a day in the office

Today I realized I probably have one of the nicest/cushy jobs around. I actually have two jobs and they each have their own benefits and advantages. At this time of Thanksgiving I'd like to take a special moment to share my gratitude of the top things I love most/most appreciate about each of my jobs:

Working in the Office
- I can get into work late and make up the hours later in the week or just be extra productive to finish all my work without anyone scolding me for time management
-I get invited by Professors to sit in on their lectures on topics they know are near & dear to my heart: taking time away from the 'busyness' of the mundane office jobs to be intellectually enlightened is a good thing in their minds
-my co-worker and I go holiday shopping for gifts for the department professors and our student workers during mid-day downtime....and end our outing with conversation about marriage, the state of global poverty and men buying too many shoes over cups of sorbet
-my student workers share their lives with me over exam packet stuffing.... the color pink is slowing becoming something that brings me joy as it reminds me of Caroline every time I see it
-being the 'on-call/on-deman' technology assistant at a moments notice as helped me develop computer skills I never thought I had and boosted my confidence that however little I think I know about computers, there are many out there with FAR less knowledge
-free printing, and use of industrial sized staplers and whole punchers
-my co-worker (who hates me calling her boss) sharing her words of wisdom of what I should do with my life, career and other lifestyle planning wise, and sharing stories together about "In this country...." or "we are not from here Petek...." as well as all her tales of her growing baby who is allergic to everything and 5 yr old who refuses to eat or drink anything
-having a relaxed environment where friends can stop by to chat on their way to or from class
-Professors who engage with me in the sociological implications of faith in a society or the social justice issues facing South Africans after a lengthy discussion of why it might be slightly more intimidating to hold a "Femininities" course at W in comparison to the "Masculinities" course
-am obliged to bring home endless amounts of food from the office for the roommates in order to keep mice out of the building and not to waste the hundreds of dollars of "over ordering" that is spent to gaurantee stomach satisfaction to all those who attend events
-learning how to order anything I want from anywhere with a business matter of fact mentality and comfortably sign checks or reimbursement forms for thousands of dollars. It's not my money anyways, right? :)
-planning my day around when down time will be and how many more hours I have till I can make my way over to the weight room- another free benefit of working here is having personal strength and condidtioning advice/counseling from the coach with free use of all equipment recently purchased for the college
-endless supply of post-its and funky pens
-having a space I can be OCD about cleaning with sterilizing wipes, a folder both electronically and paper copy of every form that goes through this office, arranging and reorganizing everything on the desks as well as being OCD about every template, e-flier, spreadsheet, powerpoint, check request, label etc. that I create without feeling guilty....no wonder I have no energy left to organize my room :p


I love my other job too...but I'll write more on that another day.