New Trails to Follow....Anybody Got A Map?

Well I am off on a new adventure but my journey is not one that I chose rather one that was force on me.  For those of you not in the loop, I have worked as the Outreach Coordinator for the WTAMU Department of Engineering and Computer Science since September of 2008.  When I interviewed for the position I was quick to point out that for me Math was a FOUR letter word and NOT the nice kind AND I was technologically challenged..........they gave me the job anyway!  They had never had an Outreach Coordinator so not only was I new to the job - the job itself was brand new!  I spent the first few weeks searching for information about HOW to be an Outreach Coordinator for an Engineering Department and I spent MONTHS learning about Engineering and Computer Science, I feel like I achieved a level of some understanding, maybe even a step above "just enough to be dangerous".

My position was funded with a one year grant, when I interviewed I was told that the Grant was for that year and that it was a "gimme" that it would be renewed for a second year, then they would get me in the budget and I would be set!  One thing lead to another and unfortunately due to some bad communication they didn't get the grant applied for for the second year but they kept me on staff and kept submitting my position to be included in the budget and paying me out of different accounts.

Just before Spring Break (March) our Department Secretary quit and I stepped in to try and fill in the gap until a new secretary could be found.  Btw for the record the University does NOT pay these secretaries enough!  Jeez, I never realized just how much they did and how much everyone expected them to do!  They should be DOUBLING their salaries instead of FREEZING their wages!  For three months I did "her" job and mine PLUS I put together the summer engineering camp.  I did get some relief in May when they hired one of our students as a student worker and WHOOHOO she is an AWESOME worker!

On June 1, 2012 my original supervisor stepped down as the Department Head and warned me that my position was in jeopardy.  Now I must say this warning really didn't need to be spoken, I have been worried about this for some time and it has weighed very heavily on me this past year.  I actually have been looking for another position for sometime but I have been pretty selective in what I have applied for and I have not been extremely active in my pursuit.

Engineering Camp ended on June 15th and on June 18th the NEW secretary came to work.  On June 21st, well on June 19th my HELL month began.  It began with a meeting with the new supervisor, the person helping her, the new secretary, and the student worker (btw she was also a former student of mine).  I won't go into details, frankly I don't even want to relive them myself, lets just say it was almost a daily dose of "Let's see how much we can humiliate Rhonda and smile while we are doing it".  I quickly gathered that the plan was to put me in a corner where I would eventually give up and quit.  In the past month I have used more vacation days then I have used since I have been at the University, partly because I did have some things to do but mainly because I just could not stand the thought of going into the office and enduring anymore.

I would probably have broken long before now if it were not for a special blessing, a friend from grade school felt compelled to come by the office and bring me a gift to brighten my day.  That may not seem out of the ordinary to some people but you have to know the rest of the story.  I had not gone to school with here since the third grade and I had not physically SEEN her since we were freshman or sophomores in high school!  We got back in touch about a year ago through Facebook but other than playing each other in Bejeweled we really don't converse a lot.  I had left off some steam (honestly it was VERY tempered down steam) on Facebook and she had read my posts.  Her first words to me were "I had to come, you are not a down person and I just KNEW things had to be really bad".  She had thought about bringing me flowers but she said she remembered how much I liked to read - and got in trouble a lot for in school, lol, so she brought me a gift card to Hastings.  Literally it was as if the sun had broken through a storm sky and God himself had pulled me up to my feet and planted a steel rod in my back bone..........from that point on I felt that I could take anything that they dished out.

Now I want to say something in my defense............you know the old phrase "It's not paranoia if someone IS out to get you".  Well I didn't speak my feelings of humiliation to anyone in the office and one person asked me "how can you stand being humiliated like this"? and another one (after the event in the next paragraph) stated to me "It would have been better if they had done this before you had to suffer through all this humiliation and embarrassment, I would have died if they had treated me like that".  So again, it's not paranoia if someone IS out to get you.

Last Thursday my new supervisor called me in to inform me that there was absolutely no funding to continue my position and that it was being done away with.  Some people might not understand this but this was actually a RELIEF for me, there was some sadness but overall it felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  I guess I had not realized just how heavy this looming dread had weighed me down.  Two days latter I still feel light at heart and I have slept better the last two nights then I have slept in a LONG, LONG time!

Now I must say, lol, I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what I am going to do next!  I still have my part time job at Penney's and I am scheduled to teach a class in the Fall (ironically it is a Speech Class for Engineering Students Only) but none of those are going to produce a livable wage.

My new adventure now begins and I am looking for new trails to follow, if anyone had a good map to follow please let me know!  I am open to all suggestions, lol, and ideas!

Happy Trails to Everyone out there!

OCD in my ole age, the ramblings of a woman on a cleaning binge!

I do NOT want to make fun or light of the condition of OCD but I am serious with the fact that I think I have developed it in my ole age!  No I do not have to do or say things a certain number of times my condition has manifested itself in the form of CLEANING! Yep, that's right - cleaning!  Now some would say that this was a Good thing - my mother would be one of those for sure - and I will have to say that my house really DID need a cleaning! 

There is an old saying "Give it a Lick and a Promise" which basically means you just do the "highlights" and plan to get back to do a good job - well in the area of cleaning house I haven't even Promised my house much less given it a Lick! for SEVERAL months.  Now in my defense, I work FOUR jobs - one full time and three part-time, I am home an average of one weekend day a week and two evenings a week (I could make it three but I go play 42 on Thursday evenings - sue me!  I need the brain break and the laughter that comes at my 42 group!) so I am not home often and when I am - well I am usually working on one or two of my part-time jobs and if not I am trying to relax.  Top all this off with the fact that I spent the better part of May and the first week of June getting ready for the WTAMU Summer Engineering Camp and THEN I spent a week in the dorms during camp...........let's face it my house was BAD!

Okay, on to the OCD part of this............either it's OCD or I am pregnant and going through the nesting phase................a couple of weeks ago I decided that this was IT I had to get some cleaning done and I was going to be very strict with myself and get it done right.  Well you guessed it, to put it in my Daddy's words - I "half-assed it"!  Not that I didn't get some done, I just didn't get it done like it needed to be.  Finally on Sunday a week ago I pulled out the big guns and turned on the tv!  Now how does that help me get my house cleaned your asking yourself, well it's not the tv being on - it is what I watch on the tv that does the job!  I have a DVR and the DVR is set to record several shows, one of which is http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/hoarding-buried-alive , I can start watching an episode and before you know it I am up cleaning, dusting, and putting things away.  Well I think I over-dosed on Horders (I had sixteen episodes recorded), I ran them all day and I cleaned into the night.

This would have been a good thing but I didn't stop, even when I was tired I didn't stop that day!  I came home for lunch on Monday and followed the instructions (I found them on Pinterest) to clean my washing machine!  I left my day job at 5pm, drove to Amarillo for one of my part time jobs, got home at 10pm, and followed the instructions to clean my dishwasher!  Tuesday the same thing, I was cleaning cracks and corners before work, at lunch, then after work I shampooed the carpets!  I actually ended up shampooing them twice Tuesday night, they never looked good to me and after watching several You Tube videos I ended up doing them a third time on Thursday!  Btw for the record there is a little screen thingy on a Kirby Cleaning system that makes it work a TON better if it is placed properly!

I have cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned!  I did take a few days break when I went to the family reunion in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Friday - Sunday) BUT I did some cleaning on Friday morning before I left!  On Sunday we got to the house about 4pm, unloaded and then I followed my mom to Pampa to get my dog (Ollie), I turned around and drove back to Canyon.........I got everything unpacked, put away, and started laundry...........the affliction continued and at Midnight, in my pajama's, I was cleaning light switches and the areas around them!

This is GOT to STOP!  I am tired! But...........did I mention the garage really needs a good cleaning? And this morning I noticed a stain on the patio...........I could probably find a good cleaner on Pinterest............

The sum of four months

AGAIN!  lol, yes I was lax again in posting..........to bring you up to date, I have worked, slept, worked, ate, worked, played 42, and worked some more - yep that is about it!