Roadtrip Update & Thoughts about the Future

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while. I apologize. I was traveling and didn’t have access to internet all that often. I actually don’t have access to internet right now but I decided to write this blog now and then copy and paste it into the actual blog tomorrow when I’ll be having lunch at a Panera Bread.

This has been my summer of random roadtrips. I’ve been to 11 states in the past month and there’s a few more to come in the next week; I’ve gotten really good at setting up my tent quickly and I’ve slept in my car twice (it’s really not that uncomfortable). I’ve also been to 8 concerts, strolled through various cities, explored national parks, visited two good friends from undergraduate, painted a shirt, made a video and and and. There definitely haven’t been a lot of dull moments. ;)

I’m currently at my new institution – I decided to drop off half of my belongings now before going to Invisible Children’s Lobby Days (Monday, Tuesday). Then I’ll get the rest of my stuff and return for good. One more week of vacation and on July 6, I’ll be starting my new job.

I’m excited – and nervous. New beginnings, new places, new people stress me out. I’m worried about making a good impression, about proving that they made a good decision by hiring me, about living up to my own expectations. I don’t like the feeling of not knowing what to do – how things are done here. I worry about my relationships with the other staff members – professional staff and student staff. I worry about vandalism in my building – after all, I’ll be in a new building and it’ll be horrible if my students “destroy” the new facilities. And even though I’m not responsible for their actions, there’ll always be the question, “ Was there something that I could have done?”

Did I mention that I have a tendency to overanalyze things and freak myself out?!?

I like to set new goals for myself over the summer but I’m having a hard time doing that this year. There’s just so much you don’t know when you start a new job. I mean, I know how to be a hall director; but I don’t know how to be a hall director HERE.

As always, I have the goal of making my personal life a bit more of a priority; as always, we’ll see how that goes. I have a few friends here; maybe that’ll help. I drove around today and saw all the shops and restaurants – so at least IF I want to go somewhere, there’ll be places to go. And there’s the beach!!! I can’t wait to go to the beach; just stretch out on a towel and relax, daydream, read a good book. I really want a boat! Haha, I know I’m crazy. But seriously, could you imagine anything more amazing than going out on a boat, turning off the motor and just floating around while reading a good book. That’d be so relaxing! :D I even thought of some good boat names: I was thinking Lily or Phoenix (both inspired by Harry Potter), Bregenz or Elisabeth (Austria), Fantaghiro (princess in my favorite fairy tale), See The World (hmmm, maybe inspired by a band I know…LoL), dragonfly or imagine. Any thoughts?

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the future lately. It all started when one of my friends told me that she got engaged and will be getting married next summer. Since then, my friends and I have talked about weddings, bachelorette parties, our dream vacation home in Tuscany (we want to rent one – or later buy it – and get our four families to go there and hang out), children, etc. Yeah, our topics of conversation have changed quite a bit from when we first starting hanging out. LoL.

If this was my summer of random roadtrips, next year will be my summer of international wedding. I’m going to India for one of my friend’s weddings and then I’ll be going to Austria for my other friend’s wedding. I just hope none of the dates overlap (I also hope they don’t overlap with the NACURH conference since I’ll be the RHA Advisor next year….yay!!!...and would love to take a delegation to NACURH). And I should probably start saving money and vacation days now because that’ll be quite a bit of traveling – and not as cheap as me driving around the US and sleeping in my car, a tent or a cheap hotel room that I reserved through hotwire.com the night before.

Well, I’m off to bed. I’m too lazy to get sheets out of one of my boxes; I think I’ll just use my sleeping bag. I’ve gotten so used to the simple life.

I hope you’re all enjoying the summer!

Summer

I am procrastinating from packing. I just moved a bunch of stuff down to the storage room in the basement, so i figured I'd deserve a little break, right?

My apartment is starting to look empty, so at least I'm making some progress. I have to be out of here Monday. My supervisor - or I guess, former supervisor now - is coming over at 8 am to check me out. Argh, so much for sleeping in on my last day here. Oh well, more time to travel, right? ;)

I've packed up all my Student Affairs book. Usually, I try to read some thing for work on vacation, but I decided that this year I'll really really be on vacation and for once not think about work. I can't really prepare for next year anyway, since I'm moving to a new institution.

It feels strange though. At this time of the summer, I would usually be pouring over Student Affairs literature, trying to revise my curriculum for the year, developing new initiatives. Instead I'm re-reading Harry Potter and getting ready for a quite adventurous vacation with camping, concerts and visiting friends.

I have been thinking a little about next year. I mean, last semester I organized this huge Invisible Children Challenge. So what should my next project be? I could do Invisible Children again. I'm not sure how much my new students would get into that. I could also try to pick another organization and figure out something new. I'm just not sure. But I know I'd like to do something again....

Okay, I think I'll have some ice cream and then it's back to packing. The goal is to get the majority packed tonight, do laundry and finish up a few more things tomorrow, and then just relax and do nothing on Sunday. Sounds like a plan, right?


Oh, I apologize in advance if I don't update this in a while. I'm going camping/hiking and don't know when I'll have access to internet. I'm sure I'll stop by a Panera Break occasionally though and will update all of you then.

Life on the Road - Part 1

Ten month contracts are great! I'm going to miss having the opportunity to have the summer off. But hey, at least I'll have vacation days now, so if I really really really need to go somewhere (like an Invisible Children event or a concert), I'd be able to do that. ;)

On May 31st (the latest...maybe a few days before), I'll be checking out of my apartment. I'm not sure yet when I'll be moving into my new apartment at my new institution, but it probably won't be until much later in June or even July 1 or so (I start work on July 6). What will I be doing in between? Yeah, that is a good question. LoL.

I'm definitely going to visit some friends. I've also thought about going camping - I would have to buy a tent though - you know, just drive to some National Park, set up my tent and then go hiking on a different trail every day. I like hiking. And I'll be in Washington D.C. for Invisible Children's Lobby Days June 22nd and the 23rd. Other than that, who knows.

This week has been a good preparation for life on the road. I got in my car Tuesday morning, drove five hours, hung out with friends, crashed on a friend's couch. I stayed there for a few days. Then back on the road. Saw a concert, drove until I was too tired so I got a hotel room. The next day, I "explored" the area, then stayed at another hotel. And tomorrow, I'll be heading back - I almost wrote "heading back home" but then, is it really home? I mean, I'll only be living there for a few more days, the majority of my apartment is already packed up and mentally I've definitely said goodbye already.

So here are a few things I've learned about life on the road:
- I love singing along to CDs. Roadtrips on your own are a great time to learn lyrics to new songs...LoL.
- Hotwire is awesome. If you book a hotel room the day before, you can find something really cheap in awesome locations.
- Stop at Panera Bread. Free Wi-Fi and relatively healthy food. ;) (No, I do not get paid for promoting businesses or bands...haha.)
- And if you start feeling lonely, get out your phone, call a friend and tell them funny stories from the road.

Well, I should get back to work. I got roped into doing a training session about the summer reading program for our Orientation Staff. I've been off contract for over a week and I still get sucked into doing things - argh! I know, I know, I could have just said no but you know me, "no" isn't really in my vocabulary. ;)

The Adventure begins...

I love not having any work to do!!!

As I'm sure anyone who follows this blog knows, I am a workaholic. When I'm working, I work all the time - and when I'm not working, I think about work.

But I also LOVE vacations. Like with everything else in my life, I don't just have time off or go on vacation - I go all out. So if I'm "relaxing at home," I may not get out of bed all day and just sleep and read and sleep and read (usually a Harry Potter book). And when I decide to leave and go somewhere, I don't just go somewhere on some boring grown-up vacation; oh no, it has to be an adventure.

After a few boring days of packing, I decided it was time to GO SOMEWHERE. I haven't stopped thinking about going to that concert 11 1/2 hours away - and after some phone calls, it didn't seem like such a crazy idea anymore - well, maybe a little crazy but in a good way, right? I mean, I don't have to do the drive in one day - I have NOTHING TO DO RIGHT NOW!!! Haha. I'm really excited about that in case you haven't noticed.

So I got up early this morning, packed a bag, got in the car and drove five hours to see one of my former RAs. I've missed her!!! We hung out, chatted, laughed - it was so nice just to catch up - and yes, I realize it's only been a little more than a week since we last saw each other. And it's nice not being the supervisor anymore. ;) Not that it was ever a challenge supervising her - she was one of my superstar RAs, but it's nice just being the mentor/older friend.

In the late afternoon, we drove another two hours to a concert - haha, big surprise there!
The concert was at a church - a youth group thing. Yes, the same band I saw Saturday. I could seriously watch them every day - they're simply AMAZING! Their lead singer - let's call him Jeremy, Jasper or whatever (sorry, inside joke) - just gets so into it and it's obvious that he just LOVES what he does and is having the time of his life. I love watching people that are passionate about what they're doing. I mean, that's what I love about Student Affairs - the fact that I have the opportunity to help students figure out what they are passionate about and then support them in achieving their dreams. And here's someone who is living his dream. It's so inspiring to see that and get to be a tiny part of it.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what the name of this mystery band is? Because I KNOW you are all itching to go to their MySpace page and listen to their music...so here you go:
See The World
http://seetheworldmusic.com/
http://myspace.com/seetheworldmusic

Check them out and get inspired!

Summer Residents and Packing

My building is being used as the summer residence hall; any students living here over the summer are staying here. I'm not the staff member responsible for it - hey, my contracted ended two days ago - so I have absolutely nothing to do with all this, but oh man, it's ANNOYING! I enjoyed having the building to myself. The quiet, the peacefulness. Being able to walk out your door and not run into any students. Being able to blast your music whenever you feel like it. Running down the hall in your pajamas taking out the trash. There's so many things I could do and now....

I just took a quick nap and woke up to loud - no, VERY loud talking in the hallway. They better cut that out in the evenings when I'm trying to go to bed.

It's just weird. It doesn't feel like the building is "mine" anymore. One of my colleagues has taken over my office. She's great and she's been trying to stay out of my way and keep others away from me as much as possible. But it's still strange to hear someone in the office - especially since it's attached to my apartment. I always walked in through that door; now I have to go around.

I'm more and more ready to get out of here. If these things would just pack themselves. Why do I have so much stuff???? I've been pretty good about throwing things away - well, relatively good. There's a few things I just can't part with: a copy of every newspaper from my days as editor at the student newspaper at my undergrad, the beautifully organized articles and notes from graduate school (I haven't looked at them once since I graduated...okay, not true, I did use one article once and I just looked through all of them again now, but still... worth it? I don't know), tons of pictures, stuffed animals, my collection of books (mostly series so there's always at least five or more), all my art supplies and and and. I tried to pack in a way that would make "sense" - to make unpacking easier but also to ensure that none of the boxes were too heavy (why did I get such big boxes?). It's not really working. Now I'm down to the odds and ends in most of the rooms; things that I just don't know what to do with or that are no fun sorting through/organizing. So I'm procrastinating.

But I got some new motivation this weekend: I went to a concert of a friend's band - and he joked about how I should come to another concert next Saturday. The concert is - wait for it - 11 1/2 hours away. And yes, I'm seriously considering going. I thought about stopping by a friend's place that's half-way, maybe catch one or two concerts on the way (I mean, the band's kinda going in the same direction I would...just with a few detours). But I'd probably have to leave on Tuesday.

I don't have to check out of my apartment until May 31st, but if I leave for a week or so, I'd probably want to have the majority packed, so I can come back, spend a few nights, get some good rest and take a few long showers, and then hit the road. So this is now my motivation to continue packing....

It's going to be legen - wait for it - dary

You know how you watch a new TV show or hang out with a new group of people and they have a catch phrase they say over and over and over again - and at first you think it's funny and adorable - or maybe you think it's annoying and weird - but eventually you stop noticing it UNTIL one of your friends points out that you've started using that phrase.

At the end of April/beginning of May, when I was completely sucked into the Invisible Children world, I started saying "epic." A couple of the staff members said it at the Rescue events I was at. Then, Marcus and Cameron used it on the live feed. And soon I found myself thinking and saying it. Next year would be epic. My summer of adventures would be epic. The next WE THE LIVING concert would be epic. Seeing See The World (another one of my favorite bands) in concert would be epic. Epic, epic, epic.

Well, I recently got hooked on the TV show "How I Met Your Mother." And the two words that are now stuck in my head are "legendary" and "awesome."

I'm not new to "overusing" a word or phrase. Last year, I used "fabulous" all the time. Apparently, at a staff meeting, some of my RAs started counting how often I would say it. After someone pointed it out, I tried to vary my vocabulary a little more.

Anyway, this wasn't what I meant to blog about. I just wanted to tell you about something that is going to be EPIC, legen - wait for it - dary, awesome and fabulous. :)

Remember when I was telling you all about my interview and how I got to go to the construction of the new building and how absolutely amazing it was...

Well, here's the exciting news: I'm going to be one of the area coordinators of this new building. AND to make it even better: a graduate student from here, that I'm friends with, is going to be the other area coordinator. How awesome is that?

Never doubt that a small group of citizens can make a difference....

There are so many organizations out there that fight for good causes. I've always struggled at choosing one or two of them; there are just so many things that I care about. I care about the environment; I love animals; I am against war; I believe in fighting inequality and and and.
But even I had to realize that we can't do everything. So I've tried to figure out ways to help the causes that mean the most to me without spreading myself to thin.

I'm a vegatarian because I don't like the way animals are treated. I don't believe that eating meat in itself is wrong - even though I'm not sure I could ever make myself eat meat again - but I believe that the way animals are treated in mass production of meat is wrong and I will not support the torture of innocent animals.

I recycle; I try to walk as often as possible instead of driving; I turn the lights in my apartment (and the rest of my building) off whenever I leave a room.

And I've become an active supporter of Invisible Children. I don't believe in war. But it always seemed to hard to do anything to stop the wars that are going on around the world. I mean, what was I, one person, supposed to do? Invisible Children has given me an opportunity to do something to try to end a war. And the fewer wars the better. War is NEVER the answer.

So on June 22-23, I'll be attending Invisible Children's Lobby Days because it is time to end Africa's longest running war and to rescue Joseph Kony's child soldiers and bring them home. It won't be easy - and it won't happen fast - but at least there's something I can do to act in accordance with my beliefs.

If you want to find out more about Lobby Days, go to howitends.tv.

And Invisible Children isn't the thing for you, I encourage you to find something that you are passionate about and then find a way to do something about it. It is time we all stand up for what we belive in and try to make this a better world!