update for mom

-this is the view outside my place. the place where i live with 3 yes, 3 other girls in a one bedroom.
hey mom!

i am having the time of my life... where do i start? work has been great... i'm just barely beginning to feel useful...the first two weeks i was pretty much left to my own devices. (this is week 3) the guy i am supposed to be working with, cameron, pretty much doesn't seem to have enough time in his days. nor does he seem to know what to do with me. and that's fine. it's actually working out great. in fact, i don't much want his help when it comes to learning about how the office runs. i'd rather have harmony teach me as it looks as though she is the one running the show. she has been there for over 2.5 years, as the financial aid officer. she knows everything and she has been having a difficult time with cameron. he is supposed to be over her, as the assistant to the director of fin aid, and wes is over us all as the director. another administrative assistant (besides me), jason, works with wes and then i work with cameron (supposedly.)

anyway, cameron has only been there for 5 months and he doesn't appear to really know what he is doing. smart guy, good guy, but awkward/nervous lots, and compensates by telling inappropriate jokes and being hard to find (this week he is out of the office for the entire week at a training seminar). harmony is very helpful, fun to talk to, and very efficient. she is in charge of the student workers and orchestrating all the intake of all the paperwork. which you can imagine is a load of work. so she is busy busy. i sit in a room adjacent to the financial aid windows, where the student workers work, with just harmony and jason all at our individual workstations. i actually have my own little area, which is great. my own computer, my own phone, my own drawers of pens and post-its....our workspace is separated by thin partitions, so we can hear all the conversations of the surrounding departments. it's fun to listen to people you can't see...i feel like i know them...

anyway, so this is a busy week for us. we have to manually award some 1000 students their scholarships. all via this program that is irritating to use until you get the hang of it. we, meaning me and jason. with wes helping us fix the bigger issues. (my roll is still rather unclear, but it looks like i will be just helping out where it's needed, thus i get to help jason with his job this week.) jason was out of the office on monday (he has a family and some visiting family) and so i got to start on my own with wes showing me how to input the data. it was fun. fun to learn something and then do it, and fun to actually be helping. the financial aid department has been running very thin for sometime. and they just got this new program, this new campus wide program that runs all of the things you can imagine a school needs to work together on. For example, we use one program to admit students, to hold their academic records, yadda-yadda, and the same program to handle their financial aid. this behind the scenes program also creates a user-friendly or student friendly portal for the students to see what is going on. for example, before any financial aid gets disbursed to the students, they can log into their 'my byuh' home page and see how much they will be getting. they can also check their class schedules, enroll for other classes, and check their grades, all in the same place. it makes for a powerful tool for them, you can imagine.

anyway, so i have been having a good time. i have to remember to get up and go for little mini walks. it's easy sometimes to get into what you are doing and not take time to get up and stretch. i don't mind sitting so much. the first week my butt really felt it, but i guess i'm acclimating. and it's a wonderful atmosphere because even in training they suggested that every hour you get up and stretch or whatever.

also, it's been truly great to know i am working for the church. and to see and feel that everywhere! for example, i got to go to devotional the other day! at work! and get paid for it! when there is one, everyone is encouraged to go. students, faculty, and staff. and they happen on thursdays at 10am. every thursday during the semester terms (so right now only one a month)

it's a real hardship...:)

so this latest one was really very interesting. we had a visiting faculty member from byu provo who spoke about the visions of joseph smith. i will tell you all about it when next we talk. so, it's a serious treat to get to go to these.

in fact, that's another thing i'm really going to thrive and eat up about being here again: having more time to enjoy all the perks that one rarely has time for when a student! yes yes! one thing i get to do more of is go to the temple. i'm going once a week now.

also, i've actually been going to FHE if you can believe it. I never really considered it very important being in a student ward. I mean, while i am away from you, my family is simply me and the Lord, and I never saw much point in another dumb group game while sucking away my precious time. i still hold to that. but this time it's different. i think because i've been going every monday night now for a month, have had friends give lessons/games, have given a lesson myself, and generally just feel like i'm in different company. the people that come need me to be there, they need us all to come, and i can feel it. i'm in a fringe ward. none of us are students, some are alumnus, and some are not. but we are all single and living here and so we are different from the mainstream. thus, i go to FHE for them. which isn't really interesting, except that it is. funny.

anyway, it's late, and i gotta run. i love you, mom!

p.s. one more thing...nothing like working at a church school to slap yourself in the face with your own crasslessness....i have so many little comments that i have to bite my tongue over...for example, "what, are you smoking crack?!" yeah, these kind of comments reveal yourself to yourself IN A MOST UNFUN way. and don't make you any friends...just awkward pauses and quick exits. :)