The first day

I started at Columbia today! I arrived at 9 AM and the office was amazingly quiet...there were only a few people there, although there were supposed to be more. Punctuality is lax in the summer, or so I'm told. The day was rather slow and disjointed, as my main contact and boss wasn't there. I met with the HR woman and completed the necessary forms and got some in return, including the 36-page benefits guide (now THAT'S what I'm talking about!). I was telling Irene last night that I was almost more excited about the benefits than I was about the job! Then I started moving things on my desk around and cleaning it off, getting my computer situated and wiping down the crusty surfaces. How do offices with no windows get so dusty? That's a weird phenomenon.

I spent some time with a colleague, looking at the databases and getting an overview of the position. It struck me this morning as I was getting ready that I don't have much in-depth information about the position I accepted, as all the interviews were focused on a different position! I got my Columbia Card (ID) and access to the buildings I need, including the special section of the cafeteria's outdoor terrace accesible only to MBAs and the officers that work in the Business School. Apparently the MBAs were complaining about the undergrads coming to "their" cafeteria, so the University set aside this special seating area that you have to swipe your card to get to. Oh, gee, they're spoiled!

I also got to spend time in the Career Resource Center, helping accept resumes from the second year students. There was a resume submission deadline for the fall's resume books at noon today, so I got to watch the students in action. A lot of white males in their late twenties, a lot of heavy accents and a lot of people named Chan, Chang, Chen, Cho, Choi; a valuable tidbit I picked up while alphabetizing the resumes in the "C" folder.

So that was the first day. I'm not sure what tomorrow holds, but I saw something about my meeting with an Assistant Director candidate. Umm...that's the job I applied for. Are they sure they want me to meet with another candidate? That's kinda weird, but whatever. I'll be sure to check out his resume before I meet him, unlike some of my colleagues when they met me!

Well, actually, I never did get in the field...

Hee.

And good thing too, reading those comments! Apparently I was about to be woefully underpaid and have terrible daymares about rows of corn. Thankfully, I got a phone call last Thursday (the 13th) from Columbia. My contact called to extend an unofficial offer for the Manager, Employer Relations position (not the one I interviewed for, but a step below). I was very excited and still a little wary...the official offer was supposed to come on Monday after HR approval. Once I got that news, I decided I didn't want to have to file taxes in Iowa for two or three days of detasseling work, so I called Mary and told her I wasn't going to be able to bond with the corn after all.

After a weekend of riding around in the convertible (Mom brought it home for a test drive again!) to visit Kris and Caleb, wading in the Maquoketa River at Backbone, eating a quickly melting ice cream cone in the hot wind, and stumbling through some German at the German restaurant in Waverly, Monday came. Mom bought her convertible and I didn't get a call from Columbia. I called, only to discover that my contact was out on vacation...geez. I got her cell phone number and was informed that HR hadn't gotten around to the approval, so it should be in on Tuesday. Close of business Tuesday rolled around and I left a message saying I wanted an official offer before getting on the airplane from Iowa the next morning. She called back and made it "official" in the way people make things official when they have no power or jurisdiction to do so. That was enough for me however, and here I sit in New York. I start on Monday at 9 AM!

I'm very glad to be back here. The city is the same and I find myself relatively the same in it, although slightly happier than before perhaps. I haven't been doing much over the last couple days, but I did get to see some friends play at The Living Room on the LES and it was perfect. I put on my flirty skirt and my suede high heels and skipped off down to the street a la Carrie Bradshaw, all the while dodging rats scurrying around the trash bags. Maybe that picture is slightly less Carrie Bradshaw and more Kari Watson, but whatever. Even the rats could not dampen my glee. Nor could the idiots smoking pot in the movie theater last night (whah huh?). Did I say I'm glad to be here? Well, even if I didn't, it's blatantly obvious. :)

Stick 'em up!

I thought this was very interesting. Have any of you Iowa kids ever seen corn do this? I probably have but didn't remember it. Anyway, I thought the corn was reaching to the sky in order to coax rain from it, but in reality it is just this particular variety of corn that does this right before the tassels come out. Weird huh?

Can I have a little bagel with my cream chesse?

Geez, no wonder Americans are overweight!

So this is the only picture I took in Saint Louis on my recent trip there. I was carrying around my camera at all times and didn't even think to photograph some of the neighborhoods or apartment buildings I was looking at! How silly.

My interview with Webster went well. It turns out they are interviewing between 6-8 people (none of the three people I interviewed with were quite certain what the number was), so my chances of getting this position are slimmer than I thought. I also discovered that they don't pay well...like not even well enough to buy food or gas after deducting all the other things I'd have to pay for, like student loan, rent, etc. if they paid me at the bottom of the salary range for this position. I am not pleased about that but have grudingly decided to wait until they make their decision, which won't be until late next week at the earliest, and see if they even offer it to me. I've already worked myself into a tizzy about the salary and they haven't even offered me the job yet! Classic me when I can't control everything.

So, for now, it turns out that I am going to detassel corn, which is one of the farm jobs I've never done before. I start this Saturday morning at the unholy hour of 5:20 AM. For those of you non-farm readers, detasseling is a relatively brainless job consisting of walking through sweet corn fields and ripping the tassels off of the female plants to prevent cross pollenation. I always thought (perhaps wrongly) that detasseling pays well, but I'm going to be making $5.50/hour and work seven days a week. Thankfully the season only lasts about two weeks, which should wrap up in time for me to either move to Saint Louis or move somewhere else. I think it'll be shitty, but also ok...I can make a teeny tiny amount of cash and have something to do from 5:30 AM-12:30 PM every day instead of sitting around in my pajamas and searching for apartments or jobs or cost of living reports. I can do all of that in the afternoon now! :)

I've got to take off for the safety meeting shortly so I can learn how to protect my eyes and other body parts from the corn leaves, which are like razor blades. I also need to buy full body rain get-up to wear so I won't get completely soaked by the dew (or rain--we'll work rain or shine, including lightning--yikes!). If anyone has tips on detasseling that they want to share, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Arlington turns 150!

The big celebration went off without a hitch, as far as I could tell. My dad was the parade chairman and said he received numerous compliments because there were so many floats (I think there were 13.) Do you guys remember when there were really really incredible floats and that they outnumbered the old cars, plows and fire trucks? Arlington had some really incredible floats back in the day--the best one was the tree house from "Swiss Family Robinson", which the creator parked down at the park so we (the kids) could play on it. There was nothing that impressive this year, but there were some nice ones.

All the former Ms. Arlington winners were invited to ride in the parade, which meant that we needed to have more convertibles than usual for the parade. My parents have a friend that works at a car dealership, so they were allowed to borrow a canary yellow 2005 Ford Mustang for the weekend, which we proceeded to drive all over the place. My mom is actually considering buying the thing! She says it can be her mid life crisis car.

I got to spend more quality time with the family members, who all came home for the weekend. The nephews are below.

Sunday afternoon I went on the Garden Walk with my grandmothers and my mom. I actually didn't take a picture of us, which was dumb. The gardens were impressive and we were cool, cruising around in the convertible (I told you, we took it everywhere!).

Oh, I almost forgot my great achievement! I ran in the 5km run on Saturday morning and placed second in my age group! Out of maybe four runners. Hee hee. But I got a medal and a t-shirt, so that's cool. I'm also certain my picture will be in the Press Journal, so look for me if you get that still. It wasn't my best 5km time, which it wasn't my worst either, so I was ok with it. Lots of hills and wind, which partially explains my crazy hair.

Update

Right, so I couldn't just leave my posting at the cheesey Fourth of July posting...I have to throw in my customary dose of pragmatism and include news of my job search.

I'm still searching. Surprised?

I'm going to St. Louis for an interview with Webster University on Monday the 10th. I have not yet changed my flight back to NYC, so that might still be happening on the 15th. Columbia hasn't said anything since last Thursday, when they told me to submit my resume for the Manager position they rewrote and re-posted online. I applied for a job at Central (they curiously emailed me the job description) and lots of other places. That's the latest.

"We had a nice long visit"

Does that sound familiar to any of you Midwesterners out there? That was precisely what we (my parents and me) did on the Fourth of July...we had a nice long visit with friends. I always seem to make it back from Europe just in time for a summer gathering of my parents' friends. In 2001 I returned from Vienna on July 3rd and was hanging out with these people on the 4th. Last year I returned on June 25th and was hanging out with these same people on the 4th. This year was no exception. Good thing I like them all, right?

We headed over a bit late, as my family is known to do, and took one of those infamous "tours of the countryside" because the location of the party had changed three times and my parents forgot about the third change (and therefore our final destination). So a three mile drive turned into a 10 mile drive over various gravel roads south of Arlington. We got there and "visited", ate, drank and played games, brought to us by David B., who was the best man at my parents' wedding and is best known locally as the auctioneer. He had some fun games for us, including one where he showed us ads from newspapers and we had to guess the correct price of each item. I've included a picture of his rapt quiz show players. Do you see the concentration?

There were also two golf games. The first one required us to aim for a buried cable flag (you know, the little orange ones) that was about 60 yards off in honor of one of the guest's 60th birthday. It only took me two swings to hit the ball! Last year I think it took me three, so my game is definitely improving. The second game required us to putt the ball to another cable flag 30 feet away in honor of my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, which was on the 3rd.

That evening we went to the fireworks in Aurora, as is our custom. They have a really good display...much better than Oelwein (a larger town a few miles further down Highway 3).

The rest of my days in Iowa have been spent with paintbrush in hand. I helped my sister paint the window trim on two windows and have since been painting parade sponsors' names onto plywood for the upcoming Arlington Days celebration. This year marks Arlington's sesquicentennial of existance. All are welcome--it kicks off the the crowning of Miss Arlington on Friday night and goes through Sunday afternoon, ending with the tractor pull. Sometimes I can't believe I'm from such a place, but the rest of the time it just makes me smile.