A Food-Filled Weekend

This past weekend was a great get-away. The reason for my title is twofold: 1) I did a lot of meal/conversation dates with friends and students and 2) I had forgotten: my RD friends LOVE food, especially when it is free. :)

I spend the first part of the weekend connecting with friends and students. Saturday, Nicole had a party at her house to which I invited lots of people I love, and most of them were there. It was great, though it was hard to connect as deeply as I'd like. So good to be in her cozy house out of the cold. Oh, and there was lots of food. I have enough tortilla chips to last the rest of my life.

Sunday, I met my co-workers at our hotel and we registered and went to the start of the conference. Because there was no dinner as we expected, we went with the Whitworth crew to get some dinner. I'm glad they all had a chance to meet once another. I hope my boss and co-workers have a better sense of me and my experiences. Monday was filled with conference stuff, and I went to dinner with my co-workers to Catacombs, a cool restaurant in Spokane. Tuesday we finished up the conference and headed back home. I'm so glad Whitworth was at the conference so I got to hang with my old pals!

Today was back to reality. I got a chance to talk a bit with my new Asst. manager about some team ideas and things I'm thinking about with the RMs I manage. I need to learn to be a better manager. I'm really struggling with them and their attitudes, which I sense is directly related to them not feeling supported. I thought I had been doing well but now I think some of the issue is me (and the fact that there's still a lot I don't know and haven't had time to organize for them). So these next few months are going to be rough, supervisorily. I can't get mad at them for not getting paperwork in when I am not getting things done they've asked of me! So I have some real growing to do and may need to put in some time to get a handle on things. I'm glad I feel supported by the management, though (it's not a "well, you figure this one out...it's your isssue" attitude but feels more like a "we're in this with you" view, which is what I need).

On a different note, it's getting a little warmer here, not so "South Dakota cold". So good. I don't like the uber cold (to quote Lara Ann :) ).

Gotta go watch American Idol now. I got into it this year. Who am I/

traveling and freezing

I am driving to Spokane today. I'm going to a college housing officers conference with my boss and two other CHNW employees. IT doesn't start until sunday but I'm going early to see friends. I'm excited to see people I haven't seen since the summer. And I'm hoping I get to spend some time with Whitworth people at the conference, too. I like them lots.

Also, it is cold. Like really cold. Here, with windchill it's 5 degrees. In Spokane, it's 9 degrees, but -8 degrees with windchill. I live in the northwest. This is not supposed to happen!! I've got my hat and mittens to keep me warm, though.

K, gotta get going!

update

Whew! It's been a while since I posted something. Sorry to any of you regular listeners. :)

My life hasn't been too exciting. Last Thursday, J & B & I went to a Mute Math concert. They're an indie group that has been featured in Relevant. It was a pretty small venue, so it was a fun concert. They sound like The Police, and the lead singer/keyboardist plays a keytar, so that was a trip. Welcome back to the 80's. I'd highly recommend going, and if you like the music, buy the CD at the show because as I have sadly discovered, it's not available in stores yet. Just their EP that was released a while ago is available, and it only has 6 songs.

Um, other than that, I've been working a bunch because it was "rent week" (aka the week everyone comes in to pay rent) so I didn't get out of here at 5 ever. Last weekend I watched the Superbowl at J & B's. We were disappointed that the commercials were pretty lame (since when do they advertise for TV shows and movies during the superbowl??!!). Brad is coming to visit this weekend, so it should be full of adventure and laughter.

Hope all is well for anyone reading this!