instance, I was able to go on vacation like 6 times and I reaaaally don't want to give up the fabulous Carolus summer trips.

Tangent aside, it's the start of week 3 for the new semester and I just might lose my mind. I scaled back on the credit hours but I picked up a job and even though I'm only working ~15 hrs a week, it's pretty hectic. I work in the main office of my residence hall. I answer phones, sell stamps, rent out movies, spare keys, make copies and shred stuff. I was thrown into work with a very very inadequate training session and an associate who thinks she's boss of the universe that likes to point out everything I do wrong. We have to fill out cash reports at the beginning and the end of every shift because they rotate cash drawers in the registers and those were the bane of my existence for the first few days. I kept messing up little details (because I had no idea what I was doing) and formerly mentioned boss of the universe (hereafter referred to as B.O.U.) admonished me with a shocked look on her face as though my omission of decimal points in reporting there were $35 in ones would cause our esteemed university to crumble to the dust. I have to stifle the wierd urge to curtsy whenever B.O.U. speaks.

I take it all with a grain of salt, however because B.O.U. is not actually my boss. She is the full time admin. assistant I take over for on Tuesdays. She did not hire me and she does not sign my paychecks and while I respect her opinion, I am not intimidated by her constant criticism. I recognize that my training was inadequate but I am a fast learner and I'm doing the best I can.

In other news, my classes are all interesting, even my Intro to Foreign Relations class that's taught by a fossil at 7:30 a.m. three days of the week. I have that class with Catherine so we force each other to get up in the morning and exchange pen jabs during lecture if we see the other falling asleep. Have I mentioned that I love my roommate? She brings me food when I have to work through a meal time at the office. Another class I'm taking, Intro to Oceanography, is with Lauren, who goes to my meeting and that's been really great.

My oddest class is shaping up to be my Ancient Classics on Film class, taught by a professor I had a year ago. This is one of the quirkiest professors I have yet to meet. Class is never boring. We read the Odyssey the first week of class and were supposed to watch the film version but according to him, "it's lame so we're going to watch Ong Bok instead". Ong Bok is a martial arts movie that has absolutely NOTHING to do with Homer's classic. We were still studying the Odyssey last week and what did we watch this time? A French Brigette Bardot film from the 50s. While it keeps things interesting, I am having the hardest time drawing parallels in my discussion essay. The most interesting class is A History of the Modern Middle East, where we discuss at length the cultural and political background of Middle Eastern countries and how it has shaped the region of today.

Anyway, this is longer than I intended it to be but it's been awhile since my last post. It is early but I'm going to bed because I'm sick for the second time in two weeks and tomorrow is going to be a really busy day. I'm pretty sure I will have lost my voice entirely by tomorrow which will make answering the phones at work rather difficult:
[in a hoarse whisper] "Good afternoon, Windsor Main Office."
"Why are you whispering??"
"Because sign language is harder over the phone?"
Oh well, I'll just siphon down copious amounts of chamomile and honey before my shift.

Good night.
 

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