New Job and Cinco de Mayo Adventures

I just started a job at the Marriott Library on campus at the U. I work in the Special Collections Department as a part-time assistant. So when people donate large collections of documents and artifacts that contain information that would be used to do research and/or contain special or valuable information, we take it, go through it, organize and summarize it. Basically create information about information, in order to make it easier for patrons to access information.

So I got hired for this job, and I know nothing about it, but that doesn't seem to be a prerequisite, so cool. Anyway, my first day was yesterday and everyone was extremely nice and interested in me. I've never received such a warm welcome at any other job I've worked. It really helped to get the job off to the right start. I am so excited to work now, just cause everyone was so positive and helpful.

There was a ton of information to learn right off the bat, so it will be quite overwhelming, but I focused on learning everyone's names on the first day. There are lots of new people to interact with, and names haven't always been my strongpoint. I did a pretty good job, and although the first day of work was full of stuff you wouldn't really consider fitting for a library, it was fun. I moved shelves and stuff which actually tired me out a ton...those shelves were heavy, and there was a lot of bending over and lifting, so my back is really tired. I also got the paperwork done, and got my new UCard (with special staff crap on it), I got introduced to many of the people I'd be working with, and cleaned my workspace.

All in all, my first day of work was 6 hours...not too bad, although I was exhausted by the end of it. The frusterating thing is that with my UCard I am able to get access to special places in the library...such as my workspace. However, the card will probably take a week or so to fully activate. So whenever I want to go in and even out of most of the doors I need to go in and out of, I can't...I have to find someone to let me in or out. So I didn't take a lunch break the first day...cause I didn't really want to deal with the door problem. I didn't even take a drink most of the day...so my throat was super dry and hurt--I'm still not used to the Utah desert climate.

Today (the second day) I went in at 1:30 for an extensive tour of the library, provided by one of the HR people. It was really enjoyable, and I learned a ton about where everything is and how it works. I even got paid...and I'm really glad, cause when Betsey (my supervisor) told me I'd get paid for it, I was like, "Well, it's not that big of a deal." But once it got over, and I looked at my watch, I was grateful that the 2 and a half hour tour would be included on my salary. Now if you ever have a question about the library, just ask me, cause I pretty much know everything.

After the tour I worked for about an hour, looking for a certain box in a certain collection, which happened to get lost in the move since the remodeling of the library. I guess it's still in storage or something. Anyway, that's how I spent my day at work. I found out today, though, that at least until the end of June, I can work up to 39 hours a week, not just 19. Sweetness! Too bad I freaking start school in a week and a half. Speaking of which, I just bought my books today for class. I took the Foundations of Business Thought (or whatever it's called) course in 2006, and kept my book. I was really excited when I already had it, cause I'm retaking the class to improve my GPA. Too bad today, when I went to buy the books, found that a new edition of the book came out. I had to spend another $30 for the same freaking book. I was annoyed.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, by the way. We had our Cinco de Mayo party today...which included me, Jeff, Tyson, and texting the ex-girlfriend of one of Jeff's old missionary companions, rather than talking to her in person cause she bailed out last minute cause of dance or something. So we went to Cafe Rio. Tyson already ate dinner (even though he knew we were going to go somewhere to eat) so Jeff and I ordered stuff. As we were eating, some random lady and a guy come up to Jeff and start up a conversation as if they were picking it up again where they left off. Apparently she's part of the singles' ward or something in his Stake, cause she was talking about some lame singles' ward activity that he didn't go to. The whole situation was awkward as she chatted away at him as if they were buddies. Jeff was obviously uncomfortable, by the way he avoided eye contact as much as possible, whilst attempting to continue eating his enchiladas. Tyson was giving his signal for awkward while he pretended to be texting Jeff's imaginary Spanish Fork girl (the aforementioned ex-girlfriend of his former mission companion), and I did my best to show what little interest I had in the girl's conversation with Jeff, so as to not appear a jerk. Once she left Jeff flashed his awkward sign: "the awkward turtle."

We left Cafe Rio and went to Jeff's house to commence phase two of the Cinco de Mayo party: jumping on the trampoline and then watching a rerun of an old Utah football game from 2007. The game was good though...of course...geez, I mean, it's Utah, hello! Then we watched youtube videos, like: Charlie the Unicorn 2, Charlie the Unicorn 3, and the Sleepwalking Dog. You can look them all up on Youtube. The Sleepwalking Dog was my favorite. I haven't laughed so hard in a while...well, actually since I watched a Wii spoof of the N64 kids video, where teenagers or adults mimic the entire N64 video, but with a Wii. I'll not go into details about why it was so funny...I just almost wet myself when I watched it.

Well...does that qualify as a decent blog post? Probably not, but I'm not going to go back and rewrite it...

My New Love

I got a new laptop today...new to me, at least. My brother just brought it back from college last night. He kept it in great condition--despite his best efforts--and we cleaned off all his crap last night. Now it's mine, and I'll be taking it up to college with me now. I'm excited cause it's my first laptop, and now I'll have much more flexibility and versatility at college. Honestly, I can't figure out what they did before computers!

There's only one catch: the fan's not really working, so a guy's gonna have to come out and fix it for me. But it's under warranty, so whatev.

In other news, my brother also got a steal on a Playstation 3 that some guy sold him. He calculated the value of everything he bought, and it added up to like, $1500. He bought it for about $350. The console is like, the first edition, so it can play Playstation and Playstation 2 games as well. He got four games to go with it, and traded two in for a different one at GameCrazy. He's got all these wires and crap, and three controllers. In addition, he bought a new 250GB HDD for it off Amazon, and then he's gonna get an LCD tv to use as a display, so he can install and run Linux on it. He plans on using it as a computer too...a pretty sweet deal, I think.

The best part is: when he goes on a mission, I'll get to use it! By that time, Final Fantasy 13 will have come out, and that's the only game I'm really interested in playing, so...