My cabin is booked, I’m pretty sure I have a roommate, the only thing I have to do is raise the rest of my money and book my airfare and I will be headed to Cozumel in December on a cruise ship. This is the one thing I have to look forward to as we trudge through the last week a late registration. Merely saying I need this vacation is not adequate. Work burnout is in full force, and I need out of dodge.

It wasn’t until recently that I noticed my last full week off was over Thanksgiving week of last year. Yes so even 2 of those days were paid holidays. I only took 3 days off for Spring Break, and the most I’ve had is a long weekend here or there, and even those were usually to comp time for six day work weeks. It isn’t that my place of employment doesn’t give me TONS of time off to use. Really, I accrue over half a day per pay period. I actually max out my accrual every couple months.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

So it has happened again. You waited until the last minute to do something. Now it is crunch time and you are rushing to make your deadline. The question is how are you going to proceed? About six years ago, I walked through the front doors of the community college I work for. Actually, I fought my way through the door. There was a line all the way thought the lobby and down the front hallway. Security thought I was a student, and they initially wouldn’t let me through the door. The triage desk (the people in the lobby who made sure you were in the right line) made the same mistake.

By the time I made it to my office, I was at least 5 minutes late…and I had planned on being 15 minutes early. When I asked my one new co-worker what was going on, her response was: “Oh it’s just late registration. You’ll get used to it eventually.” What she didn’t tell me (probably to not totally scare me off) was that every year it would get worse as our student population grew. I never have gotten used to it. I just know to expect it.

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Popularity: 8% [?]

I wrote my first book when I was 8 (Glasses for Shelly…really it should be a children’s bestseller, but my illustrations need some help), and from that moment on writing has held a special place in my heart. I’ve been a writer for 21 years, and I have loved every minute of it. I like doing it, I like to think I am somewhat good at it, and someday I want to be a writer full time. I’m still working on this goal. Sometimes it goes well. Other times I feel like I’m just spinning my tires.

When those rough times hit, it is very tempting to just give up. I think about just walking away and forcing myself to be content with my regular 8-5 job. Then I remember I gave up once before. I wasn’t nearly as established as I am now, but I decided to just focus on my career in the education sector and move on. That only lasted a few years. Soon I was ready to resurrect my writing career from the ashes.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

Where did all the time go?

I’m a single woman in my (gulp) late twenties. I do not have a boyfriend or children. I do not travel much. Really, the only sort of quirky thing about my life is that I have birds…instead of cats. It really should be a simple life, but somehow I just do not have enough hours in the day.

I have a good job. Of course it isn’t perfect. While it isn’t a bad job, it doesn’t pay enough to keep up with my bills and life style. To make up the difference, I work more. I write for a couple websites, design sites, and write novels and novellas. What started as a social venture soon became a way of paying for my social life when I shifted from just singing Karaoke to helping run a karaoke show or two a week.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

It was a was a pretty typical Friday night between football season and basketball season. I was fourteen, and none of my friends could drive. Of course, the fall had been full of football games and pep band would be starting shortly, so my social life would be picking back up soon. My little brother *had* to watch this Bruce Campbell show on FOX called “The Adventure’s of Briscoe County Jr.” I wasn’t impressed, so I left the room.  

A little while later I returned to the family room and I found this new show playing. The thing that caught my eye was how it was shot. It was dark but clear…um yeah I guess that is the best way to explain it. The two lead characters really seemed to have chemistry. The next thing I knew my behind was plopped on that couch and I watched the whole episode. That was the night I began my love affair with the X-Files.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Just yesterday, I had an Admissions Advisor ask me to make an exception and let a student retest again. She claims the student says she did poorly because her mother was texting her the whole time she was taking the test. The texting was distracting her, and it wasn't fair to her.  

This is what I can't figure out. The student was told several times by me and by the testing directions that her phone should be turned completely off. She either chose to ignore me, or she just didn't pay attention. Now if I were taking a college entrance exam, I would be darn sure to listen and pay attention. Wouldn't you? The student should have known about the rule, but she still thought it was okay to tell the Advisor she left it on and that is why she did poorly. Just by admitting that she broke one of the labs biggest rules, put her in jeopardy of never being able to take classes with us.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

I used to think I was a minimalist. I used to think I didn’t need the latest high end gadget. I figured if what I had was working and did the job, what more could I ask for?  I’m the girl who was content to have the basic free phone because why would I want to text?  My desktop computer wasn’t flashy, but it worked. I mean I was about blogging and online bill pay.

I like my social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I loved photobucket, my I-pod and my digital camera, but that is as far as it went.  A couple years ago I really began on focusing  getting my life on track. It was time to put the past to rest and focus on what I wanted. That brought two factors into my life: New Friend and Launching my freelance company.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

With all this talk about Generation Y or the Millennial Generation, I sometimes wonder where I fit in.  I'm just shy of 29, depending on which Sociologist's timeline you look at I am either Generation X or Y.  I remember all the talk about Generation X back in the 1990s and thinking I related to them. I watched movies like Reality Bites and Empire Records, listened to grunge, and was happy to relate to the whole Generation X Scene. That is until I was a little older, and I started working in the education field.

Suddenly I am faced with people/students that are a little bit younger, and in some ways are so different than I am…and sometimes the same.  Generation Y is known for their television viewing habits, their love of technology, naively optimistic outlooks, and an over all lack of responsibility.  I find myself getting frustrated with their (in my mind) glaring shortcomings. I just don't my students who can't be bothered to read the syllabus and expect me to spoon feed them each week' s assignments. It annoys me that I have to lock their computers or I will be fighting MySpace and Facebook for their attention.  
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Popularity: 17% [?]

Last night I was sitting alone in the DJ booth, I had this totally introspective moment. Sitting in  bar listening to some stranger sing mediocre karaoke is not usually the place where people have deep thoughts, but stranger things have happened.  As I sat there waiting for the song to end, my mind was flooded with  lessons learned. I’m not sure if anyone else can relate to the specific situation, but they are lessons we can all learn from.    

Lesson 1   
Life happens. Had you told me a year ago this would be my life, I would not have believed you. I thought I had my life all figured out. I had a plan and goals. However, things didn’t turn out quite as I expected. My plans didn’t exactly pan out, but that path led me to meeting a Karaoke DJ and his girlfriend. After some prodding, I started singing a song or two at his Wednesday night shows. Then we started going to his Thursday night show.  I’m not  great singer, but I’m not tone deaf.

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Popularity: 13% [?]