I'm Addicted to a Video Game.

Yep. It's true. I'm addicted to a stupid video game.

So in our house we watch sports.... A LOT. We both love sports- not a bad thing. Well I kept seeing these commercials on ESPN for the game Be the Dean. And all I could think about was, yes, please. Well what I have to say is thank goodness I did not find this game while I was on maternity leave because I don't know if Connor would have gotten fed. (ok, seriously, he would have- but it's that addicting.)

Let me back up, I work for a college. I've worked on now 5 different college campuses. I've taken a class called College Environmental Theory where we literally studied the mission, culture, environment, space planning, and structures of college campuses. So of course this game would appeal to me because you get to build a college. It's like SimCity meets colleges. You have to increase enrollment, build residence halls, and the town around it. It's kind of like my job simulated into a video game. And to top it all off, Joe has a good friend who works for ESPN's video game division and helped create the game. (Mike's so sweet- he sends me all these codes to get cool stuff on my campus) :-)

So about 3 weeks ago I ventured to the website to check it out. And that was it. ADDICTED.
This is a list of how I know I need to stop.

• I sneak downstairs at night before bed to make sure I can collect money and enroll students. (I really don't have to sneak- but it feels sneaky.)
• I wrote Mike a facebook message asking him to change the dorms from the horrible "d" word to residence halls. (if you don't know dorms are where to sleep, residence halls are a place you live.)
•  It's on my computer in the background all day.  
• I am literally making decisions based on what my students might think. Literally this is what I thought today as I was trying to raise money in increase spaces in my academic departments- "you can't sell the coffee house where will the students study?" "that food place is in such a good location to the halls, the students need somewhere to eat" "don't sell the dance club- where will they go out on a friday night?!"
• I currently don't have enough spaces for students to go to school and live on my campus and I have no idea where I am going to get the money to change that.
• I seriously thought about getting a credit card where the prize was not a t-shirt or duffle bag but 350 campus cash dollars I could use to build more stuff. 
• I thought about how to use it in a class to help teach masters students about student affairs and managing college campus. 
• I really actually considered that these decisions I'm making are as significant as what a college president does each day.

REALLY!!????


At this point, I need to give up and walk away. Seriously walk away. It's only a game. (but what will happen to my students?!)

D-Day

Today is d-day in our house. First day of daycare day.

For 8 years I worked and ran residence halls and hosted move in every year for new students and their families. I hosted parent meetings to talk about the hall, safety, security, their students' experience, and answered any questions that would help make their students' transition as successful as possible. And deep down to help the parents transition be as successful as possible. And now, I host orientations again for new students and their families with the same intention of helping both have a successful transition to college.

And today I finally understand the feeling of dropping your kid off in someone else's care and having to TRUST that everything is going to be fine.

I used to watch families on these crazy moving days and just try to put myself in their shoes, but let's be honest, I could relate more to the 18 year old new student that was so ready for freedom than the parent struggling to let go. The other thing I always observed is that the students were always READY to go, often shooing away the parents, while the parents were hanging around and hanging around. In our parent meetings we would often give them a time to actually say goodbye and go home.

So this morning as we are taking Connor to daycare I started thinking and using all the strategies I could to make this day a little easier.

We had already essentially "moved his stuff in" on Friday taking diapers, wipes, etc to his room. We saw his crib and we had toured the place before so it felt more common and comfortable for us. Connor could have cared less. In the car ride, he was talking to himself and laughing up a storm. When we got there he was ready to get out of the carseat and play. One of the teachers immediately walked up to him and he smiled at her and that was it. Mom was history.

But in a way, I'm happy I'm history. Joe and I have never wanted Connor to be attached to us per se. We have always wanted him around lots of people, playing with lots of people, and understanding that Mom and Dad are only two people in his world of many. And on the way out too, Joe said, "He's going to make friends today and that's great. I want him to be around other kids." (I hope we feel the same way for first time all those friends' germs get him sick, get him in trouble, etc.)

And when we move him into a residence hall 18 years from now, I'll probably feel the same way. Sad that my little boy will take one more step to independence and establishing his own life but happy that he will benefit and learn so much from his time away from us.The difference is now I get to pick him up every evening, love on him every night, and cherish all the time in between now and moving to college.

So I'm doing better than expected and glad that he did so well too. And...the teachers told me I could call AS MANY TIMES as I want to today :-)
(sorry there are no pictures today-more to come in the future.)

Who Said Discovering Was Fun

When I started this blog, I thought this would be a place to share all of the adventures a new mom, family and baby would have as they learned and laughed together. I thought discovery would be a positive and funny thing even in the not so cute moments.... and it is most of the time. But I learned something last night that was a really sad discovery so I warn you, if your looking for funny and cute wait till the next blog.

Had to add in something to make people smile

Do you ever have moments where life just jumps up and smacks you across the face? It happened so quickly last night that I am still trying to make sense of it. We were on our way home from taking Connor to his first live basketball game at my work. I was checking facebook (Joe was driving) and I was starting to see posts from friends to one person about "sending good thoughts" or "love you so much" and I got this sinking feeling in my stomach so I quickly jumped to that person's facebook to find out he has cancer. And according to his blog "very aggressive" cancer. Smack!

Lovingly and jokingly this person calls himself Joe and I's matchmaker because he placed us on staff together in IU. The joke part is that he places everyone on staff at IU and it just so happens Joe and I got put together but needless to say, he was so involved with our lives at IU that we can joke and love him for doing this. (He was the main person that helped Joe and I do a double job search- I'll never forget our lunch where he said "wow, this is interesting talking to both of you. I usually smack Joe around and have really thoughtful conversations with Amy." Did he know us or what?!)

Go Hoosiers!

And if you don't know, moving to Indiana and living in this foreign place was not easy for me. I was grouchy, confused, and just trying to make sense of so much that very few people took the time to see though all of that to the real me. This person was one of them.



And let me just tell you about who he is... the minute you meet him you just love him. He is so personal, caring and warm. He'll remember your name after meeting you once and call you by it every time after. He is what strengthsquest would call a wooer (winning others over) not in a "hey let me get to know you to sell you something" way but in a genuine, I really care about who you are way. And now he has "very aggressive" cancer. Smack!

So in thinking about all of this last night and this morning I'm just in shock. Complete and total shock. Impacted beyond words. And from a few reactions from friends, they are too.


In Student Affairs, we often become family for a few reasons, one, most people do not understand what we do in our daily jobs, and two, student affairs is such an open, equity seeking, liberal, come as you are profession that we have to depend on each other sometimes to make sense of living in a world that can be closed minded, harsh, and not so accepting. (Joe and I feel so much a part of this family that were taking Connor to the national conference to meet so many, many friends and mentors.) So when a "family" members gets this kind of news it leaves an impact... I would call it a permanent imprint on my heart.

On his blog site where he will be writing to share with anyone who wants to follow him (love blogging even more now) he shares that he doesn't want money, he wants people to do something more impactful for their own lives as they journey with him. And that's what I've been thinking about too.... this is someone I aspire to be like... to love on people as much as he does. So how do I take all that I have learned from him and apply it to what I do? I don't have any answers for that now but I do know that this news will probably change me forever.

This person mentored me at a time where I really needed it. Who do you consider to be a mentor to you?

Working with Mom!

So for those of you that don't know me, I'm Connor Halter! And Mom asked if I would be her guest blogger today since she is busy with work! Of course I said Yes! Although what is a blog... and what is a guest.... I"m only 3 1/2 months so I'm new to all of this. Mom says though that I will never know a life without technology... whatever that means. 

So I guess this thing called work is something that Mom and Dad do during the day when they are not at home with me. All I know is that some days Mom takes me to this big place where lots of people hold me, play with me, and get excited to see me. I'm not complaining- I love meeting all kinds of new people.

 So yesterday I got to ride in the car with mom and dad to work. I love car rides- especially because I can fall alseep without two furry things Mom and Dad call my sister and brother keeping me up by licking my feet or doing this thing called barking. (the only way I know that is because both mom and dad are constantly yelling no bark at them)

Here is my adventure.

The day started with Mom doing something called checking email... I have no idea what email is.

And because I don't know what email is I got bored and in this picture I'm saying I'm done looking at this screen.

So then I got to do my favorite thing.. PLAY! This has all kinds of toys and lights and music for me. Two things about this picture: Where are my pants?! and look I'm rolling over!

I'm staring at the lights!

Oh and by the way... my hands taste way better than something Mom and Dad kept sticking in my mouth called a pacifier!

Oh here are my pants! Ah, I'm better off without them.

That's because I can lift my legs better and try to suck on my toes! I'm really good at pulling off my socks now. Mom keeps putting them back on.

Mom kept shaking this thing at me... I followed it as she moved it around just to make her happy.

Playing is hard work! So I get to sleep in Mom's office during the day too.

My day with mom at work was just as fun as being at home with her. I like this place called work. I think I need to go there more often. In the meantime thanks for letting me share my adventures with you. I like this blogging thing.

Learning to Love Something I Hate

One this little love day... I get to learn to love something I hate.

So today and for the last few days I have been given the opportunity to figure out potential budgets for the cost of our summer orientations for this coming summer. Just a little bit of background, my office hosts 50+ orientations a summer for new and transfer students to come to Metro State. We will see about 6500 students in person and another 5000 online. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

This is my handy dandy little calculator and worksheets. The green is to make it brighter than my mood.

And in order for us to meet the needs of potentially 11,500 students we need STUDENTS! Orientation leaders to be exact. And that's what I do, I recruit, hire, train, and supervise students in 5 different leadership positions in our office- which is great. EXCEPT  I have to pay them and there's this little thing called a budget that is making it a little hard to do so.

I don't speak numbers is what I told my students today. Numbers and I are not friends and we probably never will be. Ok, wait, I take that back- numbers and I are great friends when they come in dollars and numbers on a credit card. Let's just say that I'm really good at spending money and not so great at budgeting. Just not my strength. I've tried- and ask my husband- I'm SO much better than I used to be at spending. Until this summer for work.

It looks sophisticated but I'm really bluffing

But to do 50+ orientations for students and their support (i.e. families, friends, significant others, etc.) we need students. So somehow I get to figure out the magic numbers for this summer. UGH. Sigh.

So I'm trying to embrace this opportunity and become one with the numbers. We'll see what happens.

Why am I Hungry....

I've only been back to work for two full days and each day I have planned for good meals and the same amount of food I ate when I was at home and yet I find myself more hungry! And when you work in a building with a McDonalds, Subway, and Taco Bell (bleh!) in the basement it's really hard to make good eating decisions!!!

  
And the honorable mention goes to my students (who adult metabolism has not caught up with yet) who eat french fries from the cafe in the building daily. And they are legit, good cafe french fries- I swore I would not be eating after I was done being pregnant. (I remember my days in college where I would eat Carl's Jr. multiple times a week and sometimes multiple times a day and never gained a pound!)

I now know putting that stuff into my body does not make me feel good and would much rather enjoy my whole wheat turkey sandwich with garlic aioli spread, spinach, and provolone cheese. But it leaves me wanting more! (and I've been drinking water- LOTS AND LOTS of water!)

Just had to add it for my baby boy!!!

Which leads me to the question... how much am I actually hungry or just bored? Like many other college campuses across this nation, Fridays are much slower. But on a 100% commuter campus in a downtown environment, with the weather being warmer than it has been in weeks... this campus is DEAD. D.E.A.D.- dead.Most days I don't mind it- it gives me time to do projects and decompress from a week- but today it's making me hungry! (I have plenty of things to work on- I've been gone from my job for 3 months!)

And it leads to another question- is it more work to take care of a baby or do my job? Maybe I don't want the answer to that one....

So I'll be here for the rest of the day I'll be here making good decisions about eating hoping to calm the hungry monster that has grown in my stomach! Maybe I should name it :-P

Back to work...

So today I went back to work... and I've decided that going back to work is going to be a process of relearning not only my job but many things that go with it.... starting with shoes.

A Tale of Two Boots

Part of my shoe closet!

Now if you know me at all, you know I LOVE, love shoes. And in the last year with swelling feet, having a body balancing a baby, my beloved shoes and I had to part ways for a little while. They were replaced with not stop flip flop wearing and ugly, ugly, UGLY, (no laces, buckles, or straps- couldn't reach them) but comfy flats that accommodated my ever swelling feet. So one of my joys with returning to work is the return of my relationships with my beautiful, sassy, collection of shoes.

Look at the bows!

Well I also walk about a mile in downtown Denver from our bus to campus and the shoes needed for that walk are different than my latest sassy pair of pewter heels but necessary. However, I forgot how purposeful those shoes are in my life- until my walk this morning. Now I've learned enough not to brave heels on that walk...but this morning more comfort was needed for my freezing toes.

Let me tell you about my "snow" boots. I bought these boots almost 10 years ago with my mom before going on graduate school interviews at IU. Being two california girls, the weather showed snow on the ground while I would be in Bloomington and to us that meant I needed to have snow boots. (boy have I learned since then!) Well I was also interviewing for positions and academically as well, so we found the "nicest" pair of snow boots a southern california sporting goods store can offer in February.

Now they have never been the most stylist pair of boots and I quickly learned moving to a four season area that snow boots are "rarely" worn so I quickly retired them. Until I had to start walking through the snow last winter to work.

Well they worked...kind of. When it's below freezing at 7am in the morning I just expected that I probably would not be warm. However, as I have learned, you can be warm with layers and the RIGHT winter coats, hats, gloves, and boots! And as I walked into work with freezing toes this morning I quickly relearned that my SoCal "winter" boots are not going to make it through another real winter. So with relief and sadness I retired the boots for good and purchased a new pair that will keep my feet warm in -40 degree temperatures!

Look at that fur!!!

No seriously... -40 degrees!

 

Hello new boots! Welcome to my shoe family!

This may not sounds like anything significant to you- but those boots were one of the first steps to leaving california, starting graduate school, and really changing this SoCal girl forever. Without those boots, I would not have gotten into grad school at IU. Without those boots I would have never met my wonderful husband. Without those boots I would have never learned to love seasons. Without those boots- life may have ended up in a very different place. And no, the shoes did not do "everything"- but I felt prepared to interview at IU in them and the rest is history.

Oldies but goodies! I think they've seen better days.

So I only feel its appropriate now to honor these shoes...

To my old winter boots: Thank you for helping this SoCal girl adjust to winter. You were there on my feet helping me stay warm in my very first snowfall. You never let me fall on icy sidewalks. You did a good job keeping my toes warm while disusing yourself as fairly "normal" looking boots so I could be the SoCal girl who used to freeze in 40 degree weather. While I am moving on, I will look back on our time together fondly.

And with the prediction of lots of snow and a high of 0 degrees tomorrow I would say that the new boots came just in time!!