TGIF

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on FRIDAY!

Take it easy, Rebecca Black. We're all excited for the 3 day weekend. I am so stoked to have Monday off. Labor day, aka a day where everybody has fun, a little bbq, a little beer, some sun, shades… ok, let's be honest..I'll probably be sleeping. But I'm ok with that. Like I'm actually really looking forward to it.
But before that I have to get through tomorrow. What's tomorrow, you ask?

Only the first BIG sport club event of the year. And my FIRST BIG event as a GA.
A full on Rugby Tournament. Lots of striped shirts, short shorts, long socks, hookers, scrumming, (these are actual terms. i swear) and lots of wrestling mixed in with soccer mixed in with football. In other words, I won't have a clue what is going on during the games, not that I'll have time to worry about them much.
Over 16 teams from all over the state and Missouri will be coming to play rugby and it's supposed to be around 100 degrees. And did I mention that Carbondale is SUPER humid? you basically need gills out here, it's impossible to breathe normally, let alone exercise. And we're expecting around 300 people to be outside all DAMN day.

Me, nervous? Worried? Nahhh…piece of cake.

Ya. I'm totally fine.
We've been working on this event for some time now and it's been crazayyyy. You know how everyone says that communication is key? If I had a nickel for every time someone said that in my life, I'd be on par with Bill Gates. Even though we hear it all the time, WHY IS IT THE HARDEST THING TO DO???
It's like we know it's important. We know it's vital in getting things done. But it's almost like everyone in the entire world sucks at it. Even the communication majors cuz all they really do is group projects and public speaking. That's not communicating.
So i've been dealing with trying to provide all the resources I can for the rugby team that's hosting this shindig, communicating with the club pres, my boss, the first aid responders needed, the staff to supervise, the people to order food and drinks for the concession, and just about everyone else and we all really SUCK at getting precise, clear and reliable information across.

WHY!?Whywhywhywhywhywhy!!?!dslkjfoaijfwljfkapdlke

Ok. Venting aside, I think we'll be ok for tomorrow. I really hope so. We start at 6:30am and we probably won't be done til around 7:30/8. Today was a lot of the manual labor stuff like hauling about 100 cases of water and gatorade to the field in 90+ degree heat and 80+% humidity. And then set up rugby fields. And tents. and goal posts. It looked like you just took a shower except it's your sweat. I don't care who you are, that's not a good look for anybody.
We still have some prep work in the AM so I'm hoping that all goes ok. *insert prayer here*

By Monday, all of you will now how it went as I will give a full account. But instead of freaking myself out more I'm going to change the subject. Something a bit more positive.

:)

A lot of you from Cali have asked what's Carbondale like.

Well it's a pretty cool place. And here are some photos to prove it.

This is the building I have all my classes in. That's my dad, doing a terrible job of photobombing. Good job, Dad.

'The Castle' on my campus. It's actually the Music building. Music majors get to have all the fun. 

We have a campus forest. It's in the middle of campus. Just there. I don't know why.

It's kind of like in Harry Potter, in that it's woodsy and slightly frightening at night (don't ask why I know that) but without the unicorns and centaurs. Bummer, I know.

This is Morris Library. Morris and I are great friends already. Sorry P.J. Shields, but he has a coffee shop in his lobby. 

This is some art that's in between the College of Business and Morris Lib. I call it 'Saluki Stonehenge' but I don't have a clue to what it is or what it's actually called.

Walking to class in a torrential down pour of rain. This happens a lot. It'll be sunny out and then BAM. Rain. 30min later, sun again. SO WEIRD

Sunset from my apartment. Not too bad out here.

This is one of the wineries from my first weekend here. This will forever be dubbed 'That Place With Sangria' but it's actually Rustle Hill Winery.

Hey! It's almost like I'm back in California wine country! Almost.

And this is where I work. Well a small part of it. There's 4 courts and a track on the ground floor. Up stairs there's a track and exercise machines looking down onto the courts. And that's not the whole thing either, but I haven't taken pics of it all just yet.

There's a lot of cool things to do in little Carbondale. And my 2 year bucket list is quite long. I'm starting to feel better here and it's a good thing. I'm meeting more people everyday and I'm learning new things about C-dale and myself too. 

If you still think Carbondale is just a small little town in the middle of nowhere, maybe this video will help. It helped me. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UmvSgKhIpk

This is my little city now. Y'all are welcome to come visit some time :)

To be continued!

Joy Rides and Retail Therapy

Happy Hump Day! Here's a tale about my interesting start to the 2nd week here in C-dale.

I was awoken by a text from my boss about how the Kubota was stolen out of our equipment shed.

For those that do not know, a Kubota is this...

Ours is much dirtier, older and doesn't have the roll cage anymore but that's the gist of it.

As sucky as that is to wake up to, I was still impressed somebody had the gall to steal this bad boy.

But needless to say it wasn't an enjoyable moment. But after some rather excellent deductive reasoning detective skills, we got a tip that it ended up at one of the local apartment complexes. in a ditch.

Oh, college kids. 

I hope that joy ride was fun while it lasted. Or maybe s/he doesn't remember the ride but I think it's kind of slightly hilarious. In a more serious tone it's not cool to steal children. But if you are gonna steal, don't steal a filthy, janky, Kubota circa 2000. Try for a decent automobile next time. Maybe one with a windshield. And brakes. And isn't push to start. (Not Wiz Khalifa's cool, 'push to start' but actually someone pushes it while another person tries to get the engine to turn over.)

And that was just Monday.

We had our first day of flag football officials' training that night so that meant power points, rule books, and refreshing on football terminology. I have worked a lot of flag football in my undergrad and I get the game. But we take it to a whole new level in Carbondale. Most of the refs are not only IM refs but trained for pop warner and high school too. So I really have no business in teaching them ANYTHING about flag football. They should teach me.

So Monday I kept to myself in the back of the room, while B did most of the work. 

But on Tuesday, B had class so I was stuck with presenting again on the 2nd night. Perf. But luckily the supervisors stepped up and helped out a lot which was good sense we had over 40 people show up. We're going to have over 70 students try-out for around 30-35 spots. I love the enthusiasm and it's always better to have more but it absolutely sucks telling the others they aren't going to get hired. It's like getting cut from a sports team or not getting hired but it happens and life goes on. I still feel awful when we send out that email though. My heart strings get tugged a little bit.

Wednesday, today, was/is/i'm not sure what the correct grammar is, a tough one. A lot of meetings, a lot on my to-do list and school. It's busy and I know it's not always going to be like this but this sucks. I can feel my anxiety level get higher and higher every time I walk into the Rec Center.
After class and after my 2nd meeting of the day, I realized that it was already 4 and I had yet to study for my last important test and we still had flag football clinics to do. *pulls hair out*

Anyone who has worked with me knows I get a little sassy. I like to know what's going on, make sure it's done right and I like to give myself lots of prep time. I like it when my staff runs itself like a well-oiled machine and I just have to do some minor adjustments. When that doesn't happen, which is more often than not, I get sassy and bossy and anxious and stressed and frantic. This whole month has been anything but a well-oiled machine. It's chaotic and with little structure as we're all trying to just get things done asap. I don't know what's going on for clinics tonight, there isn't a set way of how things are supposed to be run, and it's so foreign from what I am used to back at Davis, I just don't know what to do so I start asking questions and getting frantic. B snaps at me that she's got it handled (later I found that she does indeed but just needed to do it herself.) On top of that we've got sport club events, people emailing me on the hour every hour it feels like so even when I'm not at work I'm at work. My test tomorrow is super important. I HAVE to pass. And it's not going to be easy, it's on finance and I don't have the equations memorized and I don't know if I can do a problem set without the textbook in front of me.

and my stress level and blood pressure just gets higher and higher. Not even taking a break for drafting my fantasy football team really helped because I'm too damn competitive and take it too seriously. Fantasy football as relaxing?? Yeah right…

I know I know I know..I'm new, in a new place, with new people, and new ways of how to do things and there's a learning curve, but I couldn't be in that office anymore.

I told my boss I had to go. I bolted, got in my car and just drove. I thought ok, I'll go to a coffee shop, get some studying in, some good coffee and maybe a snack and I'll be ok. But it was like an out of body experience…I saw myself pass panera's, pass the turn I take to get back home and get on the highway, exit, make a left and another left and somehow I ended up in the parking lot of Barnes and Nobel.

Well. Alrighty then.

I love books. I love to read. Always have. Always will. I love the smell and feel and just everything about them. I have always wanted a big ol' library filled with books with a rolling ladder, beauty and the beast style, in my house. (Sigh, one day.)
So it's not completely random that I ended up there. 

I wandered around B&N for about 50min. Doing nothing but reading the backs and inside flaps f various books and walking in between the stacks. It was perfect and I ended up buying 4 new books. Shocker. But to be fair, they were on sale and I had a gift card. So not too bad for my version of retail therapy.

That was about an hour ago. Right now I'm about to change and get ready for my first flag football official's field clinic as a graduate assistant. And I'm ok. I'm not worried about how it's going to work out cuz it will. I'm going to just help some newbie officials learn the rules of flag football. This is my first time actually attempting to let go and not freak out.
Wish me luck.

To be continued!

Carbondale: Cheap booze and Expensive Comforters

The weekend is just about over and I am so sad to see it go.
This was the extent of my Saturday...

I watched at least 4 movies. All odd, obscure, indy, sundance films you've probably never heard of. I watched a film in French (with english subtitles of course) a 90's film that was pretty awful but it was so awful it was kinda good and then a few that I watched either just the beginning and got bored or I caught the tail end of some so that I just saw the happy ending. One in particular called, Save The Date is a totally hipster movie. Like the epitome of hipster. Quirky girl dates singer in indy rock band. They break up she finds her quirky new lover and some dramatic happenings happen in between. It was good but I don't have to watch it again.
I also went on pinterest, did some blogging, and eventually loaded the dishwasher but only because I didn't have any clean spoons to eat my cereal. And ice cream. No not together. Ok maybe together. (but really jk, wheaties and vanilla bean is not a good combo)

Don't judge. We've all had those days and since my roommate was out of town I took full advantage of lying on the couch in a comatose state staring at the TV without someone suggesting that I try to get dress or go shower or attempt to look alive.

Ok I tend to exaggerate, but really it was so incredibly nice to just not do anything. Did I have things to do? Sure. I had homework for class and work. I had mentioned to Kaylee about maybe going to an event for the Rec. But that couch turned into a giant quick sand pit and I was not able to move.

By late, and I mean late afternoon I finally picked myself and made an effort. Kaylee mentioned that she wanted to go out that night so I went upstairs to shower and try to look presentable for the public. I went to my boxes that were still unpacked and found some clothes and it dawned on me that I had been living out of these boxes for a very long time. In fact, 3 weeks. Exactly.

I about cried. I subconsciously put off unpacking completely as a way to push the notion that I am staying here away. Nothing about my room says that it's a room other than it has my bed and dresser and some strewed clothes on the floor with some boxes.

I promised that I would finally unpack and get real about this whole deal the next day.

So I called up another co-worker, Brian and we made our way to the land of drinks, and cover bands. Kaylee now was too tired to go out but she would take a rain check. LAME. but it was fine. We ended up at Pinch, surprise surprise. It's the only bar I've frequented so far but I'm alright with that. I'm here for at least another 24 months, I have time to see the others. The band was playing various songs of the hip-hop, rap genre of today's hits. But the crowd wasn't feelin it. Well it wasn't that big of a crowd but it was kind of awkward when I asked Brian if he liked the band and he said that he didn't even know most of the songs. (He's a country boy through and true. Drives a truck, wears camo and wears his cross necklace like a badge of honor. But he's a true gentleman and knows how to have a good time too. And he calls me 'Cali'. I love it.)

Finally another familiar face appears and the night gets to be getting better. I'm introduced to new people, all players on the soccer club team, Jack and Coke in hand and it's a pretty good time.

Because Brian bought my first drink, I told him the next round was on me. I walk up to he bar, order 3 drinks give her a 20 and get 9 bucks back. Wait. WHAT

You can bet on it, Audrey.

I walked away with a jack-n-coke, a beer, and a vodka tonic and had enough money left over to buy 2 more drinks AND give the bartender a tip.
     
OHMIGAWD I FRIGGIN LOVE THIS PLACE

If I bought 3 drinks in Davis I probably would most definitely have had to pay more than 20bucks. And no, there wasn't a special on the drinks I got.
This could be really really dangerous. As I enjoy JackyD but often go for a different, less expensive drink, like beer. Apparently booze is cheaper than water out here. I am ok with this.

After I come back and exclaim my excitement to my new friends and they look at me like I'm from outer-space because they don't get it, we had the unfortunate encounter with a guy who just wouldn't take the hint that none of the girls in our group were interested in getting to know him. Yep. We had the creeper guy follow us for half the night. Joy. I guess they are everywhere, even Illinois.

After a few 'sorry gotta go to the bathroom' and 'oh hi, see i'm about to go find my friend' and 'oh hi again, i'm about to go find my BOYfriend' he still wouldn't let up. (fyi there's never a real boyfriend usually but any other male friend will do.) Gotta hand it to the poor guy for being persistent but when you already revealed that your real age is 35 (THIRTY-FIVE?!?!??) us 21 year olds are most definitely NOT down.
As we're about to leave as the bar is closing for the night he had moved on to a new group of girls who I guess were a little less subtle about not being interested so he did what every normal guy does, he throws a glass at us girls.

Um. Excuse me. Rude.

So that was fun and I ended up getting a little bit of a cut on the bottom of my foot (I was wearing sandals how was I supposed to know I'd have glass thrown at me?) but we made it out relatively unharmed. We then go Winston's a bagel place open specifically for the drunkards craving food. It's like bagels out of a hot dog cart and he has an array of options you can put on your bagel. My new soccer friends convince me to get one with everything, the works. What's the works? Let me tell you...
Garlic, butter, cream cheese, onions, cucumbers, raisins, cinnamon, sugar, apples, cheese and probably some more but I forgot.
It was actually not too bad once you get passed the whole what the fuck is this that I'm eating part. That was an adventure all in itself.
After eating the Winston's bagel and hanging out til 3am i make it home and sleep til 11 the next day.

Why do we do that? I hate getting up that late because then you've lost half the day and it's not coming back no matter what. UGH.

But I keep to my vow and start unpacking.
Luckily, I did manage to buy some posters on campus earlier this week. College and posters are just as dynamic as peanut butter and jelly. College idea of interior decorating = gotta wall? Slap a poster on it. Boom. Now you're not boring, you have walls that exemplify your soul, your dreams and more than likely your favorite celebrity crush. Or in my case my home state, where I'd rather be and my favorite TV show. Maybe it's not original but I like it and oh wait looky here, it's MY room. Haters gonna hate.

The aforementioned posters

I also run to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a new bed spread. Gotta vamp up the decor a bit, as the focal point of the room is the bed. (you can thank my mother for watching all those home improvement shows and allowing me to have this interior design vocab)

Don't be fooled by that cute face. He's a born killer.

After a few hours of unpacking, organizing, putting up posters (technically still in college, so it's ok for me to do) I have officially unpacked and settled into my room.

My desk that's more of a things holder since I hate working at desks.

(Don't hate on Sherlock. It's a fantastic show. Obvi. It has Martin Freeman in it! The Hobbit anyone??)

My little corner of California. Golden gate, Mt. Shasta, and enough drink glasses for a really fun party.

This is it. This is real. These adventures aren't just your average 2 week vacay trip on your own to find yourself. Nope. This is legit, moving and calling your new residence home. I know I'm not here forever and 2 years isn't very long in the grand scheme of things but it's a big deal. And I'm finally ok with that.

I think a big part of it was that I was scared of losing my friends. I had a great group of people I came to love, especially during my senior year and I was scared of losing touch. But I got calls from some really great people and it made me realize that ya, everything isn't going to be the same. It never will be. But those who want to stay in your life will. And you have to cherish the 'right nows' instead of dwelling on the past. I can't go back to Davis and relive my 4 years. Sometimes I wish I could. But I'm here now. And they are too. Just a little out of reach, that's all. And the random texts, phone calls and Skype sessions do mean a lot. Because I do love all of you guys. A lot. You know who you are and don't be annoyed when I call or text or snap chat and bug you. It's out of love. And not to be incredibly cheesy but I'm totally going to quote Mumford and Sons right now...

Where you invest your love, you invest your life.

And I have invested a whole lot of love for my Davis friends. And I will continue to do so. But I'm learning now that I don't have to find replacements for those friends or worry about not being able to call my friends, my friends anymore because I'm not home. You just start to open up your heart a bit more and learn to invest even more of your love with the people you have right now, right here. You don't have a limit, so it's ok, over-drafting is not a chargeable fee. And that is really what finally got me to unpack.

To be continued!

My first full week...

Hi hi,

This week was my first full week of 17th grade aka graduate school. I'm taking 3 classes, Managerial and Organizational Behavior, Marketing Management, and Managerial Accounting. GAG!
That might be the single worst group of classes EVER since I took calculus and organic chemistry the same quarter at Davis.

Ugh.
So we already know that my first class was less than stellar but the other 2 classes weren't absolutely horrible. They were normal horrible. My organizational behavior professor is may be the driest-sounding human being on the planet. Think the teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off... "Bueller...Bueller...Bueller...". My teacher must be related to that guy because it's that bad.

He did have us do an interesting ice-breaker. We had to ask some people a specific question we came up with and record it. Then we introduce ourselves and people start saying what else we know about them. For instance I asked "Where is your favorite place in the entire world to take a nap?" and then whenever someone I had asked that question, I'd offer their answer. So when this kid Josh went up, I said his favorite place was a lounge chair on the beach. When I got up though, a lot of people offered facts about me I had answered, like my favorite movie is When Harry Met Sally, if I was stranded on an island I would bring my collection of Sherlock Holmes novels, my favorite drink is Jack and Coke, the coolest place I have been was Zurich, Switzerland, I like to go camping and play sports obvi, and that I don't know what I want to do after graduate school.

Ummm. I didn't know I was that chatty with so many people. So now I'm that California girl who likes sappy 80's movies, mystery novels, and probably has a slightly unhealthy obsession with Jack Daniels.

Can you say AWKWARD first impression much??

The plus side is that I have seen quite a few familiar faces in my classes which is good as a lot of the projects we have to do are group projects. Oh joy.
But I have to say that some of the subject material could be potentially helpful in business and just overall managing which could help me in my current job...

Which leads me into a perfect segue in which I vent about my job.
This week was the first week with practices needing to be supervised meaning all the training we had earlier now had to be implemented. Here goes nothng!! And oh boy was it a great first week.
The very first day one of my sups had to call the ambulance. Ya. Cool, an emergency in which the paramedics needed to be called. Great start to the year. Yay.
And just about every day after that I was scrambling to just find people to work the practices. Usually I was pacing in the office frantically calling staff members to get someone to work. Their were also various events to be staffed to get our IM/Sport clubs more notice which meant chalking, flyers, marketing at the dorms, event tables, demos and just lots and lots of pitching. I totally felt like a cars salesman. "Play intramural sports! Have fun! 0% financing! All-Wheel Drive!"

The campus is really crazy now that all of the students are back and the line for the book store is crazzzyyy long and the line to the newly opened starbucks on campus is even longer.

Ok all you freshman. I have a Starbucks gold card. Get. Out. Of. My. WAY

(I'm a little bit of a caffeine addict. Chai tea, vanilla lattes, mochas, just normal coffee.... Oh good lawd don't get me started, I love it all. Get this! My boss is a fellow coffee/starbucks addict too. So whenever I do something wrong I already know to show up to work with a venti white and green cup in hand and all will be forgiven. Score)

But I don't have Bruce Almighty god powers so I forgo the line that's 58 people long. Instead me and Kaylee go to dinner at the local Thai restaurant which was super delicious. After dinner I was planning on going out but then the next thing I know it's morning and I had slept for over 10 hours. After that 1st week I guess I needed it. But now that I'm fully recharged it's time to partayyy!
Ha. By partayy I mean nap and maybe go for a walk if it's not too hot. This is my weekend.

To be continued!

Sharks and Minnows

My first day of 17th grade!! (That's my first year as a graduate student for those who can't do the math.)

I HAVE BEEN IN SCHOOL FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER

that's a scary thought.

But before I talk about my day I have to tell you about my boss's adorable daughter.

Said child just started Kindergarten and she's very excited to be in 'real big kid school' now, so I ask about her teacher and friends and what she did at recess. She goes through her rather rough life of playing on the swings and learning her ABC's. I then tell her that I too, start school. This is the conversation that occurred.

Little girl: "You go to school too!? What grade are you in?"
Me: "Guess."
LG: "Ummm I don't knooowwww...Just tell ME!" (she's a yeller.)
Me: "I have my first day of 17th grade tomorrow." (this was yesterday as her dad brought her to our last day of staff training.)

The look on her face said that I might as well of just told her that I killed Santa Claus and that she was never going to have christmas again.

Sorry to ruin your life, kid. That's what you got to look forward to.

Back to me.
Yeah, first day of grad school, 17th grade. Oh boy.

So grad school is a little different then college. Most classes are held once a week as the students are generally older and have jobs, families, lives that need to be attended to. So my schedule is a little odd, I have 1 class every day of the week except for Tuesdays (means I can have rager Mondays. woo.) and the classes are from 2-3 hours long.

GAG.

My first class is like any other first day. You pick a spot in the back, scope out the other students, judge them on appearance and seat placement i.e. he's obvi the kiss-up as he's the one wearing a business suit and in the front row. probably going to ask a lot of questions too. def gonna hate that guy. (before you get all judgy-wudgy on me, you ALL have done it. after 17 years I'm just better at it than you.)
Professor walks in 3min late. Sweet, a 3-5minute grace period. He's a particularly portly man and he hands out the syllabus, which is unfortunately rather thick. Perfect. He starts with explaining who he is, how important he is, how long he's been teaching blah blah blah etc, etc.

He then goes over the rules for the class. 1. Don't be late (ha, you screwed that one up yourself, bud) 2. Do all the reading. 3. If you are late you'll be called upon for that period to answer questions about the reading. Wait. What? Seriously? Harsh. 4. Don't miss class. Unless you're sick. Or dying. Or know someone who is dying. Or... Ok we get it move on...
We move on to the syllabus.
**Quick back story- In graduate school you are allotted one C letter grade throughout your program. The 2nd C is grounds for getting kicked out and anything less is definitely going to get you kicked to the curb. Just to make this clear... I CANNOT get more than 1 C in the entirety of my 2 years of graduate studies. Only one. Uno. Solo. ONE.
Holy mackerel you've got to be kidding me.

We start on the syllabus and it's the basics, participation, exams, etc. but then there's this section worth quite a lot of our grade. It's called Case Studies. We will examine case files of actual businesses and determine what is wrong with their business, be it financial, marketing, accounting, production, operation whatever, find the problem, find a solution that would best fit, explain how to implement the solution and then PRESENT IT TO THE CLASS with powerpoint.
um.what.
If you're totally off basis with the rest of the class (some will turn in written reports, while some present, it's a guessing game as to which you'll be doing) you get a 0. ZERO. dafuq?? during said presentations it'll be and I am not even slightly joking, he actually said this, "It'll be a shark feeding frenzy. You'll have to defend your solution from your peers and if you are not presenting and do not ask questions you'll lose points as well. The World of Business is full of sharks and only the big ones don't get eaten. I'm training you to be a big shark."

Dude. Whoa. Slow your roll. A shark feeding frenzy? I get it, it's tough in the real world but you WANT us to be assholes???

Oh and he doesn't give you the readings. That'd be a violation of copyrights and so we have to find them in the library system. Ok that's great for keeping costs low but I have this thing called a life, a job and oh other classes! We have over 40 pages to read by Wednesday (this is my only 2x/week class. dammit) and that's just the lowest amount I'll read all semester.
He pauses and goes around the room asking where people are from, what our experiences are, etc. He gets to me, I say California and he says "oh so do you know what 'pop' is?"
Excuse me? Pop? Like the noise? Feeling kinda on the spot and like a deer in the headlights I stutter and manage an 'um..no."
He then asks the kiss-up from earlier and Kiss-up says haughtily "It's soda, soda-pop, a carbonated beverage, often consumed with fast food." Like he's talking right out of Webster's dictionary. (tell me now that I'm too judgmental and shouldn't hate the guy hmm??)

So now I'm that DUMB blonde from California. Awesome.
He then finishes class saying how this class is where students get the most C's and below. Shocker.

I get out of there as soon as he lets us. I bolt, no, basically sprint to the exit. Gee, that was fun.

But I shook it off and headed to work determined to just forget about it. And I did. Today's are days why I love my new job.
We're still in start mode but things are quickly coming together. I was able to set up a work schedule for my staff, get some marketing for IM's done and finish creating the online registration system. Yay for being productive! But during all that I got to visit and get to know the office staff more AND be there for when a shipment came in. A shipment of new IM equipment. Why is that so exciting??
Because the GA's and anyone who is around gets to try out the new toys.
This was a new game called fast golf. It's basically like wiffle ball but golf instead so a plastic club (a 5-iron) and a plastic, hollow golf ball that's the size of a baseball. The hole, is like a tent looking contraption that you try to get said golf ball into. Pretty easy right? WRONG! Those little plastic things have no capability of going the way you want it to. Oh and did I mention we were playing in the conference room?? Oh ya. We're swinging away hitting chairs, walls, trash bins,and tables having extreme giggle fits in the middle of the Rec Center. Only 1 person made it, and go figure, it was the girl who never swung a golf club in her life. But it didn't matter because I got to forget about shark feeding frenzies and C grades and the fact that I've been in school for entirely too damn long and just be a silly goofball playing wiffle golf inside an office.

And that's why I love my job.

To be continued!

Keep Calm and Wear Your Sassy Pants

I've been a little stressed at work as of lately.

Today was that day.

With school just around the corner, literally, it's been full steam ahead for the Rec Center and IM/Club Sports in Salukiville. All of the student workers and professional staff (that's me! woo!) are going through emergency procedures, employee policies, customer service, sexual harassment etc, etc, etc.

Preach, Tina. Preach.

We spent all day in various sessions for staff training. ALL DAMN DAY. Breakfast at 7:30am (Why are they so so cruel??), trainingtrainingyawntrain, lunch, trainingsittingtrainingpowerpointpowerpointpowerpoint GAG and then dinner.

At least they fed us. 

The highlight of the day was hanging out with the other GAs. One of the girls, Kaylee, I have gotten pretty close with. We were tent mates on the camping trip and I am so glad she is around. She's little and sweet, with a southern accent as she's from Kentucky, but she is full of sass and wit. She's a riot and I mean that in the best way. Whenever we had some down time we would chat and we somehow ended up on the topic of Sassypants. 

Backstory: My nickname by my previous boss at davis was 'Sassypants'. I tend to over react and maybe voice my opinion slightly too much. But I like to think of it as a a charming characteristic. *wink*

So Kaylee and I are talking about how our perspective sassiness. She has this particular look that warns of a sassy episode and my boss used to say that I had to tone down the sassy pants before coming into work. Soon we're having fits of giggles and making up names of other people. For instance, the director was giving the opening little talk and he had this part where he emphasized customer service and being the best staff ever, blah blah. So we called him 'bossy pants'. Lane has a sometimes odd sarcastic sense of humor and he definitely can be well, for lack of better words, sassy. So we call him 'sarcassy pants'. 

We're mature. Obvi.

But it was fun to goof around and to let my coworkers and new friends see the real "Sassypants" in me.  Don't get me wrong, I can be professional and I know when it's business time. But I'm pretty silly and I don't think that's a bad thing.  Nor do I think my friends think that it's a problem either.

Soon the fun had to end and we make our way to the sessions and trainings. So we go back to the grind. Oh joy.

But get this. Now that I am an official graduate assistant I have an entire staff of my own. 17 IM/Club Sports supervisors that will answer to me and Bridgett. Our boss, Lane, is still a very present figure but he delegates most if not all of the work on us. Which means we get to train the sups on how to do their job.

Wait. Shut. Up. 

I just got here. 2 weeks ago, TODAY I had just driven into Carbondale. 

You want me to train the undergrads how to do a job I don't even know how to do?

So Bridgett and I go about training our staff all the in's and out's of all things Salukiville IM sports. Luckily for me, Bridge (her nickname by me) took the wheel and pretty much led the whole presentation. Whew. I wanted to sneak to the back and take notes but alas, I had to stand up in front and put on a poker face and act like I knew my stuff. Oh ya, ok. totally. sure. sounds good... I got this. But inside I was like that minion. Whaaaaaa??

I think I was able to do a good enough job that the undergrads were never in the know. Fake it til you make it, baby.

And after all the seriousness was done and over I got a chance to mingle and get to know some of the students. They're a pretty cool group, and can't believe I left Cali for C-dale. (Sometimes, me neither.) We're talking and I'm telling my story and making jokes (usually at my own expense, it's easy when you're the outsider) and I think that I have the approval from some of them. Well, I mean, they obviously like me, I'm awesome. Duh.
But when we all left dinner one of the girls asked if I was going out tonight. As my boss's boss was within ear shot I said maybe and then added a wink. She laughed and said 'I like you, let me know where you go and we can meet up."

And Sassypants wins again.

To be continued!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears Oh MY!

Hi hi!

I just got back from a ridiculously crazy 36 hours. Oi. Not 20 min ago, we had a welcoming event for the international students and we played all sorts of games like wheel chair basketball, badminton, taught them how to throw an American football (one of the more popular stations. obvi.), ate pizza, showed them around, hula hooped and salsa danced. Whew! Now to relax. Until tomorrow. Yay.

But it's officially the beginning of the semester around here at Salukiville! Freshman have begun to move into the res halls and at the Rec we're busy trying to recruit and market our services to the little babies. They're just so stinkin cute, all bright-eyed and naive. That'll change fast. But it is cool to see them flood into the town and campus, it definitely takes me back to my first days as a college freshman.

Sweet, sweet nostalgia.

Even though we're super busy and I still am taking pre-req courses (gag!) the GA's (graduate assistants) did take some time out yesterday to go camping.

Camping???

Yes. Camping, like no electricity, just you and nature and dirt and bugs and sweat and did I mention bugs??

It was a chance to get to know the other GA's more and to really build our team and it was pretty much required so I had to go. Don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors, but I don't love the creepy-crawly things that live in the outdoors.

But it turned out to be one of the coolest camping trips I had ever been on. And it was only for 18hours.

We didn't just camp. Oh no. That'd be way too easy. We started off the day doing a Sky High Ropes Course. Picture this: You are in a full body harness, straps EVERYWHERE, and you're attached to these cables that are 25-40 feet in the air and you're going through obstacle courses like tight wires, and climbing on ropes, and zip-lining all up in the trees. You pretty much feel like Tarzan up there and it is so incredibly COOL. But it was such a hard work out. Oh my gosh...my arms are like noodles and I have calluses on my hands that are hella gnar-gnar but it was so so so so much fun! A totally awesome challenge and really adrenaline pumping as you try to walk a tight rope 30+ feet in the air and then you look down and go "Oh shit. Like oh my god oh shit oh shit why why oh shit."

I can't wait to go back and do it again!

After we finished monkey-ing around (see what I did there?? Ha.) we canoed on this lake to get to our camp base. Yeah. Canoed. Like Pocahontas style. (I totally sang Just Around the River Bend and it was a total hit. Look for me on iTunes soon.) After me and my canoeing partner quit going in circles and got the hang of it we made it to this campsite and it was beautiful. We were on a side of a hill in the middle of the forest, not your average camping site.  It led to a landing where it was obvious a few camp fires had been built before. There were these rock ledges next to the lake we jumped off of and went swimming, and we stayed in tents on the lovely, buggy, really hard and twiggy ground.

But it was so incredibly awesome and I got to know the other GA's way more and I finally felt included and apart of something. We made foil burgers and smores over the campfire and learned about the surrounding area and just how cool Southern Illinois really is with all of it's recreational attractions. Don't be surprised if I become an avid backpacker, mountain climber, pretty much on par with Bear Grylls. (Ok, be really surprised but I definitely will go camping again!)

Then after it got dark, our guide started to get a bit more serious. He talked about how long the land had been there, how long humans had roamed the earth and how our past, present and future are not separate entities, it's all interconnected like a braid. He then made us reflect on how we got to that exact point in our lives. What little things or choices brought you to be sitting right there, listening to him talk by the campfire in the forest.
Well, *awkward laugh* let's see it all started in when I was born...
Jk.
But we go around the circle and people are opening up about their past, their mistakes, their choices and decisions and it's getting really deep really fast.

Whoa. Hold up. Time out. I'm still home-sick and haven't even unpacked fully, I'm not ready to talk about all this.

But then Ryder tells his story about how he had gone down all these different career paths and then finally ended up here and he was happy. You could see it, he was so thankful to be right there with all of us and truly happy to be at SIU. And then the other kind of leader of our group, Mike, talked about how he too took some time and finally realized that this is it, this is his passion and this is what he loves. He doesn't fill like his work is work, he enjoys it, and is happy too. But what really got to me was that everyone struggled at some point. The major theme across the board was that everyone was unhappy at one point in their life.

When it was my turn to talk, I had already thought about what I was going to say, but none of that came out. I planned on saying just how I was glad to get into rec, had some good mentors, made a tough decision but I'm here and we'll see how it goes. But no. I didn't say that. You ever wonder why we even bother with planning like that? Or how when it's your turn the words just fly out out of your mouth like you have no control? Yeah. That happened.

I realized that a lot of them had already had their bad days and now they were living the good. But my story was different. Ya I had a minor hiccup freshman year but this right now is my hard time. And I know exactly what those hardships are.

Every day I have to go up against prejudices about being a woman in a man's world. Every day I have to go up against predisposed notions that I'm just a dumb blonde. Every day I have to go up against what is considered the status quo here and act like it's not totally foreign to me. A lot of people don't think I can make it.

I am not allowed a bad day because then they win. They get to say, I knew she couldn't do it or I told you so. I refuse to allow them such satisfaction.

But right then at that moment I was surrounded by people who were in my corner. Right there, around that campfire, all of them could empathize and all of them want me to succeed.
So I told my story.

My story is kinda long so I'll keep it short. I had a pretty bad freshman year at Davis. I couldn't find my niche, and my grades were poor too. My best friend turned out to be anything but a best friend and I was not at all happy. But then I saw a kid from my floor reffing a soccer game. I asked him how he got the job and that led me to officiating IM basketball. I fell in love.
My life made a complete 180 and I found not only something I enjoyed but other people who enjoyed it too. I became confident in myself and my skills and soon that officiating job led to a promotion, supervisor. And that led to another promotion of manager. Soon Campus Rec became my life and I lived and breathed it. I would work instead of go to class but I wasn't struggling (as hard) anymore. My bosses became my mentors and they led me to the path towards becoming a GA. But I was never really fully committed to becoming a GA. I was into political science and apart of me wanted to go to Law School. I was so conflicted in fact that I often would call my dad and talk pros and cons of each over and over again trying to decide which path to take. His advice was more or less, put your options on the wall, close your eyes and throw a dart. Thanks Pops.
I went to Las Vegas to the NIRSA National Convention and got the job with SIU. I left some amazing mentors and bosses to up and leave to a new state, a new life and new people you have to rely on is scary. Actually terrifying.
But I am excited and looking forward to working here. The other GAs have been supportive and we've only just begun.

My story may not have a happy ending with me being completely content with my life right now, at this moment.

But I'm getting there. And I can't see the future but I can tell that it's bright.

We ended the night by making luminaries, where we put little candles into paper bags that we had written our goals on. (picture Tangled style floating lights minus the floating) For now, tomorrow, 2 weeks from now, or 30 years from now.

I wrote 'Be happy'.

And we lit our candles and gazed at the stars.


To be continued. 

Weekend Warrior

I survived my first weekend in Salukiville! Well, barely. But I'll explain all that soon enough.

Quick disclaimer...I just reread my last post and wow. That was full of spelling mistakes, grammar errors and just nonsense. I swear, I'm a college educated person and I hope to be better! (I also recently found out that my Nana, who was a middle school teacher, reads this...sorry for the swearing, Nana! I'll try to keep it PG rated!!)

Where were we? Oh right. This weekend. WHOA.

On Friday I finished up class which took excruciatingly longer than normal. Even as a grad student, we all still sit there watching the clock, just hoping, wishing, praying, literally pleading with the Time Gods that just this once, time will go faster.
But it never happens but when that time does come, all of us mature, rational, educated, contributing adults rush into the hall doing the happy dance.

Ok, so maybe we don't do that EXACT dance in public but we're all super stoked on life and thankful to be out of that god-forsaken class room.

On Friday though, the recreation department was in full Residence Advisor Training mode. Basically we're just showing the RA's what the Rec center has and to give them a little info on team building exercises, etc. There were different areas we covered like the team building, working together as a team and then just playing around int the Rec Center. I was in charge of the creative thinking group.
Creative thinking?? This is a joke right? There's a reason I went into business, I'm not creative at all.
But here we go.
My boss gave me an idea to start with and we then just kinda ran with it. Take a towel and take your group of RA's and make them stand on it. Just the towel, not the ground. I should have called it the "This Is Really Awkward, You're Totally Invading My Personal Space" game as people were climbing on top of each other, hugging and clinging like crazy to get all 12 people to fit on that little towel. And then I made them fold the towel in half. Picture this. Twelve 12-21 year old RA's attempting to stand on a workout towel or about a 12x12 in square. Lots of laughs, yelling, and falling ensued and it was a lot of fun. I had to relate it back to creative thinking and problem solving which meant some public speaking on my part (YIKES) but I think it went well overall! Not too bad for my first little assignment as a GA, woohoo!

That night I was pretty tired and school hasn't started yet officially so my roommate and I didn't go out. I was actually pretty thankful though as I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

But Saturday. Saturday was another story.
One of the people who also works in the Rec Center had mentioned that she would be at one of the local wineries Saturday afternoon if we wanted to join. So Bridget, my roomie, and I head out to what's called Rustle Winery. Wine country in Southern Illinois is BEAUTIFUL. It's hilly and there are vineyards and old style houses and barns, it's just super cool. It totally reminded me of California's wine country and made me super nostalgic but I was very much glad from the change of view from corn and pasture to trees vines.
We enjoyed a bottle of wine and some live music and I got a chance to talk and get to know some of the other employees I'll be working with. Molly, the one who invited us there, loved asking me about San Francisco and Davis and how she wants to see the West Coast. One of the fitness GAs, Ryder, had met us there as well. He's a pretty down to earth guy with tattoos and long hair but very nice and really easy to talk to. He told me about how he loves to fish and all about his favorite fishing spots on the Mississippi River. Honestly, the idea of fishing on the Mississippi is soooo cool and the nerdy girl who loves Mark Twain and Huckleberry Finn is looking forward to that day real bad.

The sunsets are really pretty out here too. 

As the day wore on, one bottle of wine turned into another, and then the guys brought out these pitchers of sangria (at a winery? I know, odd, but hey, I wasn't complaining.) and then BAM! Marissa is no longer sober and we have passed the point of tipsy.
Oh holy mother of pearl this is not how I want my co-workers to know me as That One Drunk Girl From Cali. My tongue is thick and I am vaguely aware that unless I switch from wine to water I'm going to be in some real trouble.
But luckily, Bridgett had driven and so we go home. As soon as we get into the car she says "You Wine-o, need to get ahold of yourself cuz we're going out tonight." Damn. I thought I only knew how drunk I was.
Fast forward to about 3 hours later. I tried to drink water and take a nap but now I'm not feeling too hot. Ugh. Why do I do that? It's like I'm new to the drinking game and I'm a little freshman who doesn't know her limits and gets way too drunk at her first party. NOOB MOVE
Bridgett wakes me up and I start getting ready to leave. We live pretty close to some bars so we start walking. I swear we barely make it out of the drive way and I can't do it. I run to the side of the road near the grass and well... I'm just gonna leave it at that.
Bridgett: "Are you serious? We're going home. You Cali folk obviously can't hang."
Me: "No, I'm fine. Honestly, I'm good."
Bridgett: "No way, dude. You just upchucked your Steak and Shake burger. You're donezo."
Me: "Exactly, I'm good now. I feel so much better now. I'm good, I'll rally. Let's go."

So we go.

Now that I don't have a bucketful of toxins swimming around in my stomach I can actually start to look forward to going out. We go to Saluki Bar first. The place is pretty well lit, and there's a large wooden bar on one side with high tables and chairs on the other. Behind the bar is a wall full of liquor to the ceiling and the bartenders use a ladder that wheels from one side to the other. That's pretty cool. Connected to Saluki Bar is another bar, Cali's. It's an Irish like pub but it has a dance floor. Well a dance floor with 3 levels. It kinda looks like a 3-tiered cake but with railings and a DJ table at the top of the tier like a cake topper. Ok, that's pretty cool. The bar scene is looking pretty promising. I can dig it.
But so far it's not that hoppin' of a night as school doesn't start for 2 weeks but there's a decent crowd. I'm just sitting back taking it all in when Bridgett goes "Hey, let's go over and check out Pinch." Pinch? What the hell?
Turns out "Pinch" is short for the Penny Pincher, a pub that's oh probably 200 feet away from Saluki Bar/Cali's. Sweet. I like their style, don't have to walk far, it's nice. Pinch has a live band, a cover band but they're pretty good. They're playing all the newer/more popular songs and Ryder is there!
After dancing the night away, I become exhausted and walk home. Bridgett is a go-getter and stayed much much longer but I just couldn't do it. A quick walk home and I was done, lights out, finished.

And this was Sunday.

To be continued! 

Bio Breaks and Interest Rates

Hi. Welcome to Salukiville.

Today was a good. I met new people, went out and socialized and got a free iced chai tea latte from Starbucks. My favorite drink ever and it was perfection. Like Ice Cube said it was a good day.

But before I get to that, let me tell you about where I left off...GRAD SCHOOL (say it in your best Halloween voice, that's the best way to get my point across).

Like I mentioned before, I'm at SIU to get my Master's in Business and Administration while working as a graduate assistant for the recreational department. But in order to take MBA courses, you typically need to have a Bachelor's is something business related. Surprise! I did not get a business degree, in fact I pretty much SUCK at econ. But hey let's give this whole MBA thing a shot. My degree is in International Relations so I couldn't get into Business School right away. So I'm taking what are called "Foundation Workshops" which "help you prepare for the rigorous course load" that is apparently going to be a big part of my MBA degree.

These workshops are 3 hour daily classes for 1 week. At the end of the week you take a test and if you pass with a 70% you do not have to take the regular course, which is the pre-requisite undergrad equivalent, during the semester. This was great news as my contract is only for 2 years and I can't afford to start off behind in my course load. There's 4 total workshops I have to take but I can split them up. So I'm taking 3 now and I'll take the remaining one over winter break. Sweet deal.

Or so I thought.

I'm in class from 9-4 with an hour break at noon. It's like a real job only instead of working I'm taking notes and being lectured at. In the same room. I haven't sat in a single class this long since the 8th grade! 6 hours is a very long time...and no we don't get recess. We get this thing called a 5 minute "bio break" which is just a fancy, educated term for "bathroom break". By the way, when did the word "bathroom" become offensive and we had to start calling it "bio" instead?? When my professor first said it I had to ask the girl next to me in an awkward, hushed tone "Umm, did he say bio break? What does that mean? Where or what is a 'bio'?" She scoffed and said, "It means 'bathroom', you mentally impaired, nimrod from California."

Ok. She didn't say that last part. But she might as well have.

Back to the class. I'm taking 2, one from 9-12 and one from 1-4. The first is a basic overview of everything business and basically the next two years condensed into 15 hours worth of slides.
Oh mother of pearl there's a lot of business-y shit I do not know nor want to. Great. Do I switch majors? I just got here. This is a ton of sales and advertising, I don't want to do that! What now?!? Do I back out? But then I'd have to apply to a different grad program! My parents are gonna freak if they knew I was changing programs. What do I do?? Shit. Shit. SHIT

I stick it out and we make it to the 2nd class, Finance. One of the other girls in the class has taken a liking to me, or at least more so than 'bio break' girl so I move to sit by her. It's a different professor and this one is very smartly dressed, petite, Latina and has a very high pitched voice. She pronounces her 'v's like 'b's so 'vending machine' becomes 'bending machine' and I'm not sure how she ended up in Carbondale but boy, am I glad she did. Don't let her looks confuse you, she's BRILLIANT. It's an overview class, or refresher on a bunch of finance, econ formulas that at one point or another I had seen and probably even used before but never understood. But she makes it so easy! I'm plugging away at Total Rate Return equations, I'm finding out what the net present value is, I can explain to you why making sure that the IRR for a project needs to be higher than your interest rate as it's a good predictor you'll end up making money on a project and I can finally look at a problem and not burst into tears!!

 For anyone who knows me this is HUGE.

Quick side story for some background: Me and math do not get along. I almost failed econ 1 at Davis (all my Davis friends I'm sure will laugh but it's true) and don't even get me started on the required econ 100. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die but luckily caught a break and cozied up to the TA as we shared a mutual love for Sherlock Holmes. She basically did the homework for me and made sure to grade my exams. Thank god or I'd still be at Davis trying to just graduate.

So now I'm excited. But all this stuff I should know already and I feel like I'm learning it for the first time. That can't be good right? Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

While the work is making more and more sense, it's still tough. The first class which is just MBA fundamentals, while it's not hard, it is a lot to take in. And while finance is finally easier, it's still not a cake walk. But hopefully it'll be ok come test time.

I have made some new friends or acquaintances out of the classes too. Obviously not the first bio break girl, but the other one, we'll call her Tessa, is very nice and very helpful. She is a local girl and pretty intrigued that I come from Cali. She walked me all the way across campus to the Student Center when it was raining the first day so we could share her umbrella. She's been telling me all the in's and out's of the town and especially helping me with the pronunciation of some of the names around here as well. For instance, I called the neighboring town of Marion, Merry-ON. rhymes with moron. Well I sure felt like one when she kindly corrected me. It's Merry-EN, the ending more like the sound of 'station'. Oops.

While I sit in class all day, the entire department is having graduate assistant training. Cool. Their training the GA's how to do their jobs, meeting all the big names in the department and getting free lunch. Awesome. So not only am I freaking out that maybe being in the business world isn't for me but I'm also missing out on some very important information and friend-making opportunities. That's just swell.

But today that changed. I finally got to meet the other GA's other than my roommate (my fellow IM sports GA) who work in different areas within the department, like fitness, outdoor recreation, etc. They invite me to hang with them and we go to a bar for awhile just chilling out, drinking margaritas and getting to know each other. I try to play it like I'm cool but inside I'm like...

YAY! PEOPLE! FRIENDS!

Oh and get this, one of the fitness instructors is from California. Northern California too. In fact she is from this super small town on the coast near Oregon which is pretty close to my home town. We know exactly where the other is from and have been to each other's respective home towns. We played each other in basketball for high school! SMALL FUCKING WORLD MUCH?!?!??

(Yrekians, she's from Crescent City! So we talked about the JC Basketball tournament and how insanely coincidental it is that we are from some of the smallest towns in all of California only to end up in Carbondale, Illinois together. Talk about whoa!) 

So far, so good. I think I was just a little intimidated by the intense workshop series but now that I'm a bit more settled I'll be ok with it. I do want to get an MBA and have a more tangible degree that can help me in any field I wish to enter. Which could be recreation, could be something else. If I've learned anything in my 21 years of life it would be that you can try all you want to plan your future and life out. But life has a funny way of throwing you curve balls by taking those plans and saying, "Yeah, no you didn't see this coming but SMACK! it's here!". My curve ball is Salukiville. But I'm still in the batter's box and I got my eye on the ball. 

To be continued :)

First Post!! Yay!!

Woohoo! I've done it! I made a blog!

Now that my excitement of my accomplishment has been contained, I guess I'll start off at the beginning.

I'm Marissa, of Davis, California, formerly, Yreka, California and after 21 years, 9 months, and 22 days I have moved away from my beloved state of sunshine, mountains you can ski on, beaches you can sunbathe on; the best coast, the west coast. I left all that and moved 2,150 miles away, eastward to the great state of Illinois! Specifically the Southern part, where the plains are flat, the corn is tall and the people all talk with slightly southern accents and ask if you would like your iced tea sweetened or unsweetened.

WHAT?

That's the typical response I got when I told people I was moving out to Carbondale or, Salukiville as I like to call it. But you see, there is a method to my madness...

I'll give the quick version as I'm already on day 5 here and this is my first post...but basically I had a job at UC Davis working in Intramural Sports. That job led to me joining this thing called NIRSA, a big group of us sporty, college recreational, people who like to play and get payed for it. That led me to needing a thing called a graduate assistantship in order to get my master's degree and climb the professional ladder (i.e. become my boss). That led to me going to a conference to find the assistantship. That led to 13 interviews and a couple of offers willing to pay not only my tuition to grad school but a stipend as well, as long as I worked for them in their recreation department of intramural and club sports. That led to me choosing Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, as my best and final choice.

So in a nutshell, I'm getting my Master's degree in Business and Administration (an MBA) and enough to live off of in exchange for running a rec program where I work with college kids and play various sports for FUN. Let's just say I couldn't say YES!! IS THIS REAL LIFE?!? YES! fast enough.

And BAM! I'm here.

All that pre-Salukiville stuff happened in March. I graduated from UC Davis, traveled, played intramurals, worked (which was pretty much playing I'll be honest), and had definitely way too much fun in the time between then and now with my friends and family in California.

Me and my dad drove out together on July 31st. We started at my home and we trekked it across 6 states (7 if you count the part of Cali we had to drive through) in my little Subaru Impreza, Pearl. My entire life had to fit in that hatchback so I did some serious filtering of my stuff that accumulated over the years to make sure Pearl wouldn't collapse from weight. That road trip was pretty fun albeit really, really, reallllllly long. Kinda like this blog post. ha.

But we saw some really cool things along I-70 and Route 50. Some cooler than others and some not that cool at all and rather boring. But I probably will never have another experience like that with my dad, and those moments where he shared advice, memories of growing up and us laughing at everything and nothing meant the world to me and so I'm grateful he and I were able to go on that trip together.

I did manage to catch a few cool things on my camera. Don't mind my nasally voice, I had the sniffles the entire road trip (whether or not they were from an illness or from sadness of leaving that is my secret that I'll keep and you can decide for yourself). This was in the middle of Kansas. There was a massive storm right before and we had joked about being lifted off to the Land of Oz because we're cheesy like that and we were rewarded with a rainbow!

 After lots of bad fast food, gas station goodies, sketchy hotels and John Grisham books on audio we drove into Carbondale, Illinois. After getting into my new unfurnished apartment, spending an obscene amount of money at Target (everything is just sooo cute though!) I took my dad to the airport so he could fly back home.

That was the worst goodbye in the history of all goodbyes.

I cried and cried and cried as the realization that over 2,000 miles would separate us finally hit me like a nuclear bomb. I'm a total daddy's girl but he was the type of dad that told his daughters that only the weak cry and that we were to be strong and independent and to never waste our tears. But then even he, my hero, the strongest, toughest man I knew broke down and cried while he hugged me.

I fucking lost it.

While I watched him walk away and disappear into the airport I almost, ALMOST, ran inside to scream "Just kidding! I changed my mind! I don't want you to leave me here! Don't make me stay!" But I didn't.
I drove 2 hours by myself back to a town I barely knew; a new school, a new job, new people, a new life that I had to live; ready or not.

Oh and did I mention I had my first day of Grad School the next day? Yeah. Grad School.

You know how high school is supposed to prepare you for college but it really doesn't? College kinda does that for Grad students. You come in thinking, you've got a Bachelor's degree, they all said college was tough but you passed, you got that diploma! You're hot shit, you're the face of the future, that's what you've been told you're whole life, why wouldn't they be right?

They're wrong. Really wrong.

Grad school is not for the weak, and my business and administration degree may just be the death of me.

To be continued!