O-week 2009

We are winding down orientation week 2009 on the Rice campus. I have to say it's really fun and making me nostalgic to see the 900 new freshmen coming to campus. Afterall, I met Chris my first weekend on campus way back in 2002.

A fun thing about Rice is that there are no fraternities or sororities. Instead the dorms are referred to as colleges. Your college is your home during your time at Rice. It is what all alumni will ask you about. It creates bonds. It creates your college family.

Students cannot pick their college unless they are a legacy of that college. You can request a roommate but other than that you are randomly given a college. This prevents a student coming with 13 of their closest friends, all moving into the same dorm, and never branching out. Your meal plan works in your college's meal facility. No other colleges. You have to learn to live and coexist with your college mates.

All the students seem to love the system and it has bred a lot of college rivalries. Rice students are known for their pranks. Each college develops their own reputations and are taught which other colleges they prank and which ones they work together with to prank others.

Each college also has annual events they host on campus. These range from the traditional and classy affair all the way down to beer bike.

I think I might try to get involved in one of the colleges. Faculty and staff can be associates of the colleges and help out there. Toying with the idea.

Exhausted

I am worn out. I haven't had a day off from work in four weeks with the exception of Thanksgiving Day. Between the job at Rice, Pier 1, a few social functions, holiday prep, graduation (this weekend), choir, and just basic cooking and cleaning I am tired. My feet are sore. My back is aching. I'm really sleepy.

And my sleep schedule is completely bizarre. I went to a birthday girl's night on Friday and stayed out until 2 knowing full well I needed to be at choir by 9 the next morning. From choir I went straight to Pier 1 eating a granola bar on the way. I got off at six and fell asleep around 8:30. Woke up at 11, back to bed from 4-8. Then a full day of Pier 1, baking, cleaning, and prep for this week.

Chris' schedule has been less random but just as busy. He has seven finals this week and will miss my graduation because one of his finals is Friday morning. It should be interesting.

On a good note I love all the Christmas movies that are on all the time now. The cheesy made for TV ones are the best. I've also forced Chris to watch Elf with me once and watched it alone at least one other time so far. I love it.

The assistant director for Chao Center starts this week and I have to say I'm excited about it. The woman currently filling the role is incredibly sweet but is technology impaired and that drives me a bit batty.

Quick weight loss update: I'm down a solid 3 pounds. It has been gone for about 2 weeks now and I consider that a feat during the holidays!

I'm off to finish up laundry before bed.

Have a great week!

Blogging from work

This is my first full week back in the workforce and I gotta say that I'm exhausted! The job I am currently doing is managing an academic journal on East Asian culture. Last year I worked on a journal with 4 employees and one editor in chief. On average we would have about 80 manuscripts out for review at any one time.

In this job it is only me and the editor-in-chief. We currently have over 200 active manuscripts out for review. So in sum, it is a TON of work! The past managing editor got overwhelmed and started letting everything slide before she just quit so I'm playing catch up. On top of that, the journal is moving from University of Washington to Rice so all week long I am trying to catch up on the manuscripts I have while new boxes of manuscripts are coming to the door.

Eek! I am going back and forth from being at peace and liking the job to being freaked out that we are so far behind and I don't really have any help.

I am still working part time at Pier 1. I took shifts every day this weekend since Chris is out of town. He left this afternoon to go to Memphis to present the research he did this summer.

Chris took my laptop since his monitor decided it wanted to not work this week so I'll be taking it to Best Buy (still under warranty...yay!) on Saturday after work to get it repaired.

I'm looking forward to getting a day off next week!

On a more random note, we voted this morning. I love voting.