Granny Scam

Our site supervisor arrived and had nothing but positive feedback for us. She really like the way we run our ship here and had quite a few compliments how well things have been going for us (and how we handle the rough situations we've been dealt).

After dinner, our supervisor visited a few evening studies and then returned to the office to check out evening activities. Before walking around, we had a great chat about student affairs, residence life, and my (hopeful) move to Georgia. We also talked about Main Office and my desire to work there. She offered to send me any job postings for Main Office as well as to write a recommendation for me, which she explicitly mentioned she does not offer to do very often. I think it is safe to say I'm doing a darn good job here, despite how I feel sometimes.

The night went by pretty smoothly. I had a few meetings with students about inappropriate language and inappropriate snapchats. (These darn kids and their technology!) It was actually a hilarious snapchat, but it was not TIPpropriate. The students who came in for disciplinary hearings were incredibly apologetic and knew exactly why their actions were inappropriate. One student, after hearing his punishment, asked for something more than just one night of early bedtime. "With all due respect ma'am, I would feel much better about having early bedtime for four nights instead of just one..." THIS KID WANTED TO INTENSIFY HIS PUNISHMENT. WHAT KIND OF TEENAGER DOES THAT!?

Emily and I enjoy braiding beards

After the meetings, I waited up in the office until lights out and then headed to bed. The next day was going to be filled with site supervisor visits and meetings so I needed to get some rest. I decided to finally finish watching Guardians of the Galaxy before heading to sleep. Definitely a good movie, but I'm sad it took me this long to see it...

Friday morning was spent in meetings with my RHLs and RPA followed by my weekly RC meeting. I scared my RHLs and RPA by saying "I have some upsetting news" and had to break something to them about a fourth year tradition. They were incredibly relieved to find out they weren't getting fired because apparently that was what they immediately thought was going to happen. (Silly staff. I can't fire you! Main Office does that.) The RC meeting went well, despite having three extra people sitting in on it. I'm excited for the evening activities we will be hosting next week, but I won't mention them since some of my readers might be TIPsters.

After lunch, admin had our daily meeting. Our site supervisor joined in on the meeting and for the most part, the meeting went well. Around 1:40PM, we received an urgent message from the OA about a student. The details were very unclear, but we immediately went into response mode. Everyone in the meeting went into the office to get to the bottom of the situation.

A few crazy stories were floating around: a student was hit by a car, a student was arrested, a student drove a car and got into an accident... All while on a field trip. We had panicked parents calling about a troubling phone call the grandmom had allegedly received from the student. We tracked down the student, who was incredibly confused and had no idea what was going on . After further investigation, we realized this poor student's grandmother was the victim of something called the Granny Scam. Read more about it here.

Once this issue was resolved and everyone's blood pressure dropped back down, we finished our meeting (over an hour later). The rest of the afternoon was thankfully uneventful.

After dinner, we hosted the BIG event, which was an A-Z scavenger hint, just like last term. Instead of having the letter Q in the office, we had Z. We decided to rule by "Zeros get zeros" and any repeats also got zeros unless they were extremely creative. Most of the skits we saw were either 'Zumba' or 'Zoo', but we did have a 'Zippidy Doo Da' and 'Zombie' at one point. (I was definitely surprised more students didn't try zombie...)

Around 9:30PM, one of my RHLs approached me about a student issue. I went to see what was going on and wound up dealing with a pretty major situation with the help of the Counselor. It was a heavy issue, but I am so thankful that this student felt comfortable enough to confide in us about it. If I could go into more detail, I would, but alas I cannot. Just know that if you ever need someone to vent to, I am here with open arms.

Later that night, the issue hit me hard. I was so upset that the student had felt the way that they did. No one should ever feel that way.

Saturday was an easier day, physically and mentally. It started off with a chill morning in the office followed by a run to the clinic. (I offered to drive for med pager so my staff member on duty could play in the frisbee game.) By the time I got back, the Ultimate game was pretty much over. Staff annihilated the students 11-1. Staff infection dominated, as usual. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play in the game, but I was happy to be there to see my staff win.

Term II Staff!

The evening consisted of dinner, setting up for the dance, and then hosting the first dance of the term. We were back in Memorial where we were promised that the A/C was fixed and that we would have a new sounds system to work with. Spoiler alert: only one of those things were true and it wasn't the A/C.

Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

The dance set up went incredibly smooth (thanks to one of the fabulous TAs for coming and helping set up the sound and carry the water coolers!). The theme was Superheroes vs. Supervillains so we had a ton of symbols hung up all over the room, streamers hanging throughout the area, and white lights hanging from the balcony area. We were finished set up by 7PM, just in time for the TIPsters to head down.

Most of my staff was really into the dance and dressed up. We had a few supermen and superwomen, Super Dad, Nick Fury, Spider-Gwen, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, Iron Man, Shark Boy, Gandalf the Emily, and the PowerPuff Girls. A few did not fully participate, but hopefully they will get into the Throwback Dance next week.

The dance went well over all, with a few minor student issues, most of which were super minor injuries. (And the fact that the A/C was broken, causing the streamers to sweat. GROSS.) We returned to Myers around 11:15PM and met on the balcony for our staff pizza party. As we were sitting there, I received a notification on my phone that someone 'liked' one of my posts on instagram. I immediately recognized the handle as a TIPster's and ran upstairs to collect their phone. The kid was hilarious and made a big deal about it, but gave up the phone. They realized that liking a staff member's picture on instagram after cell phone hours was probably not the best idea... (Almost as great as the time their roommate Facebook messaged a staff member after lights out two nights prior...)



Sunday has been very boring (and I am NOT complaining). So far, TIPstar is going well. (Aside from 'firing' two staff members with Donald Trump pins because they let their kids leave their activity early.) We have a movie night after dinner where the students will vote on which movie they want to see based off of obscure descriptions, just as we did last term. I am excited to see which movie they choose.

Tomorrow kicks off spirit week with Tacky Day. I can't wait to dress up all week long!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and if you're looking for some good music, listen to the Vampire Weekend Pandora station (10/10 would recommend).

Also, shout out to one of the TIPsters, Morgan, for saying they like reading my blog! Hope this post is everything you hoped it would be.