Headquarters is Ready

One of my biggest pet peeves is being told something and then changing that something the next day when I arrive to do that thing. Re-reading that sentence, I realize it doesn't make much sense unless I give context.

Pancakes, yo

I was told I could pick up the staff lounge key after 8AM this morning. I decided to sleep in a little bit and tried to get the key at 9AM. I was apparently 'misinformed' because I was then told I could not actually get the key until after 1PM. Unfortunately, that's when the staff will start to arrive. I wanted to at least have the items moved from my office and put into the lounge before staff members got here. (The staff will be storing their luggage in the lounge until their rooms are ready at 4PM so I want to have enough space for them to do so.) Oh well! (This is me trying to go with the flow and not freak out.)

After this slight push back, (most of) the staff headed to breakfast at O-House. I was extremely disappointed with my hash browns (they tasted like plastic...), but I had funfetti pancakes, aka cupcakes in pancake form. Delicious, just sayin'.

Welcome to our office

While enjoying breakfast, we had some very interesting conversations. Somehow, we got on the topic of cows (and people sticking their hands inside of them), which moved onto chasing armadillos (apparently it's a game that people play in the South to make the armadillos curl into a ball and roll), finally progressing into the most intriguing part of the conversation: cannibalism. Apparently, Prairie Dogs are cannibals. The Academic Programming Assistant sadly learned this first hand when their parents' female Prairie Dog very obviously ate the two males while they were on vacation. The poor APA was only about eight years old so I can only imagine how traumatizing it was to find this. We also learned that bees can be cannibals too, but it doesn't happen all the time. (My RHL took two beekeeping classes and kept spewing out bee facts thereafter. I have a feeling I will know plenty about bees by the end of the summer.)

Finished my To-Do list!

I spent the rest of my morning in the office doing last minute paperwork and mentally preparing for the influx of staff members who would be arriving at 1PM. Little did I know was that would be my last breather for the rest of the day.

I went to lunch and then headed back to the office to be greeted by my first staff member in the lounge. I gave him his Orientation packet, T-Shirt, and lanyard and one of my coworkers told me that people were allowed to check in at the Myers desk. When I got down there to pick up the staff lounge key (HOURS after I was originally told to pick it up...), I was told that my staff was not able to check in until 4PM (which I already knew). "Oh yes, my staff knows that, but the desk staff was handing out keys so I think there was some confusion. Feel free to turn them away. I know they are just coming to the desk because it's the first thing they see when they arrive. Sorry about all that!" was my way of handling it. I'd say I did a good job because the Community Director was very sweet about it. Go me!

COOLEST DOOR DEC EVER

My staff members arrived in giant influxes. I was overwhelmed and then relieved and then overwhelmed again, over and over. At times, I felt as though I was completely unprepared for fielding their questions, but as the day went on, I began to feel more confident.

Wolverine lost his claws, but we found them in our tool box!

By 5:30PM, my entire staff had arrived and moved in, just in time for dinner at 6PM. Everyone who wanted to eat met in the lobby to walk down to Bolton together. I spoke with a few staff members at dinner and talked about one of my RCs' university, UNC Chapel Hill. He was talking about riots that happen after basketball games. Apparently, mattresses and cows are burned frequently. Well, at least that was what I though he said. My horrible hearing mislead me. They burn COUCHES not cows... Thank god. Oh, I also discovered a new food allergy: pecans. How sad. Just add that to the evergrowing list of food I really shouldn't eat, but probably still will.

Oh, Athens <3

After dinner, we set up a trip to Target with the extended admin team. They drove about fifteen staff members and apparently it was quite successful. When they returned, they decided to play Ultimate Werewolf (breaking in my new deck!) in the piano room. I'm planning on heading down there in a little while to see how it is going.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day of training, but luckily we will start with a hilarious ice breaker (hopefully with pictures). I know training is going to be long and draining the next few days, but I have faith that we will make it through!