I hate stupid drivers. This week the morning traffic has been horrible!! I hate drivers who: drive well below the speed limit; know the lane they're in ends due to construction so instead of getting over when they should, they drive all the way up to barricade and expect you to let them cut in front of you even though you've been waiting to get through the light for 20 minutes already; haul ass on the shoulder only to cut in up front; and finally those who, on the way home from work, insist on driving the school zone speed even though it's not school zone time!! Yeah, I miss my 4 mile drive to and from work. I don't miss living in an apartment, only the drive.

Hello...my name is Boss Lady and I am addicted to meetings.

It seems that boss lady has an addiction to meetings. I now have a weekly "coaching" meeting with 2 advisors , a weekly "hail mary" meeting with Cat Lady (we had a "come to Jesus" meeting with her last week and now I have to throw her a hail mary each week until the next check-in in 30 days) and a weekly front desk meeting w/both admins and the 3 student workers. This is all in addition to the weekly staff meeting and the 2 hour weekly management meeting. Call me crazy, but I thought as an advisor my primary job would be to see students!? Apparently.... I was wrong.

Shuki....pre-surgery and post-surgery

I can't keep him from jumping up onto things. At least here it was just on a chair. He's already jumped up onto the kitchen counter a few times as if he feels no pain. He must be on some good pain meds!! Once those wear off though he's going to be feeling lots of pain I think. Or he'll figure out that he shouldn't really be jumping. I'm keeping the couches covered for now so that he doesn't get any blood on them. yuck! And I'll have to call the vet tomorrow to find out how long he has to wear the cone. It's been very entertaining watching him walk with the cone on. Amazing how it totally throws off his balance and how he can suddenly walk backwards. Probably I shouldn't laugh at him, but I can't help it. I know....I'm a bad mom.

I took Shuki to the vet this morning where they gave him a pill to get rid of the tapeworms. I have to take him back in 3 weeks for the second dose. Good news is I don't have to reschedule his neuter/declawing surgery. Yeah! Only 2 more days of him clawing my couches. Am so relieved it can happen as planned. Now I only have to make it through 2 1/2 days at work, one of which will be a stressful meeting with Cat Lady. Not going to be good. If only she would resign.....

My new nickname for Shuki is wormy. Why you ask? Because I discovered this morning that he has worms...again. When I first got him, I took him to the vet to get all checked out. They said he had intestinal parasites (though I didn't see any worms on him at the time) and gave me medicine to give him daily. About 3 weeks later, I took him back to the vet for his second round of shots and they tested the poo I brought in and said he was negative for intestinal parasites so the meds worked. Now, about 2 months later, I see things that look like rice on his bed, on the throw blanket he likes to lay on and under his tail stuck to his hair. Totally grossed out!! I immediately vacuumed his bed, picked off all I could see on the blanket then threw it in the laundry room to be washed later today, vacuumed a section of the floor around the cat bed and couch, then took a piece of toilet paper and picked the worm off of him (I won't change a baby's diaper, but I will wiped my cats butt....apparently). I then called my vet. The earliest I can get him an appt is Monday morning. Thank God I have the day off and the vet doesn't! So I guess through out the day today and tomorrow I will be checking Shuki's butt and removing worms. Fun!!! I will be scrubbing my house clean tonight and will probably do it again every day this week since I am hosting the book club meeting/dinner on Thursday. If any of you book clubbers are reading this, trust me the house will be disinfected by the time you get here.

Another problem, Shuki is scheduled to be neutered and declawed on Wednesday morning. I really hope him being on meds for worms won't be a problem. I really don't want to have to reschedule the surgery since I already requested days off to be home with him. I will call the vet that's doing the surgery Monday after Shuki's appt with our regular vet to find out. Grrrr.....

I suppose if I have to reschedule his surgery, then I will not take those 2 days off from work because I'll want to move them to when I have to move the surgery. I really was looking forward to the days off though. It's been really crazy stressful at work the last 2 weeks. blah....

Apparently just turning the printer on and trying to print another day works. I am all hooked up....well wireless....yeah for me!!!

I go back to work tomorrow. Am actually kinda looking forward to it. Must be the fact that I will be doing fall grad audits all week and probably won't be seeing any students (unless we finish early or we have a mad rush of students which could happen). We should have everyone back except Wonder Woman who is stuck in England trying to straighten out her VISA problem. Who knows when she will be returning? Anti-bacterial Nazi is back for a few weeks and will be training Cat Lady. Lord knows she needs it! It will be interesting to see how she reacts to the training and basically being told (if ABN does her job) that working the front desk is a big part of her job even though we have an admin who works the front and that she basically really needs to shape up. I hate to say it since she's the reason I have Shuki (my kitten) but she really isn't doing a good job. I fear that I will have to say as much on her next eval. Sucks to be a supervisor!! I'm secretly hoping that over the break she realized that this job is not for her and she will resign tomorrow. Does that make me a horrible person??? Probably....

Lil Spice will be back, she was in Africa all December. I'm sure she'll be a little freaked with getting back in the swing of things, catching up on emails and of course dealing with her projects. I'm glad she will be back, but I also don't look forward to coaching her on areas she needs to improve on because I know it always turns into drama. Maybe she'll surprise me. Maybe she learned how to relax, go with the flow and have confidence in herself having traveled around Africa for a month. I know I learned all 3 of those things when I was in Peace Corps. It has something to do with being in an underdeveloped country, seeing things you really can't imagine until you're there, navigating your way around without really knowing the language that makes you put things in perspective. At least it worked for me. I hope it worked for Lil Spice too. I also can't wait to see her pictures. I bet it was an amazing vacation!!

So I expect there will be plenty of drama in the COSUAC for the new year. Stay tuned......

I am so not techno savvy! I am typing up this post while sitting on my couch enjoying not having to be plugged into the wall, but it was quite an ordeal to get here. For months now, I've been wanting to figure out how to go wireless just so that I don't have to sit at my desk to use the internet. Hello Kitty and Wonder Woman said I just needed to get a router, but then I thought they described it as something that looks like a jump drive. I got on the Best Buy website to see how much they cost to discover that a router looks like a modem and an adapter is what plugs into the computer (which one is it that I need??). So was totally confused and asked Chief what he thought since he's kind of techy. He admitted to me that his son does everything for him, so he didn't really know much. But he recommended I call my internet service and ask them because maybe it's just something they can help me set up over the phone.

Weeks later, I still haven't done anything about it and decide to ask my brother since he's a networker (whatever that is?!) and he probably knows what to do. He said I just need to get a wireless router and even told me which brand to get at Walmart. I went to Walmart and ended up calling brother from store because there were two different kinds. I bought the one he told me to get and went right home to set it up. I popped in the set-up CD and was moving right along when, as part of the set-up, was asked if I wanted to replace the router that I already had with this new one or set up a second router. Whaaa??? What do you mean replace the router I already have? I already have a router? I crawl under my desk to look at my modem and sure enough, it says modem and wireless on the front of it. Crap!! That would be why the ATT guy who came to my house to set up my phone and internet said to my parents "ok, she's all set for wireless." Dang it!! If only he also would have told my parents what I needed to do in order to use the wireless function.....

So I finished setting it up. Tried it out and it worked, but then decided it was stupid to have two routers, so I removed the program from my laptop and packed up the router. The next morning I did what Chief suggested weeks ago and called ATT. The guy walked me through setting up the wireless function and even told me that I will be able to hook my new 3-in-1 wireless printer that's been sitting in it's box for weeks up to it too. Yippee!! I returned the router for a full refund (yeah!) and then worked on setting up the printer. An hour or so later, the printer still didn't work. It printed several test pages and copied and scanned but won't print from my laptop. Darn! I knew things were going too well. I guess tomorrow I will try setting up the printer again and hopefully it'll work. Keep your fingers crossed for me!! Why does technology have to be so difficult??!!

Twas the days before break and all through the COSUAC only 4 advisors were left to deal with the smack.With Lil Spice and Wonder Woman off on vacaDrama Queen, Sensitive Girl, Immature Girl and I are left to the fray.Chief and Hello Kitty unexpectedly outAnd me with my auditor cap on not able to help out.Why students are still coming, I don't understand."Start your break already! Get out of UTSA land!"Boss frantically rescheduling Hello Kitty's boutall of which should probably just drop out.Drama Queen getting most of the traumaactually dealing without any drama.Must be the holiday season, you sayor maybe the annual eval coming her way.Speaking of evals, Immature Girl is duewhich is what I will be doing tomorrow at 2.Hopefully she doesn't cry, I'm not so good with thatthough Boss is doing all the speaking, so I should just be able to sit back.No time to prep my appointments for tomorrowI hope they all passed their classes and won't be full of sorrow.One glass of wine down and one more to goI'll sign off for now and say "Merry Christmas. HoHoHo!"

If you visit my house, it will look as if I'm not ready for x-mas seeing as I have almost no decorations up and no tree. I have a little fake tree, but as you can see from the picture below, I can't actually leave it out.

bad shuki.....

He made up for it with these two pictures. I can't believe they sat touching each other long enough for me to snap a few pics!

awww.....brothers

This is a little nauseating, but sweet non the less.

Note to self: never use the Redbox at a Walmart even if only returning movies!! I had to go to Walmart to buy some ground cloves since HEB was out and thought I would just return my movies at the Redbox there and kill two birds with one stone. Bad idea!! Apparently morons use the Redbox at Walmart. A lady with her 2 grandkids was using the machine when I got there. The little girl chose the movie she wanted and so the lady pressed the check out button but then proceeded to question the boy about his movie choice instead of swiping her credit card. Thinking that she didn't realize that it was waiting for her to swipe her card, I said "umm...it's waiting for you to swipe your card." She turned around and smiled at me and said "I know." She slowly took out her card and swiped it. Then she waited for the movies to shoot out the side slot but they never did. Instead the screen returned to the original screen. I think it didn't work because she took so f-in long to swipe her card. It's not going to wait forever. Geesh!!! So she went through finding both movies again and again questioned the boy about is choice "are you sure you want Up, are you sure you haven't seen it already?" Geez lady, it only costs $1 to rent it, does it really matter if he's seen it already? So finally she goes through all the screens again, swipes in a more timely manner and it shoots out Up, but not Tinkerbell (the movie the girl wanted). OMG!!! Really, I just want to return my movies!!! By this time there's 2 more people in line behind me. The lady goes through all the movie titles at least twice and Tinkerbell isn't there. She tells the girl that it must not really be available and is there any other movie she wants to see? The girl starts to whine at which point the lady realizes she has caused a line to build up at the Redbox. She kindly lets me go ahead and return my movies while the girl looks at the movie choices to find another movie to try to rent. Of course my transaction took about 1 minute total and then I took off. I didn't hang around to see if she jumped back on the machine or let the other 2 people go ahead. Lesson learned....never use the Redbox at a Walmart.

Bitcho is still my favorite kitty. He is so silly some times. The new kitten has not made him grow up much at all.

Here he is trying to hide from Shuki but still be able to see him.

Here he is curled up in the bed that is obviously too small for him (he hasn't so much as sniffed at it in probably a year!) and so Shuki is laying in the new big boy bed that I bought for Bitcho so that Shuki can have the little, more appropriate one. Yea, that's not happening. Just like a kid I tell ya!!

I'm so glad the next week is a short week!! What could happen in a 3 day work week right? The past week wasn't too bad. We had a few angry students up at the front and one crazy person leave a message asking us to find out when humans first began eating the eggs of chickens (seriously, not a joke, made for a good laugh on a Friday afternoon). Starting this week, we are back to a normal schedule of appointments and walk-ins which will be nice.

This weekend my sisters and their families came for a quick visit mostly to see my new house. They also got to meet my new kitten, Shuki. Bicho of course hid under the bed when they were here, but Shuki was out soaking up all the attention. He's such a sweet kitty. He has been using Bicho's old bed as his bed since Bicho hasn't even so much as sniffed at it in a year and I thought he was too big to fit in it anyway. But today, as we were all resting in the living room, Bicho curled up in it. I guess he's not too big and doesn't like that Shuki has been sleeping in it. So funny! Just like little kids are when they get a baby brother or sister. Shuki got to stay out during the day yesterday and today and it seemed to be ok, so I will probably let him stay out tomorrow when I go to work. He still sleeps in the guest bedroom at night though because I don't think I would get any sleep with him and Bicho playing all night. They tend to chase each other right over my bed even when I'm lying in it.

Well, that's all that happened this weekend. I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving week!

Well I got new kitten from Cat Lady yesterday at noon and it's been non stop craziness at my house ever since. Kitten is so adorable and sweet and very frisky and playful. He wants so badly to play with big brother but big brother isn't so keen on that yet. He has made progress though. We've gone from kitten chasing Bicho under the bed never to come out again to chasing Bicho around the living room and kitchen. I did actually see Bicho chasing kitten once so I figure that's a good sign. And Bicho finally decided to eat and drink today. I suppose one day of fasting was enough. Bicho has also figured out that there are a few spots in the house that kitten can't reach and those are his safe spots. It's really pretty funny to watch. What is not so funny to watch is kitten using his little claws to climb up on my new furniture and leaving little puncture marks!! So not happy with that which is why kitten will stay in guest bedroom at night and when I'm not home. I will not sacrifice my new sofa & love seat no matter how cute he is. I plan to take him to the vet as soon as possible to find out how old he is and hopefully they will tell me he is old enough to get declawed. I figure he can get declawed and fixed all in shot. Hey, it beats having two traumatic visits to the vet!! I took lots of pics once my batteries were charged. See some of them below, including a video of my two boys playing....fighting-you decide.

Here is kitten....isn't he gorgeous?!

awwww....

One of Bicho's safe spots.

They fight over who gets to look out the sliding glass doors or hide behind the curtains.

One of the many times Bicho swatted at kitten.

I think they wore each other out. You can see there's a hierarchy....

I was so proud of Bicho for letting kitten lay this close to him. Bicho is spending more time on the couches now that kitten is here. hmmm......

umm.....yeah this lasted for about 1 minute and then kitten decided he wasn't tired anymore. Bicho doesn't look too thrilled does he?

Here is one video of them playing. Very cute! I've kind of taken to calling kitten Shuki which is Georgian for electricity because one, I like saying the word and two, he's full of energy. So I guess that's his name....if you're wondering.

It's registration time so you know there's bound to be drama in the COSUAC. Elmer Fudd came in when we were really slammed (student's lined up out the door). Asked for a copy of his degree plan and 4 yr plan which Cat Lady (our new admin II) gave him. While Cat Lady was making copies, Momma Bear snuck out the side exit (which is another door to her office) to use the restroom. At some point she saw our helpful campus security guys who monitor our building. They happened to ask her if she'd seen that "guy" lately (they are all aware of Elmer). She told them that he was actually in the center right now and asked them to hang around in the hallway because she was going to be seeing him. So she went back in and apparently Elmer had left. She went out her side exit again and told them that he left. She then went back in to get a student and there Elmer was again (I guess he decided he needed to speak with an advisor after all). Momma Bear ran out in the hall and found the security guys and they said they would hang around. So...she finally got Elmer in her office and the first thing he did was ask to close the door. Of course she said no that she was acting supervisor right now and so she needed to be able to hear what was going on in the center. So she proceeded to ask him what he needed and he starting rubbing his forehead and mumbling about Goliath and the crucifix and organic chemistry. The dude is just not right in the head!! She figured out that he wasn't doing well in org. chem and that was why he was so agitated and upset. He was making her feel real uncomfortable with all his mumbling and ringing his hands and luckily she spotted Chief just outside her door at the printer. She managed to call to him and ask him if they had a meeting soon. He looked in and saw Elmer and caught on and said yes they did in a few minutes. Chief went back to his office to finish up with his student and saw the security guys. I guess they got worried since Momma Bear hadn't told them it was all clear so they were just hanging out in the front lobby. Chief finished up with his student and went back to Momma Bear's office, he stepped inside (since her door was wide open) and pretended to be looking for a file. Meanwhile, Momma Bear is trying to convince Elmer that they are done. They figured out what classes he should register for and that he could come back another time to discuss summer. Elmer wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon, but Chief kept digging around the desk "looking for a file" and finally Elmer left. I tell ya, Chief and Momma Bear deserve Oscar's for their performance! Security followed Elmer out. Momma Bear went out to thank security but she saw that Elmer was just standing out in the hallway. So she struck up a very loud conversation with security, just chit chatting and security very loudly said how they should have their schedule changed so that they can patrol our building more and Momma said oh that would be a great idea. At that point, Pepe Le Pew came around the corner and cheerfully greeted Momma Bear (he's come to be very respectful to Momma and appears to have gotten over his crush on Hello Kitty). He's also graduating in December so that will be one stalker we can cross off the Beware list. Pepe left the building and then so did Elmer. Momma Bear went back to her office and probably had to have a sanitizing fit to help calm herself down.

And seriously, we need to have our own security detail assigned only to the COSUAC because on like the very next day at 5pm a male student refused to leave when front desk admin told him he couldn't be seen since he wasn't a sophomore. During registration we see students by class that way we can help those who are registering that day or the next. We see seniors only for few days, then juniors only then sophomores only. No point helping a sophomore when they can't register yet you know what I mean. So this dude was pissed and said he was going to "sit right here until he was seen." Luckily Chief hadn't left yet and took the guy into his office to set him straight on how "he can't come in here with his head on fire because of something he didn't take care of when he was suppose to and demand to be seen." Ha! Chief is really good at dealing with the angry people. Though I'm sure the fact that he's a really big guy might help. I sure hope Chief doesn't' get one of the many jobs he has recently applied for. The COSUAC will really be in trouble then.

On a personal drama note, I have agreed to adopt a kitten that Cat Lady has been taking care of but can't keep because she already has 5 cats. I pick him up at noon tomorrow. I'll have a few hours to introduce him to Bicho and then I have to leave to feed Kellie's kitties and go to the Spurs game. I'm a little worried about leaving them alone so soon even if it is just for the evening. And I'm really worried about how Bicho will react to the kitten. And I have to come up with a name for the kitten. I want it to either be a Georgian name or word. How can I top "bicho" though? That's just an awesome name. I will probably post on Sunday about how the union is going and include pics on the new little one. Stay tuned.....

So I actually went to a Halloween party this year. It was on the Friday before Halloween and thanks to Carrie I was not the one person there without a costume. I don't know what I was, but I loved the dress- hoodie thing that Carrie lent me. It is her daughter's costume from a previous Halloween. Carrie was a witch of course (with an awesome hat!) and Kellie was a member of the Mickey Mouse club (so cute!). I had my first taste of black vodka (Velma-person throwing the party-said that it had to be ordered on line and shipped to her. I'm sure it cost a pretty penny!) with cranberry juice. Yummy!!! There was a caricature artist and a fortune teller there as well. I have a lovely drawing of myself as a reminder of the good time we had. I could not bring myself to have my fortune told though. Even though I think the fortune teller was most likely a fake, I just couldn't do it. I don't want to know what is suppose to happen to me in the future. I'd rather wait and find out when it happens. Silly me....

Carrie, Kellie and me

Carrie pinning her hat on

The house was amazing and the front yard was full of skeletons. One is even climbing up the street sign pole.

Skulls and skeletons everywhere!!

And this is what Bitcho thinks of Halloween......

The Week of the Weak and Immature

This week, all the drama in the COSUAC revolved around the staff, not the students. Although I did speak to Oh Canada (read my previous entry if you don't know who I'm referring to) once on Monday because she called on Saturday and left a message for me (she was actually tolerable on the phone) and she did pop in to the center today to demand directions to her faculty advisors office, still no drama there. No, the drama surrounds a few of our younger staff who, at the risk of pissing them off because I know at least one of them reads my blog sometimes....I'm just going to say it.....need to freakin' GROW UP already!! Alright, that's all I'm willing to say on my blog. I mean....I do have some professionalism left.

Witches.....morons.....and the energizer bunnyIs it Halloween already? Because it seems like it in the COSUAC. It's the witches who are responsible for creating advisors who are a little overweight due to pigging out and drinking too many beers immediately upon arriving at home because they are sooooo angry. The morons who are responsible for making advisors say "WTF! Are you kidding me" and the newest addition to the student worker force in the office that I shall call the Energizer Bunny responsible for me wanting to say "just stop talking.....now!" within the first 30 minutes of being at work. And I like to say this job is very low stress......my ASS! (at least not all the time low stress). I will start with the witch since she was the last student I saw this week (in what was supposed to be a 30 minute transfer appt and instead lasted an hour!) and is fresh on my mind. I'm still too pissed to really get into it. All I can say is "go f-in back to CANADA if you want a college to recognize all of the courses you took there when you earned what is equivalent to an Associates degree!!! And I don't really give a shit if you used to work for the CDC. We do not give academic credit for work experience AND I don't believe you when you say that we are the ONLY university that won't give you credit for those classes. Seriously, if other universities where going to give you credit, then why did you choose UTSA. Bi-atch! Oh and btw, you won't be able to register with the TSI hold since you don't have credit for college level math and you didn't send the transcript from SAC showing you passed a math class there this summer until last week. Just so you know........ The morons would mostly be the students that Hello Kitty and Wonder Woman see. You know.... like the student who has a 1. something GPA but wants to apply to the Honors College. Yeah honey, you're not only riding the short bus, you're driving it! And then there's Energizer Bunny who is sooooo freakin hyper and talks non stop, even when you are not looking at her and trying your best to be obvious about being busy....you know working. Get the freakin hint EG! I don't think I can take another week of her non-stop chatter. Seriously.going.to.hurt someone!

Here are after pics.

I have really nice landscaping in the front along the sidewalk that leads to the front door. I will need to get trimmers (or whatever you call them) so I can trim the bushes.

Nice view of my garage. Just the perfect size for my car!

This was the yellow room.

Same room as above just before I set what little I have up.

This was the pink room. Those are a few of my souvenirs from Georgia, Armenia and Greece.

Bitcho found the highest point possible inside the house.

And this is what Bitcho thinks of the new house....... Maybe by the end of the month I'll have real living room furniture.

Here are the first pics of my new house. We will be painting two of the rooms. Can you guess which two?

the second bedroom

the kitchen

master bedroom

the study

the kitchenette

Not a very good picture of the living room. Should've tried a different angle And there is not a spot on the wall. I don't know what that is. It must be from the light.

I was not able to get a picture of the front of the house since it was raining. Yeah for rain! Yeah for a garage to park in so we did not get wet! We plan to start painting tomorrow evening. I will be posting the after pictures later.

Episode 18: My bad crazy day... The last few weeks have actually been very busy in the COSUAC. Apparently I am one of a handful of people who can handle doing more than one project and so the boss likes to continue to dump more and more on the pile. Today, I had to do a classroom visit to give out degree plans, sem-by-sem plans and go over important policies (which I actually enjoy doing). Then I had to switch offices with the advisor who did the classroom visit with me. This is my 5th office in 2 yrs!!! I'm not sure what that says about me other than I'm a little too flexible since the boss seems to think there's nothing wrong with moving me every 6 months or so. I did have a moment during the mess of moving my shit where I went off on a cursing rant in front of Sensitive Girl. She quickly let me alone. After sweating like a pig, I did finally get moved, set up and arranged my new office so that there is more room. My arms are sore from carrying boxes and binders (which is really kinda sad considering it was only 2 boxes of papers and maybe 10 binders. My thighs are sore from using them to push the very big, heavy desk to where I wanted it. And then after crawling on my hands and knees under the desk to hook up my computer......I boot up only to find out that my internet doesn't work. I unplug the connection from both the computer and the wall, reboot and still nothing. I have one of our student workers do the same thing again (in case she has the magic touch) and still nothing. No internet means no email, calendar and no access to the student info. Basically I can do nothing. All this before lunch. After lunch, I had to lug a cooler with drinks and a basket of snacks over to another building for an information session for a new program that my boss added to my pile. After spending the last week contacting students by various methods including calling them, only 6 signed up to attend the session today (only 1 so far for tomorrow's session) and of those 4 came, 1 came at 3 which is when it ended. Good grief people!! During the discussion with the 3 that came on time, I had to endure 1 very argumentative jerk. He is a triple major (hello, how is 3 majors really going to help you?!) and he is very upset that "everyone" keeps pushing the students to finish their degree in 4 years. Another student jumped in to agree with him. And he wouldn't let it go!! It was really hard to get him to move on with the discussion. I really wanted to say "Dude, take as long as you f-in want but yes you will get charged out of state tuition if you go beyond 30 hours above what's required for your degree and yes because you're pursuing 3 degrees you will have to petition for reimbursement every semester and you're stupid to think that 3 bachelors degrees are going to help you create a brain on a computer (which is what he said he wanted to do)." Seriously!! Bright light....I did not get rained going to or from the meeting. I returned to my office just in time for an appt with an international student who is in the International English Program (for good reason I might add) who wanted info on a program that we do in conjuction with UTHSC. I felt like I was back in the Peace Corps. Her English cleary sucks! I had to resort to the way I would talk when I lived in Georgia: short sentences, speak slow and enunciate. It was very exhausting but at least she was a pleasant person, very grateful for the information and said I was very nice. Yea, yea, yea.....it was still exhausting. I had Hello Kitty try to fix my computer problem since she had the same problem yesterday when she moved offices (she has probably moved as many times as me, btw) and still a no go. Grrr......... So...that was my day today. The rest of the week is expected to be just as crazy minus the office move. I'll be lucky of IT comes tomorrow to fix my internet problem. The search committee which the boss has so kindly chosen me for meets tomorrow to pick the applicants that we want to interview to replace Anti-bacterial Nazi (I have about 30 applications to look at tonight because I have had no time at work to look at them). Will we choose the looser whose mommy wrote a letter of recommendation claiming that he has lots of experience with DEFINE (which is a program that the university uses for payroll and I don't know what else since I don't has access to this program ) and how did he get this experience when he's never been employed by any business that uses it unless she was showing him how to use it when she shouldn't have been!! And did she not think we would look him up when his app states that he "attended some classes" at the university? Yah, we looked him up and he had a .45 GPA in freshman level courses. Seriously, lady needs to cut the chord! This letter only made her look like an ass. No...I'm sure we won't be choosing him. Will we choose the numerous people who have been way to honest and admitted to having been fired by in some cases more than one employee? Hell no! I sure hope the other search committee members had some good applicants cuz I'll be damned if we're going to re-post this position. Hell no!! I think that should be my new motto for the COSUAC. ... Must go refill my wine glass in preperation for reviewing applications. Sorry for the ranting. If you actually read this entire post, you probably are in need of a glass of wine yourself. Gaumarjos!! (cheers)

Bitcho and I are seriously tired of hearing whiny baby Democrats crying about public schools refusal to show Obama's speech to students. It's highly unlikely that his speech is going to cause students to suddenly decide that an education is important and that working hard is the way to succeed in life. The kids who already believe that way are going to continue on that path and the ones who don't (which is probably a large population) might consider it for a week and then forget what he said and go back to not performing and being lazy. The parent or care giver is the most influential person in a kids life and if that person hasn't gotten the kid on the right path, I doubt the President (any President, not just Obama) can. I think the reason people have been so vocal against showing his speech is because it was poorly written. He left certain statements open to interpretation which of course is going to raise eyebrows when you're a politician. Maybe this is his lack of experience showing. And saying that it's because he's Black is crap. I could say the same about him being elected President, but I won't because I don't believe it has anything to do with race. I think it has more to do with him being a great public speaker and having the ability to influence large populations through his smile and his words. That is what makes people nervous. I happen to think it's all ridiculous myself. As I pointed out above, I don't think his speech is going to spur students into action. Show it....don't show it....it's not going to make any difference. As for all the health care garbage, I really can't follow it. All I know is that shouting and cheering like you're a drunk at a freakin football game is NOT appropriate at these town hall meetings. Acting like an idiot only strengthens the oppositions view and gets no serious discussion going.

This is how uninterested Bitcho and I are about all of this political crap:

even drinking water out of the watering can is more interesting than going to a town hall meeting

playing a game of hide and seek (obviously not very well) is more fun than hearing people on both sides of the political fence argue

I AM SERIOUSLY TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT OBAMA AND HIS SPEECH AND HIS HEALTH CARE REFORM!!!! Just let me live my peaceful life...

Episode 17: Very longggggg week

This has been a week of hell, as the first week of class usually is. Lots of not so bright students who don't know how to register, don't know what classes to take and don't understand what a GPA is. The perfect example would be one guy who yelled at Wonder Woman and then the very next day was sweet as pie to Mama Bear. He told Mama Bear that he was going to be going to medical school at UTHSC because he has a 4.0 GPA. After the guy left Mama Bear looked up his GPA and it's a .40 not a 4.0. Dude, seriously! What planet are you on?

Lots of other crazy people this week came in to the advising center, I just can't think of them. I do recall the one anomaly I saw today. He came in to have is semester by semester plan for ROTC signed. It was complete and correct which NEVER happens and he saw a note I have taped to my wall that says that if a class is closed, you can not do an add form and he actually asked if people really try to add into closed classes. When I said yes, it happens all the time, in fact many of the students we've seen this week want into closed classes. His response was, "that's stupid. Why don't they register when they're suppose to instead of waiting until right before classes start?" OMG! Finally a student who gets it!

Our new front desk person (who rocks!!) and I interviewed students who applied for our work study position this week. First girl interviewed well but when we called the other advising center on campus that she worked in last spring we found out that she wasn't asked back because she made a lot of mistakes and couldn't file. So she's out. The second girl we interviewed wants to be wearing high heels and a suit in 3-4 yrs (really....you said that in an interview?) and alphabetized the list of names we gave her by first name not last name. So she's out too. The third girl we interviewed wanted the job for the money (again...really?) and took 20 minutes instead of the 10 minutes she was supposed to get to do the alphabetizing task and she scratched out and started over 3 times and had to ask front desk person if she was suppose to do it by first name or last name. Yeah...she's out. So that leaves us with the last one interviewed who seemed really good from the interview (though after the first 3 I suppose almost anyone could seem good). We are going to call 2 of her references. Fingers crossed they say good things so we can be done already!

Thank God for the weekend............

Episode 16: anticipation I'm at home, enjoying a margarita and waiting with anticipation for the new week to begin. That's right......can't wait to see the ridiculous students we get this week. Will it be the probation student who is determined to go to med school or the guy who must have ridden the short bus who wants his advisor to enroll him in classes....at another school? Can't wait I tell you!!! Can. Not. Wait.

Episode 15: Exhaustion sets in I think exhaustion set in midway through the week (at least for me). Two weeks of non-stop walk-ins and for poor Wonder Woman, non-stop appointments and walk-ins. But I guess since she's Wonder Woman she should be able to handle it right? You know it's bad when you have to have a beer or glass of wine every evening when you get home form work. And any thoughts of running to relieve stress are dismissed as soon as you step outside to go home in 100+ temperatures. By the end of the week, I may have been a little short with some students, especially the annoying ones. For example, one of my newly aquired projects is to send out a montly newsletter by email to all COS students. Some decide that since they got an email from me I must be their new academic advisor and reply to my email with rediculous questions that take up my time. Of course I would love to just ignore the emails, but it's not in me to do that. So I spend a few moments trying to figure out the best response, usually editing it once so it won't sound so bitchy. Well.....by Friday I had had enough! One such student emailed me to ask about distance learning as she lives and works in Houston and to ask what she needs to take for her degree. I responded with "I don't know how you plan to earn a degree from UTSA if you live and work in Houstone since we don't offer many online courses and I don't think we offer a lot of distance ed courses either but here's a link to the UT telecampus." Perhaps this response was a bit on the bitchy side, but like I said....I had had enough! We've been getting annoying walk-ins as well. Here's an example of one that Wonder Woman had. Student was admitted to university with a 1.98 GPA from a local community college so he is seeing Wonder Woman to go over the academic probation program. In his meeting he actually tells WW he wants to be in the Honors College. Hello!! Honors College is for smart people dumb-ass. He also asked her how he was going to earn his Biology degree. She politely shows him the degree plan and says that he will have to pass all of these classes and then he'll get his degree. She is much nicer than I am. He then says "you mean I have to take ALL of these classes?" UGH........this is why I don't advise probation students :)

Episode 14: crazy busy As the summer term winds down and it gets closer to the fall semester, things in the COSUAC have been crazy busy. Not only are we trying to audit files for the students who have applied for fall09 graduation so that if they aren't registered for something they need in order to graduate, we can call them to tell them about it; but we are also seeing tons of students (as we have extended walk-in hours) with a range of issues. Now, if you were transferring to a university, why would you wait until a few weeks before the semester starts to see an advisor? Why wouldn't you do it say a few months before? I am so sick of seeing new transfer students in a walk-in that is supposed to be limited to 15 minutes!!! Of course you always go over 15 min because you can't look at their transfer courses and create a degree plan and figure out what classes they can register for in 15 min (20-25 min is more like it). Luckily the ones I've seen have had good GPAs and were BIO majors which is the easiest degree plan to create on the spot. Walk-ins are limited to 15 min because it's suppose to be for quick registration issues, not to find out how your courses from the Univ. of Alabama transferred in (or in this example, did not transfer in). We aren't having appointments this month so that we can see more students in walk-ins. So we are stuck. No way to avoid the lazy transfer student in a walk-in. As for office drama, things have been calm on that front. Our two new peeps are doing well. Especially our front desk person which is really, really important since we've just entered our busiest time. DQ is on vacation so nothing going on there. Anti-bacterial Nazi hasn't been spotted wiping down anything. I guess she feels that the new front desk person is clean enough this time? Anyhow, it seems the show may go on hiatus for a while unless something exciting happens soon.

Episode 13: The phone call from hell I returned a student's phone call today after being warned by the work study that the guy's a jerk. The first time I called, he asked in a hushed voice if I could call him back in 5 min. I figured he was at work and probably wasn't suppose to take personal calls on the clock. So I call him back 5 minutes later only to have him bitch and moan to me about how the university is discriminating against him by not offering classes and services (like advising) in the evening and how he has a lot of problems, grew up in foster care, just recently found out who is biological father is and went to meet him in Washington which didn't go well (of course I'm thinking to myself at this point that he's an ass and I wouldn't want anything to do with him either) and how he's dealing with depression and seeing a therapist and he has to work 40 hrs a week because he's in some "program" (I did not ask what program since I don't really give a shit) and he can only take classes in the evening or online and since the university doesn't offer much at the time that he can attend he is therefore being discriminated against. And how he knows that I can't do anything about any of this but since he's the student he gets to complain to me if he wants. At this point I cut him off and say that it's not discrimination to not offer services in the evening. He chose to come to this school, no one made him and if he can only do evening or online classes then he should've chose a different school. I also take this time to point out that if he works 8-5 M-F like he said then why can't he come to Saturday advising which we are offering 3 Saturdays in August. He completely ignores me and continues his rant about how he's a student and is paying to go here and therefor the services should be available to him whenever he wants. He asks if it's possible to set up a phone appointment to speak with an advisor during their lunch break which of course I said no. Hello, we don't get paid enough to give up our lunch break to speak with an asshole student because he can't be bothered to come in on Saturday. Well I didn't say this last bit to him but I really wanted to! And little did he know, I was actually speaking to him during my lunch break but I didn't want him to think that could happen again so I didn't tell him. He finally calmed down and apologized for taking his frustrations out on me and I was able to suggest some classes for him to take in the fall. I should mention that he is wanting to change his major to Environmental Science. Yeah right dude. And you want on line courses?! Hello....ES is a little bit too hands-on to do on-line dumb ass! The dude can apologize all he wants, but it doesn't change the fact that he's a ASSHOLE.

I spent this past weekend on North Padre Island with my sister Becky and her fam. It was lots of fun in the sun. I am really tan now. My camera wasn't cooperating so I only was able to get a few pictures on Friday. After that, it wouldn't turn on. Amazing how it works fine now. Hmmm......

Becky, Ben, Tony and Jimmy at a store. Yes they are standing in the mouth of a shark.

The beach was across the street from the hotel.

The view to the right.

Another view to the right.

View to the left. It was absolutely beautiful and the waves were great for boogie boarding which I did for the first time and it totally rocked. It was awesome. I need to purchase my own boogie board and make more day trips to N. Padre. It's only a 2.5 hr drive from SA!

I am so proud of myself!! This morning I noticed that one of my tires looked kinda low. So after work today I managed to buy a tire pressure gauge thingy, check the tire, find in the owners manual how much air should be in the tire and add air to the exact measurement before the air ran out and so I didn't have to pay another 75 cents. Yes!!! Who needs a man after all?!

After my successful trip to the gas station where I proved my girl power, I checked my mail and ....... I got my new filter for my vacuum today!! Actually I got 2 new filters. Since I had to order them on-line, I figured I'd buy more than one. And yes, I have already vacuumed using the new filter. Amazing what a difference a new filter makes!

On a less pleasant note, I have been home for only 2.5 hours so far this evening and have already been called twice by some person conducting some survey or other. No, I do not what to do a survey! Stop calling already! Jeesh. These people call every single day. Is it national survey month or something?!

Episode 12: revolving door keeps revolving While two new peeps will be making their debut in the COSUAC next week, a veteran cast member apparently is planning to escape the drama that is our office in September. I must say that I am SHOCKED! I did not see it coming and as I have been on vacation all week, I would not have found out about it until Monday had it not been for me friending Hello Kitty on FB. Good thing I didn't ignore her friend request :) What will become of the COSUAC once Anti-bacterial Nazi leaves? Who will take on the task of wiping down the front desk, computer and phone with Clorox wipes? I envision bits of bacteria having a part-ay as Anti-bacterial Nazi exits for the final time. Oh.....how will I ever be able to sit at the front desk and not worry about catching some virus because it wasn't wiped down thoroughly? Uh.....ok....I'm sure I'll manage. Besides, we still have Mama Bear to take care of us. I wonder what other drama I have been missing this week? Do you think DQ has gotten into any other trouble? As Friday's episode ended, Cougar and Chief were getting on her about various things and she was quite annoyed with them. I'm sure something is brewing there. And Hyper-sensitive girl isn't moving to the way back like was originally planned but instead will stay in the office next to DQ which always leaves room for drama there. Of course had she moved to the way back, there would've been a lot of drama since she needs her privacy and quiet and some of us in the way back (well really just Wonder Woman) are really loud. Hmmm... I guess either way, there's bound to be some drama to write about. That's good as it's been way too calm lately. The calm before the storm perhaps?

Episode 11: Dirty talk in the COSUAC

In my wildest dreams, never would I have expected a job applicant to mention dirty talk, sex toys, vibrators and lick-off tattoos (or something like that) in a job interview but.....it happened today. The worst part of it is, she mentioned all this while giving an example of when she needed her bosses support. Her boss approved for her to buy the sex toys to give away to students who came to her "dirty talk" sessions, but then after she purchased them (with budget money I might add) someone else got wind of it and did not allow her to give them out. So now she has a desk draw at work full of vibrators and stuff. Can you imagine the shock the next person to get her desk when she leaves will have when they open that drawer?! Needless to say, we will not be hiring her.

Episode 10: panic buttonElmer Fudd made another appearance in the COSUAC yesterday. He came in and asked to see Chief. Our summer student worker (she doesn't attend our university, just works for us in the summer) who's covering the front desk right now since we still haven't hired anyone told him that Chief was with a student and would be busy the rest of the day. She suggested he make an appointment (which she suggested last week when the same thing happened). He refused and said he'd come back another day during walk-ins. He saw that she was looking at the computer and apparently got paranoid. He proceeded to ask her if there was a note about him on there and she said no, she's looking at the Paul's calendar to see when he'd be available. I guess he didn't believe her because then he asked her if she was going to look up his information. Again, she said no. Apparently the way in which he asked these questions scared her so much that when she left work, she had to be escorted to her car. And the panic button which for years had been kept in the top desk draw inside a coffee mug has now been duck-taped underneath the desk top just like in a bank. We have confirmation from the police department that it works. Mama Bear suggested that if summer student worker ever feels threatened, after punching the panic button she should blast him in the face with one of Mama Bear's air freshener sprays. You know...cuz that could blind him till the cops come. Ah huh, that'll work.....

I had a nightmare this morning about 20 minutes before my alarm was due to go off. In the dream, I was still teaching middle school (which is definitely a nightmare in itself) and had no classroom control. I had a full class and at one point had told 6 kids that they were getting a referral only to realize that the folder where I kept blank referrals was empty so I couldn't actually send them to the office. As you know, this is very bad. If you make a threat, you gotta follow through. So I had no follow through and then I told the 6 that they would have to stay after the bell. The classroom where this nightmare took place was a corner room and had 2 doors to the hallway. So when the bell rang, I couldn't keep kids from leaving because I could only monitor 1 of the doors. Seriously this was stupid, I know. But, at this point, I woke up with my heart racing and pounding in my chest. Thank God I do not teach anymore!!! If I hadn't already realized that I never want to go back to teaching, I certainly would after this. Maybe it was the pretzels I ate right before going to bed or maybe it's a sign of my day to come.....hmmmm

Episode 9: The missing chapters We've been off the air for a while due to a lack of drama. It's still pretty low key right now so I'll only give the highlights. The last week or so in May we had quite a busy time in the COSUAC as university higher ups like to create work for us. Since the schools programmers aren't really programmers, we always have problems with registration for summer and subsequently for fall since students register for both semesters at the same time. Faculty got upset when they discovered that the registration system doesn't check for prereqs when students register for summer (uh..oh my!) and so they demanded that our programmers turn the prereq checker on for summer which they did and since they aren't real programmers, they don't know how to do it so that it doesn't bog down the system. And so it bogged down the system so much that students weren't able to log in and register......so they turned the prereq checker off. Since we have such fabulous students, many of them registered for anything and everything, most of which they of course do not have the prereqs for. We were given lists of prereq violators and expected to call each student to tell them they were going to be dropped because they don't have the prereq (and this was after they were each emailed about it). As you can imagine, many of them were extremely upset when they were dropped and who do you think they went to? Us! So we had to endure being yelled at and yes even cursed at even though it wasn't our idea to drop them and even though it is ultimately their fault for registering for a class that they have no business taking since they don't have the background knowledge required. I am, however, of the opinion that we should have just let them take it and either sink or swim. You know what I mean? We should not be holding their hand anymore. They got enough of that in K-12! It took about 2 weeks for things to calm down from the prereq debacle and the COSUAC was able to concentrate on hiring Mama Cass's replacement and the Lady in the Basement's replacement. The search committee for the front desk job searched through lots (and I mean LOTS) of applications only to find 4 that they were willing to interview. Apparently the first 3 interviewed weren't so hot. One of them actually admitted that to relieve stress, she takes smoke breaks! Can you believe it? Hell no, we will not be hiring another Mama Cass! The male applicant that was interviewed is believed to be a chauvinist as he would address all answers during the interview to Chief (the only male employee in the COSUAC). I wonder what he would've done had Chief not been in on the interview? So he's a NO. I don't know what's wrong with the 3rd one, but there must be something. The 4th person who was to be interviewed today was a no-show. Who just doesn't show up for a job interview? You at least call to cancel moron!! So back to the drawing room for that search committee. I am on the other search committee and I will say (even though it may jinx it) that we seemed to have quite a few good ones. We will be interviewing the top 5 next week. Fingers crossed that we will not have the same lousy kind of interviews. Hyper-sensitive girl is still hyper-sensitive. And I caught anti-bacterial Nazi wiping down the front desk area early one morning even though Mama Cass hasn't been here for weeks! I guess there's still some residual affect (or is it "effect", I always get them confused). Elmer Fudd made a brief appearance one afternoon and I actually got to speak to him this time. Before I had only seen him from afar and so I did not realize who I was speaking to at the front desk one day. He came in and asked to see Chief (cuz that's the only person he's allowed to see) but Chief was out of the office. Because I didn't realize it was Elmer, I tried to convince him that he can see another advisor. (hehe) The campus cop must have gotten to him because he didn't fall for it. He just said no. He'd come back next week. At this point Mama Bear recognizes Elmer and comes to the front to see what's going on. She suggests he make an appointment with Chief so that way he'll know exactly what day and time he can see him. I still have not caught on at this point. It wasn't until I had walked away to the back area where the student files are that it dawned on me. Geesh! And there I was telling him he can see anyone! I guess that's why we have Mama Bear. To keep up with all our "special students." Funny story. Hello Kitty had a student (who had just been dismissed for the 3rd time) tell her that he wanted to get a medical withdrawal for last semester. Because she deals with this crap all the time, she figured she'd ask him what was going on because you have to have really specific problems to qualify for a medical withdrawal. He proceeds to tell her that his doctor told him he had to find a way to relieve stress other than working out because working out was causing problems with his heart (he really does have a heart problem). So, he started playing some video game and got addicted which caused him to not go to class ultimately resulting in failing all his classes. And this is why he deserves a medical withdrawal. Seriously??!! Don't video games cause a lot of stress? Hmm...sometimes I think a lot of our students are riding the short bus to campus every morning....

A student came in today and pulled out a letter that I had written for her at the end of the fall semester that said that she had completed a BA in Physics and a minor in Chemistry. She tells me that this is wrong and that she needs for it to say that she has a Bachelor's of Art in science. I tell her that there is no such thing, it's either a Bachelor's of Art or a Bachelor's of Science, not a Bachelor of Art in science. She of course is looking at me like I don't know what I'm talking about and insists that the people who need this letter told her that it has to say Bachelor's of Art in science. I repeat myself and even pull up her record on the computer and show her what degree she has earned. At this point I'm wondering how she even earned this degree if she can't even understand which degree she has earned. But, of course I'm being nice and trying to make her understand meanwhile other students who are hearing this conversation since it's taking place at the front desk are trying not to laugh. Then the student tells me that she wants to teach science (either middle or high school, I can't remember) and that she definitely needs the letter to say that her degree is from the College of Sciences not the College of Education. I really wanted to say "I don't know what planet you're from, but the College of Ed doesn't have Physics degrees. Moron!" but I didn't. Instead I pointed out that not even her diploma will say that the degree is from the College of Sciences. To which she said "oh...under your name on the letter it says College of Sciences so that should be good enough."

Seriously???!!! And she wants to teach?

One conversation I had with a student today:

student: Can you write a letter saying that the prereq checker didn't work for summer 2008 registration?

me: uh...what?

student: I didn't do very well in the class I took that summer and so I want a letter that I can give to the medical school during my interview as a way of explaining why I didn't do very well in the class. I didn't have the prereqs and shouldn't have been in the class which is why I did bad. I shouldn't have been able to register for it but since the registration system didn't check the prereqs like it's suppose to I was able to get in.

me: (Really? Is this guy serious!?) No, I will not write you a letter nor will anyone else in this advising center. It's your responsibility to read the course description to make sure you have the prereq before registering for the class. AND....why didn't you drop the class if you were doing bad in it?

student: well...ah...I'm not trying to blame you or anything. I know it's my fault that I registered for the class. And the summer session is so short that by the time I realized that I shouldn't be in the class, it was too late to drop. I just need this letter to give to the person during the interview.

me: I don't know that med school would look at your individual grades that closely and ask why you made a certain grade in one particular class. But regardless, I'm not going to write you a letter. Sorry, have a nice day :) (Dumb Ass!!!)

Episode 8: the last performanceFriday was Mama Cass's last performance in the COSUAC. No dancing or raising a lighter was done (though a few of us after work may have raised a drink and toasted to her, unemployed girl and the lady in the basement.....maybe). Lil Spice (co-worker who doesn't like spicy food) did the right thing (as always) and bought Mama Cass a card that we all signed with our good wishes. I must say we were all very mature about it. We didn't say what we might have been thinking like "good luck somewhere else" or "sorry it took you so long to figure out you didn't really fit in here." No, we were mature and only wrote nice things. After all, I really do wish her luck finding another job (just not at our school). So we gave her a card which was nice. Wonder Woman was hoping that someone would bring a cookie cake because she just wanted to eat it, but no one was about to buy one for Mama Cass's last day. So Drama Queen made one for Wonder Woman, and we in the way back decorated it. Then WW was nice enough to share with the office. It was yummy!! Earlier in the week there was drama. We had our staff retreat where the whole office sits in one room, has breakfast, discusses something that may or may not be of importance to the effectiveness of our work, play some kind of game (because we are all kinda competitive) and then go out to lunch. So basically it's a half day in hell (at least that's what I think of it). This Wednesday was no different. At lunch, Hello Kitty offended new girl, who will now be called Hyper-sensitive. I guess the people sitting at that end of the table were talking about their eating habits and Hello Kitty wanted to make hyper-sensitive feel included so she asked her if she eats healthy. A moment later, hyper-sensitive nudged her and said that she made her feel uncomfortable by putting her on the spot and asking her a personal question in front of everyone. Seriously??!! That's a personal question??!! So now Hello Kitty doesn't want to speak to Hyper-sensitive anymore for few that she may offend her. What a fun office I work in! I like to just sit back and watch it all unfold. Well most of the time......until DQ decides to be a know-it-all about something and then I just can't help myself. Btw DQ, one bread stick has 150 calories where as the dessert that Lil Spice was eating has 850 calories plus another 150 calories for the chocolate dip that came with it. So when I said "wow, I bet there are a lot of calories in that" and you said "oh no, it has the same calories as a bread stick" and I said "how can that be when it's battered and deep fried and bread sticks are not?" and yet you still insisted that they have the same calories .....I was right and you were wrong. So stick that in your pie hole and suck on it baby!!!! Ok, that wasn't really mature but at least I didn't say that last bit to her in person on Friday after I found the calorie count on-line. Next Wednesday will be another half day in hell so probably more drama to come. Stay tuned.

Episode 7: The revolving door

We apparently have a revolving door in our office. The lady in the basement (advisor whose office is down stairs) gave her resignation on Monday (or maybe Tuesday, the days run together for me) and her last day was today. Of course she couldn't leave without drama! I was told early this morning from the boss that lady in the basement was going to work for another office on campus. I guess the story she gave each one of us in private about how bad her short term memory is and how she knew it was bad when someone would show her a list of things she forgot to do, yes, this story......was just that...a story. We all bought her story and felt bad for her because she wasn't just quitting, but from the sound of her story, she was done doing any kind of job that involves having to remember a lot of information. So we felt bad and chipped in and got her a gift. Then we find out that she's going to be working for another office on campus and well....you can imagine the anger that was brewing all day long. Forget the "party" that she thought we were having for her (which we were never having, just a gift and a cookie cake). Someone decide to cut into the cookie and eat it without even letting the lady in the basement know. And it was a damn good cookie cake. I don't even know if she ever got any of it. But really, who cares. There's a lot more drama involved with this lady leaving, but I can't really get into it.

Next Friday will be the last performance for Mama Cass. Not sure how much drama there will be, but I have a feeling there may be a bit of a celebration after the day is over. Then the search will be on for the next 2 poor souls to join As the COSUAC Turns. I hear Guiding Light is going off the air, maybe we'll get some of their talent?!

Episode 6: Maddening Mama Things were going fine until a few days ago when Anti-bacterial Nazi removed all the magnets from the board by Mama Cass' desk. I went to return my magnet when I got done with a student, but all the magnets were gone. I discovered that Anti-bacterial Nazi took them to her office to repair them (some needed to be glued back together) but decided that this would be a good time to force Mama Cass to think for herself instead of relying on the magnets. After all, how hard is it to remember who just took a student or to look at the sign in sheet to see who was the last one to sign for a student? All the people who had the job before her managed to do it without the magnet system. Thus the magnet revolt began. Most people in the office are highly apposed to the magnets and so I wouldn't be surprised if we had a magnet cutting party soon to prevent their return. Things have been especially slow for us peeps in the way back the last two days because apparently Mama Cass (and I suspect the work studies) forget to call us to come get students now that there are no magnets. It didn't help that yesterday Hello Kitty and Wonder Woman were working on finishing up a grant proposal and so they had written a note on the magnet board (since there aren't magnets there anymore) saying they would not be available to see students. I guess that meant that I was not available either? And then today, the note was still there because no one erased it and so again we were not being called. I finally went around to the front of the office to ask about it and Mama Cass responded by pointing to the note. I explained that the note was for yesterday, not today, and that it could be erased. She responding with "well....does anyone know where an eraser would be?" (imagine this being said with a really annoying attitude). I told her that probably our boss had one since she uses it for the sign in the hallway but that she could just erase it with a tissue since it's just written with a dry erase marker. To which she replied "does anyone know where a tissue would be?" OMG!!! How friken lazy can a person be??!! (is what I thought to myself) Instead I just sighed really loudly and said I would go get one for her and stomped off to Anti-bacterial Nazi's office (which is only maybe 5 steps away) because I knew she had a box of tissues. I think tomorrow a new box of tissues will be sitting on Mama Cass' desk when she arrives in the morning. hmmm...........she is just maddening! I mentioned above our lovely work studies. We have 3 who, for the most part, are okay. One of them I will refer to as Quiet Girl. Quiet Girl is really sweet, but not all there if you know what I mean. For example, this morning all of us advisors where in a workshop so we couldn't see students. The office was open so that students could come by and find out when walk-ins would be or make an appointment. When I returned to the office, I asked Quiet Girl if a lot of students had come by wanting to see an advisor. She said "yeah, there were a lot. I had to tell to come back later." I probed a little more and asked her about how many students. Since she had said a lot, I was expected it to be at least more than 5. No..... just one. Geesh!! Really, that's a lot? It's funny that most of my annoyance (at least this week) has been with co-workers or work studies and not our students. What does that say about the COSUAC? Well, stayed tuned. Word on the vine is that Mama Cass may be singing her last song soon.

Episode 5: What is going on? This week in the COSUAC was unusually calm considering now seniors, juniors and sophomores have gotten to register for summer and fall classes. Usually, this time is really crazy busy, lots of students crowding into the very small waiting area and even lined up out the door. But this time, we had none of that. We had a few days with a crowded waiting area right after lunch, but still nothing of the norm. I wonder if the economy had anything to do with it. Maybe more students are having to give up taking summer classes because they can't afford it or because they need to work to save up money for the fall semester. Or maybe more of them are taking summer classes at a junior college since it's cheaper. It's still too early to say, but I think enrollment for fall is also way down. Maybe students are going to register later that way their payment deadline will be later. Who really knows? All I can say is that we had it easy this registration period. Hopefully we don't get slammed in August. We had the usual pre-health profession student with GPA below 2.0 who insists that they are going to get into a medical school or nursing school. Way to hold on to your dream and never let it go!! I guess you learned that lesson, but forgot about how you have to work hard to make your dreams come true. They aren't just handed to you because it's what you want. Oh, and we had a student that I'll refer to as the Lying King who I guess thinks that we advisors are just as stupid as some of the students we advise. She dropped off what she said was her schedule for the classes she claims to be registered to take at a junior college this summer so that the advisor she saw could set an override for her to register for fall classes. Her "schedule", if it was really a schedule, said that she is taking 4 Physics classes this summer (Algebra-based physics I & II and Calculus-based physics I & II). Hello?? Why would anyone take all 4 of these when only 2 are required for the degree? Dumb Ass!! So what the Lying King said was her schedule was really just a print out of the classes that are being offered this summer. And I should mention that the Lying King is being investigated by Student Judicial Affairs for academic dishonesty. No way, really?! Now say it with me this time "what a Dumb Ass!" There was no Pepe sighting this week. He either actually managed to register for classes without any problems or he hasn't registered yet. I'm betting on the latter. Maybe we'll see him next week. Wonder Woman did spot Elmer Fudd once but there was no need for her to blow her whistle at him. He apparently did not even look at her as she rushed off to the restroom. So maybe he's over her? That would be a good thing. Mama Cass is still managing to annoy people, but I don't think that will ever change. I'm expecting next weeks staff meeting to be exciting. Maybe I'll be sick that day? Just kidding. Though I haven't used any vacation days in a while. I think I'm due............

Episode #4: The not so stormy storm This week was disappointingly uneventful in the COSUAC. Yesterday was very busy, but still not the worst it's been which is not disappointing trust me. No Elmer, though there was a Pepe Le Pew sighting at the Subway on campus. Apparently he was in line right in front of Hello Kitty and Wonder Woman. No words were spoken between Pepe and Hello Kitty, but he kept sneaking peeks at her and then turning quickly away when caught. Perhaps he was worried they'd blow their whistle in his face if he looked at her for too long. Nothing too interesting or funny happened with Mama Cass other than she still reeks of smoke when she arrives in the morning and when she returns from her breaks. I had to spray the way back with air freshener after she stuck her lunch in the fridge this morning because the smell just kind of lingered. Yesterday she had on a lovely t-shirt dress. That was exciting. And, hey, she didn't quit after the first week of registration madness. That's a plus right? Bouncer, also known as Chief, likes to make up his own words (like traffice) and tell people they need to stay in their lane. This is always amusing. And the anti-bacterial Nazi still wipes everything down probably more than once a day. Maybe next week will be more exciting......and then again, maybe not. We'll have to wait and see.

Episode #3: The calm before the storm This week was pretty uneventful in the COSUAC. It must be the calm before the storm. Registration for summer and fall semesters begins next week with Seniors registering on April 9th. Yes I have that memorized as I've been reminding students of it all week. They aren't capable of looking it up themselves. I don't have the registration date for Juniors and Sophomores memorized because really....who cares about them right? Just kidding......really... we care about all our students :) We even care about the ones who raise their voice at us insisting that staying in a class and trying as hard as they can to not get an F when they can no longer drop the class because the drop deadline has passed is not an option and then demands to speak to the supervisor. Yes we do care about you, oh special one. We care so much about our students that we will be open on Saturday for 4 fun filled hours of which I get to participate. I shall spend the time preparing for next weeks appointments and eagerly awaiting the 1 or 2 students who might actually come in or call. Yes it is completely worth paying 3 employees for 4 hours of work to help a handful of students on a good day. Budget smudget...... Stayed tuned for next weeks episode. We're bound to have an Elmer or Pepe sighting since I'm sure they will have difficulty registering for classes. And there might be some drama with Mama Cass since this will be here first registration experience. Oh and btw, we got our personal safety whistles!!! Now we are armed and dangerous, watch out!

I finally took my old computer to Good Will today along with an even older boom box and some other junk. I'm trying to make room for a couch. That's right...I may finally buy a couch. After all, I've only lived in my apartment for a year and half. It is finally time. Besides, my back can't take sitting in the sphere chair for very long and the floor is kinda hard too. Of course, Bitcho can handle sitting in the chair for hours and hours. I think the chair will become his once I get a couch. Unless he decides he wants the couch.............

Other updates, I got a new neighbor below me. Already hate him. I don't know when he moved in but I saw him for the first time today carrying a vacuum and trash can into his apartment. As soon as I got into my apartment, I could hear loud music booming up through the floor. It lasted for about 4 hours until he finally left. I'm dreading when he returns. Ugh! So maybe when I couldn't sleep the other night because I kept hearing music in my pillows, I wasn't imagining things. Ugh!!! I never had these kind of problems with neighbors at my old apartment complex.

Episode #2: Where's Elmer? Ever since last Thursday's episode, we now play the "where's Elmer" game all day long....every day. Basically each time someone in the office spots Elmer somewhere on campus we announce it to the rest of the office, mostly for the benefit of British Girl (who would prefer to be called Wonderwoman from now on) who needs to be aware that he is around. You know, so if she runs into him in the hallway she can be prepared to blow a whistle at him or spin around until her wonderwoman suit appears and then can kick his butt with her knee-high boots. Speaking of whistle, Mamma Bear hasn't actually given us each a whistle yet, so I'm not sure if maybe that was just a rumor started by Drama Queen. You can never tell. Have no fear! We now have a cool peep-hole for door to the way back office space. Now we can stand behind the door and peep into the hall whenever we please. Yeehaa!! Mamma Bear is working on getting a mug shot of both Elmer Fudd and Pepe Le Pew (Hello Kitty's stalker). We shall start a "least wanted" billboard behind the front desk so that Mamma Cass (new front desk person who has really long grey hair, wears long flowing skirts and is from Cali) and our student workers know which students can only see Bouncer. Btw, this is part of the definition of Pepe Le Pew in Wikipedia. It fits perfectly.... Pepé Le Pew is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own. However, he has three huge turnoffs to any prospective mates: his malodorous scent and the fact that he comes on too aggressively or with too much passion, to both of which he is cheerfully oblivious. Furthermore, he can't take 'no' for an answer, blissfully convinced that the girl is flirting with him, even when she physically assaults him. Does this mean that Hello Kitty will be opening up a can of whoop ass on Pepe someday? I would pay to see that!!!

I was just at the grocery store picking up a few items for the week. Seeing as I had fewer than 10 items, I got in the express line that clearly says "10 items or less on the sign." Ok, so it didn't clearly say this but it did say it, just the light wasn't working right so it wasn't as well lit up as the other express lines. But if you've ever been to this HEB, you know that all the registers in the front are express and you have to go through to the next set of registers if you have more than 10 items. Maybe the couple in front of me didn't know this, but I kinda doubt it since they kept looking back at me with an "oh shit" look on their face. They had a full cart of groceries. Like really?? You're gonna get in the express line with a full cart of groceries?? So, I am really pleased with myself. Instead of asking loudly to anyone who would listen "isn't this an express line?", I took a deep breath and told myself that I'm not in a hurry so just smile (when what I really wanted to do was glare at the people). Yeah for me!! It is lent, so I have actually been trying to be a nicer person.

Oh, and by the way, I used my new vacuum again today. Still a lot of crud being picked up out of the carpet. Does that mean that my old vacuum just done such a bad job that this new one is still picking up a year and half worth of stuff, or that there is just always going to be a lot of dust and cat hair? hmmm...............

Episode #1: Elmer Fudd When I started my job almost 2 years ago, I never thought much about what type of students I might see coming into the office. I have been lucky enough to avoid having a crazy or really angry student in my office. But some other advisors haven't been so lucky. There are two co-workers who each have a "special student" that likes to see them and now has been banned from seeing anyone other than the one male advisor in the office. The male advisor is now the office bouncer. It works great since his office is right next to the front desk, so he can quickly spot these losers and call them into his office before they can even request their favorite female advisor. However, this only works when bouncer is in and not on vacation!! Hence, today's episode of "As the COSUAC Turns". It all started at about 10am. I was in my office doing work when all of a sudden British girl (one of the co-workers with a "special student") comes running in yelling that her stalker is in the hallway. Hello Kitty (other co-worker with a "special student" and who happens to love Hello Kitty) and I come out of our office to see what's going on. British girl explains that Elmer Fudd (he really does look like the Looney Tunes character and so that is our office code name for him) followed her down the hallway and tried to get into our office area behind her (our 3 offices are are in a space that is down the hall from the main office and has a door that leads to the hallway but locks automatically when it shuts) but she managed to shut the door in his face. Hello Kitty and I decide after about 5 minutes that we would go out in the hallway and see if Elmer is there. We spot him sitting at a table just outside the building. We then rush to the front office to inform our admin that Elmer Fudd was in the building and tried to follow British girl into the back office space. Admin tells us that Elmer had been in the front asking to see BG but was told he couldn't, so he said he'd come back later. Then, Momma Bear (the co-worker who was acting supervisor since our director and bouncer where both out) decided to call the campus cops. About 30 minutes later, the 3 cops show up to take BG's statement at which point one of the cops gets on the radio and tells everyone to "stand down at the Science Building." This led us to believe that they must have had the whole building surrounded. One of the cops turns to me and asks me for a description of the guy and my first response is "he looks like Elmer Fudd" (no lie, I actually said this and then had to quickly backtrack when I realized that the cop I was speaking to also fit the Elmer Fudd description!). By the time the cops got to looking for him, he was gone. Which was a big relief to us. We saw students up until lunch, at which time we took off to de-stress at Pizza Hut by stuffing our face with pizza and yummy cheese bread. So much for eating healthier! We returned in time to continue our job as advisor to all students (loonies and the like). Needless to say, Elmer did not make another appearance today. And next time he does, we will all be prepared because Mama Bear has apparently ordered each of us a whistle. Watch out Elmer, we may just burst your ear drums if you attempt to get in the way back office again!!!

I hope everyone had a very happy St. Patti's Day yesterday. I was one of the few in my office that wore green. Doesn't everyone know that you're supposed to wear green? After all, everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's day. Carrie and I celebrated St. Patrick's day on Saturday with the Irish man of the year - George Tracy and a few other "Neffugees". George used to set us up working a beer booth at the St. Patrick's Day festival down town, but apparently it was too expensive to rent the booths this year, so no festival. Not sure if it was only for this year or if there will never be another festival.

Carrie, George and me

On another note, I vacuumed for the second time with my new fabulous vacuum today and it picked up about half the amoung of hair and dust. So I suppose if I had waited a whole week, the ball of nastiness would have been just as big as the first time. I guess my cat sheds a lot more than I thought. Gross.............

My very old (probably about 10 yrs old) vacuum died on me last weekend. So, I bought a new vacuum today and I absolutely LOVE it! Mostly because it actually sucks things up out of the carpet. It isn't as heavy as the old one and it has attachments. Another cool thing is that it doesn't have a bag, it has a little see-through container on the front that you just dump out into the trash when you're through vacuuming. I hadn't realized how bad of a job the old vacuum did until I used the new one for the first time. Immediately I could see it picking up dust and cat hair. When I finished the only two rooms I have to vacuum, I couldn't believe how much it had picked up. I actually took a picture (see below).

The vacuum swirls the stuff around in the container so that it forms into a nice compact ball of dust & hair. You can see the big ball on the left, and then the stuff on the right that is not part of the ball was stuck at the top of the container so I had to take the filter out so that I could get that stuff out into the trash. The filter is supposed to last 6 months, but by the looks of things, it may not last that long. I'm tempted to vacuum again tonight to see if it gets anymore up. It may have just been that the last vacuum wasn't doing anything and so this was a years worth of cat hair and dust. I guess I'll find out the next time I vacuum.

A friend posted this on FB and I think it is hilarious. You've got to read the small print at the bottom of the add.

Here's a link to a video/song of ROG (I don't know how to actually put the youtube video into the post so I just have the stupid link. I know it's lame!). Brought back memories.....and I found myself humming along to the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCJmaQRoHy4

Here are some random pictures of my baby boy. He will be 3 yrs old in April!

sleeping with the fishy

mmmm....girl scout cookies

Bitcho playing fetch with his favorite toy, a small paper ball.