Hell: Day Two

Normally when you're told a specific time for something, it is because the person needs you there and ready at that time. Unfortunately, when we were told that the enterprise cars would be arriving today at 8AM, that was not the case.

We waited around for a half hour, hoping they were just running late. After an hour, we decided to call and found out that the cars would not be delivered until 11AM. (This was fine, but it would've been nice to know that we could sleep in...)

At 9AM, I met with the Community Director in Myers Hall. I had picked out all of the rooms for the Residential Counselors and was ready to plan the next steps. Of course, all of the rooms I had picked were "incorrect" even though we used them last summer... Regardless, we had to pick new rooms together and speak with one of the men in charge of cleaning the rooms and buffing the floors. There was another set back with every single room we needed for staff members: none of the rooms would be finished by Tuesday when the staff moves in. I did my best to contain my frustrations. On the outside, I maintained as composed as one could in this situation, but on the inside I was ready to scream.

After much deliberation, it was decided that staff members can move in on Tuesday, but after 4PM. (Even though everyone was already told they could move in between 1 and 4...) I bit my tongue, smiled, and thanked them for all of the accommodations they were able to make for us.

Before leaving, I inquired about our staff office and staff lounge. The staff office was good to go (one good thing!), but the staff lounge was not requested to be used until Tuesday, meaning we cannot get keys until then. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T GET KEYS UNTIL TUESDAY!? I NEED TO SET UP THE LOUNGE! WHERE WILL I PUT EVERYTHING UNTIL THEN?!
Again, I smiled, thanked them, and walked out of the room. My internal freakout remained just that.

Once I left the meeting, I headed up to the office to set up (with the little items we had) while we waited for enterprise. At 11AM, the On Site Director and myself met with campus representative, who was a Residential Counselor last summer, about booking spaces. He had already done a bunch of preliminary booking, since he was part of the program last year. Overall, the meeting ran extremely smooth, but a few changes were made to the schedule of events, potentially causing small uproar. (And we will cross that treacherous bridge when we get there!)

Enterprise arrived during our meeting. Thank goodness! We moved the cars, which are not as fancy as last summer, but oh well. Anything is better than my car situation at home...  Oh! And one of the vans is from NJ. Weird.

After the car situation was taken care of, a few admin members went to Tate to get new IDs. Surprisingly, this went really quick. We were in and out in about 20 minutes. By 1:30PM, we were starving and decided to head to lunch in Snelling where we had no problems with our IDs, unlike last year. WOO!

They made me take off my glasses =(

At 2PM, we headed to storage to grab items for the office and staff lounge. We took two Expeditions (one which I was able to drive!) and a van. It only took us two full trips to storage to collect everything. The cars were unloaded and everything was put in the office fairly quickly. We all took a break for dinner and finally met our psych counselor for the site. (She was hired about a week ago and was thrown to the wolves, but she's doing great so far!)

Heaven on a plate

After dinner, we unpacked the office as best as we could. By 8PM, everything in the main office, the OSD's, and my office were unpacked. All that is left is the academic items and the entire staff lounge, which is currently being stored in my office. I'm thinking of using the plethora of tiki torches in there to surround my desk and chair to make me feel like a queen...

Once the unpacking was complete (for the night at least), I finally met with my RHLs and RPA about the summer. I was able to answer lingering questions about the position, figure out what their roles would look like, how they envisioned the summer for ResLife, etc. It was nice to finally have these conversations. (I say finally as if we have been here for weeks instead of 24+ hours...)


Around 9PM, the admin team (Counselor, OSD, Academic Coordinator, Operations Coordinator, and myself) met to discuss the next few days. It only took about an hour, which was nice, but we realized we have a decent amount to do within the next few days before staff arrives. On the plus side, we have off all day on Sunday. (Aka ARROW ON NETFLIX ALL DAYYYYYY!)

Even though today started off as Hell: Day Two, I'd like to think it improved significantly as it continued (aside from my shower where I discovered that the water pressure is ridiculously low on this floor and it is nearly impossible to rinse out my long hair...). The last 24+ hours have taught me much about patience and going with the flow (two things that I struggle with). If this is any indication of how the summer is going to go, I am quite nervous, but I am also excited for the growth I am going to see in myself.

Tomorrow is a packed day, but it includes food and potentially a trip off campus for dinner. (I really hope the dining halls are closed tomorrow night and we have to eat at a restaurant!)

I'm sure the daily blog posts will continue for the next few days (at the very least).

Wish me luck remaining patient (and awake) all day tomorrow!

Bonus: Here's the most exciting part of my room

A closer look at my photo wall