"Much Ado about Nothing"

Hello!!!!!!

How is everyone?  We are doing pretty good.
I have taken on what feels like a Herculean Task this semester.
As you might know, I am working on my Masters in English degree at WKU in Kentucky.
This semester I became a full fledged Grad student by taking the GRE and passing the English and the writing.

The semester started in August and I took only one class, because that is all I can afford - thanks Progressive for this semester... (You can call me on that one... lol)

I go to my first class and get a phone call the next day offering me the Graduate Assistant spot that had opened up.  As I had JUST begged all my teacher friends to write recommendation letters so that I could become a Graduate Assistant.  You know, those annoying graduate level students who teach the 100 level English classes or are teaching the labs for your 150 student math class.  Yup, me.

Well, I'm several weeks in now and I must be crazy. I really only need to survive this semester and next semester and then I am free to relax again.
I'm teaching three FULL 90/91 classes at Sky.  (Asked not to do that next semester.)
AND I'm now taking 3 classes  - as that is part of the Grad Assistant deal - AND I have to work in the writing lab at school.

I am sorry to share to all my friends that I no longer work at the mall (good thing I got out when I did.)
Soooo, I no longer have that fabulous discount. Boooo.  

Life is hard and Tom is not thrilled with my hours or crankiness. I often have the urge to say, "I'm too old for this shit."

Anyway - we are surviving and Kayaking is very much on the back burner for the next 9 months. I think we may survive.......

But, Friday night we saw a play. I was soooo happy - Shakespeare is my main man.
Western Kentucky University presented - "Much Ado about Nothing."

"Much Ado about Nothing" is such a funny play, I still love "12th Night" but "Much ado" has some good stuff.

The student actors did a good job. It was Friday and probably their first real night. They did not have the awareness to slow down a little and breathe while the audience is laughing. More than a few lines were lost in the laughter.  Also the beginning was a little fast, so the first set of snipes out of the main characters were lost.
The poor guy playing the town sheriff had the attitude, but not the line delivery. Some of the words were not as clear, so the audience could not tell that he was using the wrong words in a very wrong way - which is why he is supposed to be so funny.

If I had not seen the movie several times, I do believe I could have been as lost as some other ladies at intermission. It took Tom about 15 minutes to catch up to what in the world is going on.
It is hard for the actors to remember, most people have never read the play and need you the actor to get all of it across.
 I'm sure the rest of their shows could only get better.  They did a great job.

One WHOLE YEAR....

Oh my,  That means I probably have to change the title of the blog again......

We have officially lived in Kentucky for One whole year.
I'll admit that looking back, it has been rather exciting - doing all these new things and trying to make friends here and connect with the ones back in Michigan.

New experiences - Caves.  I love the BIG caves with the tours and all the campy stuff associated.  I haven't really gotten Tom too interested, but Mom and I did a good job of hitting most of them when her and I came down by ourselves.     I love going to Fundraisers at the Lost River Cave.  It feels a bit glamorous.

Kayaking - sure we paddled in Michigan and did White Water in West Virginia, but I have to tell you - it is very different looking at the blue holes, and the hill sides, and the caves, and the cow farms.  We upgraded our Kayaks and built a darn trailer to haul all our stuff around.  I'd say we went from occasional water folk, to full on outdoorsy even..
  I can not wait for the over night trip in Mammoth Cave Park on the Green River.

Community College - I LOVE IT.  I really enjoy working there.  The students are fascinating and the people I work with are really great. I look forward to continuing to work there.  (I have a fall schedule already. :~)

It's a College Town - Okay, we don't go downtown where the kids hang out. But once in a while we go somewhere and it is VERY obvious that we live in a town with a TON of 20 somethings.  It helps me feel young. HA

The weather - I should not brag.  We moved down here the right year....  I'm sorry all my Michigan friends and family-  You can keep all that snow....

Friends coming here to visit.  That means YOU!!!!!  
We have had a great time having visitors.  You are welcome to visit.  We might even take you Kayaking.  LOL

It has been an interesting year. I'm so glad we took this chance and tried living somewhere new.  Life is too short to sit in one place for too long.  For all the faults you could find here, there are plenty going on in Michigan too.  Just need to take where you are and work with it.  I am working this place as well as I can.!!!

I think the Dogs like it here too.  LOL
Hugs, I miss you all.

The Inevitable.

Has anyone ever told you,  "It will work out - just watch."?

I'm sure I've heard that at least a few times in the last year.

Well, I guess it is working out.

I want to Brag, yes my new job is going so well RIGHT NOW that I want to Brag.

But we all know that is probably a bad idea. Because the minute you love something, well something else messes it up.

So, what Can I say without making it go bad.

I work 4 days a week. Awesome.   I teach 2 classes now and 1 class later this semester.  They have something called bi-terms.  It's an interesting concept.

I picked up a few TA like positions. They call it Tutor, but you are more like a helper in the class during someone else's version of the SAME class that I teach.  So, not only do I get practice with what I am teaching, I also get to see how other people teach the same classes. This will certainly help when I get to the point that I have to grade a bunch of papers.

I have been up and down lately with the amount of money I'll make doing this.  I don't want to seem ungrateful, but WHOA - if you thought teaching in a community college as a PART TIME person was the bee's knees.  I am here to tell you that NOPE- the pay is not all that.

The Tutor positions are going to make it possible for me to not lose sleep over my paycheck.  AND I am thrilled that I am going to get a paycheck!!

So click here to see where I actually work....

NEW JOB

Finally,
A new job, in a new city, in a new setting, with all new expectations.

Officially it has been 1 year and 1 month since I was at work. I have actually been to meetings and the running around one does for a new job for the last 2 weeks. But my first real meeting was Aug 5, so yes it is official 1 year and 1 month.

I am beginning to find an interesting pattern in the ebb and flow of my work life.
It seems that I get a full time job that last a year or a few (thank you last job) and I make a good amount of money.  Just when you start to think that you can dig out of a hole or two- wham. No job.
Then I take jobs that are a way to pass the time before I can find another full time job.  Ritz Camera was a really good example of this.

This new job is an in between version of both parts of my work life.

1. It's not full time.
2. But it's actually teaching.
3. It's in a Community College setting. (way cool)
4. If feels like a lot of pressure right now, but should calm down.
5. The people I have met that are full timers at the college are awesome, and many of the teachers are also rather cool.
6. I'm not getting paid very much. I totally miscalculated what I'm getting and almost made myself sick.  But when you look at the actually hours and work - it's not too bad.

So, it looks like I'm in need of a rather part time job.  I do not want to get wrangled into somewhere that wants to make me a manager or full time.  That will be the problem.

Today is the first day of classes.  I'm off to watch someone else wrangle Freshman and then try to do it myself right afterwards.  Hopefully students can find the building we are in.  There are like 8 or 9 single story buildings mostly in L shapes around each other, so you can't see some buildings hiding behind other buildings.
  Plus, the parking up front in going to be over flowing.  I might have to walk a wee bit to get to my building today.  Another good reason to show up way early.  Tomorrow will be harder as my class starts at 8 am.

Job Applications

It occurs to me that job applications now are much more difficult to deal with.

My case being today, I spent 5+ hours working on ONE job application.
First because they asked a question that I really had to think about and go searching for the proper words to express my thoughts in the answer.
Second because they asked for 15 years of job info.  Yes - 15 years.
I had to dig around in papers that I thought were long gone to get the rest of the info.  Thank goodness for Google, otherwise I would not have had addresses to go with some of those 15 years.  Heck, I don't have address for at least 1 or 2 because the business is no longer around.

The funny thing is - this is not the first day I have worked on that application.  I was just very determined today to finish it.

I don't feel to terrible about the really hard question, even though I know I asked about 5 people for help.  I got some and got some better ideas of where to find the right words, but it was tough.

I just sort of felt 15 years was a little too much to ask for.  In this world of I only had that job to tide me over, or that business closed down and that's why I'm looking, to the poor teachers who keep getting laid off (You know who you are). 15 years could take a couple pages.  I even left out the substitute teaching I did this past year, because I have NO idea what address to put down for those weird companies.

I have tried to keep some of the more difficult information stored in my contacts now, but I still have to hit google almost every time I do an application, because I just don't have a list of ALL the jobs I had in one place.

So, MY suggestion to all of you- is to start that list now.  Sure you'll be dropping those wonderful years at Taco Bell off your Resume real soon, but who knows how far back your next employer will ask you to take your list.
Make sure you have a company name, address, phone number - the actual dates you worked there and probably someone you liked to keep on a list with their own email and phone number - just in case the company goes down.
I do have info on a couple people who I worked with from companies that are no longer around. I put their name and number down in case they want to just talk to someone who worked with me.

Good luck in Your Job searching.  I know mine is going very slow.