why do you ask questions

the call of duty

2008-05-16T02:47:14Z

so on tuesday and thursday, i did site visits for my job. the cohort program has gotten so popular, that we don't have enough advisors to visit them all on the first night. so they tapped other resources, me being one of them.

both evenings i went to streamwood high school, which is only about 45 minutes to an hour away. which is nice, since i got to leave work at 3pm both days so i could get out there early enough to set up. then i only have to talk and take questions for about 15 minutes, before i leave.

before i went out on my first one ever on tuesday, i swung by mary's office (shes in charge of facilities). shes an older woman, with a wicked sense of humor, so i thought she'd appreciate what had been rattling around in my head for the last few hours...

"you know, mary. i look at everyone getting ready to go. and all the advisors have done this several times. and they're all decked out in their nicest clothes. and pulling their supplies behind them in rolling suitcases, looking super business-like. meanwhile, i'm wearing a jacket from old navy, and sporting my super fancy college backpack."

yes, i used the bright red, black and gray backpack i used in college to go visit a site full of people going for their masters degree.

i'm truly trapped somewhere between adult and "didn't i see you drunk off your ass this weekend?" on the plus side, the visits went well, other than the rooms not being unlocked either day.

another season ended

2008-05-15T03:52:03Z

the magic lost yesterday. putting them out of the playoffs for this year. the only positive side to this is that my bracket on nba.com keeps looking better and better :P

so while we were over at amanda and zeke's tonight bekah wanted to check on the scores for todays games. so zeke is driving on the computer, and while we are at nba.com

bekah being a pistons fan (and a big chauncey billups fan), of course wants to check it out.

zeke: so is one of those your boyfriend?
bekah: yes. the one in the suit. (and to her defense bekah did mumble under her breath something about it being a sort of suit. which is fitting, considering some of chauncey's weird ass jacket choices lately.
zeke: so which one is he?
bekah: the one in the suit.
zeke: so that one?
he says this while pointing at rip hamilton.
amanda: didn't she say 'the one in the suit'?!?!
zeke: well, he's wearing his basketball suit...

basketball suit?!?!?! are you kidding me?

don't worry, bekah amanda and i revoked his man card.

peanut delores

2008-05-13T02:47:00Z

so i got a text from my sister leann about an hour ago. they had to put the family dog, peanut, asleep today :(

i never was all that close to the dog, as they got it during my freshman year of college. but she was still a sweet dog. and i'm quite sad to know shes gone.

it really is for the best. she has been having health issues. and recently shes been developing weird bald spots and bumps on her body. so i am glad her suffering is over. i'm also glad i got to see her yesterday when i went home for mothers day. my mom said it was the most excited and playful they'd seen her in awhile.

she was just a few months shy of 9 years old. good bye, peanut. you will be missed.

customer satisfaction inventory

2008-05-10T14:39:06Z

on fridays, my office generally closes at 4:30. which is nice since i usually work till 6.

anyway, at like 4:31 yesterday, i hadn't quite locked the door yet, so this man and woman come in wanting help. so i leave deb's office to assist them. of course what the man wanted done would have involved help from kim, who had already left and from the registrars office, which was already closed. but i had him do the paperwork and told him i'd get it where it needed to go on monday.

the woman with him was being kinda snippy, and when i told the man that his transcript evaluation would be mailed to him once the registrar signed off on it, the woman was like "i never got my evaluation in the mail". okay then...

once i finished up, the man was very polite and wished me a happy mothers day. to which the woman immediately scoffs "shes not a mother"

i'm not sure if i should take that as i look far too young to be a mother... or as 'good god, there is no way she could be in charge of another human life'.

thank you for stopping by. please get out of my office.

so happy mothers day tomorrow to all of you out there who actually give the appearance of being able to be responsible for another life :P

emily post is cringing

2008-05-09T00:39:11Z

so today sean, who is the assistant director for graduate admission, had several meetings with prospective students. so he takes them down to his office so they can talk options and so he can schmooze and all that jazz.

well, as he was talking to one of the woman today, apparently in the middle of the meeting, she just flat out farts. apparently it was a quieter tooting sort of one, but sean heard her. apparently she thought she had been rather sneaky, but yeah... not so much.

sean spent most of the rest of the meeting trying to avoid his fan, lest the offending "toot" be sucked in and blown straight into his face. i guess thats why we pay him the "big bucks". because he held himself together, and didn't say anything. way too go, sean.

speaking of big bucks, i'm currently still at work. at least i get paid overtime :P

back to long work weeks

2008-05-01T13:20:17Z

yes, i haven't been around much. i've been unfaithful to you, livejournal. i've been having an affair with my job.

on the plus side, the new semester starts the week of may 12th.

i just wanted to hop on to share a link, of all things. what a great story, though:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/04/the_best_tale_of_sportsmanship.html

rug of pine needles

2008-04-21T14:05:57Z

after a couple phone calls from marybeth yesterday, bekah and i were out the door.

we went and bought our bridesmaid dresses for amberleigh's wedding yesterday. to find out we were going to have to each pay a $60 "super rush" fee for ordering so late.

so late being 7 weeks in advance.

apparently, it takes 16 weeks for a dress to come in. are you kidding me? is some hermitted 70 year old seamstress who lives in a cave in the mountains in some foreign land hand-stitching every dress order that comes in? i mean, good lord. this is dress shopping. not siox legend.

i'm pretty sure i've seen houses put up in 16 weeks. and you'd think its some fancy, intricate dress to require so much time. but its not.

i wish i were a boy. i could have taken my $60 super rush fee, rented a tux, and been done with this. gotta love weddings :P

they're all long weeks now...

2008-04-19T06:50:41Z

so after a long night of drinking beer, bekah and i are a bit drunk.

entertaining moment:

so bekah was just playing mario kart on the ds, and she was playing the luigi's mansion race. her comment?

"this isn't luigi's mansion! it's luigi's yard!!!!"

you know how they are always saying "out of the mouths of babes"? same applys for the mouths of drunks. so true.

fun pictures coming as well. as we took some tonight. meanwhile, my boys are in the playoffs. 3rd in the east. prepare for me to get all nba geeky really soon :)

slicey slice slice

2008-04-14T03:54:27Z

its time for a "retro post"

so today i was doing stuff in the kitchen. the bottle of soy sauce has been being a real pain to open (mostly because everytime i shut it, i don't bother wiping up any dripped soy sauce off the top of the bottle). so i decided to clean up the bottle for easier opening and closing.

when wiping it with a wet napkin wasn't fully getting me where i wanted to be, i decided to use an old stolen college cafeteria knife to scrape some more of it off.

i'm sure you can see where this is going...

days without an injury: 0

it sorta works out, i guess. afterall, my finger print on my left index finger still doesn't correctly line up after the great knifing incident. why not go for the same effect on my left thumb?

i make it though wedding cake cutting, but not cheap stolen butter knives. sometimes, i don't know how i manage it :P i'll be sure to let you all know when i don't have any fingers left. that is, if i can find a stenographer.

heading to the seventh circle of hell

2008-04-09T02:12:36Z

so my counterpart in our recruiting office no longer works there. thats the second person they've lost since i took my job back in november. a third one is in training right now.

i suppose it says something about the job - when the person doing about the same work in the other office as me is now on its third person.

on the plus side, i was told that in today's cohort meeting, one of the vp's commented on how i'm really good at what i do, based on the reports i send for the biweekly meetings. i'm not sure if i should throw a party or collapse from exhaustion. slowly my work weeks are creeping closer to being 45-50 hours again.

35 days till the next semester kicks off.

on another note, i went to jana and keith's wedding this weekend. where i was one of the cake cutters. what makes someone think letting me wield a sharp object on their "special day" is a good idea is totally beyond me :P

all joking aside, i really am very happy for them :)

banner and humans - at their finest

2008-04-02T00:23:11Z

so, like many colleges, we use banner for our student records/database. and everything you use has a code you need to access it.

right before i left for my trip to texas i had to give kim and deb a crash course on my job, and entering applications.

i'd had kim entering applications in banner to a point. i wasn't having her do the last screen, SAAADMS (which we commonly pronounce like the biblical city, sodom. as in sodom and gomorrah, we just add an S at the end of sodom).

anyway, i was sorta wrapping up my talk to them "...so, kim, you'll be doing the applications. and it'll be pretty much the same as what you did before. except now you have to..."

i paused, as for some reason the exact wording of what i wanted to say escaped me. and kim immediately pipes in "SAAADM-ize them?"

deb's eyes just about popped out of her head, and she laughed. kim looked confused. so i responded:
"no, kim. no matter what you do, please don't sodomize the students or the applications."

i'm not sure i've ever seen such a shade of red on kim's face. :P

since it is opening day...

2008-03-31T14:20:38Z

for all your northsiders...

if you hadn't heard, and don't know whats going on here

i don't think chicago can handle this. they all seem to still be reeling from marshall fields becomings macy's and comiskey park becoming us cellular field :P

obstacle maps

2008-03-27T23:41:24Z

so if you don't remember, in november bekah and i went to springfield to visit holly. and while we were there, we got to go four wheeling.

for a lot of it, the boys drove, and all us girls just hung on tight. but at one point, while we were in a big open field, they let us give them a go.

the first round out, holly and i went out. we were blazing around (in the practically pitch black, mind you) and at one point, there was a small fence. well, i blew around it, but holly kinda smashed into it. we were pretty far out and it was hard to see us though, so i just left and continued on.

when we got back to the group, one of the boys commented to me that he'd seen me go really close to the fence on my first lap, and he was sure i was going to run right into it.

without missing a beat, i responded "oh don't worry. holly showed me where the fence was."

it was so subtle, it fit right into the conversation, and everyone continued right on. of course, i looked at holly right away, and got the "ROT AND DIE SLUT!!!" stare. i was totally amused.

anyway, i was busy today at work. amberleigh came by to see me, but i was in a meeting.

she left me

priceless

another shocking life edit

2008-03-26T14:14:18Z

so i did do one other thing while i was in texas...

this has been part of my 'about me' on facebook for the longest time:

My shoes are so old, that the insides are pretty much all ripped out. But since they look just fine on the outside, I don't see the point in getting new ones.

after months of bekah trying to get me to buy new shoes, i finally gave in. i'd had my old shoes since 2000. and they became my only pair of shoes after the mud incident of 2005

i did edit my about me to say i've found the pair of shoes that should carry me to 2016 now :P

i do accept the fact that this will be a huge shock to everyone who knows me. don't worry, i'll be sure to fan you and bring cold compresses if you pass out :)

an old cow hand, from the rio grande

2008-03-21T15:27:50Z

a little less than a year ago, on good friday i had passed a kidney stone.

this year, i just got back from texas yesterday, and its freaking SNOWING outside.

so, in protest of both of these "good friday" items, i'm posting photos

here i am... outside in a tshirt and jeans!

chris, me, and william. you gotta take a rest... a guitar hero can only go on so long :P

i'm afraid to even look at weather.com now that i'm back...

one stop on the trip this year - NASA

marybeth lends the astronauts a helping hand

this one was actually on loan from the smithsonian

greetings, earthlings

marybeth and i on kemah boardwalk

my wii bowling opponents, josh and chris

the grill master can't be stopped by mere knee surgery!

william, me, marybeth and lacy

lacy getting a beat down

unfortunately, knock-off nemo was not meant to take such abuse. he had a good 9 hours of life with us, though.

and now, i gotta get my stuff together to travel to both rockford illinois and madison wisconsin before landing back here on sunday night. monday, i go back to work.... ew.

my hearing is almost normal again

2008-03-16T22:32:27Z

so as i sit here at the computer, i can look down at the taskbar, and see that it is currently 67 degrees out.

we aren't in chicago anymore, toto.

my yearly excursion to texas is going on right now. tomorrow (and the rest of the week) will officially be the first days of work i've missed since starting in graduate admission. i'm excited to be here - but also a bit nervous to see how my workload will look when i return.

well, love to stay and chat, but there's a lot of being outside and becoming a guitar hero i have to do while i'm here at marybeth's :) i hope you all have a great week!

its admission season again

2008-03-11T02:50:26Z

sean had his first day of work in graduate admissions today. i think it'll be fun to have him there, and well, we could always use more help. its funny - i hired sean at cougarnet back when i was the coordinator of audio visual services, and now we are working together again. ah, the swirling black hole that is concordia - you get here, and you never leave :P

undergrad students are back on campus this week, after having spring break last week. and i must say, i sure did come to appreciate our 3 student workers a lot more after not having them for a whole week! they handle a lot of admission record maintainence for me.

another strange tidbit from the mind of lisa:
i've started processing the summer 08 applications, and its been a haze of crazy data entry. but one student stood out at me. or her last name did, anyway. it was mccraven.

which probably doesn't seem odd or attention grabbing. but...

with every transcript, letter of recommendation, and objective statement i've tracked, i find myself just thinking one thing over and over again...

quote mccraven, NEVERMORE!

i decided against telling my coworkers. i think they have enough to judge me by already :P

the land of lincoln strikes again

2008-03-07T03:01:48Z

well, why start something if you aren't going to make it an annual occurance?

and you'd probably think i'm talking about something cool. like maybe grill like you're from wisconsin day.

but no. i'm at scoee's. and he's doing my taxes. and once again, i owe the state of illinois $1. what the hell is this?!?!

the driving 100 pennies to springfield option is looking more and more appealing all the time. seriously.

i think i may just send 5 or 10 bucks this year, so i can be set into my thirties :P

more on leap year

2008-03-04T00:35:20Z

since you got to read my thoughts on leap year on friday, i figure today you can look at how i removed all deep thought from mind that night. ha!

heres isa cutting the grasshopper cake - this is as close as one can get to "leap year themed food"

this is zeke acting out sunflower during a game we were playing. either that, or hes just drunk.

these 3 woman dubbed themselves the "sluts on a bench" (sign being made on the far right of the picture). so if you are in chicago and see one of them - well, opportunity knocks.

group shot! raymond, katie, zeke, bekah, me, dov, and guy who either i never knew the name of, or it fell out of my head. i'm not sure which.

katie and ben - evil pizza genius

katie!!!! such a naughty girl!

hey guys... madonna called. and she refuses to acknowledge that as you voguing each other.

hoppity hop

2008-02-29T22:30:09Z

the question of the day:

if today were my birthday, and i had a myspace account, would it think i'm only 6 years old? or would it be smart enough to figure it out?

i'm tempted to set up a dummy account to find out.

question of the day #2:

why is the year with the extra day called a leap year? doesn't it seem like the other 3 years should be called leap years? they are the ones hopping/skipping/leaping over a day.

welcome inside my brain, ladies and gentlemen :P

the fat lady stopped neville again

2008-02-23T00:24:13Z

so we recently got email about them tightening security on the passwords we are allowed to use at work. delightful gems among our new restrictions include:

1. Password must be at least 8 characters long.
2. Password must consist of the following:
a. At least one upper case letter.
b. At least one lower case letter.
c. At least one number.
3. A password history will be enforced equivalent to 3 years - meaning once you change a password it can not be reused during the next 3 years.
4. Passwords will expire every 90 days.

i can appreciate that we don't want everyone using super easy, hackable by a password cracking program passwords, but i think these rules have effectively eliminated every password i've ever used.

add to that the fact that my brain seems to be holding onto knowledge about as well as a slotted spoon holds water, and i think the increased security is going to backfire... because soon, probably at least half of the employees will be keeping a list of their passwords at their desk. so now you don't need software to steal passwords. just the patience to wait for someone to leave their office.

in other news, bekah and i are going to jana's this weekend. this couldn't have come at a better time.

always providing useful services

2008-02-19T00:06:24Z

so, you may all remember my previous rantings on aim bots. apparently even unfriending them doesn't do it... they are relentless!!!

i mean, seriously...
i'm just sitting here working, minding my own business when this pops up:

i think i just got sexually harrassed in my workplace... by a bot!!!! wonder how that would go over if i tried to file a report :P

in other news, i am now not at the front desk in admissions anymore. still doing the same job, just second in the line of fire. its nice :)

on a much more serious note...

2008-02-15T00:48:26Z

my thoughts and prayers are with the students, faculty, staff, friends and family of everyone at northern illinois university.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/university.shooting/index.html?iref=newssearch

and i'm also extremely happy to have gotten ahold of katie. thankfully, she was in a different hall on campus at the time.

happy vday!

2008-02-15T00:43:29Z

i've bought conversation hearts for the bowling league tonight. i consider myself all valentines day'd out.

la tania emailed the office asking us all to wear red or pink today to celebrate. i actually had to go to the store last night to buy a red shirt. the only red shirt i really own is my tampa bay bucaneers tshirt. and somehow, i didn't picture my boss appreciating that.

although i came home to some
i open the freezer to find...

one of my ice cubes is... excited. its the coldest valentines day hard on of the day.

all i know is i moved my pot pies as far away from that as possible. i figured the corn dogs can hold their own :P

please hang up and try again

2008-02-14T00:22:17Z

i present to you: the epitome of strange

our office depot order arrived in the office today. i was having one of the student workers begin sorting everything out to make sure we'd gotten everything when i got the following email from joan in purchasing:
-----------------------
Lisa: Per Email from Office Depot the following items you recently order from them have been discontinued:

#432-225 Staples
#537-112 White out
#570-022 12 month calendar
#847-664 Calendar with base

Sorry about that!
Joan
------------------------

so i hope none of you were planning on attaching any pieces of paper together or correcting anything you'd written after the fact. because apparently staples and white out are no longer items to be acquired.

*pats brains* there, there. its okay.