Monday, September 25, 2006

My Dream Man Must've Gotten Confused

Day One of WEF's (Wisconsin Education Fairs), was a good one. I had exceptional luck with both the morning fair and the evening fair. Many people were complaining about a really slow night this evening, but I had a good hand full of students and parents stop by. I was excited by it. And the Assistant Admission Advisor from Ripon commented that I was doing really well at my table. That was good news for me since it's really the only feedback I've had on the road.

This morning, I was pretty convinced that I had met a possible dream man, and the coincidents that followed made me even more convinced. I spotted him from across the gym, a real looker. I mean, I really couldn't take my eyes off him. We didn't get a chance to meet then, but I saw him again at the evening WEF, and I was sure I wanted to meet him.

Amanda, a new friend also on the road for the first time from Loras, made sure to help me out. (Oh, and Stacie, if you are reading this, Amanda would be the slightly inappropriately dressed recruiter with the pipes...and yes, she was in gymnastics.) She ran up to him after the evening fair and invited him to join us for pizza. He joined us in my hotel room where I found out some interesting facts. He went to and works for Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. This would be a Reformed Christian denomination school (and I was raised Reformed), he new the Folkerts family (a family that I grew up with at church)...and there were a few other interesting things that we related to each other nicely.

I was nearly swimming in crush-ness by the middle of our pizza dinner when I received the crushing blow. He had a girlfriend...a girlfriend?!? Of five years. And she's in med. school. How can I compete with that? Ugh. So, Mr. Clint, somewhere along the line, you must have gotten confused and met up with the wrong girl who happens to be a genius and is probably beautiful. When clearly it should have been me that you are about to marry.

Someday my dream man will come along. Or maybe Clint will break up with his girlfriend.

Someday.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Wrapping Up Week One

Week One is almost over. And I must say, it's been thankfully pretty uneventful. I went to schools, did my thing, and talked to some pretty cool kids and a few nice guidance counselors, too. I laid around a lot in the hotel, took really long hot showers, sat down at the bar, and did some things that I didn't even think I would do. For instance, I went out to a nice restaurant by myself, and although it wasn't my favorite thing to do in the world, having my mom on the phone with me the whole time helped. :) I drove through treacherous Milwaukee several times...once to go to a mall.

I am, admittedly, a little behind on my postcards to students, but I have a feeling once the novelty of being in hotels and out to eat wears off, I'll be a workaholic. But this week, I decided to just be a pamperaholic. Ok, not really, but I did get myself a set of acrylic nails tonight...and at the price they come, I treated that hour of nail filing and shaping like a full body massage. I took all the pampering out of it I could. The moment was only slightly disturbed by the nail lady talking to me...mainly asking what I did, if I was single...if I was single...why did she have to keep bringing that up? Oh well. I shrugged it off, and closed my eyes, and dreamed of being on my honeymoon in the Bahamas.

The week started off with air conditioning and sun glasses but it's wrapping up with the hotel room's heat on and me wrapped up in my covers. This weekend will leave no rest for the weary as I have Bridget's wedding in Muscoda all weekend, then it's back on the road on Monday morning with a marathon of WEF's until next Friday. Meh. I'll sleep when I'm dead. :)

Monday, September 18, 2006

More to do...

The lesson I have learned today was for sure to bring more along to do on these trips. There are a couple of schools that have like an hour or so between visits, and I found myself driving around or chilling at a local park.

And I tried starting some postcards for students...but all of them sounded stupid and fake...so I stopped.

And now it's almost 4:00, and I'm done for the day, back in my hotel room, thinking about what to do next. Any suggestions for how to fill my time? Feel free to add comments...I need all the help I can get.

Otherwise, I survived the day with no major mishaps. I answered most of the questions that were thrown at me with no major hesitation. And, if I do say so myself...I looked pretty darn good doing it.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Initial Jitters in Port Washington

This is not exactly how I thought I would feel on my first trip out. I honestly thought I would be very excited and ready...fully prepared and knowledgeable about UWP. But it's just not at all true. Now, it's not that I'm not excited because I am. What a great job to have. All I need to do is go out there and express my love for my alma mater to all those cute little high school kids. But there's just an eerie feeling about the whole thing.

I just drove three hours in the pouring rain to a city I've never seen before, checked into a hotel...alone, went to the hotel restaurant...alone. Granted, I'm sure any new job is kind of like this, you feel like you've been thrown into something that you know nothing about, no matter how much training you received. But this is a little extreme, don't you think? I'm out in the middle of the proverbial nowhere with no one's cubical to run to if I get stuck. I'm just wingin' it for now, I guess.

It's a little bit weird for me to feel this squeamish. Usually I'm ready for everything, willing to try almost anything once. But I feel like so far, this is a little out of my league. There are so many things that I am forced very quickly to do for the first time: stay at a hotel alone, eat out alone, travel under my own navigation...

I'm sure by the end of tomorrow, I'll be singing a completely different tune, but for tonight, I just had to get some of my initial jitters out. So wish me luck for tomorrow! And, don't worry, I'll let you know how it goes.

P.S. Tonight I ate at a bar called The Rusty Anchor...doesn't get any better than that, does it?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

A Evening in La Crosse

Welcome to the first addition of Tales From the Road! I'm sure this is the first of many more to come. I hope you enjoy my rendition of events from my travels...which may or may not be 100% factual.

Getting to Aquinas High School was definitely a journey to remember. It was my first night on the road as an admission advisor for UWP, and I'd have to say honestly that it was the actual act of being on the road that was the most exciting part of the night.

Stacie and I went together as sort of a practice run for me...well, both of us, as she had only done one other fair before. It was nice to have a travel buddy, but it would have been even more nice to have a camera and a travel buddy.

The night started out passing three strange and slightly creepy animal statues on the path. The first was a giant mouse holding cheese in Fennimore that Stacie lovingly referred to as a giant rat. Then we noted shortly after a very large bird statue, and in the town that came shortly after, there was a happily roaring lion. Stacie promptly encouraged me to stick my head in its mouth. I thought about it but decided that it would only be worth it in conjunction with a photo op. with all three creepy animals.

A friendly detour met us as we neared La Crosse. At this point we were both starving, a little cranky, and only slightly stir-crazy from being in the car on an exceptionally curvy road for two hours. A detour was not on either of our top-ten list of want-to-do's. And as we passed through what ended up being quite possibly the strangest detour (that went in a complete circle in a small town) I made a split-second decision to take a different road...off the detour. County K. Now, I would highly doubt that this road was worse that the actual detour, but it was pretty darn curvy...the kind of curvy road that has big boulders jutting out of the massive hills on either side...the kind of curvy road that max's out the speedometer at about 40. We were less than thrilled.

But, alas, finally we arrived at our destination. Ok, so we were on the wrong side of the building, asking small children for directions to the main door, and just barely in time for dinner, but we were there. And we got pasta. So all was well...until..."the mom."

A very seemingly nice mom came up to our table to ask us a few questions. She had a son that was a senior that had just sent in his application. She had so many questions that she wasn't even letting us answer her questions before moving on the next, obviously life-or-death question. Forty minutes later, the guy from one table over walked up to me and commented, "She sure gave you an ear-full," to which I just nodded as I was very sick of talking by then.

All in all, four pseudo-interested students filled out information cards for us and asked us a few general questions, but that was all the actual fair action that the two of us got. Way to go us.

The ride home proved to be a little more exciting than the ride up...well, until Stacie fell asleep on me. Then I was pretty much on my own. We, again, decided to veer off the well-trod path of the marked detour to pass through such exciting towns such as Romance and Bud. We actually missed Bud, but that's neither here nor there. Passing through Romance, Stacie took the time to convince me that we were for sure going to die by the hand of a masked murderer that was about to jump over the guard rail and into our car. A dense fog and lack of cell phone service, as well as an unidentified lurching of the car during acceleration, solidified the senario and guaranteed our impending doom. I'm happy to report that we missed the murderer by just seconds and escaped unharmed....and the rest is history.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Tall Single Telemarketer?

This week has been full of unexpected...well, let's just say unexpected-ness.

At work, I've been reduced to a telemarketer calling 30 or more schools a day trying to schedule all my visits (that would be 169 of them this semester alone). I decided this week that I wanted to make sure that I got all my schools scheduled before I left for full-time travel. I'm over half way there, but there are only a few days left in the week. And I have a presentation to watch, a meeting to go to, and a fair to leave early for...which puts time at a premium. I've even gone so far as to give up my lunch hours to keep calling schools. Perhaps I'm a freak. But the truth of the matter is that I actually like getting my schools scheduled and talking with guidance counselors. It's a lot of fun!

In other news... Brandon and I had a candid conversation about us. We were both feeling something similar, and that was that it just wasn't working. We came to the realization that we are very different people. Ok, so we probably knew that when we started, but there was an initial attraction. It was a good and fun three months together. But now it's movin' on time. No worries though. We ended on good terms, still friends and all that. This, I guess wasn't all that unexpected. The past week or so it's kind of been lingering in the air....known to both of us, not really wanting to be touched by either of us...you know.

But that's about it. Life will be getting more exciting coming up very soon though. Be looking here for stories from the road as I start traveling! I bet there'll be some great tales to regale from those sweet and innocent high school kids. So stay tuned!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Thoughts on the Lia Sophia Followers

I got invited to a Lia Sophia gathering tonight at Stacie, a friendly coworker's home. And after I got the invite, I then got a sneak peek into what the night may hold. I thought that Lia Sophia was just a nice home sales based jewelry business, but in all actuality, it is some sort of addicting, blood-sucking cult disguised as stay-at-home-moms and get-togethers with snacks and friends. You should see how these women in my office drool over a LS catalog or people's collections that they've purchased. It's crazy. At first, I have to say that I was captivated by their reactions and a little frightened. But it got worse very quickly.

I got my very own catalog, and as suddenly as I had judged their craziness and addiction, I was paging through the book again and again until I swore I had seen every piece in there. And then I was circling things, calculating the value of the deals I could receive if I bought just one more piece... I had, in one giant swoop gone from critic to one of them! I could hardly believe it myself.

However, I don't think that I will achieve the level of spending power that some of the women in the office have attained. Deb was going through pointing to all of the items that were on her most recent order...it had to have been hundreds of dollars for a few pieces of albeit gorgeous jewelry. Hopefully I can fend off the ever powerful urges to buy, buy, buy...as long as I keep the fact in mind that I do need to be able to eat this month.

Oh Lia Sophia...what a power you possess.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

And What Day is It?

With training complete and the real work under way, I've found myself buried in schools and phone messages, and guidance counselors. And it's really only day one of calling schools. I feel like it's been weeks! I'm not sure how my lovely co-workers do it every day. I feel like I'm going crazy. Today, all day, I called schools to schedule my visits, and guess how many I got complete... 18. Not very many at all considering I have over 175 stops to make this semester.

But regardless of how many schools I have to call, re-call, leave messages with, or whatever...I still have to say that so far my job is going well, and I really like it. And I'm quite sure that I will enjoy being out on the road...at least for the first couple of weeks.

It's awfully strange seeing students back on campus every day. I only worked a week or so before they all returned, but it's weird. I see people I know, and most of them are confused why I'm on campus at all. I feel strangely removed from the campus life even though I'm pretty darn involved for a staff member. Things like move-in and orientation have passed me by, and fighting through the crowds for that 12:00 PSC lunch seems not quite as natural as it once did. Transitioning from student to staff in one giant sweep has been a little bit strange, but overall not too out of reach. Convocation yesterday (possibly the most boring experience of my life) reminded me that I was for sure an adult living in an adult world.

Megan, my roommate, moved back in this weekend. And at first I wasn't all that excited about it. (Sorry Meg if you're reading this.) But it had been three nice months of coming home from work and doing whatever I wanted, eating what and when I wanted, and most importantly, being naked when and where I wanted. And now, that's all gone. But I did discover last night that it isn't so bad. I mean, it's pretty nice to have someone to talk to at night and watch TV with and whatnot.

So, life in my own little world is pretty happy and healthy lately. Here's to a continuing streak of this!