Back to Blogging

Oh yeah! ...I have a blog...

I think part of the reason for my blogging sabatical has been that my life outside the job has been much more interesting than my life at the office. It's not really Sac State's or SO&L's fault...I mean, how can they be expected to be more exciting than SF Pride, a surprise visit from my friend Joe, a road trip to LA down the Pacific Coast Highway, and an awesome 4th of July BBQ with friends in Stockton?

The SO&L is a family. We keep getting told this, and it's pretty clear from the interactions I see. Staff meetings are a time for laughter just as much as they are a time for discussion and business. Having fun at the office doesn't seem to be a positive by-product of the work that's done, but rather integral to the success of the work. This group functions as a team, rather than a heirarchical chain of command, likely out of necessity: there are so many facets to this office (all student clubs, the development of a substantial campus-wide leadership program, fraternities and sororities, the PRIDE center, the women's resource center, and dozens of other side projects and collaborations) and so few administrators (4 staff members and 2 administrative assistants) that in order for the office to function, everyone needs to lend a helping hand and everyone's opinion is solicited and taken into account.

I mentioned the variety or programs and centers that SO&L works with. With that comes a variety of students that are served by the office. Something I've noticed are the steps the professionals take to encourage collaboration between the different populations. A specific example is between Greek Life and the women's resource center. Our director, Alysson, is really encouraging Greeks to apply for intern positions in the WRC. In addition, the Greeks are working with the WRC to fund a sexual assault awareness program.

Part of Emily and I's responsbility this summer is to staff the SO&L table at orientation sessions. We get to talk to tons of incoming students and their family members about the benefit of getting involved and what this office offers. We seem to always to have one of the busiest tables, and it is exciting to work for what is essentially the hub of 90% of outside the classroom involvement.

There's still a ton going on with LS 79 and the Leadership Conference, but I will save that for another post very soon. Promise. :)

Pacific, Protocols, and Projects

Wow! Haven't posted for awhile - sorry!

I'm still loving Sacramento! There's so much to do in this city. I'm sure people who have lived in Cali for years are thinking I'm insane, but I've never lived in a city of this size before, so I'm having a blast! I've finally started learning some of the roads (and if you know me, you'll realize how big of a deal this is ... I can get lost in a paperbag).

The internship is still going well. I haven't had a whole lot to do lately, but I'm still enjoying myself. A few days ago I spent several hours soliciting businesses for Move-in Day. I got a good response from many of them (but, honestly, who wouldn't want to advertise their business to Sac State? There are a lot of students here!). Later this week I'm going to do Round II and follow-up with the businesses I contacted. Also, I only ended up going to 21 businesses, so I'm thinking I might try to get a few more just to be safe ...

My other big project that I'm working on right now is helping to write the Sexual Assault Response Network protocol for Student Organizations & Leadership. I'm also going to modify the SOAL protocol so that it can be used by the Women's Resource Center and the PRIDE Center - that way those organizations will have protocols to follow as well should they be contacted by students in need.

Okay, I have to admit something ... I'm missing Pacific! Jake and I went back for July 4th and I was so pumped to be on campus again. I can't wait to start training and see all of the RDs again and then work with my new (and returning!) RAs a few weeks after that! I have a lot of ideas for this next year that I'm looking foward to implementing.

Anyway, speaking of America's B-day (haha), Stockton dropped the ball with fireworks this year! They were supposed to start at 9:30pm and didn't end up firing until about 11:30pm. I would estimate that about 90% of the crowd had left by the time the light show happened. A lot of unhappy people ...

Lately, I've been spending some time thinking about where I'm going to go next, after I graduate. Andy e-mailed the RDs this awesome comprehensive report of live-on/in positions and I've been visiting the webpages of the Universities listed there. However, I have no idea what I want to do! I enjoy a lot of my RD job, but I also enjoy having a job that has more structured hours. There are just so many options - it's overwhelming. Though I suppose it makes little sense to stress about it now since I don't even know what schools have job openings! Haha.

Well, as this is turning into a novela (thank you Jake), I'll end this post!

Passionate 'bout Pinkberry

I have discovered my new favorite yogurt place - Pinkberry. Since I'm back on Weight Watchers and counting my points, I'm attempting to make good dessert choices. Pinkberry is perfect for that - their frozen yogurt is made with skim milk, so the kcal count is awesomely low and they have a lot of options for healthy toppings (strawberries and mangos - oh, my).

And /end plugging Pinkberry. But seriously, I'm in love with a low-fat frozen dessert. My life is just that depressing; the most substantial relationship I'm in is with a tasty treat.

Anyway, the internship has been going really well. We had our first full week of work last week, oye. I enjoy the 4 day weeks so much more. I should get used to it though, our last furlough day is this Friday and then we're back on normal weeks.

I've been spending an hour and 1/2 a few times a week working the Orientation Table for the new student (and transfer student) Orientation sessions. There is a strong fascination with customer service in me - I think it must be my WOO (Winning Over Others) tendency. I love being able to make someone smile, or sound excited, or laugh when I'm talking to them. Yesterday I got seven people to sign-up for more information about Greek Life - and I wasn't even working that part of the table!

All of this is really revealing to me that perhaps I'm not meant to be in Housing and Residence Life. I adore working with my Resident Assistants and ARDs, but - like a floozy - I get a lot of pleasure from brief meetings with people I don't really know that well and the challenge of having to win them over in a short amount of time. So, perhaps, something with Orientation or Admissions might be more fit for my talents ... When I'm on my game, I'm a recruiting machine.

The oddest thing that's happened to me while working the Orientation Table is that I've been developing a bit of a desire to join a social Greek organization - which I never thought would happen (and I've said this several times too, haha). There's just something about talking to incoming students about these groups that makes me feel like, maybe, I missed out. Though, to be honest, Greek Life was fairly non-existent at my undergraduate institution, so it wouldn't have really been at all similar to what I see at Pacific or here at Sac State.

Okay, that's enough for now ... I have some businesses to solicit for Move-in!

Man, I really need to post here more often! It's been awhile since my last post, haha.

Collaboration, Conferences, and Capitol Conquering

As I sat on the curb of the deserted light rail station at a quarter to midnight waiting for a cab, I couldn't help but wonder...with all this transportation that surrounds me, how do I still lack a destination?

That doesn't really relate to anything. I just wanted to start this entry with a Carrie Bradshaw-esque prompt, haha. However, I did find myself a bit stranded this weekend...let me explain...

Emily and I enjoyed some fabulous visitors this weekend in the form of Ashley Sousa and Jon (Jon...JON...JON!) Hess. Ashley came up on Friday after work (Emily and I were off. Furlough day. Loves it!), and the three of us went down to Socals, spent some QT in the hot tub and had an overall relaxing day. On Saturday, Jon arrived, fresh from his motorcycle trip to Seattle and back. (And I use the term "fresh" loosely. He really needed a shower.) Saturday was also Second Saturday, so we all headed downtown to check out the various galleries that were open, street vendors, and general chaos of downtown Sac. After a nice dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory (and I also use the term "dinner" loosely, as I just had 5 diet cokes since I had eaten a Mr. Pickle's sandwich before we left -- delish!) and providing our waiter, David, with his fill of sass for an evening, we peaced out. Well, quelle surprise, we find ourselves heading the wrong direction on the last light rail train of the evening. So there we are, having gotten off the train immediately after realizing the error of our ways, at the deserted Sac City College station.

To further my general annoyance with public transit in Sacramento, no cab company seems to understand where we are at. Apparently saying "the City College light rail stop" is crazy talk to them. At one point, my frustration boils over, and I say "Ma'am, are you familiar with the light rail in Sacramento? I feel like it's a fairly prominent feature of the city." Fortunately a cab does come to claim us (and the driver ended up being a pretty cool dude who even turned off the meter while he went out of the way to find us an ATM), and after an extensive national search we finally get to Hilltop to quench our thirst and play a few rounds of shuffle board. After a nice Chipotle lunch the next day, we wave goodbye to our guests. Come visit again soon?

On the internship front, things have been going swimmingly. You can now browse Emily and I's learning objectives on the right side of the blog, but I thought I would give you a little bit better sense of what my general tasks have been in this first few weeks. My two big projects for the semester revolve around Summer Bridge (an Equal Opportunity Program for traditionally under-represented students to take courses over the summer before they their first full semester of college) and the SO&L Fall Leadership Conference. For the former, our office coordinates a 1 credit leadership course for the students, and Karlos and I have been working on developing the curriculum (which is going to include a leadership assessment that I will be designing -- the Sproul Leadership Inventory? Has a good ring to it!). Of the two projects, this is by far the most collaborative thus far. Summer Bridge is not our program, and we only coordinate one piece of the puzzle, so it has been interesting to see how the Summer Bridge director, Vivienne, coordinates the program by juggling the needs and wants of the SB faculty, the EOP higher-ups, and our piece.

A common theme of this project has been flexibility. When I first started the internship, Karlos was still in the dark as to what changes EOP would impose on the LS 79 (the official name of the Leadership Course) schedule. More recently, we just found out that 24 students from South Korea will be attending two class sessions of LS 79 due to a collaboration between EOP and the College of Continuing Education, which adds some logistical speed bumps for Karlos and I that we are in the process of navigating.

My other project is a little more self-directed. While SB and the LS 79 course offers me the chance to dive into completely new waters and see how our piece fits into the goals of a larger and mostly academically-driven system, the Leadership Conference is exciting in that it's pretty much my baby. The SO&L office coordinates a 1-day leadership conference for approximately 150-200 student leaders. Everything from theme, to marketing, to programming and sessions, to assessment, to corporate partnerships, and beyond is pretty much mine for the developing, which is incredibly exciting. (Once I have the teaser promos ready for the students, I will post them here as well.) The office is really looking for a conference that brings in a critical thinking/self exploration piece for the students, so the conference is not solely about the specifics of leading an organization, and I hope I am up to the task!

Finally, the wrap up this already excessively long post, I have a new summer goal. I live only 4 miles away from the state capitol building, and by the end of the summer I would like to run from my apartment to the steps of the capitol and back. I am calling it Conquering the Capitol. I will keep you all updated on my progress!

Monday Monotony

Today is the first day at work where I've been really suffering from some ennui. The problem stems, partially, from my productive last few weeks. I came in with my fists pumping (figuratively, of course) and quickly knocked-out most of start-up projects ... and now I've hit the point of having to wait for others to approve my work, reply to e-mails, or return phone calls. I even have four of my journals done for my internship credit - how sick is that?!

Tomorrow should pick-up since I'll be helping staff the SOAL Orientation table ... and anyone who knows me knows what a gigantic ham I am, so that will be fun. I think it's outside though, so I need to make sure to wear some sunscreen!

Speaking of sunscreen ... it's so beautifully sunny here in Cali! I love that it's (almost always) a nice dry heat, so when you walk under the shade it's several degrees cooler. However, I've been warned several times that I don't know what I'm in store for and that it's going to be getting really, really hot soon - and then I'll be singing a different tune. We'll see I suppose!

So, I made a silly purchase the other day. The new Sims 3 Expansion Pack came out and I went and bought it on it's release day, haha. It's fabulous. Sometimes it's nice just to have some mindless entertainment. To make it worse, Jake has addicted me to HGTV, so my nights now consist of sitting on the floor in my living "room" (remember - loft!), playing the Sims 3 and watching tv. What a sad, sad life I live.

Goodbye Golden Girl and Gay Rights

I really dislike the position of my desk. My back is to the main door, so I always get weirded out whenever someone walks in or out. I have been snuck up on numerous times already, and I am not pleased! Especially since updating the blog probably doesn't really count as "work."

If from my tone you have discerned that I am a bit off today, you would be correct. My favorite Golden Girl, Rue McClanahan passed away today at the age of 76. You can follow this link to read more about her life and career. I'll be having a piece of cheesecake tonight in Rue's honor. You should do the same. Thank you for being a friend, Rue!

Since I am already on a bit of a tangent from my normal internship topics, I might as well continue and throw this one out there...

I used to be fairly ambivalent about the issue of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. After all, while I respect the men and women in uniform, I have no real interest in serving in the armed forces (I really don't even like to camp). Sure, I was for repealing it, but it wasn't really an issue that was on my radar...until I stumbled across this article. Titled "My Life As A Gay Officer," it is as honest as it is heartbreaking. It makes you realize the affect this unjust and bigoted law has on the men and women who must hide who they are to risk their lives for our country. True, the military functions and is successful by being about the collective before the individual, but to borrow a quote from Alexandre Dumas, if all is not for one, how can one be for all? But maybe the anonymous author of the essay says it best, "I will risk my life, and in return, I ask to be treated simply like anyone else in the service—nothing more and nothing less."

Memorial Madness

Okay, I lie ... it wasn't really a wild weekend, but I had a lot of fun!

On Friday (our first furlough day!), Jon Hess came up for the day. As Jake mentioned, he bought a guitar on the way (crazed). Anyway, the combination of a balcony and Jon's new guitar yielded an unsurprising result - a balcony concert!

After the concert, we found the most fabulous pub within walking distance of our apartment complex. The neighborhood around us is so incredibly gorgeous! There's a great mix of chain restaurants, mom-and-pop's, chain stores, and boutiques; it's going to be a great summer of food and shopping!

On Sunday, we finally went shopping for groceries. We got enough food to make meals for a few days - which was a nice change. I didn't do much cooking this year and I've missed it, so I've been having fun making meals so far. Just to tease your palates, Jake and I have had: homemade guacamole, spicy pretzel-encrusted chicken, homemade salsa, baked broccoli (BEST way to have it!), omelets, French toast, pasta with tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts, and corn-on-the-cob. This is going to be my "Summer of Cooking" I guess ...

I'm also attempting to make this my "Summer of Health." On Sunday, I went for a walk around campus for an hour and a half. Today I lifted some weights. Tomorrow I'm going to look into buying a pass to Anytime Fitness - they're so conveniently located right next to our apartment complex; they also have a deal for people living in the lofts, so that's exciting. It will be nice to be able to go there when it's too hot to workout outside and I don't want to get up at the break-of-dawn to go for a walk.

We also have a new neighbor ... well two actually. When I had my camera out Mr. Duck was the only one around … however, I'll try to get a picture of Mrs. Duck soon as well (or perhaps one of them as a couple). They're remarkably unafraid of people - Jake and I went for a swim last night and they watched from the steps the whole time. Any ideas for names?