morrigirl | Best Week Ever

For the first time since December I am updating this journal from my place of residence. Yes, bright and early this morning/afternoon the cable guy came and hooked me up with digital cable and optimum online. It's all working fine exzcept that now I need a pop-up blocker. When I had dial-up the problem of pop-ups was practically nonexistant. Now I've got 'em all over the place and they're pissing me off. Any suggestions? I downloaded Yahoo Toolbar cause a couple people told me it came with a fantastic po-up blocker. Fantastic my big toe! It's been installed for almost half and hour and it has yet to block a single pop-up! Considering that I'm getting two or three everytime I navigate to a new page, this is unacceptable. Where can I get me a nice FREE pop-up blocker?

Other then that little irritant this has actually turned out to be a pretty great week! Honestly, I feel the happiest I've been in years. Years! Started the new job at Sarah Lawrence and so far it is better then I could have ever imagined. First off, I'm not working in your typical office, our "office," also known as Swinford House, is an old farm house with bay windows and claw footed bathtubs in the restrooms. Sure there are file cabinets and cubicles everywhere but even so, it doesn't feel like an office. There's always sunlight pouring through the windows and the stairs creak when you go up and down them. It feels like a house.

And from what I've seen everyone in Swinford is really nice. There are just over 40 employees in the College Resources office and they've all been very good about introducing themselves and seeing that I feel welcome and relaxed. My boss, Scott, has been a doll. For the first three days he saw to it that one of his old assistants was around to answer any questions I might have and to deal with all the work I hadn't yet been trained to do. He's been good about not throwing too many things at me at once, and he's been patient with the fact that I'm still learning how to do a lot of basic microsoft office tasks. This week I learned how to mail merge and take minutes at a staff meeting.

The atmosphere of Swinford is rather laid back. Dress code is casual. I've gone in this week in everything from a baggy t-shirt to a pressed skirt and no one has said jack to me about it. One day I was 20 minutes late and offered to stay 20 minutes late to make up for it. Scott sat me down and told me they don't work like that at Sarah Lawrence. He said that he believed people needed to enjoy their work and that meant leaving at the same time everyday, and working with people who understand that sometimes things just come up. Told me never to be afraid to take a break or go for a short walk in the middle of the day if I need to. Working with him for just one week has made me realize how completely infantile Elisabete treated everyone at NYIT, always standing over our shoulders, not trusting us to do anything independently, obsessing over incosequential details and ignoring the big picture. All week at Sarah Lawrence I have been given assignments and then left to do them in peace. As long as I completed them quickly and accurately, no one bothered me. I don't feel like a child under the supervision of a sadistic caretaker anymore. I feel like a responsible worker.

I'm also loving the fact that I no longer have to interact with students on a daily basis. I never realized how mentally and physically exhausting it is to sit at a desk all day having to smile, be polite, and helpful all day long, how corrosive having to deal with stupidity is to the psyche. At Sarah Lawrence I'm not in a customer service position. My job is to assist a couple of prefessional fund raisers who already know what they're doing. Gone are the days of having to kindly accept the smarmy come on's of older students, contending with forever malfunctioning copiers and printers, and listening to bored students drone on at your for hours on end all because they don't want to do their homework. I am left to my own devices for most of the day and I like it that way.

Also there is always stuff to do. I actually feel like I'm contributing something. After Elisabete took me away fromthe circulation desk, I stopped feeling like a constructive worker cause I had so much down time. If I'm at work, I like to be doing something. No necessarily any thing hard or back breaking, just something that is of importance to someone in the office. This week I've sent out solicitation letters, I've organized files, I've done things that I KNOW will help the Colleges Resources Office and Sarah Lawrence College continue to function properly.

Speaking of the college, the campus is simply gorgeous. All these beautiful stone structures, wide green fields, and sloping hills. It used to be the Lawrence family estate so none of it looks particularly "educational." It's funny, I keep referring to places on campus by Knox names. For instance, there's a Gizmo (at SLC it's called The Pub.) There's a CFA, a GDH, a SMC. And even though SLC has a beautiful campus, I think I like Knox better. I really can't stand all the steep hills in Bronxville. One thing the midwest always had going for it were its flatlands. The Gizmo is bigger and has more atmosphere than The Pub, and the food is better. As far as I'm concerned bagel pizza is now and always will be reason enough to continue living. I like our theatres better, even though SLC has more of them. We have a radio station and SLC doesn't. The lawns at Knox are bigger and greener. However I will admit that SLC's library is on par with Knox's. Just as physically appealing, just as loaded, just as many comfy nooks where one can curl up with a book.

Though I do like the campus, and I have wondered why I didn't explore Sarah Lawrence when I was applying to undergrad, on some psychic level I understand that I wouldn't have been happy here during undergrad. Just in terms of physical space and academic offerings it doesn't have the sort of things I was looking for at 19. But It does have the things I'm looking for now. Peace, quiet, stability, freedom.

And I haven't even mentioned the outstanding benefits of this job! Well, first and foremost, they're paying me 2K more than they originally told me they were going to, so this job has given me an 11K pay raise. I have full health and dental insurence. I have free use of all the athletic facilities including a weight room, indoor track and state of the art swimming pool. This is a big deal since NYIT didn't even HAVE athletic facilities. I am permitted to take classes at SLC DURING ANY TIME OF THE DAY as long as I arrange to make up the time I miss. So if I want to take a class that's held from noon till 2:00PM I can do it as long as my boss and I work something out. And best of all I have a SWEET retirement deal through TIAA CREF. Most businesses have matching programs, you know, where you authorize the school to take out something like 3% of your paycheck each month to put away for retirement and at the end of the year the institution matches whatever you've put away? Well, at SLC there is no matching program. Instead, we get free money from the school. After working there a year employees become eligible for a program where SLC comes up with a total equalling 10% of your monthly income and puts it away every month. No money is taken from the employees paycheck, the college provides that 10% in additon to their paycheck. How sweet is that?! The Director of Human Resources actually described it to me as free money and expressed shock that many employees don't take advantage of the arrangement just because they don't want to go through the trouble of filling out the paper work. Free money? Psh, I'd fill out a stack of forms the size of the last Harry Potter book in triplicate to get free money.

So as you can see I'm quite content. For the most part, all is right with the world at the moment. I don't feel lost. I don't feel directionless. I feel like I've found my way to the place where I need to be right now.

I'm happy.