Hey all, it’s me again. Sorry about the dearth of updates in… forever or so. Life’s kinda gotten pretty busy.
So, last I left you I had completed my training with CTEP and had moved into my new site. Well, the trainings continued for a bit longer at Skyline, but soon I was in complete charge of my lab. Adult lab has been pretty easy to control, as the adults follow the rules (for the most part) and remember to sign in and out (for the most part). The kids, on the other hand… Well, let’s say I had quite a few imprecations to say about them on the way home from work. Basically what happened was as soon as open lab started a tidal wave of kids from the Homework Center completely spun me around and ran roughshod about the lab. I could barely keep things running properly, and control was pretty much gone as soon as they entered. After about 2 and a half hours of pure chaos, I collapsed against the door and decided that there would have to be a change.
Fortunately, my supervisor and I had a brilliant idea: use half an hour time slots that the kids would sign up for in advance. That way when the hour or half hour came around my newly purchased kitchen timer would ring, and one group of kids would go out and another would come in. My lab would work like clockwork.
Well, it kind of worked like that. Enough that I’m still doing it. I need to beat the concept into their heads a little bit more still, but it’s slowly working. And to deal with kids waiting for their turn I’m starting an art table where they can draw on used pieces of paper while they wait. That second part is actually quite the huge success, and I’m starting to think about expanding it into some kind of official system with prizes for designs and such.
But yeah, my work schedule right now: I get up at 8:30 on work days and get to work by 9:30. From there I run Adult Labs on most weekdays for the majority of the day, and then in the late afternoon run either kids, teens, homework, or open labs. I punch out at 6:30 and get home by 7. Dinner is generally served by 8 or so, and I need to sneak in 1-2 hours of physics GRE studying plus some work for CTEP or taking care of my chores around the house. This leaves at most 3 hours of free time in the evening, 1 of which is generally spent in decompression from the work day.
However, it's not that bad of a schedule, because I get Tuesdays, Sundays, and every other Friday off! It's kind of wierd, and I never get two days off in a row (Saturdays I work from 9:30-3:30 and every other Friday I have a Corps Day for CTEP), but breaking up the week into more manageable chunks is pretty awesome if you ask me. And since I have Tuesdays off I get to cook dinner for the house on that night. So far I've done rice pudding and chicken tortillas; and chicken w/ salad and turtle desert pizza (basically a big cookie!).
My Saturdays consist of work, and then some kind of fun activity in the evening. The old standby is the Arkham Horror game at Pechous' game store, but occasionally other things come up... like the bluegrass hoe down in Northfield put on by Aaron Cross' band The Last Known Whereabouts. Sundays are spent studying physics and geeking out with Russell's Vampire game (which is turning out very interestingly...). I even got to go down to Northfield for BLurie's B-Day and see all of the crazy changes that have happened there... and went to a Magic prerelease on Sunday. Yeah, total dork, I know.
But yeah, that's how my life is going right now- busy, but with enough break that I'm not actively going insane. This weekend Rachel and I are going to Chicago for her big Jane Austen Society gala event, and to see Des. So, just got to get through tomorrow! So, until next time...
The proverb says that Providence protects children and idiots. This is really true. I know because I have tested it.
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
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