What a week

It's been a crazy week - Opening always is but this one has been quite ridiculous. It started last Wednesday. I was in the middle of last-minute preparations for Opening while still going to RA Training all day long, when I got a phone call from my bank. I may have been the victim of credit card fraud!!! WHAT!?!? They asked me to verify these charges and those were clearly NOT charges I'd made. I mean, come on, I'd been in training all day. How would I have time to spend hundreds of dollars at some department store? I'd gotten up early that day to run a few errands - I bought some food at a grocery store, gotten donuts for breakfast and had filled my tank with gas.
It must have happened somewhere there... How does that happen to begin with? How does someone steal your credit card information when they don't have your credit card?
AHHHH!!!! Not that credit card fraud is ever fun to deal with, but of all days....

Opening itself went alright. I only had a few frustrated parents. One of them was quite frustrated though and started yelling at me in front of the entire staff - he continued to yell and complain all the way up the stairs, continued in the student's rooms - and every time I tried to say something, whether it was explaining something or simply answer one of the many questions he threw at me, he interrupted me before I got even half of it out. His wife finally stopped him and said, "Maybe you should let her finish the sentence." Haha.
I guess over the years I've just learned to shrug it off. Parents can get frustrated sometimes; it's nothing personal. You just have to take it, listen and eventually they'll calm down enough, so you can provide them with some options and try to actually find a solution for the perceived problem or issue.

Then the week started and craziness continued. I work with a learning community - usually the community has a faculty director and a graduate student, who work with it. This year, we do not have a faculty director. The grad is stressed but also clings to the community and how it used to be and seems a bit resistant at letting me get too involved (or change anything). The community has also participated in Homecoming for the past years; however this year, Homecoming is a month earlier (end of September) and we weren't sure if we could and should try to pull it off this year. We brought it up to the students and guess what? They're all into it. They don't just want to participate in one or two things - no, they want to do ALL of them (seven all together). So we've all spent the past few nights in Homecoming meetings. I'm having a ton of fun; but it is a bit stressful when you go all day and then have more meetings at night that last until 10 or even 11 pm.

But I love my job again. I feel like me again. I'm excited; I have plans and ideas. Apparently some of my returners are "waiting" to see when I get frustrated - they (or at least one of them) think that changes won't happen in this department and that I'm just wasting my time. But I don't believe it. Everything I've brought up so far has been well received. I still now a lot of the main players here. I am given a decent amount of autonomy in regards to how to run my building. I've gotten to know a lot of students; and even if I don't know all their names yet, many of them say hi to me in the hallways and smile at me. I've also had some great conversations with students already.

I do miss being an academic advisor though; not that I miss those marathon days of having advising appointments, but I like knowing and understanding the general education requirements and being able to answer students' questions. One of my residents asked me today about what classes to take and what his chances were of getting into a class that's full. I could give him some generic information but I don't know all the details. I'm really tempted to spend some time reading up on the gen ed requirements and advising model here. But then again, I have a building to run, staff members to meet with, an area council to get off the ground, two learning communities to worry about and and and; maybe learning more about academic advising here will have to take a back seat for now. I really wish there were more hours in the day.