Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho Its off to work I go.......

Its back to work time for me. I had a lovely week off from work, and now its come to an end. I feel so relaxed, laid back and rejuvenated, I guess its time to go back. I just hope this wonderful feeling doesn't leave too quickly!

It'll be an interesting few months here at work too. Our current boss is leaving for another school and we will be in the process of interviewing a new supervisor shortly. Our second in command will be taking over in the mean time, but it'll be interesting to see the process happening.

Its budget time here at work too and let me tell you, its not my favorite time of year. Those large numbers scare the pants off me, it makes me so stressed out so I hope it doesn't drive me crazy too much this year.

Other then, so far it looks like a great year at work. Lets keep our fingers crossed for all of us to keep our jobs in this economy for the New Year!!

Mothers Guilt

I went back to work yesterday. It was very difficult to walk out of the house and get into my van to drive away from my house where my little boy was left behind with his Grammie.

I cried as I left the house.

I cried as I drove to work.

I got myself straightened up to be able to exit my car to walk into my office. As soon as I ran into a co-worker outside, he asked if I was excited to be back? I answered with a strained no with tears in my eyes.

I walked into my office with my excited co-workers to see me, with tears in my eyes.

I don't know the exact reason I cried, but I'm sure it was a combination of leaving my son for more then an errand, an end to my maternity leave days off or the immediate guilt I felt for having to return to work. Now I know why they call it a mothers guilty feeling for having to return to work after having a child. My cousin who had a baby in September said it never goes away.

Jeff knew exactly what I was feeling since he had experienced the same feelings when he had to return to work after being home with Drew and I for two weeks after the baby was born. I text him on way to work and he said that I have to treat the situation like you would rip a band-aid off your skin, you just have to do it. Its difficult, but it has to be done.

I know my son is in great hands and in the most lovable environment, but it was very hard. But, I'm very grateful that my boss understands what I am going through and has given me the opportunity to work part-time for a little while.

At the end of the day, it was a wonderful site to see Drew and Grammie sitting on the back porch waiting for me to get home. As soon as I parked the van, I jumped out and ran towards Drew as he looked at me with his beautiful blue eyes and gave him a big hug and kiss.

It Had To Happen

I will return to work today. It was a quick 6 weeks off between taking care of Drew and enjoying the time off from work.

I'm not back full-time yet, which will be nice. I was able to work it out with my boss that I remain on half days until my maternity leave is officially up on the 12th week. So, that will bring me through the first week of July. Then, its back full time. Half days for me will be from 11am-4pm, so it works out for me and Grammie who will be watching Drew for the summer.

It Blows My Mind

At work, I have a few bosses. Its kind of a supervisor ladder if you will; I have my office manager, the 2nd in command and then the head hancho.

The head hancho we share with two other schools. So, he runs back and forth every day between the three schools. Since they are all college's, you can imagine all the drama with student issues and even employee situations he has to be involved with.

All through my pregnancy, the head hancho would ask me questions like how I was feeling, how things were going and checking in with me. I wasn't really expecting him to really pay much attention to my situation since he has so much on his plate from his job.

Yesterday morning, before his usual big Monday morning Deans meeting he asked me, 5 more weeks (to my due date), right? I had a big smile on my face and said, yup we are almost there!

But what blew me away was, he has been counting down just like me and was right on. I know he may be counting down since he will be short an employee for 6 weeks, but it just amazed me that he was right on target and seemed really excited for me.

Lost & Found

I work at a college. I work under the umbrella of Public Safety. On top of the hundreds of things Public Safety does, one of the least favorite things we do is collect lost and found items. We have seen MANY odd and unusual things turned in over the years, like one shoe or old text books from two years ago. Along with those odd things there have been the valuable items that someone is thankful is turned in like car keys, iPods or cameras.

Well, yesterday I witnessed the strangest thing to be turned into lost and found in my 10.5 years working there. A dog.

He looked like this puppy in the image, but a little older

The poor thing was visiting from North Carolina with an irresponsible owner. After calling the vet that was labeled on his tags, they mentioned that we were the second caller for the dog "Pepsi" and the owner said to just let the dog roam and he will find his way home. Um, no! There are busy streets around campus and we were not going to allow that! Also, the dog was not in his home territory. So Char did some investigating to locate the owner directly and strongly urged that they come pick the dog up rather then letting him roam around the area. Good thing!

In the mean time, our new visitor was a happy go lucky, clean and healthy looking bundle of energy. He kept going back and forth between offices for attention. He was definitely the best entertaining lost and found item I've seen!


About a half-hour later, Pepsi's owner stopped by to pick up her dog. I'm not too sure how I feel about Pepsi's owner, since she had not expresed concern that he had got out in the first place, but I'm happy he found his way to us yesterday morning so he wouldn't get hurt. He was such a wonderful surprise on a Monday morning too!

Back to Reality

Yesterday, I returned to work after a very wonderful vacation. I wasn't looking forward to walking through my office door, seeing my desk covered in paperwork, my desk arranged to other employee's liking (since they tend to sit at my desk when I'm not in) and being asked questions about things that took place while I was out and I have no idea what the heck they are talking about.

So, yesterday I walked through the door to my accumulated paperwork, yup things were moved around and yes I was asked questions that I had no immediate answer too since I was away. Its so predictable sometimes, its frightening.

The only different thing was, I was informed about 15 minutes into my day that there was a mandatory training that the entire department had to attend either today or Thursday on another campus for 10am for two hours. Lovely! I chose to go today, since my wonderful co-worker, Char will be on her vacation starting Thursday so that left today's training for the both of us. We left and had a wonderful drive to and from the other campus while our Office Manager covered the office.

Yeah, I was a little irritated that I had all this stuff on my desk that I had to get through, but the little break in my day was nice on my first day back. It helped the day go by fast.

I do still have a lot to sort through and figure out what happened when I was out, but all-in-all, it was nice to be back in a routine.

Take me out to the ball game.......

Last Friday night, myself and a bus load of employees headed to a Red Sox game against the Baltimore Oriels.

The main entrance to the park

My first mission, after arriving, was to buy a new t-shirt. My old one was out of style since it was a purple Red Sox t-shirt instead of the current blue or red ones. So, I decided to pick me up a new one. I know it was a splurge, but you gatta do it once and awhile. Also, I needed a new shirt to harass Jeff with since he can't stand the Red Sox.

Inside the main gates

My next mission (while taking pictures) was food. I didn't know what I felt like eating until I noticed someone caring a personal size pizza. Bingo! That was it. So, after picked up my dinner, it was time to scope out the seats.

Before game entertainment

This game, the seats were under the jumbo tron (pictured below) that is WAY out there in the out field area. The view of the field was pretty good from our seats. We really couldn't see any replays or in-between entertainment on the screen unless you turned around in the seats, but hey, it was still nice to be there.

After I found my seat, it was time to sit back and relax. The weather was a little cloudy, but it didn't matter since night fall was coming. The air was light and a cool summer breeze was flowing through the stadium. It was a beautiful evening to watch a baseball game on home turf.

View of the famous green monster

The game wasn't too exciting. There was an all-most home run, but it bounced back into play. There were a couple double plays, but nothing too spectacular. The Sox ended up losing 3-7, but it was still a great evening out.

So, while I was sitting there, I was thinking. As each of the Red Sox players walked to the batters box, a sort-of theme song would play. I'm not sure if ALL the home field teams do this since I've only been to a RS game, but my thought was this, if I was a baseball player what would by my introduction song be?

After much debating with myself, I came to the conclusion that it would be Yeah! by Usher. What would yours be?

View of the field from my seat

What I do Monday - Friday

The blogs for work are up and running. Yeah! There are still tweeks that I want to work on, but they are up and ready to be checked out. I maintain the MHC Fleet blog, I co-maintain the MHC Parking blog and my supervisor maintains the MHC Public Safety blog. If you are interested in checking them out, they are listed on the side of my blog under my daily checked blogs listing labeled work blogs.

So, let me explain what I do Monday-Friday. I work in the Public Safety department for Mount Holyoke College. My "department" is under the PS Dept and I am the Fleet Coordinator for the Fleet Office. I maintain/schedule vehicles (sedans, vans and buses) for the the college community and so many other administrative duties but I don't want to bore you as I go on and on.

I also help out in the Parking Office when the parking coordinator leaves for the day since she works part-time. Actually, when I first took the job 7 years ago I was in charge of both and that was way too much to do for one person, so I was lucky they hired someone else to take over the parking portion. I count my blessings every day!

So, this is a brief explanation so you are not confused if you check out the blogs for work.

Bloggen' For Work

The other day, while I worked on my personal blog, the big boss asked me why I was so quite during lunch (there was a few of us sitting around talking and I was concentrating on what I was typing). I explained to him that I was workin' on my blog. He then commented that our department should have one. I said sure, as long as its not over my lunch break.

So, over last couple of days, new blogs have been born. My immediate supervisor created the Public Safety one, I created the Fleet Office site (that's my department) and then this afternoon I will create the Parking Office one (to help out my co-worker). I will announce when they are completed, so if you want to see what I do Monday-Friday (and some weekends) I don't mind.

The reason we wanted to go in this direction was to connect to the younger generations (wow, do I feel old saying that). We are even going to make a you tube video over the summer to show the do's and don'ts of parking. I can't wait to make that! I will so let you know when that is ready!

National Sweater Day

It was national sweater day yesterday. Why? Because it would have been Mr Rogers 80th birthday yesterday?!?! You know, Mr Rogers who used to sing "Its a beautiful day in this neighborhood". Yeah him! We all grew up with him on TV teaching us values. He said "saying thank you is one of the greatest things people can do" and I agree and do it everyday.

With that in mind, one of my wonderful co-workers did a performance in remembrance of him. Oh, it was fantastic. The pictures didn't capture the magic of what my fellow co-worker portrayed, but here is a little glimpse of our lunch time treat.

Cue Mr Rogers theme song-
It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood
A beautiful day for a neighborhood
Would you be mine?
Would you be mine?

The classic sweater change

The signature change from outdoor shoes to indoor sneakers

"Mr Rogers" talking about what a wonderful day it is

"Mr Rogers" speaking about influences in his life

Fun Facts about Mr Rogers-
Born March 20, 1928
His full name is Frederick McFeely Rogers
His mother made all of his sweaters
Mr Rogers wrote all of his scripts and music for the show
He was a musical composer

People would stop Mr Rogers on the street and thank him for their childhood. So, thank you Mr Rogers for helping make my childhood fun and most important, showing the world how important it is to be gentle and kind.

Also, thanks to "Skipper" my fun and exciting co-worker. Its a pleasure to work with you!