After a week of fun in Portland, one night in Seattle visiting friends, and a lot of delicious food and beer, I flew back to Colorado today. Ben and I had a good time, he was successful in passing his tests for the Portland PD and I was able to visit Seattle for the first time. It was rainy and overcast in Seattle and most of the time in Portland but it was still a great trip. I need to spend the next few days recovering/hitting the gym and getting reading and work done for school. St. Patrick's Day is on a few days, hoping I will survive.
I was surprised and excited today to receive another graduate school acceptance letter. I was accepted into the Masters of Arts Program at The New School in NYC to study International Affairs. It seems like a really interesting place to study and a great program. The possibility of going there is very exciting. I'm still waiting to hear back from NYU and Hanna is still waiting to hear back from NYU and Columbia, before we make our decisions.
http://www.newschool.edu/internationalaffairs/
Some interesting lists that The New School made in the Princeton Review (via Wikipedia, an always reliable source):
"Dodgeball Targets" (#1) "Great College Towns" (#1) "Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular Or Nonexistent" (#1) "Class Discussions Encouraged" (#1) "Long Lines and Red Tape" (#1) "Students Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton Politics" (#2) "Least Religious Students" (#2) "Nobody Plays Intramural Sports" (#2) "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians" (#3) "Most Politically Active" (#7) "Town-Gown Relations Are Great" (#11) "Gay Community Accepted" (#13) "Most Liberal Students" (#16) "Students Dissatisfied with Financial Aid" (#18) "Lots of Race/Class Interaction" (#19)
Ben and I have been in Portland for a few days now and it's been fun. The weather has been a bit overcast and rainy, which I guess is typical for this time of year but it hasn't been too chilly. Ben passed his tests today and has the physical portion tomorrow. I'm procrastinating on my homework and stressing out about UCCS sticking it to me with late fees even though I've done everything I needed to do and I was just waiting on them to dispurse my financial aid. Oh the joy.
We've hit some great breweries out here, enjoyed some views of the Columbia and the city and did quite a bit of driving all over the place. Per recommendations from my friend Murf we found a great brewery called 'Rogue' and tried some great, new beers. Depending on how long Ben's test is tomorrow, we might try to take a trip up to Seattle to visit my friend Jennie. I've never been to Seattle and I've heard good things about it from a lot of people so I'd definitely like to go.
In other good news, Hanna was also accepted into Josef Korbel at the University of Denver to study international development. Needless to say we were both excited about that. We still haven't heard anything back from the New York schools but maybe next week? Fingers crossed. Possible trip to Seattle. Next few days in Portland. Back to Colorado on Monday, starting my new job on Tuesday. No more phone calls with terrible, miserable customers. Life is good.
I hate celebrity obsessions but this video of Charlie Sheen 'winning' and 'bi-winning' is f'n hilarious. I can only hope that if I ever become famous I don't turn into a coked out, drunk, bat shit crazy douche bag. Way to be a good influence on your kids Charlie, way to go. Keep winning.
As of today I am no longer employed at my technical support/customer service job. Leaving today, knowing that I no longer have to listen to miserable, terrible, ignorant, overprivileged, assholish customers bitch and whine about every little problem with their phone, cable and internet(or their own inability to handle the responsibility of paying their bills).......what an awesome feeling. Words cannot describe it.
I will flip burgers before I will ever work another customer service job again. Can't wait to start my new job with Mission Possible. More to come!
Since I gave my notice of resignation at my current work today and for the most part its common knowledge that I'm leaving, I'll go ahead and post some more information about my new job opportunity. Sunday is my last day of dealing with miserable, terrible, no good customers on the phone and on March 15th I will be starting a new job with a local nonprofit organization called 'Mission Possible'. It's a part time job with the possibility of going full time. I'm fine with part time because I really need more time, so I can finish the rest of this semester strong and not have to worry about losing my mind dealing with assholes on the phone. My work title is going to be 'juvenile assessor' and my primary responsibility will be to perform risk assessments on kids who get put in the Spring Creek corretional facility, ages 10-17. I'll be assisting in the legal/judicial process in assessing whether or not kids will be at risk to be repeat offenders. It seems like a really interesting job opportunity and I am excited to start. I can feel some of my idealism coming back, we'll see if that continues. ;)
Working 20 hours a week and doing something that is actually related to the type of work I've done the past few years as well as the work I'd like to continue to do in the future will be a lot less stressful than working in a call center environment and having to listen to people bitch and moan all day. I'm sad that I won't be working with some of the good friends I've made there but I'll be keeping in contact with them and harassing them into hanging out with me outside of work.
In other news, congrats to Hanna for landing a pretty sweet job at a local nonprofit working with developmentally disabled kids, as well as a part time tutoring job and some other interviews. Congrats to Ben Rexroad for getting a provisional job offer from the Santa Fe police department. Ben and I will be taking a road trip up to Portland, where he will be testing for their police department and we will be enjoying the city and hopefully spending time with a few friends. Should be fun. Pictures and stories to come.
Today was a day of bad news and good news. This afternoon I received my results for the Foreign Service Officer exam, which unfortunately, I did not do well enough on to get selected for the oral assessment/interview portion. I admit I was a little disappointed but given that I spent maybe a total of 3 or 4 days preparing and studying, while working full time and starting graduate classes at UCCS, I'm not letting it get to me too much. I missed the score necessary to be selected for the next part of the process by seven points. I am not too distraught about it, because my intent was to get a feel for the test and see how I did the first time around. I might consider taking the test again next year after more preparation but it depends on how things are going with grad school.
On to the good news. About an hour and a half later, I received an email notifying me that I have been accepted to the Masters of Arts program at Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Needless to say I was very excited, as well as surprised. My dad did his Phd and JD at DU, my stepmom did her JD there, my cousin Shanae is finishing up her MA there now, my undergrad advisor Dr. Hazan did his Phd there and my friend Brian is finishing up his MA there as well. From all of these people, as well as other friends and acquaintances, I've heard many good things about the Josef Korbel school at DU. I feel very privileged to have been accepted and I'm very excited about the possibility of studying there.
We're still waiting to hear back from schools in NYC, both for Hanna and I, and we're waiting to hear if Hanna was also accepted into DU before we make decisions about where we'll be attending school in the Fall. To complicate things further, I'm enjoying my current MPA classes at UCCS and I'd like to continue in this program. I'm looking into the possibility of doing a short term study abroad in Europe and I'm going to sign up for at least one summer class. If possible, as I think I've mentioned previously, I'd love to get both my MPA and an MA in international studies but we'll see where things go once I know what my other options are.
In other good news, a new job opportunity has become available that I'm very excited about. I'm keeping the details on the down low until I know more but I will update the blog with more on that as soon as possible.
Here's a music video and song put together and performed my friend Mike Farrell (and I believe his brother, Zach). Mike and I worked together a few years ago. He's one of the funniest guys I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I wouldn't be surprised to see him become a pretty famous comedian/actor/musician one day, haha. Keep up the hard work and craziness Mike!
