Well, I'm tired. I've only gotten about 5 hours of sleep for each of the past two nights and I've been on the phone all day the past two days. I left work 45 minutes late and got lost on the drive home (that's what I get for taking an exit I've never taken before). I was so stressed by the time I got home.

I ran 3 miles. The days I least feel like running are the days I know I need it the most. It makes me feel better. I'm looking forward to eating a nice meal tonight and watching several episodes of Arrested Development with my husband. Damned if I do anything else tonight.

Today I talked to students on the phone all day. I have so much to learn at this job. I talked to several single mothers who are getting their degrees so they can help better their children's lives and set good examples for their kids. I talked to a couple military wives whose husbands are deployed so they are working hard to get as much school out of the way as they can before their husbands get back.

During my training, one of the high-up people in the company spoke to us to give us some advice. One of the things he told us was to get in a degree program right away. Everyone at the company is very very supportive of our using as much of our free tuition as we can.

And look at me! Doing nothing! I should probably change that, although I admit I'm very nervous about getting into a Master's program. I guess I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it. Or maybe I'm just afraid I won't do quality work and/or won't get good grades.

I have more to say, but we're leaving to go watch Band of Brothers with some friends. We're on episode 4. John and I missed when they watched episode 2, which was D-Day. Kind of an important one.

I got a tetanus shot today.

My parents switched to Verizon so I can talk to them any time now without using up minutes. :-D

I had a job interview today at another university. I think it went well, but I try not to analyze job interviews anymore. Even if an interview was pleasant and I feel I expressed myself well, I never know if I stood out more than the other candidates, which is what is ultimately important.

Most of the interview questions were about my personality and hobbies rather than my job skills, so that was refreshing. I even got asked about the last couple books I've read. I've always wanted this question at a job interview, but I've never gotten it before. This university is really big on finding employees who fit their culture, and I think I fit it, whether they know it or not. I just hope I expressed it. This is the same place Josh works at.

Now I'm at home painting trim in the living room. I'm going to try to work on the house all afternoon and all evening. I'm listening to Pandora while I work, so I hope to find some new music. I haven't been impressed with Pandora's suggestions in the past, but due to Shawn's recent enthusiasm for it, I'm giving it another chance.

When I'm at work, I often write down journal entries on paper thinking I will go home and post them, and sometimes I email myself thoughts to post at home. But I never post them.

I really hope this job works out, but I've started applying for others, too, in case this one doesn't happen. But this one is at a really cool university. Oh, by the way, my job has gotten boring, so I'm finding a new one. Don't know if I've mentioned that before.

My last post was very optimistic because I chose to be optimistic.

Basically, my department is being dissolved and our programs are being merged with existing programs next week. Although I work for a huge corporation, my department was pretty small, so my job felt like working at a small business. My boss was very flexible with my hours. I would often work late some days so I could leave early other days and skip my breaks so I could leave early. I only took a half-hour for lunch and often I didn't take any lunch break at all because I'd much rather leave early than take a break. My department often had potluck lunches, and the 5-person team I sometimes worked with did "team bonding events" every week, which usually consisted of playing card games and decorating our cubicles. I usually got to leave early on Fridays.

The place where I will now be working will probably be much stricter about these things. I also don't know what building I'll be in and what my actual job will entail. I'll probably have the same job title but the specifics will be different. I probably will no longer be able to listen to the radio on headphones all day. I'll have to take an hour for lunch - ugh! And my wonderful boss will no longer be my supervisor. That's the saddest part. I don't know yet if I'll be in the same building as the rest of my department or not. I really hope so. I might end up in a completely different building where I don't know anyone.

Also, my new department has SHORT CUBICLES (which means no personal space) and there's a nasty rumor that they don't have casual Fridays.

We packed up our cubicles today and most people went home early. I stayed later to help a couple managers pack up supplies and stuff. Now I'm home. I actually feel a bit sad. So it goes.

Well, I'm up at 1:00 working on a paper. But I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere. I have an outline! Other obsessively organized people may understand how important this is to me.

I knew about this paper a week ago and have been fretting about it (but not really working on it) since then. It's due in a week now, so hopefully I'll stop fretting and really work. Tomorrow. I'm going to bed now.

Tomorrow should be a relaxing day at work. Today was kind of crazy. We had extended our enrollment deadline to 5:00, which means I worked until 7:00. I am the very last person in the chain for getting students into class, so whenever they extend the enrollment deadline, I'm the last one working.

My soccer team is currently in first place. We are 5 - 0. I feel very out of shape. I don't have a game next week, so I have a full two weeks to work on my shape level before our next game. I ran a slow 2 miles today. That needs to improve.

Tomorrow I'm getting a hair cut (at a REAL salon, not the usual $4 beauty school cut).

I recently created a PowerPoint to train the data entry team (5 people) on my job. We took an hour and all 6 of us showed PowerPoints about things we do at work. This was mostly a training exercise on how to use PowerPoint.

Mine went like this:

1. Put headphones over ears and tune radio to NPR.

2. Listen to Diane Rehm.

3. Tune radio to 550 AM.

4. Listen to Rush Limbaugh.

5. Tune radio to 1310.

6. Listen to Dave Ramsey.

Okay, my presentation really didn't go like that.

Since my last doom-and-gloom post, my classmates made positive comments to my discussion question answer and another girl agreed with my answer and posted a similar answer.

Social anxiety is like a migraine. It's very uncomfortable, but when the discomfort breaks, a great euphoria follows. It's like the feeling of relief right after finishing a speech in my college public speaking class.

On top of this great feeling, it's Friday. And today I successfully recruited a new faculty member to teach our intro writing class. I'm glad, because faculty recruiting has always made me nervous. I still need to find a science instructor.

All of the managers at my campus like me a lot. I only actually do my own job about half the time I'm at work (or less). The rest of the time I'm helping with the admin team. Apparently, this means I'm super-organized and have streamlined everything. My supervisor wants to officially add more responsibilities to my job description and get me a new title and a raise. I wasn't originally going to be eligible for a raise until my 12-month review, but it looks like I could be getting one at my six-month mark.

Well, it's 10:30, and my body has been trained that it's now time to go to bed.

I love my job. This past week has been really great because of the positive energy and the good attitudes of the poeple I work with. It's crazy, I know, but it almost seems like they enjoy their jobs.

I am a class coordinator for a small University of Phoenix campus. Our enrollments have been low for a couple months. Since Monday is the last class start date of our fiscal year, there is a mad dash to get students enrolled so we can meet our budget. The enrollment manager set a fairly high goal for our 25 enrollment counselors to meet. If they met the goal, he said he would buy them all pizza and serve it in a princess outfit.

Throughout the week, whenever someone would enroll a student, I'd hear a cowbell or a noise maker and a couple people would clap and cheer. The counselors all encouraged each other daily, and they met their weekly goal. The pizza was good, and their manager wore fairy wings.

Lately, we have had 2 or 3 12-person rosters each week for our residency communications class. On Monday, we will have 7 or 8. That's exciting to me because it keeps me busy. Once the counselors enroll the students, my work begins. I build the rosters, give the rosters to the instructors, check attendance, make sure grades are posted on time, things like that.

We also have a "spirit team" that plans special things for every Friday. Yesterday was a Hawaiian-themed potluck. I bought a Hawaiian shirt from WalMart for a couple bucks and the food was so good. Everyone seemed to be in a great mood. The enrollment counselors worked their asses off all week, so they deserve their weekend. I'm sure they don't all enjoy being on the phone all day. I've had friends who have done it and it just seems horrible. But the counselors in my department are all so great - always encouraging each other and pushing each other to do better. All of our managers are great too, approachable and encouraging.

I work for a huge corporation but my campus is very small, so it has the atmosphere of a small business. It's really ideal.

I hate speaking in front of people. And I hate talking on the phone. So it seems fitting that my boss asked me to lead yesterday's faculty teleconference.

At my job, I coordinate 19 faculty members--giving them their class rosters, answering their questions, resolving student issues with them--but I do this all through email. When we have faculty meetings, we hold them over the phone.

Afterwards, I hung up the phone and thought, "I just led a meeting of 12 people from my cubicle." Don't you love technology? One of the faculty members was on vacation in New Jersey, and the others were spread out around the Phoenix metro area.

Because of some new rules, our finance team is overhauling our office's paparwork. They are destroying a lot of paperwork and blacking out the credit card numbers on some financial papers that won't be destroyed. Since my workload has been slow, I've been helping them do this very monotonous work. It's quite relaxing to just listen to the radio and cross off numbers.

We are destroying a lot of paperwork to limit the amount of sensitive material available in our office. Unfortunately, for a whole week during this process, our recycling service wouldn't come out and empty our locked recycling bin. So the area around the full bin was lined with trash cans and boxes full of paperwork...just sitting there, out in the open. The irony made me laugh. It's all gone now, though.

As the largest private education provider in the country, my company employs thousands and thousands of people in four subsidiaries in buildings all over the Phoenix valley. But today, in a professional development class of about 25 people, I found myself sitting across the room from Cara Patterson.

This is the only other Cara Patterson employed by Apollo Group (owner of the University of Phoenix). One of the first things I did when I started my job a month ago was search the Apollo Group employee directory for my own name. There are only two of us. So what are the odds?

The class was about the DiSC Assessment (a personality type indicator for which I can't find a decent web link), and Cara is my opposite type. I actually introduced myself during the break, but I seemed to be much more fascinated with the situation than she did, maybe since I'd looked her up in the directory and wondered what she was like.