Developmental Writing Instructor, am I (alt. title: Kiss of JD!)

I did it! I got a different job! And not a moment too soon, I might add. I was going crazy in my other job (and I secretly think Ken was too just having to deal with me). I just couldn't handle any more nights of coming home from work, feeling said, hurt, frustrated, and then falling into fits of crying. You see, they hired me to be a Communication Specialist, but they gave me so little to do. Most of my day consisted of trying to look busy. One of my "projects" was in fact reading the local paper for articles written about the company. How's that for a Ph.D. coming in handy?

Of course, I would get the occasional article to write for the newsletter or to proofread, but seriously, those things just don't take very long. I don't know whether they thought writing a 1-page article on some dude's visit to the tractor plant should take 2-3 weeks to write or whether I was just writing fast, crappy articles. It also hurt a lot that the student worker (who is completing her BA in PR at UNI) got to take on cooler projects than me. Case in point, while I'm reading the newspaper, she's designing cool posters for the 90th anniversary celebration. While I'm responding to emails from people asking to have their name added/removed from a listserv, she's designing handouts for the managers' meeting. Add to that the many times she bossed me around by saying, "If you're bored, you can run these AA batteries down to recycling" or "If you're bored, you can organize the paper drawers next to the copying machine." Pu-leeze. WHo did that girl think she is?! Then, of course was the general feeling of being the uninvited guest to two BFFs' sleepover. Aforementioned student worker and our supervisor were obviously BFFs from the time before I arrived, so I clearly was a most unwelcome addition. They would sit behind my cubicle chatting all day long while ignoring the fact that I was even in the same dept (there were only 3 of us in the dept). My personal favorite was the day the 3 of us were sitting at lunch when student worker asked boss if she wanted to split an ice cream cookie ignoring the fact that I too am at the table with them. Then she proceeded to bring it back to the table, make a big deal about cutting it in half for the TWO of them, and then stared me right in the eye while she ate it, of course making a big deal about how good it was.

And so, in the midst of dealing with this hellacious work environment, I applied for a different job, and my prayers were answered when I got the call Friday night at 6 pm that Hawkeye CC wanted me! Yes, it's a little late in the season considering classes start in only a few days, but I'll take it, and take it I did! Gave JD notice on Monday at 8 am and promptly left for new faculty orientation at 9 a.m.! I had to go back half a day yesterday to work at JD and then all day today since I wasn't giving them a full 2 weeks notice, but like it even mattered. Seriously. They were all fake nice to me as I left, and I'm sure they'll be snarky now that I'm not around. But who cares, I'm outta there! They can have their little chit chats and their ice cream all by themselves now. Plus little student worker can run her own freaking batteries down to the recycling.

So, that said, I have a ton of work to do and need to get busy on some syllabi! I have a faculty in-service tomorrow. Oh, wow, this will be a busy weekend! Oh, and did I mention that I'll get paid more at Hawkeye and will actually have the college pay for my benefits! Woo Hoo! It's about bloody time this degree paid off. Yay!

Playing Hooky

I'm home from work today because I hurt my back on Sunday. I wish I had a better story for how I hurt it, but unfortunately it was just "one of those things." I had come home from church and a quick trip to the grocery store with mom and was just about to sit in the living room and have a little lunch. I bent over to get a pillow off the couch and oops, something hurt. I guess I've pulled a muscle or something, but the amount of pain that comes with such an event is enough to make me think I broke a vertebre or something. I was flat on my back for the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening, and when I awoke, I knew there was no way I was going to make it into work today. As the day's gone on, the pain has lessened somewhat, but it is still there. The worst times are after I've been lying down and want to get up or when I'm upright and want to sit/lie down. That doesn't give me much choice. Either get down and stay down or get up and stay up.

I've managed to walk around the house a bit more this afternoon and have found that sitting in the computer chair is actually more comfortable than the bed or couch because it sits up higher and takes less effort to get up or down. Great -- now if I could just sleep in this chair and wheel myself to work tomorrow. I want to be able to go to work tomorrow at least for part of the day. I guess we'll see come morning.

Mom brought me a veritable medicine cabinet of creams and lotions that are supposed to ease muscle pain. Thankfully most of them don't make me smell old. I just can't really tell if they work or not. Ibuprofin doesn't seem to do a darn thing, let me tell you. But I am now a firm believer that all households must have at least one heating pad!!! Thank goodness, due to a Christmas miscommunication, we own two. I had Ken position one on the couch before he left for work this morning and I had one in bed with me. The thought of having to bend down to plug one in was more than I could stand this morning.

I think I'm now going to try to work on my syllabus/assignments for the comp classes I'm teaching in 2 weeks. That was supposed to be on my calendar for yesterday, but as you can imagine, that didn't happen. I have to take breaks when sitting here as my back gets more achy the longer I sit. Here's hoping this goes away by tomorrow!

If anyone has any good/interesting bachache remedies, please pass them along. I'll try anything at this point.