The story thus far....

So the story about how my life got turned around again starts, I guess, when I went to visit Idaho. I was meeting April for lunch at Imeldas and ran into Mark Smith. We talked for maybe two minutes- gave him an update on where I had been and what I was doing and that was about it. Fast-forward maybe a month or so and I am sitting and checking my email upon return from Forest Home. I have a facebook message from Mee-Ae, asking me if I could email Mark Smtih as soon as possible (it's not bad....) So I email Mark and he writes back almost right away about a job opening for a study skills class (three sections) for the fall and am I interested. Holy bananas. Long story short, I agree and three weeks later am heading up for Idaho, my car stuffed full of suitcases, trunks, my cello, boxes, yummy food for the drive up and pillows.





The drive was long and bo-ring. Luckily I had God of the Hive, David Sedaris, Glee, Sarah Brightman, Tom Knight and Sarah Pirtle, Rosenshontz, Fred Penner, Jars of Clay, classic rock, and more to entertain me on the way up. The view was pretty boring, although there were some cool rock formations in parts of Nevada and the Grapevine had some pretty spots. I spent the night in Reno with Ginny and Mark and their friend Karen. Mark's birthday was on Thursday so we had a delicious birthday dinner of trout (it was really good!), potatoes, salad and bread and some great birthday cake. Amazing fellowship and laughter and food- so grateful I got to stay the night there! And I got blueberry pancakes and muffins for breakfast the next morning!




Upon arriving in Caldwell, a weary 16 hour drive later (divided amongst two days, of course), I met my roommate Elsa. She's an older woman but so sweet. I like her a lot and am so grateful for the room. I have my own room with a bed, desk, chair and nightstand and a HUGE closet. My trunk goes at the bottom of the bed with all my heavy stuff that I don't need since it's like a thousand degrees here (OK, eight eighties), my DVDS are in the corner, all in all, I fit in quite nicely.

The next three days were insane and weird and exciting. On Wednesday, I headed over to school and signed my contract, got my FACULTY ID card, met up with Lynette (who is teaching the other section of study skills), went to visit the Ed department and got some work done. I was able to pick up the teacher's version of the study skills book so I was starting to feel a little bit better about teaching next week. I still gave a lot to do but I think it's going to go OK.

Wednesday night is always Alive After 5 so I headed downtown with Kristen and we met up with Ali, Ann and Julie, a friend of Kristen's. The music was really rubbish and there was no Crazy Legs there so we went down to get drinks and dinner at the Bardenay. We all got to catch up and chat and share stories and hang out and the weather was beautiful and just perfect for an evening downtown.




Thursday was probably the weirdest day- I went to the faculty retreat and that in itself was crazy. I sat with Mee-Ae, Eric Spencer, Steve, Joe Golden, Rochelle Johnson, got to meet some professors, introduce myself to others, etc. We listened to the State of the Faculty address by Mark and then had lunch. I was planning originally on going into Boone and helping with the unpacking and the cleaning but I ended up going into Nampa to the School District for an interview. It ended up being less on an interview and more of an exclamation of how many great things were on my application (living in the UK, speaking Hebrew, subbing already, etc.). It was pretty funny. So I'm now on the list in Nampa. I felt a little bad only being able to sub on Friday but it's better than nothing, right?

I headed back to campus, got some work done and then headed over to the State of the College address by the President, Marv Henburg. We headed over afterwards to his house for a reception and it was again, a hoot. Hob-nobing with the faculty and staff. I met both the president and his wife (it helped that i was- accidentally- wearing a W&L shirt which is where the president went) and some other higher-ups and I made sure to let them all know that I was more than happy to help out with any recruiting, donor events, etc.

Friday I went to the Nampa SD again to fill out my paperwork and run some errands. I forgot what kind of addictions come around when you're in a store where everything is a dollar so I had to put up some boundaries. Did get some good stuff, including about 18 pens. You can never have enough pens. I made some delicious tacos for dinner after I spent a while on campus getting some work done. On Monday I will meet with Lynette again and get more details about the first couple of weeks and then classes start on Thursday. Oy!

Please keep in touch- I don't have internet in the apartment so I can't reply immediately but I want to know how everyone is doing!