Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Things I Got to Call Work! My First Job 2007-2011

March 2007- January 2011

Here are some memories through pictures and one video of my time at San Antonio college

Trying to be in chronological order...

May 2007- I was able to go with a student organization and Posadas to Monterrey, Mexico.  We took about 30 students and saw museums, the country side and some rural towns where the students taught children English songs and rhymes.  One day a tour bus took us to a park/resort and we were able to either climb up the mountain or take a donkey- Posadas opted for the donkey but I walked and saw beautiful waterfalls.

May 2007 outside of Monterrey Mexico
February 2008- I got to play with an armadillo which was super exciting for me cause I alway thought they carried leprosy.  The were racing the armadillos which I'm sure would upset animal support groups but the handlers assured me they were fine....

February 2008 Armadillo Races at Wild West Rodeo Roundup
April 2008- The Student Activity Fee partially sponsored the production of Beauty and the Beast, Posadas choreographed it and I got to be a part of the ensemble- it was great! Totally reminded me of NESA.  It was fun to go to rehearsal, put on costumes and make-up and perform two weeks in a row- obviously this was before I started grad school...

Spring 2008 Beauty and the Beast
April 2008- For the rewards Banquet Posadas let us bring back a band we liked called Fort Pastor.  They are great guys totally cool and relaxed.  The first time they came in the fall of 2007 I took them on a tour of downtown and we went to the riverwalk.  This time they came was during fiesta so I took them around Market Square, Alamo plaza and back to the riverwalk.  Jono from Australia even wore a SAC t-shirt around all day.  Their favorite restaurant you ask? Dick's Last Resort- we had the same waitress twice!

April 2008 Downtown during Fiesta with the guys from Fort Pastor
May 2008- One of the fun best parts of working at SAC was the traveling I got to go to so many places.  This year I got to go to Washington DC with the ladies from SGA.  I just started bawling at all the memorials so at the Lincoln Monument I put on sunglass to get a pic of me without red eyes.  I loved DC and walked around at night in Dupont Circle without feeling unsafe at all...looking back that probably wasn't the smartest idea...

June 2008 Washington DC view from Lincoln Monument
July 2008- Posadas and I went to a conference in Miami for SGA.  I think we spent more time on the beach and downtown than actually at the conference.  We rented a convertible and drove around downtown.  It was a lot of fun.  Both Posadas and I came back to Texas red as lobsters...the sun is a little stronger down there.

July 2008 view from hotel in Miami, Florida
January 2009- Every January for 3 of my 4 years I went to the APCA Conference in Las Vegas.  One of those years Posadas went with me and we lounged around at Margaritaville inside the Flamingo Hotel.  The first year I went to the conference my mom still lived in Vegas so I stayed with her, the next two years I stayed at the conference hotel the Mirage...the first two years I got into a little too much trouble but by my last one I'd learned better...

January 2009 Margaritaville in Las Vegas, Nevada

May 2009- Back to Florida again for SGA this time with the students in Orlando.  We went to Downtown Disney or Adult Disney as one of the advisor's said and shopped around.  I should have been studying for finals, but this just seemed like a lot more fun.  The sparkly mickey ears were my favorite.

May 2009 Downtown Disney Orlando, Florida

Halloween 2010- Another great part about working at a college is you still get to dress up for Halloween.  My first year I was Little Red Riding Hood, the next year I was Mini Mouse, the third year Posadas, Aaron and I were jail birds and this year the theme was toys but I think I'm the only one that actually played along.

Halloween 2010


May 2007- I know I've already done Mexico but I didn't mention that at the top of the mountain they had bungee jumping.  This is probably my best memory from traveling with SAC.  The guys strapping me in didn't speak English and the first time I tried to go they said "no, no, no" at the last minute and luckily I hadn't jumped yet.  But then they told me to just fall forward so I leaned forward and went....




How many people can go Bungee jumping in Mexico and call it work? I'm gonna miss SAC.  Just looking through all these pictures makes me kinda sad, it was a great 4 years and I'm gonna miss it.  But I know I'll make new memories at UTSA.  I was 21 when I started at SAC and am leaving at 25, I can't stay a kid forever...

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Hello 2011...what's cookin'?

I don't really want to sum up 2010 cause anything I had to say about it I probably already said in another post.  I went to lots of weddings, went to school, sang karaoke, took a cruise to Greece and got engaged- to me that kinds sums it all up.  2011 however is gonna be busy busy busy.  I really may be crazy because I am going to try to do so many things.

First I have to leave SAC, which I hope is going to be the hardest thing I have to this year.  Comps, getting married, moving those should be easy!  I've been at SAC for 3 year 10 months.  SAC was the first job I interviewed for after TLU and the first job I got offered.  I was the Assistant Coordinator of Student Leadership and Activities which initially meant I got to create new events and activities on campus, work with a few student clubs and organizations and travel when necessary with sports teams as their soccer mom.  Over the years the position really grew and evolved and hopefully I grew and evolved with it.  When I look at my job there now it barely resembles what it started as and that has been  making me unhappy so it was just time to leave.  I am going to be so sad to leave the people I work with, they have become a really great dysfunctional, sometimes judgmental, but definitely loving family.  I will also miss the students, faculty, staff and some of the administrators, it's gonna be so strange to stat someplace new.  January 14th will be my last day.

Then I get to start a new job on January 18th! I can't wait! I will be starting my new job as Program Coordinator at UTSA main campus.  This job is in the University Center, a huge 3 building area that could eat TLU's whole campus in 2 bites.  It's crazy big!  At this job, from what I understand so far, I will be working with student workers and the activities board.  I will also be in charge of their new art gallery- so excited- and help get the exhibits in there and do the openings and such.  I'm thrilled about this since I've actually worked in a museum before and got a little taste of public history at TLU (before they cancelled that degree option).  I'll also be working with the students in "the roost" their game room area.  I'm so excited it's going to be very different from what I do at SAC but I'm hoping that it'll make me happier and give me a little more time and flexibility that SAC wouldn't.  From speaking with my new supervisor I think it will.  One big change will be the dress code- OMG they wear business casual clothes! I'm so excited but also have to go shopping cause none of my casual clothes are in anyway business appropriate.  But they have such a more relaxed dress code there and I'm totally looking forward to that.  They also have a million places to eat on campus and two Starbucks- majoring drawing point.  Enough about the new job cause I haven't even started it yet!

Comp exams, finals, and graduating!  While starting a new job I will also be trying to finish my masters. Not trying- but finishing.  I have to finish this semester or I will go crazy.  We get our comp exams on February 7th and they're due March 7th these are 4 very large research essays on the 4 main core areas of the degree program.  They used to be given a little later in the semester but I'm so glad they're going to be early so I can concentrate on other important Spring business afterwards.  The exams don't scare me as much as they initially did when I started the program.  When I first started I didn't think I'd ever learn everything I needed to to be successful on them, but now I think I'm pretty well equipped and know where to get my info.   In late April or early May we'll have finals and in my program usually finals are just more papers so again now as worried about that.  I currently have a 3.75 GPA and would really like to bring it up to a 3.8 at least this semester so hopefully I can get my 2 As to do that and be done with grad school...for now.  If all goes well I should graduate on time in May with my Master's in Educational Leadership and Policy Students: Higher Education Administration.

But before I graduate I have to get married!  Not have to but get to! To my amazing fiance Mr. Bruce Moran.  I cannot wait to be married to him, but there is just so much stuff to do first! We luckily already have my dress and shoes, my bridesmaids all have their dresses, we have a venue for the ceremony, a restaurant for the after ceremony dinner, invitations picked out and the officiant for the ceremony.  I'm trying to get the bulk of most of the major decisions made before comps, so I have till February and I think it's going pretty well.  After comps we'll start worrying about the other fine details like alterations and flowers.  But most of my wedding trials and tribulations will be available on my other blog Tyler Getting Married so I wont go into very much more detail here except to say oh ya this is happening the week before finals...I hope...Saturday, April 23rd.

Everyone does keep giving me the- that's a quick wedding, are you...? NO I AM NOT PREGNANT.  What is going on is that instead of having a big multi-thousand dollar wedding we have decided to have a small family wedding.  We're getting married at one of the houses I grew up in that is just perfect for a small wedding.  Then taking the money that would have been spent on a large wedding we're going to get the down payment for a house.  The rationality behind this is why spend $9K on 6 hours when we can spend that or less than that for a down payment on a house we can love a lifetime.  My lease at the apartment is up in May...I think...so in March or April we're going to start actively looking for a house, I can't resist and have been looking now anyways, but we'd really like to move in the beginning of the summer to our new home.  Like my wedding dress I kinda already know what I want and will probably not be satisfied till I find it, but also like my wedding dress I may find homes that have things about them I never knew I could love so much.  We're looking for a 3-4 bedroom, 2 bath home in the NEISD school district.  We'd prefer to stay kinda in the 281-1604 area but are flexible.  Can't wait to really start house hunting.  And super luckily my step-mom is a realtor.

After the wedding and after my graduation we're going on a cruise!  This cruise was originally supposed to be my graduation gift, it was being planned almost from the instance we got back from the last cruise. I wanted to do something special for graduation and also wanted Bruce to be able to go on a cruise as well.  Now that it's following so close to our wedding it's kinda gonna be a small honeymoon as well.  We still want to take a real honeymoon someday but this one is gonna be kinda perfect in itself.  My mom and one of my sister's friend's friend is going with her and then my cousin and her husband are also going.  So it's like a pseudo-honeymoon with friends and family which we're both just fine with.  This cruise is at the end of May and is going to the Western Caribbean.

I know this only covers the first half of 2011, but I still feel like it's an awful lot even if I was trying to squeeze it all in to a full year.  It's gonna be busy and messy but that's okay, that's how I like my life.