blue jean ramble

I'm wearing jeans at work today. Is it ridiculous that I'm so happy about it?

Kidd Kraddick in the morning cracks me up.

I have a cold again. I hope it's better by Sunday or else I just might have to miss nursery! ;)

This song is in my head: Just around the riverbeeeeeeeeend! I look once more, just around the riverbeeend, beyond the shooore....she should have married Kokoum.

For the first time ever, I've been following American Idol. I don't have a favorite contestant yet, but I'll keep you posted. Just so you know, every time I think a person's singing is not that great, the judges love them. I guess that's why I'm not in the music business.

Our office is treated like the ugly step-child of the college. Everyone has fancy displays and colorful magnets to give away at the college fair and we have a science fair board (with cobwebs on the back) and used confetti.

Every book I check out from the library is stupid. How do these people get published? I can't usually even get past the first chapter.

I wish everyone could see the ugly pamphlet sitting on the rack across from my desk, that I have to look at every morning. Its cover has a drawing of a girl in a hideous 1980s sweatshirt (I think it's been sitting there for a while) and comb-over-looking hair, wearing a horrifying look of unchecked rage, hatred, and malice on her face. I think it's a rape prevention pamphlet. I think they're onto something.

We have got to get some new reading material for this office. That pamphlet is embarrassing.

I think I would like running more if I was as fast as a cheetah.

It's going to be a long day.

the perfect cast

If anyone ever decided to remake the film Gone With the Wind, my boss would make the perfect Pitty Pat Hamilton. Absolutely perfect...

officially famous

Apparently our college puts out a newsletter every month, though I've yet to see one in the five months that I've been working here. My boss is very excited that this month our office was asked to contribute, and decided that since three of us are relatively new (we all got hired around the same time), she was going to introduce us by spotlighting each of us in this month's issue with little mini-biographies!

Imagine. My. Joy.

So, after writing the stupidest bio about my background (which wasn't really about me, but actually about how wonderful our office is and the overall amazingness of the college and our customer service skills--but that's beside the point), my boss asked the three of us to take a nice, professional picture to submit as well. This is what we came up with.

I think my boss is going to love it, don't you?

secondhand lions

I love this movie.

always carry your keys

I have of late developed a new habit, which is admittedly ridiculous. You want to hear about it? Yeah, I thought you would. It goes like this:

I drive somewhere (usually to work), park, and turn off the car's engine. I leave the keys in the ignition so I can continue to listen to the radio while I gather my things, check myself out in the mirror, kill a bit of time, or whatever it is I'm doing in my car. I then get out, responsibly lock the door and then slam it shut. After I walk about two feet I realize my keys are still in the ignition, and that the radio is still playing, and sometimes my lights are still on. Luckily, after the first time this happened I started carrying my spare key in my purse. In total, I'd say I've done this about four times now. Oh, and I talk to myself and call myself names every time I do it ("I can't believe I did this again! Idiot!"), which doesn't make me look crazy at all.

And I'll probably do it again. Mostly because I'm so bright.

a hate letter

I would not be surprised to receive the following letter from one of the students in our program (had they the mental acuity to form grammatically correct sentences). Not one little bit surprised.

Dear Stupid Caitlin,

I have somehow, through circumstances wholly unknown to you, come to be a single parent without any viable means of supporting my children. This fact alone entitles me to special privileges and financial support, and the services you offer me are my absolute right. I sincerely hope you do not expect any signs of gratitude from me, because there is no need for me to be especially grateful for the free money to which I am inherently entitled.

I have a complaint. Somehow in your bumbling generosity you have failed to give me everything I want, and my predilection to laziness and irresponsibility (which I cleverly mask with stories of a hectic schedule, because I'm sure you have no way of verifying it with the school; my, how clever I am!) deserves the maximum amount of monetary compesation your program allows, if not more.

Furthermore, I cannot understand why you ask more of me than less than the bare minimum. The demands imposed on my time by your program are outrageous. The sheer audacity of your asking me to once a month meet for fifteen minutes with a counselor is upsetting, and when coupled with your request for me to also once a month turn in a sheet of paper with my attendance record on it, it becomes downright unbearable. The paltry assistance your office offers me is not worth such effort. Sure, you purchase all my books and supplies, pay for my children's daycare services while I'm in class (and having lunch with friends in the food court), give me free counseling about my schooling and life, and even give me gas money, but twenty minutes of my time once a month is altogether too much to ask.

Also, when things don't go exactly as I expect them to, and there is a line to pick up my book voucher, in which I am expected to actually wait, it is my right to roll my eyes and suck my teeth, and express to you in every way possible my displeasure with the situation. I cannot believe you have the nerve to ask me to wait in a line. You, Caitlin, as the first point of contact for all students deserve to experience the brunt of my displeasure. You are rude and unhelpful, and really should be more amenable to giving me my money even if I haven't made the time to drop off an attendance sheet or meet with my counselor. You are ridiculous, the money is mine, and you have no right to withhold free money from me. You should just do me a favor and be an idiot who believes my lies when I tell you that I did turn in the paper, and take responsibility by saying you lost it. You should also call me every day and tell me what requirements I'm not meeting, because I can't be expected to keep track of my own life. I am, I hope your are not forgetting, a single parent.

Outraged and Abused,
PA Student

**I must post a disclaimer here, because some students are very grateful, work very hard, do have hectic schedules, and always meet their requirements. Not all of them think this way (as implied by the above letter). But some of them...oh, yes, some of them do. I'm plenty tired of their attitudes.

scary little monsters

So, every time a student walks through the door and comes to talk to me, I look up and this is what I see:

Yep, they all look the same, and I'm sick and tired of them. Mean, impatient, crazy little monsters. You'd think by the time they reached the college level they would have outgrown such behavior, but then again, I did see a sixty-something year-old woman screaming her lungs out at a poor, innocent teenage BiLo worker the other day because the store didn't carry the specific brand of stuffing she wanted. I guess some people will always be monsters.

Wait, I lied--some of the students look like this:

These students are nicer, but just as aggravating because, let's face it, what I'm telling them is just not that hard to understand.

My favorite question asked today so far: "Huh? What dat mean?"

I can't wait until the semester is well underway and this registration/new semester chaos has ended.

basketballin'

Summerville loves its sports, and tonight was Colton's first basketball game! He's in the church league here in town, and believe me, they're intense! I was picturing the kind of games we used to have at the stake center down in Savannah when I was younger, but that was just kid stuff. Shoont. Anyways, tonight's game was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints versus Sandhill United Methodist Church--game on!

This is Colton in the backyard warming up before the game. He wasn't happy about having his picture taken, but I was plenty happy taking it!


This was my attempt at an action shot. Apparently my camera doesn't do action shots. So instead of taking pictures of the game, I took a picture of the kid sitting in front of me:

GoBama GoBama Go!

So, I'm sure you're all biting your nails in anticipation of the outcome. Well, it wasn't good. Our team had a solid lead for the majority of the game--until the last five minutes, to be exact. Then......they didn't anymore. It was neck and neck, and at the buzzer the other team pulled off an amazing shot to tie, and then they kicked our trash in overtime. That's okay--they'll do better next game! I just hope the gym doesn't stink so badly next time (it was awful, I don't think I mentioned that before)!