Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Wonderful Week 2

I had a fantastical day! I feel like I actually did work and was productive I was busy and had no down time! I hate down time. I love my staff love my job and love life! And love not using commas!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

First week at Case!

One week down! :)

This week has been filled with new people places and names.  My mind is overflowing with important information. I really hope I get the hang of things here soon! My office, which is on the first floor of the building, is slowly getting up and running with all the supplies I need - facilities has already been super helpful in getting my pictures hung up.  I have my fancy e-mail address and the ability to schedule meetings and appointments, and my next week calendar is slowly filling up.  This week I felt fairly like a fish out of water, not knowing where I should be, what I should be doing and who I should be talking too. They have been helping me get adjusted and have been very accommodating.  I am really excited that my books are slowly on their way here! I am also excited about getting started on actual aspects of work instead of just training!  I love working so it will be very nice to be busy!

The staff I work with in the building is fantastic I love the senior staff they are all really nice and have been really helpful.  The RM's (Resident Mentors- aka RA) are fantastic as well. They had a Meet and Greet for me on Wednesday called "Moonlight Mocktails with Melissa" and they all stood in a circle and sang to me so I can cross that off my life goals and I got an awesome toast as well. 

All in all its been a great week . . .

Did you know: Dairy Store Ice Cream is DELICIOUS!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Apartment


Once I arrived here in East Lansing my mother and I made an effort to get my apartment into livable working order.  We unloaded the car, it only took 2 trips, the first night and then attempted to find the store everyone was raving about Meyers.  Well we went the direction TOMTOM said, and for the first time in our trip he (I mean it   . . .) did not deliver. I was very frustrated. Well randomly as we sought out food at a local Wendy's we looked across the street and found the MEIJERs.  Apparently I spell things weird for MI.  oy evay! So while there we found a blanket and a few other things that were important (soap for example) and finally I begged my mother to leave because I was to tired to continue shopping (no that does not happen often).  So after a good night’s sleep in MY own place we started getting the place put together.  Moved furniture, cleaned, unpacked the 3 totes and countless vacuum packed bags.  The living spaces got put together first and then we went on more discovery of East Lansing adventures. We found the mall, Target; re-visited the Meijer’s, which is like a K-mart but with a LOT more stuff. 
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19U6gFTBIBqYQw4qXA6Gobf9stIgyx0rGqCtOGaqP6BgKmCLH_NZcZjbh1sh_9eupa2hVybZnFQzjjTA-7ahAF4a2GR875hsx9D8Hu3oiOd-vLrJleVuYkEVnfIkzC65ZKDdOBb_IUTTq/s320/Travels+to+MSU+014.JPGWe also discovered something called a "Michigan Left" which is when you have to turn right to turn left. It’s very counterproductive to me I say just get rid of the medians in the road but whatever.
-Side note, Willie Nelson will be on campus next week-
So Sunday we were pretty tired still so we turned in early and Monday while I was at work my mother finished setting up the place! YAY! This was particularly nice because we all know home much I love cleaning  . . . ha ha.  By the time my mother left Monday the apartment looked great and continues to stay clean, so all you non believers out there can back off! lol :)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Travels to Lansing!

Well, We made it to the wonderful town of East Lansing! After three FULL days of driving we arrived at the MSU campus at about 9:30pm eastern time.

Day one, We attempted to leave by 6am but lets be realistic, and remember who we are talking about. My mother and I left much closer to 7am because we had to stop and see my grandmother before I left. We got some much needed coffee and we were off! We drove through the gorge which was so pretty and then through the far less remarkable part of Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. Once darkness hit there were insane amounts of bugs that now are spattered across the front of my car. Finally at 9pm Mountain time we made it to my Aunt and Uncles house in Evenston, Wyoming. They have an amazing house! We stayed there and went to a nice breakfast in the morning with them before heading out around 9am.

Day two- Today was a lot of uphill and flat driving across the states of Wyoming and Nebraska. No offense to either of these states but they are not to much to look at, the dessert in Wyoming was pretty but Nebraska has very little to offer. We made it into Iowa a bit after midnight and stayed at the Marriott.

Day Three- we left at about 9am again this morning though we were in Central time now. Iowa was very pretty to drive through and wins as most attractive state on our drive. Also rest stops in Iowa are amazing, I highly recommend them. We traversed across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and made it to Michigan at 7pm Eastern time. After 2 hours driving across the state we found our way to Lansing and the MSU campus!

Sara and Bree both greeted us and I got my keys! There are so many! I already color coded them, and all I can think of is constantly hearing "DON'T LOSE YOUR KEYS" from Cindy Empey.

I would like to give a special shout out to TOMTOM, without the GPS we would surely have not made it all the way here!

Did you know . . . There are 17,000 residents on the MSU campus?

Monday, September 7, 2009

Fantastically Employed

After an interesting summer, the first in five that I have not worked more than full time- I am employed! Not just employed, fantastically so in a position I would almost kill for.  Sadly killing people would make keeping the position difficult so I would refrain, and blood is a bit messy. Anyway the point of the post- I am going to be a Hall Director at Michigan State University! 
What is a Hall Director? Great question, it is not to be confused with a resident director as OSU defines them.  Rather the Hall Director works with the building conduct, helps advise and plan programs, and helps advise student groups. Now if you consider yourself my friend and therefore know me AT ALL you should be saying “Melissa loves all of those things”. This is true I do love all of thoes things.
I will be working in Case Hall, Residential College- OSU friends think Weatherford.    All parts of The James Madison College of Public Policy and Law are located in the building, yes the ENTIRE College.  This means the offices of every professor, every classroom and the administrative offices as well. About 65% of the residents in the building are Madison students.   
Now for the other 35%, the freshman football team is also located in Case Hall.  So now OSU people take Finley and Weatherford and combine them for an awesome dichotomy that is Case.  Granted not ever resident is a Madison student or a football player and there are quite a few who just live in the building because they like it. The residency of the building is about 850 students. 
So there is a little taste of what I will be doing once I get there. How will I get there though? Michigan is 2,400 miles from Canby, Oregon. I will be starting on the 14th of September, this is very soon! My Mom and I will start driving Thursday the 10th to get there hopefully on the 12th and moved in and settled on the 13th.  She is going to stay till the 15th and check out the greater East Lansing Michigan area with me.  Yeah it’s going to be an awesome road trip!
So I must leave you with this for now, I kind of need to pack.  Weird right? However I plan on ending all posts with a fun fact about MSU, Higher Ed, Michigan or something cool so here it is-
Did You Know: Lansing is the Capital of Michigan