Okay, so I know I have been gone for quite some time, I apologize for that. But I have to say I didn’t realize how intensive RA training was going to be! Even when we did have time off (which was a rarity in itself) we had about 5 billion paperwork and setting up tasks that had to be done. I found myself stretched pretty thin but it all worked out in the end. I had my first floor meeting with my new residents last night and they all seem awesome! I really hope that this is going to be a great year and that they really enjoy their time here on South Campus!
Opening Weekend, this past weekend, was another crazy time for me. Between my RA position and my Orientation Aide position I was literally running from one event or shift to another. I barley got to see many of my friends that have just gotten here this weekend so hopefully I can take some time this week to have lunch or dinner with a lot of them, just to try and catch up! One of the coolest things I think I did this past weekend was work the Opening Ceremony on Friday night. Some other Orientation Aides and myself were flag bearers and opened the ceremony by carrying in flags representing all of the different schools here at UB (i.e., the graduate school of Social Work, the College of Arts & Sciences…). It was a really formal ceremony and included such speakers as the president of the university John B. Simpson and other faculty and staff. I had never gone to my welcome ceremony the year I came to UB so it was a cool thing to not only see, but be a part of as well!
Well since today is the first day of classes I should probably get moving on getting some stuff together in terms of notebooks and things. For all of those new college students out there…have a great first day of classes!!!!
One of the things that is hard to adjust to once you get into college is that no where you live is really that permanent. Every few months your moving back home for a break or moving out of the dorms for the summer. It’s something that I have really never gotten use to. I’m one that likes to settle down, decorate and make the place I’m in my home. But today I settled down in what will be my home for the next year, Michael Hall. It took a couple of good friends and I some very long hours to get all of my stuff into the room and move all of the furniture around, because I’m quite a picky person. And now as I sit here in my new room with boxes and suitcases piled around me, I’m reminded once again why I hate moving around so much. But then again, I guess you can look at the positive side and say that every year I get a whole new room to decorate which is right up my alley! 
Work this week was crazy!! Everyone has time off in August so I’m pretty sure that everyone that can comes to visit the college campus and sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough work hours in the day to get everything done! I ended up working longer hours than I was suppose to just to finish different projects in the Office of Admissions. It was nice though, definitely a change from May when we didn’t have much to do. I’m excited about being able to be in the office throughout the year. The people are just awesome and I really enjoy working with prospective students!
I should probably hit the sack since us RA’s start training at noon tomorrow and I want to get as much of my room settled as I can before we have to start!
So this week was suppose to start my first “week off” and I don’t know if you could call it just that.
On Monday I gave two tours which takes up a pretty good chunk of the day. Then I did a Psych experiment down on South Campus. I totally got lost walking through the medical buildings but it was kind of interesting to just kind of wander around down there. My worry was that I would run into the room that held the different medical tools. Also, one of my friends came back from spending a month in Paris and so we brought him over a cake that we made. I spent time in Paris during high school as part of an exchange program so it was cool to see his pictures, it was almost like I had just been there.
The big news this week is that it’s my parents 25th wedding anniversary! It’s nuts to think that they’ve spent 25 years of their lives together. It’s really weird to think about how I’m about the age that my parents were when they met and got engaged and that I’m getting old enough to start thinking about things like that. Things that always seemed so “adult” now are the norm for us. It feels like just yesterday that we were heading into high school!
I’ve finally got my schedule set for next semester and it just makes me that much more excited for classes to start! I did end up deciding not to participate in the research lab this year because of a variety of different reasons but I really think it’ll give me that piece of mind back so that I won’t go completely crazy this next semester!
So this past Friday ended Freshman Orientation’s 2008. Both Thursday and Friday were totally bittersweet. I’m excited for the year to get rolling and pumped that I finally have a few days to catch up on some things I’ve been meaning to do but I am really going to miss working with all of the other Orientation Aides. We really have become a little family and for the most part we have gotten really close. It’s going to be really weird this week not getting up at the crack of dawn and having breakfast together or sitting around making door tags while watching a movie. I think we’re all going to take a little time to ourselves but I’m sure that most of us will get together a bunch of times during the year.
My best friend from back home came up this weekend and I helped her move stuff into her new apartment. It’s just getting me so excited for the year to get going!!! Another one of my friends is coming to visit this week, another one the next week and then everyone comes back up!!! I can’t wait to start this semester, I’m really excited about where my life is heading and everything that I involved in. There are definitely things that I want to work on or things in my life that I wish I had but for the most part I’m really just trying to go into this semester with an optimistic view!
The other night a friend and I explored a new part of Buffalo that I had never been down to! Instead of settling in our weekly ritual of walking around the Elmwood strip, my friend Steph and I continued on down Elmwood to an area called Allentown. It is a total artsy place and reminds me a lot of Provicetown, on Cape Cod, where my family and I use to take whale watches out of every summer growing up. We ate at an awesome Greek restaurant called the Towne Restaurant.
During the transfer orientation that took place today I had to stop by the Admissions office to give a card to one of the women that works there because today was her last day. She’s headed off to Syracuse and it’s going to be sad to not have her around anymore. Someone who ALWAYS had a smile on her face, she’ll be hard to replace. The Admissions office is going through a lot of staff changes and it’s kind of weird because we’ve become so accustomed to working with certain people it’ll be disappointing to not have them there. I’m sure all of the new Graduate Assistants and Professional Staff will be awesome people it’ll just be a different atmosphere than what we were use to last year. I was handed a big disappointment the other day when I found out that my blogging adviser is leaving us! I’m really excited for him because his new job is an awesome opportunity for him but we’re definitely going to be quite sad to see him go as well!!
I should probably start gettin ready to turn it in; tomorrow starts the last two days of Orientation so I want to be ready to go out with a bang!
This weekend had it’s moments of beautiful weather which was such a relief from the rainy weekends we have been having! I finally got a chance to get some sun and to try and get rid of this really cute “OA tan” we have been building up (similar to a farmer’s tan but with longer sleeves thanks to our polos).
On Friday night a friend and I went to go see Mama Mia at a theater just around the corner from campus. Now, if you know anything about me you should know about my obsession with musicals. Mama Mia was no different. It was SO good! Meryl Streep was really good but kind of awkward when she sang, the main character, played by Amanda Seyfried, had the most amazing voice. I immediately came home and downloaded the soundtrack and have basically had it on repeat since then.
Saturday showed a little bit of a bump in the road. I went to go get in my little Chevy Colbalt and was sad to find that my little girl had a VERY flat tire. It wasn’t that big of a deal just such an annoyance. How is it that things always seem to find the most inconvenient time to break? Anyways, luckily one of my friends has AAA and this afternoon we called them. I was prepared to drive my car to Wal-Mart after the donut got put on but much to my surprise all he had to do was patch up where a lovely screw had driven itself into my tire. Which means I save like $85 in a new one!
We rounded out the weekend today swimming at a friend’s house in Cheektowaga. I’m so use to having a swimming pool in my backyard that I forgot how nice it was after a long day to just go for a swim. I’m jealous of my sisters who still get to do that everyday back at home. I wonder what the Hall Directors of Ellicott would think of an in-ground pool being put in a parking lot…?
Exactly one month from today is the beginning of classes and as much as I have enjoyed this summer I cannot WAIT until the school year starts up and running again. I have missed my best friends so much it’s crazy! Because we’re all getting older the majority of us either had internships or higher level position jobs that didn’t afford us the opportunity to jet away and spend a weekend with each other like we have been able to do in the past. The last few months have been spent with just a few of my close friends since there aren’t that many of us that stay around the Buffalo area and we have gotten much closer this summer, which is awesome. But my four best friends have been away all summer, one back home in Clifton Park, one in Queens, one in Orange County outside of the city and the other out in Northport on Long Island. So it’ll be nice just to be able to get to spend some time again, catching up on each other lives since even the phone calls have been limited due to our crazy schedules.
I’m not sure if it’s been the craziness of Orientation that has been getting to me or the lack of sleep that seems to accumulate more and more each week but I have been horribly homesick the past few days. I am one that would be lost without my family and usually try and touch base with one of my three siblings or my parents at least once a day. I was going to try and surprise my parent’s for their 25th wedding anniversary next weekend but due to a bunch of different factors I don’t think I’ll be able to. All that means is that I am going to make sure that I take a weekend to myself and visit home sometime in September after the craziness of the beginning of the semester dies down.
Tonight is just a night to kind of relax and spend some time with a really good friend to try and just unwind. Hang out nights at her house are what keeps me going when sometimes life seems to be flying by.
What an icky weekend this turned out to be! The sun gods were just not smiling on Buffalo the last two days! *boo*
Yesterday, despite the gross weather a few friends and I went down to the Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park ((where the Buffalo Bills play)) to see a movie that the Bills were playing on the Jumbo-tron for Bills season ticket holders. We got to go because a friend of mine is an intern in the Bills Marketing department and got a ton of tickets for free! It was actually a really cool thing! They let everyone sit in the stands or if you had lawn chairs or blankets you could park it right on the field! It was awesome because the jumbo-tron was just put in last year and is a high definition screen so it was like we could just reach out and touch it! We ended up only staying for about a half an hour of the movie though, because the rain and wind got to be so bad it was almost unbearable! Also, due to the rain I never got to check out the Italian Fest that was going on in downtown Buffalo. I thought we might be able to sneak over there today before it started raining but when I woke up to a nice, loud thunderstorm I knew we weren’t going to get down there.
It was nice to catch up on some sleep and just kind of relax with some friends since sometimes my life seems to be on the fast track. Plus being at the stadium yesterday reminded me that there is just a little over two weeks left before the NFL pre-season starts back up. And we all know that football season is like Christmas every week for me!!
Four conferences down, four to go! This week was a nice week because on Monday and Tuesday my sister’s boyfriend came up with his family and than on Thursday and Friday my baby sister was here for her orientation!! It was just really cool to see how close we are to school and I think with every coming week everyone gets more and more excited for the end of August!
On Wednesday I did a Psych experiment for the Psychology department on hearing and auditory processes. It was pretty cool because I got to wear these cool headphones and speak into these big microphones and stuff. It has got me thinking a lot about the research lab that I am signed up to work in in the fall. I’m not sure if that’s really what I want to do and so I have to spend some more time looking over things, like my schedule, and decide if that’s not what I want to do than what AM I going to do. We’ll see but it’s definitely something that has been in the back of my mind for a while. But the great thing about UB is that you can still sign up for classes and there are plenty of other opportunities to get involved even if I decide that research just isn’t for me.
Well this weekend is Italian Fest in Buffalo and a few friends and I are heading downtown for the day to check out all of the great stuff so I should probably get a move on and get ready before they start to yell at me!
Hm it was so nice to have more than just a few hours at home! Because of my sister’s graduation party I was able to see a ton of people that I have been missing all summer which was just awesome!! Between family and friends I fell into bed with a smile on my face last night. There’s just something about being around people who have known you your entire life that is really nice. It was nice to share with everyone what I have been doing for the past few months and what I hope/plan to do in the coming years and get their feedback on it or to hear what they have been up to. Plus in between this weekend and my last trip home my family acquired a new member! We rescued a cat from one of the members of our church who just wasn’t able to take care of it any longer. She is just the fattest thing but such a good snuggler ((I should know she choose my bed to sleep in last night))!! So here’s a picture of the newest member of the Barbour clan, Pumpkin (the orange one), along with our other kitten, Tempest!
Well as nice as being home was I didn’t get much of a chance to catch up on all that sleep I was missing and since I have quite a full week ahead of me I should probably get things together for tomorrow’s orientation and then hit the sack! Let’s hope the weather for this upcoming orientation conference is nice!
