One of those days

Today was just one of those days....

I woke up and felt exhausted (maybe I shouldn't have gone to sleep at all - I was a lot more awake on those days...haha...j/k).

I went over to our central office in hopes of catching one of our associate directors because I wanted to talk to him about an initiative I've been thinking about - that already got shot down once but I think there may be a way of resurrecting it or at least making it something we can work on next year during the year (one suggestion was to make a committee and the best way to kill any good idea at this institution is to form a committee because you know then nothing will ever happen; so I've been trying to think of a different approach I can suggest) - but he wasn't there anyway. I also wanted to talk to him about the assessment taskforce that I was co-chairing last year because I really don't want to do it anymore this year...for so many reasons. I like assessment (yes, I'm weird) but this taskforce was not what I thought it would be. But you were the co-chair, you may think, why didn't you change it. Ha...co-chair here just means secretary. ;)

Well, he wasn't there anyway - so much for that plan. I went to pick up the paint for my office. I decided to paint my office. The only problem: there are a ton of holes and cracks in the wall. I've asked to have maintenance stop by and plaster the holes and cracks weeks ago but never got a response. Ugh. That's so one of my pet peeves - if you can't do something or it'll take a long time, just tell me but don't ignore my e-mails/voicemails.

I got back to my office and tried to go online. Our University is rolling out a new security software. It prompted me to log in, which I did. Then it asked for me to download the new software - but of course I don't have administrative privileges on my office computer, so I couldn't. I called our Tech Support Office and of course didn't hear back all day. At least I could go on through a temporary access thing; so annoying though!!!

The next few hours were spent looking at the Hall Director Manual. Yeah, surprise, we may actually have a manual this year. Last year, we didn't get one. What did I do when I didn't know what to do, you ask...oh, let me tell you - I just made it up. There were so many things that we didn't really get trained on; and there's only so much you can cover in one-on-one's with your supervisor or so many questions you can ask...so eventually you just start to wing it. Good thing, I've been a Hall Director for a while and at least know how things were done at other schools.

But yeah, working on this manual isn't the most thrilling thing in the world - but then again, it has to get done.

Things just kept going downhill for the rest of the day. I made one more attempt to call about my walls being plastered - the answer was a "we're not sure" and when I asked if they could at least let me know whether or not it'll happen I got a "yes" that sounded more like a "no" (and I didn't hear anything for the rest of the day). How long do they think I'll wait until I start painting? This office needs more than one coat of paint and training starts on Monday, so I won't really have time after that. Ugh!

I spent some time looking up YouTube videos on how to plaster holes and then wandered around the building trying to find some supplies (they were painting in here earlier) but no luck. I guess I'll just have to paint over it all. It'll look like crap - but it can't look worse than it looks right now.

Oh and then to top it all of, I got an e-mail regarding the new faculty member moving into my building. Apparently they shampooed the carpets for her and are putting new furniture in the apartment and getting linens and all that stuff. Did anyone shampoo my carpet before I came here? If they did, you couldn't tell. The apartment was filthy - the office worse. I feel dirty just walking around the office and if I ever take off my shoes, my feet are black within minutes (no joke!). I was told when I moved in that I'd get new furniture in my apartment because it's pretty crappy - a few weeks later, I was told that the new furniture would be coming here in December - it's July now and I still don't have new furniture. I was sent to help a colleague pick out some new furniture a couple weeks ago but haven't heard anything since; so we'll see if that actually happens.

I'm just so tired of all this. I need my students back!!!

Oh and I totally forgot: We got our key envelope labels. So at the end of last year, I had my student workers prep labels for all my keys and the RAs then put the keys straight into those envelopes. I then double-checked the keys and since then they have been sitting in a drawer ready for Opening. Well, a week ago, we were told that we are centrally printing labels and that we need to use these new labels. What the...? Am I seriously supposed to put these new labels on new envelopes and then move all the keys from one envelope to another; or stick the labels over the old ones, which will look crappy but would probably be less work. As if I have nothing better to do?

You know, the main thing I've learned at this school is to never do anything early - because they'll change their mind ten times and then in the end you have to re-do everything again. But then when you wait, you'll have to do it last minute and be stressed - or sometimes nothing happens and than you have to come up with your own system anyway (and will be mad at yourself for waiting so long). So I guess what I truly learned is that no matter what you do, you'll always be screwed.

Can students be back now PLEASE??? I need them to keep me sane!!!

(And yes, you can remind me of that when my students start driving me crazy in the Fall. Haha.)