TC
Today's holiday was Administrative Professional's Day, which like Earth Day, is well-known enough to be featured on paper desk calendars. Even though it is more recognized than Poem in Your Pocket Day, there are two administrative professionals that definitely help our department stay afloat and deserve some recognition. Pele is the Secretary for Enrollment and she makes sure to get to know all the families who are interested in our program. She also spearheads the mass mailings we send out, which amaze me each year. Sue is our Administrative Secretary and she basically has a hand in a little bit of everything. She's by far the go-to person when it comes to financial inquiries and with intertwining with other areas of campus. I gave them both a little "thank you" card, so I kept that part simple.
Today was also the last day of "Cleaning for a Reason Week". My reason seems pretty simplistic - my apartment is dirty and I want it to be presentable for visitors, be they students, parents, or staff. I didn't clean for hours on end today, but I did finish some dishes and I have some clothes in the dryer right now. Similar to the advice I would give a student about writing a big paper, I'm trying to think of cleaning as a series of small tasks. So, I've been trying to wash a few dishes and do a small load of laundry every couple of days rather than sit in front of my kitchen sink for an hour or have laundry baskets runneth over with clean clothes. (Or dirty clothes, for that matter.) I figure that as long as I clean more clothes and dishes than I dirty that day, I'm making positive progress.
TC
Since I was off, I didn't do much the first half of the day. I grabbed some lunch with co-workers on campus which was fun. Like I said yesterday, I recently received my tax refund so I wanted to deposit that quickly. The problem is that I bank with Wells Fargo and that bank simply does not exist in Missouri. Period. Including Kansas City and St Louis. It's kind of ridiculous especially when St Joseph was the offset point of the Pony Express.
Fortunately, there is a Wells Fargo bank in Atkinson, Kansas, which is only an hour away from campus. I ended up driving there right before the end of business hours and while I didn't spend much time in the town after depositing my check, I think I'll make more of a day trip of the town in the near future. It seems like a nice little spot that it would be fun to explore for an afternoon.
Since I was already on the road, I stopped in St Joseph for some shopping and a change of pace from campus. For not spending extensive time in St Joseph, I can connect a number of businesses and attractions... at least the ones along the main stretch of the Belt Highway. I had some of my tax refund in my wallet and I recently got the recommendation to "buy some ridiculous"... which meant a stop to Hastings was in order. If you're unaware, Hastings is basically a store of awesome - there are books, movies to rent/buy, video games to rent/buy, board games, comic books, CDs/vinyls, and many nerd things.
Speaking of nerds, the first thing that I saw after stepping into the store was the book stand for best sellers, including "The Fault in Our Stars", which was written by John Green (one of the vlogbrothers). The book did recently top the New York Times bestseller list so it was quite prominently displayed. In one of his videos, John said that he will go into book stores and sign random copies of his books; he also encouraged the nerdfighters to put little notes in his books. Sadly, this book was not autographed, but there was a index card that said the following:
Fact: The author of this book HATES pennies!
wanna know why? [www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers]
do you hate them too? Then you are a nerdfighter!
most importantly, DFTBA
Even though the book is targeted at young adult audiences, I felt like it would be worth it (especially since I live and work with that audience). I also ended up picking up a Nerf pistol, a guitar tuner and book, and only one movie. (The movie is Casa de mi Padre for only $2 and while I haven't seen it yet, I've heard excellent things.) For the thousands of movies that Hastings has to offer, I was notably restraining myself, but at the same time, I didn't want to spend too much since the tuner and book weren't exactly cheap. (Yeah yeah, the title to this post is kind of deceiving.) I grabbed some food from Panera before driving back home and spent the rest of the night lounging and cleaning.
TC
I've noticed that the past few blogs have been just re-caps of my day and the holidays I celebrated (or at least attempted to celebrate). While I wouldn't say it's a bad thing, I'll try to write more about other topics or tell some stories just to keep things from feeling stale. I'm figuring that you already know me and how to get in touch with me, so feel free to send me any feedback you have. Really, go for it!
I'm off the for the night. As the random nerdfighter in St Joe wrote, DFTBA.
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