Life in the Cheese Drawer

my officemate took another job after being at the college for a little over four years. i’m actually surprised he worked here for this long – he lives in the cities and it’s a long commute. plus, he has a one year old, and, as i told my old boss, it was just a matter of time. i had given him a year after his kid was born, and he surprised me with a year and four months.

it still really sucks.

when you’re a department of two, a loss of one person lays groundwork for some lonely days ahead. six months after i first started this job, my then coworker quit for another job. i had only been there for six months and didn’t know anyone well; it takes me a long time to get into a groove at a workplace, normally around three years. on top of that, i was in a remote location on campus and didn’t see much of anyone.

i remember sitting in my office one day, just doing the work i could manage to do, and i felt this overwhelming sadness. had i made the right decision leaving my other job for this one? would i ever find any work friends? what was i doing here anyway? i didn’t even know that coworker for that long, but he was at least there, and i collaborated with him on a daily basis, so i wasn’t lonely.

tonight, after a week and a half of knowing my current officemate would be leaving, i was slammed with that sense of sadness, melancholy, and loneliness again. i know that it won’t be the same this time; i’ve been here for five years, know people well, count many as friends. i’m not isolated – i share a cube wall with an IT guy and we have a wonderful time during the workday. but it’s still hard to see someone you’ve talked to on a 5-daily basis for four years, who i spend more time with than my husband (the perils of working opposite shifts). he’s one of the most complementary workmates i’ve had, skillswise, and I don’t know if finding a replacement will be easy.

my hope is that we move on hiring someone as soon as possible. i haven’t even heard the confirmation that we will replace him, and that kind of scares me. i’m being overly cynical and pessimistic about what’s going to happen in my tiny department, but i at least know that there will be support in my other coworkers.

i wish him the best, but dang this really blows.

there are things i like about working at home.

1. the commute is top notch. i roll out of bed, make coffee, make myself look halfway presentable, then roll myself in front of my computer. when the day is done, i’m home already.
2. i can take a break to do something – laundry, go for a walk, do a little yoga, etc.
3. the cats sit on my lap.

i thought working from home was going to be my jam and love it. it was pretty good for a while, but then.

here’s what happens for me, since my “office” is in my main living area and i don’t have a door to close and step away from it.

1. i sit down to work in the morning. i don’t go for a walk. i don’t do yoga. i don’t do laundry. because of the amount of work that i have on my list, i barely get up for lunch and bathroom breaks. this is not cool.
2. i don’t know when to stop. that’s also not cool. so while i have no commute home, i work longer anyway and don’t easily step away. it can be 6 p.m. before i realize that i need to stop working. ugh.

starting next week, we can start getting back on campus to work, and i think i’m going to take advantage of it. it will be really helpful to separate work and life, and i won’t be compelled to work on the weekends or evenings. if my work computer is not at my house, i won’t be able to work, so it’s win win.

that doesn’t mean that people will stop contacting me about work, but at least i’ll be able to say “sorry! i’ll have to do that when i get in on monday!”

today i was asked by a dean at work if i’d be interested in teaching a class spring semester 0.o
it’s a fundamentals of web design class, which i feel like i should TAKE, not teach. some of the stuff i do know; ok, a lot of it i do know. but, there is a lot of newer stuff, like dealing with responsive sites and advanced stylesheets, that i do not know. at this point in my life, i let web design websites take care of business, like wordpress. it’s been a long time since i’ve made a site from scratch. 
another thing is the time. this owuld be on top of the job i’m already doing at the college, which takes up 40 hours of my week, and my coworker has moved on to a different job, so i am it for the department. thinking about having to teach and assess 24 students’ web design work on a daily basis is kind of overwhelming to think about when i’ve got to deal with all the other stuff that’s happening in the next five months. (i’m working on content for an all-new eorientation for the school, and we’re migrating content from our old website to new in february or march.) (on top of all the other stuff that needs to be done.) (and it’s just me. did i mention that?)
but, the dean told me to talk to my boss and see what she says, and to think about it. i’m not sure what they’re going to do if i decline. it’s flattering that she (the dean) thought of me to teach this class, but i really enjoy my free time, and i also don’t want to be working every second of every waking moment. what if i want to just laze about in my pjs all day and let my brain be free of work thoughts? 
anyway, that’s the thing i have to think about. 

one of the more annoying things about this commuting thing is that i drive home and think “man! this is great running weather!” and by the time i get home, it’s too dark to do anything. bah.
speaking of driving….
compared to the last time i did this stint, i am saving a crapton of gas money. i still need to drive to and back from st cloud every week, but the distance to work from where i’m staying is actually less than my commute was down here to roch. so that’s a plus. last time i was doing this, i was driving 90 miles a day to get from austin to rochester for work. on top of the 175 each way back home. instead of filling up twice a week, i can get up there, go to work four days, and get back home on one tank of gas. huzzah!
ALSO. gas is not $3.95 a gallon like it was four years ago. (knock on wood.) that was heavy. so not only was i filling up twice a week, but it was at $70 a pop (i have an 18-gallon tank). 
to compare: $600/month last time (just for commuting – not any driving i did on the weekends). $160/month this go round for commuting. i was spending half that on just to and from rochester every month from st charles. that is fantastic. plus, i have been getting some killer gas mileage lately. 35 mpg this last tank, and that was mostly 70mph+ freeway driving. 
all this to say, i hope i can go for a decent run tomorrow. 

for some reason, this commuting thing is already worse, and it’s only been six hours. it could be because i have a nasty sore throat that’s really dragging me down, but i miss my kitties and i miss my hubby already!! 🙁
so tomorrow i start my new job. i’m hoping i feel better than i do now. i remember being really anxious before i started at roch comm & tech , but i am not feeling anxious at all for this job. maybe tomorrow morning, but i feel like i’m just heading to another branch of mnscu, so it’s really similar. i hope i find coworkers as awesome as mine at roch comm & tech 🙁 wah i already miss my department.
BUT.
this is what i want. this is good. i just have to do this weird commuting thing for six months at most, and things will settle down again. rinse, repeat. 
maybe i’ll be able to blog a little more! now that i’m not cleaning 24/7 and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. watch for details!
on the plus side, i’m going shopping after work tomorrow (if i feel up to it), which should remind me how much i hate st cloud traffic. exciting!

now that i’ve told the right people, i can stop being so vague in my posts. 
two job opportunities showed up almost simultaneously in the past couple months, both in st cloud, both at educational facilities. the first was when i got a job alert in my inbox saying there was an informational officer 2 position open in st cloud (i’m an info officer 1). i checked it out, and lo and behold, it was at SC tech. because i was already in the state system, it was easy to apply. i figured, why not? an info officer 2 makes more money than i do now, and it would be an easy-ish transition. 
the second was at the st johns school of theology – the only graduate program the university offers. i occasionally check out the csbsju job site to see what pops up, so i happened upon that one, and sent my resume on. 
a couple, three weeks go by, and i get a phone call from the search chair at st johns asking if i’d like to come in for an interview. yes! i schedule with HR, and am feeling good about myself. THEN, maybe two days later, i get a call from SCTech hr wanting me to come in for an interview there! well…sure! so, i have an interview scheduled for a monday, then another for the friday following. WhAT IS THIS SORCERY. i go to st cloud twice in the course of four days. (my poor pocketbook.)
i LOVE being at st john’s. it’s so calming and peaceful. the trees, the lake, the gorgeous buildings. it was good to be back, but i was extremely nervous! but i sat down with the search team, did the best i could do at the skills test, and left not feeling especially confident, but feeling ok about my interview. the chair told me that i’d know in a couple weeks. 
TWO DAYS LATER (mind you, i haven’t even had my interview at tech), i get an email from the dean of the school asking me to call him that evening. i was a little nervous, as this was a position in a religious place, teaching theology, and the dean is a monk. i was worried he was going to ask me about my religious proclivities. (what a great word!). i called, and he offered me the job!!! OMG!! i was shocked. 
you have to remember: ten years ago, i tried to find a job for a year, went to 20 interviews (yes, i counted!), and got one job out of it. so this is pretty nuts. one theory? i lost a bunch of weight. another theory? i have 10 more years’ experience. 
unfortunately, the pay was low. like, significantly. and i asked to see the benefits at the colleges, and they were not great. you have to understand: state employees have it NICE when it comes to benefits. that’s why we stay at our jobs so long. i couldn’t justify going from my great benefits to so-so benefits at a higher premium and less pay. ugh. what a dilemma. i asked the dean if i could think about it over the weekend. i REALLY wanted to work there, but it didn’t make much sense in the professional and life sense. plus, i LOVE my current job and the people i work with. it wasn’t like i was trying to get away from a bad situation. 
in the meantime, i would go to my interview at tech.
which i was EXCITED for. i have never felt so comfortable going into an interview. maybe it was because it was basically my job, just a different location. i knew how 2-year schools’ marketing departments worked. i figured there would be a great group of people here just like at roch ctc*. so i went in. i must have had a good interview.actually, i know i did. i knew what i was talking about. i came prepared for stuff to not work with my presentation, and good thing because it didn’t. the admissions rep loved my photos! after i was done, i went back to the car where nate was hanging out waiting, and he said, they’d be stupid not to hire you. you’d just be able step in and go. 
too true. either way, i was told i’d know in a couple weeks. 
nate and i spent the night in st cloud, got back, had the weekend. i called stjohns on monday and declined the job offer, which made me nervous, but it went fine. if i didn’t get the SCtech job, i’d be fine where i was. 
then two days later, i got a phone call from stcloud HR. ANOTHER JOB OFFER. so what if charlie says these past couple weeks have been all about me?
WHO WOULDN’T FEEL GREAT AFTER GETTING TWO JOB OFFERS FROM TWO PLACES DOING THE THING YOU LIKE TO DO IN THE PLACE YOU WANT TO BE. 
if i could go back and tell my 26-year-old self to just hang out, it gets tons better, and go to those 20 interviews, i would. high-five, 10-years-ago me. high. five. 
 
anyway, we’re moving back to st cloud 🙂 hello, happiness. it’ll be a stupid 4-6 months, i’m sure, with selling the house and figuring out housing, but it’ll be worth it. worth it, worth it. 
 
*notice how my acronyms are all over the place and weird? it’s so the monitoring software doesn’t pick it up! oh, what you learn while working with social media.

dreary day here in southern minnesota. the rain just sort of drizzled its way across the hours, and the sun never made an appearance. it wasn’t so cold that it was scarf weather, but with the rain, a jacket was called for. good there was no wind.
my endeavors to get back to central minnesota stalled out. i feel better about that part of the state; the lakes are calling to me from their far away places. but i have to keep telling myself that home is not necessarily a place; wherever nate and the cats are – that’s home. 
so continuing to do a little poking around here and there, maybe a nudge up and over. this obviously wasn’t meant to be. i sound fatalistic in ways, but i’m trying to carpe that diem as much as i can. 
in the meantime, i will reverse my exit behavior and get myself in gear. i do like what i do. 

last year i wanted to livestream tweets at commencement, but by the time i thought about it, the time was getting crunchy and the little research i did do elicited some very expensive options. 
so this year, i started early and bugged people often. and we did, in fact, livestream tweets at commencement. 
the setup was a little wonky – i had one person typesetting and one person gatekeeping the tweets. (meanwhile, i was out taking pics.) it also was put directly into the video program, so you had to be able to work your way around video editing software.
but it worked! and i was absolutely amazed at the amount of people who used our hashtag that night. we had 260+ unique tweets with the hashtag and 60+ retweets. there were a few instagram uses, but since we couldn’t put photos up, that wasn’t as big of a deal. 
it added a fun element, and it made the night go SO quickly, when the handing out of diplomas usually is so long and boring. 
i’m planning on this for next year, but it always comes down to if people will still be using twitter at that point. we’ll have to re-evaluate come february or march!