The Brosseaus: Officially Part of the Pack

I've been at NC State for 3 months now, which is just plain crazy! And I've never worked so hard in my life! Seriously! I had about 2 months to get the hang of everything before classes started for Fall semester and then it was ON! We had recruitment, to hire students to work for University Recreation, the first day of school and 662 people attended. 2/3s of those people submitted applications and I processed all of those and got them passed out to the different areas that were hiring. That settled down a bit until the areas told me who they were hiring and then Orientation sessions started. I've been working late almost every day and I feel guilty leaving work because there's always something pressing to do.

My office in the middle of Recruitment...a MESS!

On top of everything, I'm taking a class this semester. It's free because I'm an employee at NCSU and using a tuition waiver. And it's convenient because it's a Distance Education class, so I don't have an actual class to attend, I can do everything online. But it's been TOUGH! I'm taking Managerial Accounting, something I know nothing about since I've never had a business course. And managing my assignment schedule with a full time job has been exhausting! It has helped a bit that Kevin has been traveling so much for work. I miss him so much, but I have lots of time alone, which has been turned into study time!

My co-workers are all on the young side, which makes things fun at work. The strange thing is there's a group of singles...not all of them are from the area, most moved to Raleigh just for the job. And they hang out together ALL THE TIME. They spend time with each other every weekend. And good for them! I know I'd want a community like that if I moved here and knew no one, but it makes for awkward conversations when we're all sitting together at lunch and they're talking about times they've hung out together when some of us weren't invited. It gets even stranger because some of those people are other's direct supervisors and they drink together in the evenings and on weekends. Lines are definitely crossed in my opinion. Regardless, it was during one of those strange lunch talks when I learned that everyone had been invited to the first State football game of the season, by our director, and they would be sitting in a box in Vaughn Towers. My feelings were a little hurt, but I was told that people were invited in order of seniority, based on their start date at URec, so I didn't think much about it...until I learned that people who were hired after me, were attending as a plus one of others. Still not a big deal because I know there are cliques, but I just wondered why I hadn't been asked. (I later learned that I was the only person that hadn't been asked because all of the tickets were taken.) Just a little punch in the gut, but what can you do? The next day, the director came to me with a pair of tickets inviting me to the game. I knew all the tickets were taken, so I verified that he wasn't offering me his tickets and he wasn't. His boss was going to attend, but got invited to sit in the Chancellor's box, so the tickets were up for grabs. Unfortunately, Kevin was returning from the Minnesota State Fair and was told he may have to travel to the Pittsburgh area that weekend, so I turned the tickets down.

When Kevin found out, he was upset because he didn't think it was likely he would have to go to Pittsburgh after all, and he wanted to go to the game. Oh well, here I hadn't been asked at all and then when I was asked, I turned it down. I'd made my bed and I'd have to lay in it!

Then I got an e-mail!! Someone couldn't make the game and was giving up their tickets and the first to respond could have the tickets. I quickly checked with Kevin and then e-mailed that Kevin would be in town, after all, and we'd like the tickets. And they were ours!!! YAY!

That long story to say that this is most likely the only time we'll sit in a box in Vaughn Towers. Athletics gave us the box as a thank-you for something we, at URec, did...not sure the back story. Anyway, one time only. Co-workers were tailgating at 8am for a 12:30pm game and while we didn't rush to get there, we did stop by around 11am. Then we walked over to Carter Finley and up to our box. I really felt under-dressed, everything was so nice! The game was awesome and we really enjoyed our time in the suite.