My title, you ask? I'm a Director.

So, what began as a very exciting temp job became so much more. After failing to receive desired job offers and declining a not-so-desired (but very good) offer from OU, I went against everything I ever expected and accepted an offer from CommunityWorks, LLC in Norman. I am now the Director of Human Resources and Continuous Quality Improvement for this very interesting mental health agency. Need counseling? We got it (individual, family AND group). Want to learn about something? Substance Abuse, Parenting, Anger Management, Domestic Violence...we offer it. Are you juvenile offender?? That's right - we run the Cleveland County Regional Juvenile Detention Center. Are you a recently release female inmate? We're about to open a semi-halfway-house in Spencer. Are you a troubled kid at Rogers or Spencer Middle Schools? We'll come see you at school to talk!

Yeah - we're kind of like the little engine that could. I'm excited to be a part of place that changes lives.

As for my odd jobs...I fixed the toilet the same day that I accepted the position. I also continue to shop and haul things (it was a massage table and a large amount of parafin wax today) on  pretty regular basis. :o)

So, I've been fortunate enough to NOT have to sit on my bum for the past few weeks. Besides the random catering gig every now and again, I've been doing odd jobs at a counseling clinic in town. Just for kicks and giggles this weekend, I listed out some of the things that I've done at CommunityWorks. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to list them for you.

-Filed (current things and paperwork from up to two years ago)
-Shopped for and/or purchased online - six wardrobes, six twin beds, an external hard drive, a few dozen zip drives, logo pens/stress balls/magnets, royalty-free photos for a website
-Privacy-screened multiple large windows
-Hung room numbers on doors
-Put together an old computer
-Cleaned out and organized a friend's office
-Dusted
-Made copies
-Replaced an empty water jug with a full one
-Replaced arts and crafts supplies in a toy room and a toy cart.
-Moved paint cans from one closet to another
-Backed-up two computers
-Manned the front desk
-Copied and posted about 15 liscenses to practice some type of counseling
-Rifled through everyone's personnel files for needed info
-Hacked into everyone's email accounts to paste a HIPPA statement into a signature
-Measured an office for bookcases
-Labled and stamped about 1000 postcards for a skin care business (the owners are business partners)
-Entered about 100 adresses into a database for the skin care business
-Shopped at the OU Surplus sale
-Purchased four oversized (huge) sofa chairs and one large 50+ yr old desk
-Hauled half of said items to one location using a borrowed pickup - loaded and unloaded
-Then hauled all of said items to Spencer, OK in a Uhaul - loaded and unloaded
-Counted about 700 X's representing meals served to kids in the detention center (juvi)
-Searched for, printed, and delivered various documents on various hard drives
-Altered menus for the detention center
-Typed eight pages of a legal document and formatted 12 more pages (removed at least 500 spaces used instead of tabs by the person who typed those pages....)

Oh, and tomorrow I'm going to weed a flowerbed and hang paintings in the office.

Never a dull day when you do odd jobs!

Moving = Emotions

Hey, very few Xanga friends...

I'm packing for a move. I keep coming across things that I've kept in previous moves, things that haven't seen the light of day since my last move. There's no rhyme or reason as to why I've kept these things - they aren't attached to any one thing or person - they just sort of signify precious parts of my life, or at least things that were precious to me at one point in time or another. I'm actually choosing to throw most of these things out this time around.

I'm not a kid. I'm not a college student. I'm not even a graduate student. I'm an adult that's struggling to figure out who she is in relation to who she was and who she wants to become (oops...that's three different verb tenses in one sentence - that can't be correct!). I'm an adult that's semi-unemployed and hosteling at a friend's place until my sister can buy a house for the two of us to call home. It's hard to move on with my life and live in a place that looks and feels like an adult lives there when 3/4 of my life is about to live in a garage for a month.

At what point in time do we stop "growing up" and just live?? I'm a fan of consistency, and the only thing constant about my life is that it's sure to be overrun by cycles and changes.

Done.

After the past few weeks, I kind of feel a little bit on top of the world. Here's what's gone down.

• I ran a marathon.
• I completed all of my graduate work.
• I received (and turned down) my first real job offer.
• I made the tough (but good) decision to stay in Norman for the time being.
• I finished teaching my first class.
• I graduated. According to the University of Oklahoma, I am a Master of Education.

It all seems a bit surreal. It was just a few short days ago that I was burning up on the SWOSU football field, wanting to eat my "diploma" and trying to figure out how I was going to get everything I owned into my parents' van. I moved to Norman and somehow managed to fit in here. Despite the trouble I had during the first few months, missing everyone and having trouble adjusting to a new spot....Norman managed to work its way into my heart in the past few months. I'm not ready to leave the community that I've found here - so I'm staying.

In my reflection during the past few days, I've really begun to find much worth in the degree that I've received. I studied how adults learn and how colleges run. I have a new appreciation for the discipline of lifelong learning. The commercialization of education now makes me cringe. I may sound pompous when I say things like that, but I don't mean to. I just can't go back to viewing college the way that I did when I graduated two years ago. Maybe that's the sign of a good education - a change in how you view things. Well done, OU....well done.