My True Soul

Larry Bear

The past few days have been so unbelievable. Wait, perhaps the last few weeks. I had an interview on the 6th of August for an assistantship. Apparently, I do much better when I just go in and act like I already have the job, basically, because I got it. Within 5 minutes of me being there, he told me he was most impressed with me on paper and now after talking to me for only a few minutes. I've basically concluded that if they're going to offer you a job, they're going to do it while you're there. It just seems like if they really want you, they don't hesistate at all to get you.

So thanks to this assistantship, most of my worries are over with. It'll cover all of the out of state costs & 71% of my tuition. Which will leave me with an entire school year's tuiton being under $2000. That's really great alone, but I'll also be getting a stipend of roughly $1100 a month. Only down thing is since I applied for loans and accepted them... they're still way more than I need. And not all of my paperwork is through... my assistantship hasn't been registered by the financial aid office yet, etc. and I'm a lil concerned with it, just basically wanting it all to work smoothly.
I'll have a supervisor job. My most important thing I'll be doing is basically spying on people to make sure they're doing their job correctly. It's not really a position that I like the idea of in all honesty. But, it seems like it won't be that bad after I get the hang of it. And... at least I think I can put things in order the way they're supposed to go, unlike the other supervisor. After I get comfortable with things, I'll be able to essentially do what I want with the way things are organized, etc. They'll be switching to new software sometime during this first semester... so I'm thinking that'll be a bit of a benefit for me.

Also realized how bad the fleas were here, bought stuff to spray on the carpet and flea collars to put on the kitties until their frontline came in. Tigerboy was so pathetic with the fleas. He kept laying in my lap, trying to sleep, and then he'd wake up to scratch... then be almost asleep and wake up again. Plus he spent several days last week searching for Manda.
K, so the start of this week... realized not only do they have fleas, Nermal at least, has worms too. So they've been getting medicine for that. They got them from the kittens at my parent's house. It was so odd though, Tigerboy actually liked 3 of the kittens, he normally runs from kittens.

Figured out on Tuesday that Tyler's still here. Thought he was going to run off to Minnemichigan to be with his friend and his boytoy. Even if he didn't go there, still didn't expect for him to stay here because of how he acted when I was friends with him. It was like he hated it here. Me, on the other hand, I love it. I figured he'd at least probably go somewhere like UA or Auburn.
Dreaded orientation on Wednesday because I figured Tyler would be there. It doesn't really bother me to see him, but I just... ick. The only person I ever was really close to and went a while without talking to, I've realized I missed talking to her... that I actually do enjoy knowing how she's doing, etc. We went a couple of years, didn't speak, and actually bothered to solve past issues, put things behind us if need be, and we now talk. It was nice to be able to regain that relationship. I've often wondered with Tyler if I'd feel the same, if I'd want to talk to him, if I'd want to try to establish a friendship with him now. The answer is no. For so many reasons. He's one of the few people I'm actually super happy to have out of my life.

The orientation was really boring for me. Maybe not for some of the people who are new here, but for me, wow. The next time I hear that education must be really important to me or else I wouldn't be going to grad school... I'm going to tell them that "Food is really important to me too, that's why I'm going." Serious, education is important to me, but... more importantly is being able to do what I really wanna do... that comes through education.
I talked to a guy that seemed surprised he couldn't find work with a B.A. in English. No teaching certification, no nothing, just a B.A. in English. So, now he's back to get his master's. Tyler wasn't there. And um, mostly, just sat through the entire thing, bored out of my mind.

Thursday I went to the SRL for training for my assistantship. I was there from 1:25 until 4:45. No breaks, no nothing. Got a key, went through the supervisor book, got taken to be introduced to different people, got shown how to do a few things on the computer, explained more about what all I have to do regarding monitoring/payroll/attendence. It was a wee bit overwhelming, to say the least. I don't feel like I can't do the job though, just that it'll take me a bit to get the hang of it all. I told them that, they seemed pretty confident that I'd be okay. As of last week, I was supposed to start this Friday (yesterday), but when I was there on Thursday, he said it'd probably be 10 days. I'm relieved about that. Means I can get in a weeks worth of classes before having to do both. The days I'm working are pretty set now... Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

Got back in Thursday, was tired from not getting much sleep that night. Then Manda's mom called around 10 pm, which automatically lets both of us know that something's not right. Manda's cat Draven really wasn't feeling well, so we left to go down there in a matter of minutes. I think we left at 10:15 and were there by 10:35. She got to see her and hold her until she passed away. I hate it that there wasn't anything to we could do for her, but at least she was comfortable, had her momma, and didn't suffer much at all. I helped them bury her this morning and would like to be able to help them decorate the grave when that comes. Of course, I didn't know Draven all 10 years, but I've been around her for the past 3. In the mornings, when I'd open the fridgue, we'd have teasing arguments over her wanting milk and me wanting it for my cereal. Manda would normally be asleep. I had almost 20 pictures of her on my camera/computer. I just finished making a slideshow with all of them. I'd like to get the pictures printed out... but until then... I'm hoping Manda will like this. It feels like it's not enough... but, if something happened to Nermal/Tigerboy... I think I'd like to have something with a buncha their pictures, especially if I didn't have many.

Had to come back this morning to get stuff done that had to be done. I got a call from my new boss wanting me to come in around 1 and stay until 4:30. I was a little annoyed by the short term notice of it all. But, after waiting a little bit, called him back found out it was just to get CPR certified, someone in the lab has to be. He found someone to come in and do it, but I went ahead and told him what had happened. Once I did, he apologized, said he understood, not to worry about it because it wasn't that important, and that he'd update me next week. So far, I really like him. I'm hoping that'll continue as I get more into the job. I think it'll be the first time I've ever liked someone I've worked for. But, so far, I do like him, he seems like he's a nice man. Not entirely sure, but, hopefully so. I also didn't want to respond so quickly to him bc I don't want the same thing to happen there that began to happen at Kroger. "Oh, ask her, she'll do it" which slowly became "Robyn'll do it" without them bothering to ask. I heard that one day... "oh just ask Robyn, she'll do it, don't worry" .... no. I said no. They seemed surprised. I think that's an important lesson tho... while one should seem like they're willing to work... don't let them start taking advantage of you.

Ah, my piece of knew trivia today. I just learned that the head coach of one of the best WNBA teams, the Houston Coments, who've won 4 national championships from a league that's only been open 11 years, graduated from MSU. Interestingly enough, he's originally from Manda's hometown. Kinda neat.

Okay... time for me to go to bed, think we're gonna be getting up around 5:30 to get ready, go do grocery shopping early to miss out on a lot of the crowd that is so bad here this weekend.