I really love my job. It is so much fun, and I feel like it is extremely relevant. I don't like doing jobs in which I don't feel like I am helping others or benefiting someone else's life in some way. I don't see the point otherwise. Since I don't start the post-graduate certificate study for editing until January, I have been working full time and only working, and I'm really happy with it.
The department that I am in is wonderful. It's so well-organized and run by a team of really great people. There is very little office drama, and I feel like a well-respected, valued member of a very multi-cultural and accepting staff. Last year, there was a highly competitive, and...um...provocative tutor who I was friends with for a short time. She may have been academically intelligent, but that apparently didn't carry over into her everyday life. She was extremely jealous and vengeful. When she did not return to work, she, I assume, thought that I had something to do with it. Office drama insued, but the people who I work for backed me and I don't have to worry about her threats anymore. This year, I feel like we have a GREAT tutorial staff, and everyone is friends! I have gotten to be close friends with the geology tutor and another English tutor and am getting to know many others. We started a "tutoring club", and try to get together to watch the games when we can. Last weekend, we watched the UW vs. Oregon game so that Rachel, the geology tutor, could learn how football is played. She got free tickets to the game that will be disrupting the entire city on November 18th, and needed to know how football works, stat! I am planning on doing something similar for the Nov. 18th game, seeing as how it's my birthday, I have the day off because of traffic issues, and I won't be able to get anywhere in my car that day.
I hope everyone had a great Halloween, however long ago that was. I ended up having to give a review for one of my students' midterms. After that, I walked back to my apartment. I realized that I hadn't planned to do anything, this holiday has just snuck up on me. I ended up going over to Rachel, the geology tutor's, house and watching a movie, so that was pretty fun. I spent the last two Fridays leaving straight from work and driving to PA to go to the dentist. I have everything planned out perfectly. If I leave by 11:15, I make it to Edmonds in plenty of time to catch the 12:05 ferry, which gets me to the dentist at almost exactly 2:00. Yesterday, I had two cavities filled, so luckily I won't be going back next week. Last weekend, I stayed in PA overnight, then drove back to Seattle so that we could get together with the other tutors and watch the football game by 12:30. It was against Oregon, who is undefeated. We played really well, actually, but gave up the game in the 4th quarter. Leaving the sports bar, we hitched a ride down to Hec Ed Pavillion to watch the men's basketball exhibition game. Most of us had free tickets from work, so there was a little pack of tutors. I ended up getting my tickets later than the first group of tutors did, so we were sitting in different places. I ended up sitting practically courtside, while they were up in the rafters! Luckily, they were able to sneak in and sit next to me at halftime, in the ICA staff section. All day on Sunday morning, I had to prepare for my students' Drama 101 misterm review. I hadn't planned on teaching a midterm review session, but everyone seemed pretted overwhelmed when their teacher posted the review sheet on the class website and it was about 5 pages long. I had to read like crazy, then go to see the play Love's Labour's Lost that the students were supposed to watch and write a response to. I really enjoyed the play, it was SO good, but it was right in the middle of the afternoon and over 2 hours long. I had to walk straight from the theater to the other end of campus, where I work, finish preparing, and give the review. There was so much information that we ended up not getting all of the way through it, and the students all said that their midterm was overly difficult. I'm waiting to find out most of the scores, but it wasn't a very good test for anybody.
This weekend, I am volunteering as a writing tutor for the Dream Project, which helps kids from 15 high schools around the area fill out college applications and write letters of intent. It's especially helpful to underprivileged students and students who don't speak English as a first language. It's a great program and very well-organized. I felt like I made a difference today. Even though my brain is totally fried, I will be back to tutor all day tomorrow.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Busy Times
Hey Everyone!
Sorry for the lack of posts! It's been about two weeks since I started work for the school year...and it's been about two weeks since I posted. Correlation? Yes, work has been caaarrraaazzzyyy! But that's wonderful. I'm really happy with work this year and it just reminds me of how much I love my job. I have a really full schedule and I have really great students. Really. Really. LOVE my work right now. There's not much I can say about it, except that it's a lot of fun and keeps me busy.
Deshawn still has been unable to attain a job, although lots of people told him that they really like him and want to hire him. He just has a few *issues* to resolve first. He is trying to get back into school for the winter quarter, so hopefully something will finally work out for him.
This weekend, we are heading to Port Angeles to help my parents move into a new house! Since they are currently paying for 3 houses at once, it's a little unnerving, but they're new house it my Dad's dream casa, and it's pretty awesome. It will be sad moving from the house that I grew up in, but I am excited to make some new memories in this house-o-plenty! Or at least have a place with a functioning hot tub and a field of berries (potentially).
Sorry for the lack of posts! It's been about two weeks since I started work for the school year...and it's been about two weeks since I posted. Correlation? Yes, work has been caaarrraaazzzyyy! But that's wonderful. I'm really happy with work this year and it just reminds me of how much I love my job. I have a really full schedule and I have really great students. Really. Really. LOVE my work right now. There's not much I can say about it, except that it's a lot of fun and keeps me busy.
Deshawn still has been unable to attain a job, although lots of people told him that they really like him and want to hire him. He just has a few *issues* to resolve first. He is trying to get back into school for the winter quarter, so hopefully something will finally work out for him.
This weekend, we are heading to Port Angeles to help my parents move into a new house! Since they are currently paying for 3 houses at once, it's a little unnerving, but they're new house it my Dad's dream casa, and it's pretty awesome. It will be sad moving from the house that I grew up in, but I am excited to make some new memories in this house-o-plenty! Or at least have a place with a functioning hot tub and a field of berries (potentially).
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Looking Up
So, things are looking better here. I had a meeting on Friday to discuss my upcoming students, and the learning specialists both said, "You have the problem of being too good. You're such a good tutor that we're sticking you with all of the difficult students." That was really nice to hear, and really, I like working with the at-risk students better that the ones that are easy. Even though I'm not a faculty liaison this quarter, I'm pretty happy with my schedule. I even found out that a got a raise of $1.50 more per hour. Score! Also, the winter editing course looks like a better fit for me. I don't particularly care for online classes, but this one is half online and half in class, and classes are on Saturdays, which is easier for me because then I can have the week free for tutoring. So, it's worked out well in the end.
Deshawn is still looking for a job, but he's signed up with a temp agency and is really working hard to get a position, so hopefully that will be productive soon. On a sad note, his cousin, who has been sick with cancer for awhile now, passed on Tuesday morning. So, Rest In Peace cousin Dell.
Rachel and my Mom came to Seattle for a few days while Rachel had some tests done at the Cancer Care Alliance. The whole thing was kind of a mess from the beginning what with Rachel having a massive seizure while they were waiting for to pick them up, and then when I was on my way to pick them up to take them back to the ferry yesterday, my tire went flat again! Luckily, Chukkie was available to save them, so they made their connections and got home safe and sound. It was certainly fun to see the Krattli clan on Friday night and have some delicious pizza and pop at the CCA house!
School started at the UW this week, and even though I don't really miss going to classes and living in the dorms and all that, it's been nice hanging out with some of my friends who are still in school, like Katherine and Riley. I also had dinner with a friend of mine from my London trip on Thursday. Even though Selena's graduated, it was fun to go The Ram and pretend we were still undergrads anyways.
Yesterday, one of the guys that lives in my apartment was playing something that sounded like the accordion and singing interesting old songs. First off, he sang "The Sidewalks of New York", which I wasn't aware anyone else new. It reminds me of Granny Duncan. Then, he did some sort of accordion version of "The Boy from New York City". Super cool.
Deshawn is still looking for a job, but he's signed up with a temp agency and is really working hard to get a position, so hopefully that will be productive soon. On a sad note, his cousin, who has been sick with cancer for awhile now, passed on Tuesday morning. So, Rest In Peace cousin Dell.
Rachel and my Mom came to Seattle for a few days while Rachel had some tests done at the Cancer Care Alliance. The whole thing was kind of a mess from the beginning what with Rachel having a massive seizure while they were waiting for to pick them up, and then when I was on my way to pick them up to take them back to the ferry yesterday, my tire went flat again! Luckily, Chukkie was available to save them, so they made their connections and got home safe and sound. It was certainly fun to see the Krattli clan on Friday night and have some delicious pizza and pop at the CCA house!
School started at the UW this week, and even though I don't really miss going to classes and living in the dorms and all that, it's been nice hanging out with some of my friends who are still in school, like Katherine and Riley. I also had dinner with a friend of mine from my London trip on Thursday. Even though Selena's graduated, it was fun to go The Ram and pretend we were still undergrads anyways.
Yesterday, one of the guys that lives in my apartment was playing something that sounded like the accordion and singing interesting old songs. First off, he sang "The Sidewalks of New York", which I wasn't aware anyone else new. It reminds me of Granny Duncan. Then, he did some sort of accordion version of "The Boy from New York City". Super cool.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
More Bad News
I was really excited because Deshawn was offered the job that he applied for. He got a phone call yesterday saying that he actually "didn't qualify" for the job, so he wouldn't be hired after all. I was really counting on that because he has to sign the lease to stay with me in the next couple of days, and if he doesn't have a job then I don't think they'll let him stay there. He's spending the day looking for work. I hope he finds something.
I'm excited to start work next week. I think that I'm going to have to look for another job come January, though. My tutoring job isn't going to pay for things anymore, particularly if Deshawn doesn't have a job soon. And since I won't be starting my editing program until winter, I will probably have to get other daytime work. Sigh. When it rains, it pours.
I'm excited to start work next week. I think that I'm going to have to look for another job come January, though. My tutoring job isn't going to pay for things anymore, particularly if Deshawn doesn't have a job soon. And since I won't be starting my editing program until winter, I will probably have to get other daytime work. Sigh. When it rains, it pours.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Stress
I am so stressed out right now. I've been waiting all summer for the fall to start because my job starts up again and I was supposed to start my editing program so that I can go on to edit National Geographic, so something awesome like that.
On September 9th, I got the E-mails from my boss asking for responses on what classes from the given list I would be able to tutor and which faculty liaison positions I would want to fill. There were a lot of great classes, and I sent two comprehensive E-mails about two hours after she had sent the original messages. So, I felt great and all prepared. On the evening of the 16th, I got an E-mail from my boss asking if I had even received the E-mails because she had gotten a response from everyone except me! WTF? I was probably the first tutor to respond! So, I forwarded her the two original messages from my sent box. Needless to say, I did not get a faculty liaison position for this quarter, which I was really hoping for. I will be tutoring a lot of drama and English, so that's good. There has been a lot of correspondence betweem my boss and I this past week. It's been really crazy.
On Tuesday morning, I received an E-mail saying that they were cancelling my editing program due to "low enrollment". Just my program, no one elses. They asked if I wanted to transfer my tuition to the Monday night program (which I can't do because of work) or to the winter quarter blended online class. I don't care for online classes, but that is what I am going to have to do. I'm sick of waiting, and now I have to wait some more. This sucks!
On a happier note, Deshawn got the job that he applied for, so that is nice. Besides the editing program, I have been looking into the paralegal program. There are also three masters programs that look interesting. I am going to have to do a lot of thinking over the next 3 months.
Hope everything is going well for everyone else! I had an awesome time seeing everyone at the zoo last week!
On September 9th, I got the E-mails from my boss asking for responses on what classes from the given list I would be able to tutor and which faculty liaison positions I would want to fill. There were a lot of great classes, and I sent two comprehensive E-mails about two hours after she had sent the original messages. So, I felt great and all prepared. On the evening of the 16th, I got an E-mail from my boss asking if I had even received the E-mails because she had gotten a response from everyone except me! WTF? I was probably the first tutor to respond! So, I forwarded her the two original messages from my sent box. Needless to say, I did not get a faculty liaison position for this quarter, which I was really hoping for. I will be tutoring a lot of drama and English, so that's good. There has been a lot of correspondence betweem my boss and I this past week. It's been really crazy.
On Tuesday morning, I received an E-mail saying that they were cancelling my editing program due to "low enrollment". Just my program, no one elses. They asked if I wanted to transfer my tuition to the Monday night program (which I can't do because of work) or to the winter quarter blended online class. I don't care for online classes, but that is what I am going to have to do. I'm sick of waiting, and now I have to wait some more. This sucks!
On a happier note, Deshawn got the job that he applied for, so that is nice. Besides the editing program, I have been looking into the paralegal program. There are also three masters programs that look interesting. I am going to have to do a lot of thinking over the next 3 months.
Hope everything is going well for everyone else! I had an awesome time seeing everyone at the zoo last week!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Catching Up
Hey everyone! I just got back to Seattle from PA yesertday afternoon. I probably should have blogged from my parents' house, but I just didn't think about it.
I came back to PA last Friday, the evening of the 3rd. I had such a great time during labor day weekend, hanging out with my family at the lake! It's always my favorite thing to do, hanging out with the family, but I especially love it when we all go out to the lake. Many of my best memories are of being with everyone at the lake, and many new memories are still to be made. My other favorite thing is when there are adorable little family members visiting, and there were plenty of those as well! I had a great time on Sunday watching the original Burn the Floor on VHS with my grandma Lemon, and it was an extra nice surprise when Hannah and Stella came over and we had a super cool slumber party! Aside from family, I like to visit my old PA friends. Kaylie and I started a bit of a Robin Hood Season 3 marathon on Saturday night. We watched the first 8 episodes that night and the last 5 episodes on Sunday. It's really a great season.
The rest of the week was spent cleaning out the house so that it will be ready for someone else to snatch it up and move in. I spent a lot of the time helping out by painting the garage and such so that it will be more sellable. My mom tackled a lot of the crazy cluttered areas, like the attic and garage. It just seemed like there were piles and clusters of stuff in so many places, forgotten drawers, little side closets. 20+ years of stuff! She found a jar of cranberry jelly in the basement that was well over 23 years old. It had to have been there since before my parents moved in. There were canning jars galore down there too...most of them filled with dead spiders!
Last Friday, we spent most of the day getting ready for our garage sale on Saturday. Even though it's kind of a pain in the butt to put one on, it's nice to make a little money off of things, and the rest is easily donated to Goodwill. We weren't sure if more people would be garage saling to find bargains since the economy is still in the dumps, or if there would be fewer people around. Considering we did a great deal of business between 8:00 and 9:00 am (although we were supposed to start at 9:00), I'd say there are still a lot of people who like looking for cheap deals at yard sales. However, no one wanted to buy bigger or slightly more expensive things like furniture. We sold a lot of little items. It's also interesting to see the different kinds of things that people want to buy. I priced all of my awesome old VHS tapes at 10 cents each. "Who'd want these?" I thought to myself. Well, the very first thing that sold that day were six VHS tapes! I didn't think anyone watched those anymore. Score for us all! People were pleasantly surprised at how cheap they were, and we didn't have to haul most of them any place afterwards. To top off the day, the Huskies totally kicked Syracuse's...uh...rears at football! I hope it's a productive year, considering Jake Locker will graduate and be leaving us after this.
On Sunday, my grandma and grandpa Braun came over to have raspberry glace pie (at my dad's request) for a September birthdays celebration. It was pretty fun! Afer we ate, my dad and grandpa played crib while the girls went down to the living room to watch the Seahawks game. The Seahawks totally creamed San Francisco, so that was exciting. However, the best part of the game came when the announcers were interviewing some old coach via a studio in LA. I could care less about what the guy had to say, but for some reason the TV people decided that they wanted to try and fit both the announcers and the old coach on the TV at the same time. The image had to be cut off on either side. So, the caption labeling former coach Jimmy Johnson simply said "My Johnson". I thought it was hilarious and mentioned it to everyone. My mom thought it was pretty funny, but I'm not sure anyone else picked up on it. Oh well! Eric would have gotten a kick out of it, so I texted him and said, "If you liked my interview, you should see the interview with My Johnson". Just a little inside joke.
My parents' house went on the market yesterday! So, keep your fingers crossed and say your prayers that it will sell soon.
Happy Birthday to my dad! Hopefully he has a great day, and I will need to call home soon since he is bound to be coming home for lunch!
I came back to PA last Friday, the evening of the 3rd. I had such a great time during labor day weekend, hanging out with my family at the lake! It's always my favorite thing to do, hanging out with the family, but I especially love it when we all go out to the lake. Many of my best memories are of being with everyone at the lake, and many new memories are still to be made. My other favorite thing is when there are adorable little family members visiting, and there were plenty of those as well! I had a great time on Sunday watching the original Burn the Floor on VHS with my grandma Lemon, and it was an extra nice surprise when Hannah and Stella came over and we had a super cool slumber party! Aside from family, I like to visit my old PA friends. Kaylie and I started a bit of a Robin Hood Season 3 marathon on Saturday night. We watched the first 8 episodes that night and the last 5 episodes on Sunday. It's really a great season.
The rest of the week was spent cleaning out the house so that it will be ready for someone else to snatch it up and move in. I spent a lot of the time helping out by painting the garage and such so that it will be more sellable. My mom tackled a lot of the crazy cluttered areas, like the attic and garage. It just seemed like there were piles and clusters of stuff in so many places, forgotten drawers, little side closets. 20+ years of stuff! She found a jar of cranberry jelly in the basement that was well over 23 years old. It had to have been there since before my parents moved in. There were canning jars galore down there too...most of them filled with dead spiders!
Last Friday, we spent most of the day getting ready for our garage sale on Saturday. Even though it's kind of a pain in the butt to put one on, it's nice to make a little money off of things, and the rest is easily donated to Goodwill. We weren't sure if more people would be garage saling to find bargains since the economy is still in the dumps, or if there would be fewer people around. Considering we did a great deal of business between 8:00 and 9:00 am (although we were supposed to start at 9:00), I'd say there are still a lot of people who like looking for cheap deals at yard sales. However, no one wanted to buy bigger or slightly more expensive things like furniture. We sold a lot of little items. It's also interesting to see the different kinds of things that people want to buy. I priced all of my awesome old VHS tapes at 10 cents each. "Who'd want these?" I thought to myself. Well, the very first thing that sold that day were six VHS tapes! I didn't think anyone watched those anymore. Score for us all! People were pleasantly surprised at how cheap they were, and we didn't have to haul most of them any place afterwards. To top off the day, the Huskies totally kicked Syracuse's...uh...rears at football! I hope it's a productive year, considering Jake Locker will graduate and be leaving us after this.
On Sunday, my grandma and grandpa Braun came over to have raspberry glace pie (at my dad's request) for a September birthdays celebration. It was pretty fun! Afer we ate, my dad and grandpa played crib while the girls went down to the living room to watch the Seahawks game. The Seahawks totally creamed San Francisco, so that was exciting. However, the best part of the game came when the announcers were interviewing some old coach via a studio in LA. I could care less about what the guy had to say, but for some reason the TV people decided that they wanted to try and fit both the announcers and the old coach on the TV at the same time. The image had to be cut off on either side. So, the caption labeling former coach Jimmy Johnson simply said "My Johnson". I thought it was hilarious and mentioned it to everyone. My mom thought it was pretty funny, but I'm not sure anyone else picked up on it. Oh well! Eric would have gotten a kick out of it, so I texted him and said, "If you liked my interview, you should see the interview with My Johnson". Just a little inside joke.
My parents' house went on the market yesterday! So, keep your fingers crossed and say your prayers that it will sell soon.
Happy Birthday to my dad! Hopefully he has a great day, and I will need to call home soon since he is bound to be coming home for lunch!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
New Library
I am at a new library today to check on things since the Seattle Public Library is closed this week due to budget cuts. Bummer!
I am still waiting anxiously to hear from the Editing Certification people. I feel pretty sure that I'll get accepted, but I hate waiting to hear about it!
I ended up driving home yet again this weekend! My parents are thinking about selling their house to buy a new one up Mount Angeles Rd. and a new office building for my dad. He's got this wild scheme going on, and everything should work out perfectly, but only if they can sell our house for a certain amount. So, they had a realtor come and check everything out on Saturday morning. My old room at home has been a sort of storage space for the past 4 or so years and REALLY needed some cleaning out. I tried to do as much as I could before the real estate people came, but it was still pretty cluttered. My mom has been working her butt of trying to clean out the other areas. I can only imagine what it will be like when it comes time to tackle the attic!
We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at the lake with the Bosses, Pete and Michelle, and Boompie. Michelle hosted a pickling party, and we ended up making over 40 jars of homemade pickles! It was a really interesting idea, and we made some darn good stuff!
My friend Stephen was in town with some friends this weekend, but I didn't get to see him. While he was at the Ridge on Saturday, I was at the lake. While he was at the lake on Sunday, I was at the Ridge...or near it. On Sunday (which was my mom and dad's 34th wedding anniversary), my dad and I went hiking to the Moose Lake area. It was a pretty good day for hiking. It started out clear, and we hiked out to the place where the trail splits and followed a hiker-made trail up and down these dangerous rock formations across a couple ridges before descending down into the valley from the opposite side of the original trail. The air was really chilly at the top of the ridges, but in the valley it was pretty nice. We could see the clouds start to roll in, and my dad was thinking that we might get caught in a storm. However, it stayed pretty nice while we hiked down into the valley, past Gladys Lake. We stopped at Moose Lake to have lunch and watch this enormous black bear eat his! Since the blueberry crop did not work out this year, we didn't expect to see any bears, so we were surprised when we came across this one! It was pretty darn cool! We also saw some deer (including a few cute little fawns), several blue grouse, 10 or so marmots, and an enormous hawk that almost got a little baby marmot out of his hole (don't worry, he missed). After lunch, we hiked out past Grand Lake and made our way up the switchbacks, but we missed the frog pond going back up, which was disappointing. As we climbed, we saw misty cloud start to form in teh valley. By the time we made it back to teh car, the valley was completely shrouded in fog! All in all, it was a pretty awesome 10-mile, mostly up-hill and exhausting hike. What other kind is there when you're hiking with my dad?
I am still waiting anxiously to hear from the Editing Certification people. I feel pretty sure that I'll get accepted, but I hate waiting to hear about it!
I ended up driving home yet again this weekend! My parents are thinking about selling their house to buy a new one up Mount Angeles Rd. and a new office building for my dad. He's got this wild scheme going on, and everything should work out perfectly, but only if they can sell our house for a certain amount. So, they had a realtor come and check everything out on Saturday morning. My old room at home has been a sort of storage space for the past 4 or so years and REALLY needed some cleaning out. I tried to do as much as I could before the real estate people came, but it was still pretty cluttered. My mom has been working her butt of trying to clean out the other areas. I can only imagine what it will be like when it comes time to tackle the attic!
We spent Saturday afternoon and evening at the lake with the Bosses, Pete and Michelle, and Boompie. Michelle hosted a pickling party, and we ended up making over 40 jars of homemade pickles! It was a really interesting idea, and we made some darn good stuff!
My friend Stephen was in town with some friends this weekend, but I didn't get to see him. While he was at the Ridge on Saturday, I was at the lake. While he was at the lake on Sunday, I was at the Ridge...or near it. On Sunday (which was my mom and dad's 34th wedding anniversary), my dad and I went hiking to the Moose Lake area. It was a pretty good day for hiking. It started out clear, and we hiked out to the place where the trail splits and followed a hiker-made trail up and down these dangerous rock formations across a couple ridges before descending down into the valley from the opposite side of the original trail. The air was really chilly at the top of the ridges, but in the valley it was pretty nice. We could see the clouds start to roll in, and my dad was thinking that we might get caught in a storm. However, it stayed pretty nice while we hiked down into the valley, past Gladys Lake. We stopped at Moose Lake to have lunch and watch this enormous black bear eat his! Since the blueberry crop did not work out this year, we didn't expect to see any bears, so we were surprised when we came across this one! It was pretty darn cool! We also saw some deer (including a few cute little fawns), several blue grouse, 10 or so marmots, and an enormous hawk that almost got a little baby marmot out of his hole (don't worry, he missed). After lunch, we hiked out past Grand Lake and made our way up the switchbacks, but we missed the frog pond going back up, which was disappointing. As we climbed, we saw misty cloud start to form in teh valley. By the time we made it back to teh car, the valley was completely shrouded in fog! All in all, it was a pretty awesome 10-mile, mostly up-hill and exhausting hike. What other kind is there when you're hiking with my dad?
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