Friday Five time...

1. What is your current occupation? Is this what you chose to be doing at this point in your life? Why or why not? Prepare yourself. This is going to get very long...

My current occupation is a Staff Assistant for the School of Business Administration at the University of Mississippi (*Gasp!* She blatantly says where she works, as if anyone with half a brain can't figure it out!). In reality, this means House Bitch. Basically, I maintain data on prospective students, scholarships, and several other small, semesterly tidbits of data. I also participate in Academic Advising during peak advising times. I also handle all of the recruiting for the Undergraduate Program. And I do several other things, too. Basically whatever the Undergraduate Dean doesn't have time for, or thinks I'd be good at. I handle some of her correspondence. I've worked on catalog revisions. I play graphic designer sometimes for recruiting publications or signs that need to be put up. I help her with some of the technicalities of her classes (even grade papers sometimes, despite never having even so much as sat in on a Management class. Don't tell the students.)

Hell no this isn't anything even remotely like what I thought I would be doing at this age. I think I thought I might be in graduate school, or maybe slaving away at a publishing company trying to work my way up to some sort of editor. Certainly not this. But I'm not displeased. I like the educational environment, I love working with students, and I've discovered computer skills that I had no idea were lurking in me (this is a girl who avoided the internet and even e-mail until about 3 1/2 - 4 years ago).

2. If time/talent/money were no object, what would your dream occupation be? You know Joan Cusack's character in Grosse Pointe Blank? I want to be her. Not necessarily for a hitman, you know. But someone interesting. No stuffy suit-wearing executives for me. A real character. Someone who is eccentric and does interesting things. I like variety, and I like organizing things. Throw in someone who needs me to travel with them occasionally and its perfection.

3. What did/do your parents do for a living? Has this had any influence on your career choices? Gee. Lots of stuff? Basically, it ranges from shoe store manager to salesman to guitar making to songwriter/producer and having one's own record company. So, uh, no. No influence whatsoever. On the other hand, my current occupation isn't exactly what I'd call a career, and it wasn't so much of a choice as something I just fell into and happened to enjoy.

4. Have you ever had to choose between having a career and having a family? No. I'm only 23, you know. Not married, no kids.

5. In your opinion, what is the easiest job in the world? What is the hardest? Why? Well, having not experienced all the jobs in the world, I don't think I am in a position to say. I will say this though- from the experience I do have, I think having a job you like is easier than a job you hate no matter which one is physically or intellectually "easier." I worked at a high volume coffee shop, on my feet all day, making cup after cup and not getting a break and I absolutely loved it. The most "fun" job I've ever had. I also worked in a crappy video store, and despite being able to sit on my ass and watch movies, wander out for a bit, and basically do *nothing* (think Clerks- that was SO my job exactly), I hated it passionately. I didn't like the clientele, half the people I worked with, and everything else about that job. So there you go.




  ¶ 8/23/2002 11:52:00 AM

  It's the weekend! Nearly, anyway. They are giving out free football tickets to staff (up to four per staff member) for the first game of the season- which is against the University of Lousiana at Monroe. I had no idea they even had a football team. But. Hee. FOOTBALL SEASON!

I have no idea why I'm so excited about this. Well, I have an inkling, but I'm going to save that for another day (excitement over football is only a minor blemish on the fringes of that monologue). But I am excited, and that's enough. Plus, free. Not that it's the most exciting game of Ever, but its the first game, and there's a certain level of energy in that to make it fun. So. Most likely, Alicia, Jen, and I are going to max out our quotas and bring the entire posse out to the game. So, hee! Football.

Go Rebs!  ¶ 8/23/2002 09:31:00 AM

  Really quickly, because I'm running late to pick someone up from the airport...

Aw, hell. Easier to just post this conversation that to try to explain it again.

Bus Mik: My boobs hurt.
Bus Mik: I am a freaking moron who wore 2 bras to work
AliciaKathleen2: waaa?
AliciaKathleen2: Live an let DIIIIIEEEEE!
Bus Mik: my boobs?
AliciaKathleen2: waaaa haaa haaaaaaaaaa!
AliciaKathleen2: Um. No. I think you might want them
Bus Mik: I don't want them dead (in my mind that's associated with "shriveled, and ... eeew"
Bus Mik: Yeah
Bus Mik: Exactly
AliciaKathleen2: hehe
AliciaKathleen2: so take one of the bras off stoopid
AliciaKathleen2: live and let breathe
Bus Mik: i can't. if i take off bra A, its cream and it gleams through my shirt cuz of the worn out thinness
Bus Mik: I mean if i take off the other one and leave that one
Bus Mik: And then bra b... is a sports bra. If i only wear it, i will be flat chested
AliciaKathleen2: heh
Bus Mik: There is also the matter of my purse that doesn't shut. Where would i put this hypothectical bra?
AliciaKathleen2: your so vaaaain, you probably wore two bras to woooork!
Bus Mik: I don't want to walk around with bras spilling out of my purse
Bus Mik: Dude. It's totally Ryan's fault.
AliciaKathleen2: Is it?
Bus Mik: He unpacked the suitcases- and my black bra has hence disappeared
AliciaKathleen2: Oh. Dude. I left my black bra and lacey shirt at Nat's
AliciaKathleen2: I knew something like that was gonna happen
Bus Mik: Plus, he was in charge of the laundry. And he seperated by what manner of clothing (pants. shirts. underwear) to do laundry. And he never got to the shirts.
Bus Mik: So i had to scrounge.
AliciaKathleen2: hehe
Bus Mik: ooh, ick.
AliciaKathleen2: boooobs

Yeah, I know. I'm a crazy moron. And my boobs still kinda hurt.   ¶ 8/21/2002 04:30:00 PM

  Sorry to be all as though I've gone vacation again. Actually it's the exact opposite. Work is nutty (the first week of classes). I have suffered through a barrage of poor, lost little freshmen turning up at my door with issues ranging from being unable to register for classes due to a mysterious glich in Financial Aid's system to "I went to my four o'clock class and it was this other class instead" (Of course it was, little boy, because YOU WENT INTO THE WRONG CLASSROOM!). It's fun, though. I'm learning all the idiotic ways freshmen fuck up their first week of classes.

Apparently, I was an oddball. It's not that I had any more of a clue when I was freshman than these kids do, but I had a lot of pride. I made certain to procede carefully to avoid any embarrassing screw ups. I was registered in my classes when school started. I made sure I knew where they were. If I got lost, I followed other people who looked like they knew where they were going. In short, the transition was easy. By second term, it was old hat.

I do forgive the new kids their blatant inability to comprehend The Way The University Works, but I reserve the right to scoff and/or laugh about it later. It's the ones who have been here that I have absolutely no patience for. I don't even want to talk about them, they annoy me so much. So, I won't.

Um... I had fried green tomatoes at lunch today, courtesy of Alicia. They were very good. And, get this. The restaurant we went to makes turkey, dressing, and cranberry sauce sandwhiches, a glorious thing I thought possible only twice per year. It was a fabulous lunch.

The other thing I was going to mention, but have not had time - Puck had more seizures yesterday morning. This time it was three. One biggie, followed by two smaller ones. I took him to the vet yesterday afternoon, where, after much effort, we coaxed him into being still long enough to draw blood so they could run tests. As we were leaving, the vet told me that the blood had clouded due to his having eaten too recently, so it ended up being for nothing. It was totally un-test-able. So, we're going to have to go back soon. On the bright side, though (not really, but if it helps it's better than the alternative), they upped his phenobarbital dosage a bit. Last time he was tested, he was on the low end of the therapuetic level, so the vet said that most likely his liver has just learned to break the meds down faster, making them leave his system sooner. Hence the greater dosage.

Puck seems pleased- we give him one and a half pills twice/day now instead of just the one pill, so he gets to have 4 pieces of cheese instead of only two. Glad he gets to reap at least some benefit from this whole epilepsy business.   ¶ 8/21/2002 02:31:00 PM