Yesterday I experienced the Parking "Challenge" for the umpteenth time this year in a whole new way. You see with all the construction on campus we have lost tons of our parking. We knew this was going to happen last year, and it was rumored that a new parking area would be finished by the beginning of this school year. It wasn't. Trying to be positive about the situation and thinking of the future of the school, which I'll have to come back and visit if I want to see, I thought about all of the new things that I got to experience as a freshman--dorms, turf field, practice field (even though we had to cross a creek to get to it), new training/weight rooms--and just got up earlier for class so I could try to find a parking spot. The school rented some parking at Valleydale first semester for overflow and shuttled people back and forth during the day. A hassle, but not the worst situation.
Then we were told the extra parking lot would be finished by this semester. We received an email later that said due to "inclement weather" the parking lot would not be complete for this semester. That was irritating because in winter months in Ohio don't you expect inclement weather? Why say it would be done in the first place? With the Valleydale contract finished I guess the administration decided to turn to a church just off campus for extra parking. Perhaps they thought it would be better because it's closer and people could walk to campus if they wanted to. Not a bad alternative, even though the parking area was smaller than Valleydale and your car had to be moved by 5:00 everyday. I used the shuttle from there off and on this semester. Some freshmen were randomly selected to park in the dirt/gravel lot that was going to be the new parking lot still under construction until the end of the year. This worked well enough and I suppose it would've until the end of the semester, but then graduation got moved back onto campus.
Now the parking lot had to be finished, which meant the 100 or so freshmen that had been parking there no longer had spots. I know we have to be close to capacity on parking because I've seen signs that say LOT FULL a few times last year and this. This year it wasn't as frustrating to see the signs because there was extra parking somewhere else--last year there wasn't, but it only happened a couple of days when we had a lot of visitors (i.e. Open House days). On my way to school I pass the church lot and noticed that it looked fairly full so I figured there would be some spots in the main parking lot. After driving around for about fifteen minutes--unsuccessfully stalking anyone to their cars--I gave up. People were already parked illegally and there were several other people driving around like me. I called my boss in admissions and told her I would probably be a few minutes late and headed towards the church lot. And guess what? It was full too.
The only spots available were ones designated for church people only. I parked there with four other people behind me and we waited on the shuttle. The shuttle driver arrived and radio-ed campus security to see if we were okay to park there since there were obviously no other spots available. I was already on the phone with the campus security office. The officers on the radio said it was okay and the office workers on the phone with me said it was not okay because that broke our contract with the church and put me onhold. At this point I am definitely late and trying my hardest to remain polite. One of the other girls waiting is yelling and cursing--we were all very frustrated. Eventually I was told that I should move over to Las Casas--one of our office buildings that is an old house turned office. It has very little parking. Two of us moved because we would be on campus later than 5 and walked to the main part of campus, and the rest stayed. I was over 15 minutes late (for which I didn't get paid) and the other people were late for class.
So maybe because it's the week before finals everyone is going to class and sticking around to study or do research in the library and the lots were full, but wouldn't you think if we were anywhere close to capacity that Security would have had an answer to where overflowed overflow parking should go or at least a unified answer to whether or not we could park in the church people's spots--I mean in almost every one of my communications and business courses we discuss planning for the worst possible scenario. Commuters are a majority of the student population! To top it off I was not in the mood to hear the whole "parking is a challenge" speech while on the phone yesterday, especially when I've heard it a million times and have all of the benefits that will come from it memorized for tours. Parking was more than a "challenge" yesterday.
Ok, that rant/venting was really long ... parking is the one of the only things that has ever really confused or frustrated me about ODU and I guess if I have to be frustrated about something ... anyways ~ yesterday got better really fast--I turned in my last two assignments for Spirituality, including my peace plan (i.e. worldwide disc golf haha jk) and I went to a debate for philosophy club (free food) and an end of the year student leadership banquet (free pizza :) --See I told you people give away free food at events all the time! The debate was interesting and it's always nice to feel appreciated and be recognized like we were at banquet! I'll try and put up some pictures from ODU Day later this week--it's time for me to go to my final soccer class! I'll miss Thursday--getting in one last doctor visit before the insurance changes over ...
First, I've gotta say that everyone in the play last weekend at ODU, Kiss Me Kate, did a great job! I knew a lot of people in the production and one of my teammates, Lindsay, sang the opening song :) Quite a few of my friends and fellow admission's ambassadors were involved as well.
Second, Erin is posting the bubble wrap link this week ... so heads up! And a BIG thanks to Krista for supplying us with some bubble wrap yesterday so our BW adventures could continue :)
Third, ODU Day is this Friday! I knew it was coming up but until Erin gave me a snap bracelet--yes, a snap bracelet!--yesterday with ODU Day info. on it I was not registering that it was actually this Friday! I'm playing PowderPuff Football as usual and looking forward to other events that day--inflatables, automatic bull, possibly henna tatoos or sinking someone in a dunk tank--I'm not sure what all will be around this year but those are some things from years past. Altogether should be some ridiculous celebrating end-of-the-year shenanigans!
Our athletic sports banquet (for every team at ODU) was last night. I was asked to say the invocation and was a little nervous but it turned out okay I think--Short and sweet. Coach reminded me beforehand that it's a prayer so at least everyone would have their heads bowed! haha
Kristen, Steph, Carli and I at the banquet last night
Me and the Coaches---Jamie [ w/ new found height :) ] Duffy, Me, Coach
I've almost made it through my poetry class! I might have told you before, it ended up being my favorite class this semester. I have a paper, a presentation, and my portfolio to finish before I'm done and of course the dreaded poetry reading this Thursday. I'm not as nervous as I thought I would be at the beginning of the semester. We had a dress rehearsal this morning and I am going to practice some more and hopefully the entire school won't show up! Professor Glazier did mention that their would be punch and cookies in the invitations however, so some people will definitely show up. I figured out early on that the best way to get people to attend events in college was to offer free t-shirts or food ... never fails!
I have an interview tomorrow with someone at the Nationwide Children's Hospital Foundation for my Non-profit Organizations' Management course. I'm hoping I'll get an idea of what it would be like to work there aside from getting information for my assignment. Then I have another quiz in that class, part of another assignment to finish, and I have to write a grant proposal all by next week! All of my assignments for my classes are due early because senior grades have to be turned in earlier--basically, once I make it through next Thursday I'm FREE!
Kristen and I are in Spirituality together and we are doing our final project together tomorrow. We have to write a 5 pg. plan for World Peace! Sr. Shonk says if you think it's impossible then there's no chance of it ever happening. I think we've got some good ideas for it ... then I have one short assignment due in there by next week as well.
I work all weekend at Home Depot again so I'm trying to work on these assignments now during the week--and my plan to work on them Friday is shot because it's ODU Day so I've got to get on top of things! Well, for now I'm off to soccer class--I bet I'll have some good pics from ODU Day next week and hopefully I'll have most of my work finished too!
A couple of my friends had birthdays over the weekend--Happy Birthday Whit and Stephen!!! I worked all day Saturday and then changed in my car and loaded on perfume to try and mask the smell of mulch and manure so I could go out to eat for Whitney's birthday ... it sort of worked. We all went out to eat at Buca di Beppo--Delicious! And then we threw her a Christmas party, because that's her favorite time of year.
Here's Whit opening a Christmas ornament--she is moving into an apartment this summer and I think she has everything she needs to decorate for Christmas now haha She even got a full size artificial tree :-) She liked the whole Christmas theme even though by the end of the night, it really made her wish Christmas was closer. We told her she could decorate her apartment however she wanted and no had to know--heck, one of my neighbors just took down their decorations!
Here is her cake made by Kari and Sarah--the master minds of this whole operation. Specialty cakes are kind of something we pride ourselves in when it comes to birthdays--the girls weren't too proud of this one, but I was impressed!
Speaking of cakes--this photo is about a year and half old but it's another specialty birthday cake. The octopus was for Molly's 21st and I can't take credit for most of it because Ry and Laurie (his sister) are unbelievably good at art and are responsible for just about everything besides the seaweed and mixing up some of these color combinations--I'll take credit for those. Yea, don't deny it--you're totally impressed by the seaweed.
Other updates: I'm getting familiar with the Garden Dept. and was actually able to help some customers by myself this weekend ... Graduation was moved back onto campus instead of being in the Ohio Theater because the Race for the Cure is downtown the same day--and I'm thrilled! My senior year of high school was the first year we had graduation off campus and this year was feeling like deja vu. I just hope it's nice out so we can have graduation out in front of Erskine, instead of in the gym. 26 days ... I made two doctor's appointments this morning for May, so I won't have to worry about the insurance change over--fun fun ... I hope everyone's years are wrapping up well! O and go check out Erin's blog, she is going to post this link she sent me that let's you pop bubble wrap online! haha who comes up with that stuff?!
I'm doing okay, although there are a bunch of little things that are adding up and stressing me out. A couple of weeks ago, Erin and I came across some bubble wrap (quite possibly the best thing ever invented) while working in Admissions. We popped some of it and hid the rest for later. Well today was the day to bust it out. We got all of our work done and we were both feeling anx-ed and stressed, so we got it out, all 2ft. x 15ft. of it ---I'm estimating, it was HUGE and maybe longer than 15ft.---and we completely demolished it! I know a few people wondered what we were up to, even though we tried to be quiet hahaha It was ridiculously fun and great stress reliever :P
About 1 month until graduation. It's getting to be crunch time for everyone--a lot of people are doing last minute research, starting projects that are due soon or at least talking about starting them, and hanging out in the library so they can pretend to productive. Don't get me wrong--I'm sure many people are being productive, but I know quite a few people (not me excluded) which still have a lot of work to do. I think doing homework in the library helps me focus sometimes--not this time of year though. Everyone is there and I just get distracted and end up complaining about all the work I have left to do, which it's my own fault for having procrastinated, and get very little accomplished.
I've got to be a little more regimented and plan out when I'll do my work now because of Home Depot. Maybe having another job will force me to be focused a bit more like I was when I had soccer to worry about. Speaking of soccer, I went to an event last Thursday called Smooze or Lose at school. It was a networking event where I got to meet alumni, Lead students, and other people associated with ODU. Panera catered, we heard a short speech, and then we did speed networking (a first for ODU and me). I guess it was set up like speed dating where you talk to one person for 3 minutes and then switch people. I got advice from people and possibly a few connections to some non-profit organizations. Also (getting back to how this relates to soccer) I met someone that was forming an adult soccer team and now I'm going to be on it! Not the kind of information I thought I'd get that night, but I'm excited about playing again :)
Friday, Katherine and I went to The Columbus Zoo. Besides seeing the zoo lights at night during Christmas time, I can't remember the last time I was actually at the zoo. The weather was rainy and we went anyways. It was funny because it was starting to pour as we were walking in and all these people were leaving. The only other people going in were a mom and her son, who she was trying to get to leave but who wouldn't stop crying unless they stayed. The ticket man gave us a hard time about not knowing the weather, except it wasn't that we didn't know it was going to rain--that was obvious, we just didn't care. Random and fun--here's a couple of pictures ...
The dark sky as we headed into the zoo
Me rockin' rolled jeans and Katherine taking pictures of fish
Saturday, we had an alumni soccer game and for the first time I was an alumni. It was our best alumni turnout and I believe our most talented group yet. We played regulation rules, Coach got referees, and we had to wear uniforms and everything. We lost 2-0. It was fun though, playing and seeing girls that I haven't played with in years. I'm not completely out of shape, well I'm out of midfield shape--I was pretty winded haha Alright, take care, I'm going to go finish my poem for class tomorrow!