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!