So yeah, there's no more room in the jar.

When I started this semester, single, it was with every intention to stay that way. Starting out my third year of college with 3 jobs and a full upperclass courseload, it was like the proverbial glass jar filled with rocks. The rocks were classes - the jar looked full, but there was plenty of room for some smaller pebbles.....i.e., the CA position. So the jar looks really full from the outside, but there's still room in the cracks. Along comes the smaller pebbles, UCTV, and the remainder of the obvious space taken up with finishing my job at Lake Compounce for the year. But, as full as the jar looks, there's always room for your friends and family....they're like the sand that fills even the smallest cracks. So my jar's pretty heavy, it seems pretty darn full, and I did not see anything smaller than sand that would possibly fill any more space.

Question is, is there more room? Do I want there to be more room? Is it worth it to have more room? Gotta admit, for a jar as full as mine, I still seem to find plenty of time to relax and have 'me time'. So there could be more room in there....I guess there's air in the jar, or water or something. One thing's for sure though - whoever made that jar, probably didn't intend for it to be that filled, or that heavy.

So to get away from the cryptic jar analogy, it comes down to this. Do I finish the semester the way I intended to, or is it worth it to find a little more room?

Just musings.

Holy crap I'm bored. I'm sitting down in Eddy G lounge, for my last 20 minutes or so of duty. Randomly, there's free wireless Internet down here, so instead of working on my tax quiz, I'm blogging. And listening to 'She's Not There' by the Zombies, because Brendan was nice enough to send it to me. This makes a grand total of.....one songs on my laptop. I've had that song stuck in my head for a few days.

On second thought, I'm really not in the mood to write. I think I'm gonna go watch TV.

Wow, moody, aren't we?

That last post counts as my 'release' post, because I want to be healthy. Healthy people don't let stress pile on them like that, then complain about it instead of doing something about it. Unhealthy people do that. So I'm going to take a nursing major's advice and eat fruit tomorrow, go to the gym even though I can't talk (now I'm thinking it's laryngitis or some variation), go shopping, and spend my Saturday night on duty, doing laundry and homework, and hopefully not writing up drunken hooligans.

Anyone else find it ironic that taking care of yourself requires so much effort, whereas it takes none to sit around, let everything pile up, and get sick?

And, does anyone have the song 'She's Not There' by The Zombies, or any other band?

Cold turned into massive sore throat ears blocked wake up feeling astoundingly disgusting illness. Not fun. I've had better.

Yesterday I opened a letter from UCTV's insurance provider, which said oops, they canceled our insurance. This may have been taken care of over the summer, but I don't think it was. I just swallowed a cough drop.

This morning I checked my e-mail to find lots of the usual, along with

1) A letter from the lady in charge of the winter internship programming, saying how disappointed she was that attendance at the resume workshop yesterday was so poor. The workshop that was held in the middle of the day. Way to go lady. I started to write back the 'WE WERE IN CLASS' reply, but realized I should leave it alone, and so I did.

2) The business office! Saying that they don't think our explanation of the giant Poland Spring bill was good enough, and they're basically not cutting the check until we get the invoices re-stated. So that makes.....let's see......zero bills that the business office has let me pay.

So I can't talk, the accounting department wants me to do even more (which is kinda flattering, I was approached to do this PriceWaterhouse Cooper's competition thing), I have a group project or 3 I'm supposed to work on over the weekend, I can't do my job, even while I'm in class I'm supposed to be other places, it hurts to eat and drink, every day I wake up feeling a little bit worse physically, I don't have time to go to the gym, the bills are piling up and I CAN'T PAY THEM (at work, not my personal ones), UCTV most likely has no fucking insurance because of it, plus factors I'm not gonna write about here.

Whatever doesn't kill ya.....at the end of the day, I still don't have cancer.

I have a master strategy for getting through my first big exam of the semester. Ready for this?

- Be on duty the night before.

- Requisite junk food binge.

- Ignore AIM. (Yeah right)

- Get up early enough to claim a corner in South, alone with my giant accounting book.

- Go to gym, get brain unclogged, work off some guilt from previous night's junk food binge.

- Stock up on kleenex/cough drops, cuz SOMEONE gave me a cold.

- Don't sweat it.


Now, we'll see if it works.

I'm switching my cheap sweatpants provider from Costco to WalMart. Because, I've realized, these pants are amazing and I want more.

I really do hate getting ready for bed. I'm sitting at my computer, pj's on, teeth brushed, alarm set (both of them), covers turned down, ready to go. So why am I blogging? Because, I am a computer ho. Just like you.

It's only Monday night....which is why I still have the eagerness of 'let's get the week started!' going on. I was actually looking forward to jumping in and getting millions of things done, catching up in classes, etc. I thought I did good today, til I got back from Thelma's a while ago and realized I had not cracked my Accounting 201 book....at all. Oops.

Planning on doing a ton of stuff tomorrow too, which includes getting up unreasonably early. Just, you know, to ensure that when it's time for a big-ass exam on Thursday, I'm nice and tired.

Signing off...

This I need to share:

Just now in the weekly CA staff meeting, we did this activity wherein each of us were asked to write down something we hated doing, along with the reason why. Mine was "Getting ready for bed - why use the energy when you're just going to sleep?" We then passed it along to the person on our left, who was told to read it out loud to the group, but to omit the first answer and replace it with, "so-and-so hates sex because..."

So if you didn't put it all together yet, I hate sex because why waste all that energy, when you're just going to end up asleep?

Tonight deserves a post and a half. This whole day is incredibly post-worthy. I think tomorrow I'll have a better handle on how/what I'm gonna write....but I'm home tomorrow, TVille Fair-ing, then doing day 1 of My Last Two Days at Lake Compounce. Then Day 2, then driving back up here, then the March of Responsibility begins again.

I'll say this much....if I ever, ever wake up in the morning and think, gee I have nothing to do today, then.....I'm dumb.

I definitely wrote 'fun post, eh?' in my last 2 entries. Just wanted to acknowledge that.

OPIM = Operations and Information Management Systems......or something.

I tend to blog while procrastinating. Right now I'm procrastinating going to bed. Funny that, I love sleep, it's one of my favorite things to do - I know I have a full day tomorrow, I want to get up early and go to the gym, I'm tired - I have every reason to be in bed right now, but instead I'm blogging. Go fig.

Things going on:

Classes. Challenging. Except for OPIM, and I'm still not sure what that stands for. Anyway, the accounting ones are very challenging, lots of work. Finance is....also hard it seems. Right now it's sort of accounting 131 review.

Jobs. The CA thing - going well, except I've been neglecting that pesky issue of programming. My ideas (I do have them) are:
1) SCRUBS night (I know my neighbors will come)
2) Resume workshop - I know I need it.
3) Coffeehouse - lots of work, probably for late in the semester
4) I had another one, I just forgot it.

And I need a good wellness/life skills idea. It was going to be the resume thing, but that's gonna be just for my floor. It'll be at the start of winter, so I'm thinking I'll work with that.

UCTV - looking good. Lots of work ahead.

Winter internship - I officially signed up, even though I don't have to til October 8th...my thoughts are, nothing is OFFICIAL unless/until I get job offers. It puts my current employers in a rough spot. But, I'm sure UConn will survive for a semester without me as a full-time student. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, it's this accounting department program wherein accounting majors take paid internships with public accounting firms for tax season, January to April, while maintaining co-op student status at UConn. You get 6 credits, write a nice long paper at the end of it, make up classes in the summer, and come back for a full senior year. That's going to mess up next summer - I'm pretty sure the classes I'll need will only be at Storrs, which means finding a place to stay up here....or working on campus for housing. I'm ahead of myself.

Fun post, eh? They're like this when I'm busy. Personal life....doesn't seem to be time for one. I have been able to see my friends more than I thought I would, and being away from the Buck is definitely good for me. Anything more than that....I can see it happening, but I also see myself in 'I am woman hear me roar' mode, where I have this fabulously hard-working semester of amazingness, and do it all by myself. Don't get me wrong, I don't think for a second that achievements are weakened when they're shared - I just know that in the past I've leaned on people, and I know that I don't need to lean. I can't think of a better way to spend my time than by investing in myself.

I've been reading Ayn Rand. She's like a teabag - the flavor leaks out til your cup of water is all of a sudden a cup of tea, and you can't quite pin down the time when the transition happened, but you do remember dropping the teabag in, and seeing those little tea clouds emerge.

Bad analogies mean I go to bed.

Hello again. It is now Wednesday night, or rather early Thursday morning. Had trouble sleeping last night. I think it was too bright in the room - stupid volleyball floodlights are on outside my window. Damn.

Still settling into my new routine. I'm not looking forward to getting UCTV stuff up and running again - a pile of past-due bills, one insurance one that's due this week, and I don't even have the journal for this year yet. That's gonna be one fun business office trip. I put on the enthusiastic-type face today at the Activities Fair though (or Involvement Fair, whatever), and tried to reassure the people that Dave was scaring away. Yes Dave, you scared a few of them. My vision for UCTV this semester....let's not worry about weekly meetings and future plans, let's focus on here and now. Let's be here for kids who want to put on shows, and have some fun putting our own stuff on. That's all. I'll make sure we all get paid, and get our bills paid on time. I'll take care of the files too. But those pointlessly long board meetings? Let's run our organization first, and worry about the formal structure and constitution, etc, later. You don't start building a house by installing windows, you start with the foundation. In our case, there's going to be some ledge to blast out of the way first. But we'll manage. I have a couple promo ideas myself, and I want those shot and running by this weekend.

So a word about my day yesterday, cuz this was funny. My desktop's not working, first off - it decided, after me installing Windows Service Pack 2, to no longer recognize a working Internet connection. I've tried everything I know and a few things I don't, and Sam looked at it too - no dice. I got my handy laptop for now, but I miss my 18" flat panel. Ok, so that's the computer situation - yesterday morning, I brought a cup of coffee back from the dining hall to my room, which I put on my dresser, and then knocked over into my open sock drawer. Later that day, after going to Wal-Mart and Buckley to have dinner with the girls, I'm bringing my car back to S-lot - going down a section that's pretty narrow, and there's a car coming towards me hugging the center. I veer right, and hit the curb with some surprising force - the damn thing was sharp instead of rounded. So I got a flat. I ended up not changing it, my buddy Ed took care of that. But now I gotta bring that to get fixed tomorrow.

So I got a lot on my plate right now. In the next two days, get the tire fixed, do this CA assignment thing and have a meeting with my supervisor, set up UCTV's financial stuff for the year and start the weeks-long process that ends in bills getting paid, finish the occupancy check for my floor (aka warm body count), deal with the puke situation in the bathroom (happened early this/yesterday morning, apparently), and put together my resume in good time for the internship meeting Friday. And classes/homework.

I ordered a couple posters today during class. I gave in and played with my computer during class.....it's so boring, but I DID take very comprehensive notes at the same time. So there.

Oh yeah, gotta go to the bursar's office too.

Fun post, eh?

Ya know, I realize that people/supervisors from my 'professional' life definitely have access to this blog. Maybe I should be more careful as to what I write. Ehhh......I've been doing this for a year and a half now, it's probably fine. I'll just not mention again about the ugs-dray.

I'm glad I came back to UConn for the day, but I have two more non-class days, and absolutely nothing to do, while there's probably the last pool party/US vs. Lebanon bocce match of the summer at my aunt's house tomorrow. So, I'm definitely going to go. I did have a good time with friends tonight though, so like I said, glad I came back. I also go the new TV all set up (it's BIG, especially in this little room), rearranged the room, went lap-swimming for the first time in months and months, and......probably ate too much. Got some random co-op errands done. Still need another Wal-mart run.....maybe Monday after homework.

And, definitely need to create resume, fast. May need it this week. Definitely going to be a program. (ie, thing I arrange for residents, cross fingers and hope they show up, or go door to door threatening them with my mad jujutsu skills).

Ideas for programs for my floor? Leave comments.

Wednesday night. First week of classes. You notice a lot of little things at night you don't during the day - the bass from the music down the hall, constant door slams. We have loud doors. I've realized that as cool as my guys are during the day, they're still the same as a lot of UConn guys at night - loud. My floor seems generally good, they're clean, no bathroom problems yet, more guys than girls, a lot of engineers/some non-drinkers, some very friendly, very cool people. But as much as I don't want to have to, I may have to come down hard on some of the guys down the hall....some of the ones who, under the old RA's reign (who was 'awesome cuz he just didn't care'), may be used to getting away with more than I'm willing to live with. Man. The thing with this job is, you walk out your door, you're at work. You sit at your desk doing your homework, and you're at work. One of my favorites stopped by a couple hours ago for a condom - I forget that no matter what I believe personally, I've gotta be prepared for whatever they bring to the table too. So tomorrow I go to Wilbur Cross for condoms. (He got his by the way, but I had to send him to another floor for one).

Accounting is accounting. I gotta get a concrete definition of what 'business casual' is, and obtain it by next Wednesday. I got invited to apply for a fabulous winter internship - the deal is, some accounting firms have this deal with UConn where they take interns for tax season - the intern is usually a junior, and takes the spring semester to work for the firm (this is paid), and earns 6 credits. They make up the missed classes over the summer. That was my plan from the beginning, I just had no idea how to go about applying - then I get a letter specifically inviting me, because my GPA is above a certain level. So, awesome! Except I know I have some potentially fierce competition. The meeting is September 10th, Friday after next - I'll know more then.

Don't know if I mentioned, I was on the outs with my mom after a semi-emotional outburst last week. There've been more than a few of those, fueled by this whole crazy transition from summer living and summer job to insane amounts of responsibility and independance. I'm doing better now I think - finally starting to see my friends again. I need to work on adjusting to these classes, and obviously the CA thing....how to communicate with them what my standards are, how to make them want to observe them. There's a section in my manual about community standards, but I know how this works - I doubt, unless there's an incident, that all of them would seriously sit down together for a couple hours to draw up community standards. Not at the level they're at. I know I wouldn't have last year. Anyway, I was going to get into what's going on this weekend - I have a doctor's appointment Friday, so going home tomorrow night, and also on Friday, I get to pretend to be a spoiled child while my parents buy me a TV. I actually am really looking forward to doing some rearranging to accomodate this - and, my new University-leased laptop has a DVD player, and I finally, after like 2 years of looking, have an S-Video to RCA cable, which means I can hook up either of my computers to any TV. The audio thing is going to need work though - what good's a TV with laptop audio? I may need to take a ride to BestBuy.

I'm going to keep talking to everybody. 'My residents' sounds condescending - they're not mine, they're their own, and a drunk girl was just talking on her cell phone outside my door. I think she thought she was in McMahon. Anyway.

I'm going to keep bothering them. Keep it up until I can identify everyone's name, major, room number, all that good stuff, without cheating and looking at their door tags. I'm going to keep it up so that I know them, I know what they're up to, I can ask about their stuff, and so that they know I'm here, I'm not just some girl in a room with a lot of stuff on the door. To me, that's more important than any program I come up with. They know me, they feel comfortable with me, they know each other, they know what I expect and exactly how much slack I'm willing to cut, and where the line is. The door-to-door seems to be the most effective thing there.

Time for bed. Maybe I'll catch Jakub on his rounds. I never noticed RA's on rounds before. Never really registered. Now that's me.

Home tomorrow night! Real food and a new TV, can't wait.