DePaul Invasion: Watch out Ohio!

I have been on cloud 9 since Wednesday.  For those of you who I have not been able to tell yet, I found out Wednesday afternoon that my admission counselor position at DePaul University will go FULL-TIME on Septmeber 12!!!  I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who kept their fingers crossed for me and kept me in your prayers.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to join this staff full-time.  As I have mentioned in the past, my co-workers are amazing and I am finally ready to be BUSY!  There is only so much time I can spend bothering my other co-workers because I have half as much work to do as they do before they kick me out of their offices.

Part-time has been great in terms of having random days off.  For example, on Wednesday, I spent the day walking around Lincoln Park and spending too much money at TJ Maxx and Bed Bath and Beyond.  My intention for the day was to come home with a new shower curtain.  I DID come home with a shower curtain, so that was successful.  I also came home with new perfume, new sunglasses, a new collage picture frame and a new decortative wall-hanging for the bedroom.  Those stores are just dangerous.  I mean, where else can you find Calvin Klein sunglasses and perfume for 50% off the original price?  And they put that stuff right at the top of the escalator so you have no choice but to walk by it.  I think they have talked to the Ikea people...

About an hour after I got home, I got the phone call from staffing offering me the full-time position.  The lady on the other end of the phone call got a little carried away talking about the great benefits DePaul offers to its employees.  I wanted to just remind her that I was already working part-time at DePaul and that she could just offer me the job and stop trying to convince me to take the job by reciting the benefits manual.  Finally, she got to the point where she asked if I would accept the job and I felt like a kid in a candy shop.  I said yes and immediately called mom and dad to let them know that their daughter was FINALLY contributing full-time to society.  I also don't have to be such a Frugal Fran all the time and don't have to hear Matt laugh at me when I complain about having to buy a $20 shower curtain.  Still a Baller on a Budget, but with a little more wiggle room :) 

Best part about the job: I get my own office!  This will be the first time EVER that I have my own office.  At Macon, four of us shared the attic upstairs in our office (which was an old, three-story house).  Don't get me wrong - we had some very fun times.  Sometimes work got put on hold because of it the casual atmosphere, but when four people are making phone calls at one time, it just gets weird.  And currently at DePaul, I am in a cubicle next to the student interns.  So, I feel like a real professional being able to move into my own office for the first time.  Matt's not the only big-timer now, thank you very much.  I have MY name on MY door too.

I start traveling next month and I will be visiting the exciting state of Ohio for about 5 days.  But the following weeks I will actually be heading back down to Northern Virginia and DC!  Our travel manager swears she didn't plan it that way, but I am not complaining.  They will be quick trips though, filled with college fairs and high school visits.  It will just be nice to start out my travel season in areas that I am familiar with (other than Ohio).  But right now, its just a waiting game.  I sill have to work part-time next week but only from 1-5 every day.  It will be a nice way to transition into being back in the office full-time and catch up on some much needed sleep after dragging my butt out of bed for 6:30 AM workouts.  My body does not approve of those, by the way. 

I celebrated with my friend Tracy (the academic advisor for the men's basketball team here) on Wednesday night.  She treated me to dinner, drinks and desserts.  I think those are my three favorite words in the world that start with D...nothing says classy like a cheese pizza, sangria and cookie dough ice cream.  For those of you who are thinking that Matt is a total skeeze for not taking me out to celebrate, he was actually at a work dinner with the entire staff that night.  So, it was date night for Tracy and me.  Matt and I are celebrating next Friday night at  restuarant downtown that he went to when he came up for his interview in April.  All I remember him telling me about this place was that they serve mashed potatoes with pieces of lobster in them and they have a butter cake for dessert.  Yes, I WILL have both plus my entree.

But this weekend is reserved for not only enjoying the last official weekend of summer, but spending time with GREAT friends from Virginia.  I am over the moon about seeing Scott and Amanda Day - Scott is the Sports Information Director at VCU and Amanda is his lovely wife who has so bravely left their 2 month-old baby boy Connor at home to make this trip.  VCU Field Hockey is playing at Northwestern and Scott was able to get Amanda on the trip.  Not sure what the plan is for tonight, but tomorrow I hope to show them around the Lincoln Park area and find a good place where the guys can watch college football and Amanda and I can catch up. 

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend.  I know my parents probably have something fun planned with neighbors and friends, and I hope everyone else enjoys the last official weekend of summer.  I know, I know - you all will still have about a month and a half left of summer weather.  I will be living vicariously through you all when it suddenly turns cold here.  I have heard fall is amazing in Chicago (the one month that it lasts), so hopefully I can enjoy it.

Happy Labor Day weekend - enjoy the time spent with loved ones!