Here, I just physically don't have the time to do everything. The list of things on my personal list (vs. professional work list) has gotten really long, and it has stayed really long for the last week and a half because I just can't seem to get to everything.
Here's a look into my life right now....
MY DAILY ROUTINE:
10:30 a.m. - Drag myself out of bed after hitting snooze for at least half an hour. That's going to be a really hard habit to break when I get back to school.
11:00 a.m. - Go to the gym, which doesn't open until 11 a.m. most mornings. Stupid summer hours.
12:00 noon - Go home, shower, eat a banana for breakfast.
1:00 p.m. - Promptly head to the dining hall for lunch, where I swipe at least one banana and refill my bag of Cheerios (for snacks and more breakfasts).
2:00 p.m. - Start work. Work on individual projects. I'm planning Teacher Game Night (where presenters show corps members different games they can use for review before tests) and I'm constantly holding Snack & Chats (where corps members can talk to experienced teachers about their years of teaching, etc). My numerous jobs keep me busy until the Resource Room opens.
5:00 p.m. - Resource Room is open for business! Right about now is when it's time to put away personal projects and man the front desk. There are usually two Operations Coordinators sitting at circulations desks 1 & 2, and if there aren't two on a busy day, the line to check out resources gets craaaazy long.
7:00 p.m. - I usually get an hour-long dinner break at seven. There's a ten minute walking commute across campus to the dining hall, which isn't bad except on hot days when Sun and Humidity gang up on you. Dinner isn't anything to complain about (though it's no freshman cafeteria at OU), and I've made friends with Ms. Angela, the older woman who works behind the ice cream counter and calls absolutely everyone "baby," "honey," "mama" and "daddy" (she only differentiates gender, but not age).
"Wha'choo want, baby?"
"How's that, daddy?"
"Hey baby! Wha'choo want, mama?"
She's the nicest lady. Ever.
8:00 p.m. - Go back to work. Try to get individual project work done when there's a lull in the action. This is impossible to do on Wednesday nights, when the corps members are working frantically to finish the three or four lesson plans they have due the next morning (a huge undertaking, especially for those who are new to lesson planning),
12:00 a.m. - The Resource Room closes. We used to close at 11 p.m. and work on closing things until midnight. But, due to the overwhelming response from corps members on the mid-institute survey, we are now open for another hour every night to help people get the resources they need to be better teachers. This means we get more hours, but we also stay up later. I haven't decided yet which is better, since we just started this new extended-hours schedule yesterday.
1:00 a.m. - We work for one more hour after the Resource Room closes, checking in returned materials and counting beads for the "Represent Your School" contest. We also have a team debrief meeting where we talk about interactions we had with corps members that day, both good and bad. Usually we use this time to process situations in which a corps member yelled at us (which, sadly, happens more often than you'd think). It can be very therapeutic and is very necessary for our health and happiness.
3:00 a.m.-ish - After getting off work at 1 am, it's practically impossible to go right to sleep, even though we are all exhausted. We need time to unwind. I usually check emails, call home, and blog. Sometimes a bunch of us OCs will sit in the hallway and chat, since a lot of us have pretty much the same schedule.
I love living so close to everyone, because we've really gotten to know each other over the last month. But sometimes, at least for me, it's also very necessary to have alone time. I need time to myself to refresh, and when I don't get that, I get cranky and sad. Often I find myself calling my mom at 3 a.m., crying about something stupid (sorry Mom), because I'm too tired to realize that I'm upset over a trivial issue that will magically get fixed by going to sleep (a.k.a. an imaginary problem exacerbated in my mind by mild insomnia). Love those nights the most.
Dude, at least you are working out.Although, technically, I sweat enough on my walk from my car to my house to look like I was working out... Its like 105 here. Every. Day. I love your blog btw. Keeps me entertained.
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