Mrs. Reba Nell thinks I'm Fancy!

For all of you who know me, for the past few weeks (or month) I've been very excited to go see Reba McEntire in concert. Saturday night couldn't come fast enough!

First of all, I really like the television show Reba. For all those interested in checking it out, it comes on Lifetime on weekdays at 4 and 6pm. I may have the times wrong there; it alternates with Still Standing.

The point of that was to get you familar with Barbara Jean. Barbara Jean is the new wife of Reba's ex-husband in the television show. And she is CRAZY!!! She cracks me up in a kind of way that makes me laugh out loud and sometimes repeat what she says outloud and laugh some more when no one else is around. It's worse when people are around.

None other than Melissa Peterman (who plays Barbara Jean... she probably appreciates it when people use her real name) opened for the concert! She is hilarious. It was so very funny and I was so very giddy... which is a great mix if you ask me.

Then, after a much needed bathroom break, we start hearing the tunes to "Sweet Dreams" and the curtain starts to come up. That could have been the best rendition of "Sweet Dreams" I've ever heard. They rocked it out.

Now some of you are wondering, "They? Whose they?" Well I'll tell you. This was the Reba and Kelly tour. Which, I like Kelly Clarkson perfectly fine. I like her music. I respect her a great deal. But after that concert, I have MUCH more respect for her. Her voice crosses many genres, she sounds great live, and she held her own against the magnificent Reba McEntire.

The whole show was great. They really put a lot into it. When they ended it, of course we weren't going to stand for that. So... for the encore... they sang "Because of You", "Since You Been Gone," and to end it.... "FANCY!!!!"

I still get giddy thinking about it. It was the best! They rocked it out... not a person left sitting... everyone up clapping and singing along... they threw in some lyrics I didn't know... but I sang along like I did... awesome!

If you ever get a chance to see this concert... DO IT! My husband was not very excited about it beforehand and even he said it is one of the best concerts he has ever seen. Just cough up the money now, you won't regret it.

I would like to take this time to plead for Brandi Mair's forgiveness for going without her. I would have loved to have been able to go with you. I was thinking about you the entire time.

Amethyst Initiative

So, this is probably as random as a post gets, but while at the SWACURH conference in Fayetteville today, I had the option of going to a "Burning Issues" presentation. These presentations were basically topics that get people fired up and arguing.

The Amethyst Initiative was one of those said programs. Except, when looking at the schedule, I didn't know what it was. So, I go into this room blind.

I wasn't the only one. Out of about 40 people in the room, approximately 5 knew what it was. Finally, right before we started, someone asked. And basically, it is a political drive to lower the drinking age. There isn't a specific age necessarily (most advocate 18), but it is basically arguing that the legal age of 21 isn't working and political discussions need to ensue.

Hit up that link. It will take you to the Amethyst Initiative site. It has the overview on the homepage but it also has the actual statement that university presidents and administrators can sign, more in depth information about where it originated, and a list of schools that have already signed.

I wanted to blog about this because I want to know your opinions on the matter. As for myself, I feel like I'm about 85% supportive of the initiative. It goes back to tired old argument of, "If you can vote, smoke, and die for your country, why can't you have a beer too?"

I'm taking the stance of, "If you treat people like adults, they are more apt to act like adults." Currently, when you hit 18, you are technically considered an adult, but its more like a quasi-adult. You aren't the real deal until you are 21. My theory is, if you treat people like they aren't full-fledged adults, then why would they act like they are? Am I saying that people wouldn't act stupid? Of course not. They would. They do now. But I'm advocating an overall culture change. If when you hit 18, you have all of the rights of an adult and are encouraged to start acting that way, I believe that this wouldn't be a huge big issue. But as it is now, they know that just because they are 18, it doesn't necessarily mean they are adults.

So what do you think? Give me your opinions on this.

Weekend with Rylee!

Hello everyone! With it being election day, I've decided to blog about.... Rylee! (haha... some of you were scared).

Last weekend (before Halloween) my niece Rylee came to stay with Justin and I. Justin and I are members at the Little Rock Zoo (right up the road, how awesome is that?), so we took Rylee to Boo at the Zoo. All week long before she came she would call us and tell us how she wanted to see the puckies (monkeys), ompo-ompo-matamuses (hippopotamus), raffes (giraffes), and the zebas (zebras)... oh and the adybugs (ladybugs... we still don't know why).

Well, I have never been to Boo at the Zoo and I found out that the animals aren't really out. She was too excited us to not let her see the animals (aminals according to her) so Justin and I decided we'd take her that morning to see the animals, we'd come home and have a night, then get her dressed up in her puckie suit and take her back to Boo at the Zoo. It was tiresome yet splendid day.

Here are some pictures with caption (hopefully... I've never uploaded pictures before so bear with me)...


I had to add this one because she is so cute.


This is Rylee and Justin looking at the puckies.


These puckies...


This is Justin and Rylee at Boo at the Zoo. She was wearing her puckie suit.


In this picture, you can see the banana in her pocket.


For all of you who know Gena, this is her riding the ferris wheel with Johnny. It was so funny because Johnny wanted to ride it so bad so he told her he would pay for the tickets.


This was my favorite part of the night. They have this old school carousel at the zoo. We told Rylee all day that she would get to ride it. We got on and it started out slow. You could tell she was having fun but she wasn't giggling with joy or anything. Well, it speeds up all of the sudden. She had me, Gena, and a few workers rolling laughing. I have never seen that much joy on any kids face in my entire life! She liked it so much that she wouldn't get off once the ride stopped. Justin ended up taking her again.

Espanol Latino!

(NOTE: This is another one of Rikki's rambling blogs. Read on at your own risk.)

So, over the next year, I have a new professional goal... to learn SPANISH! I'm not entirely sure where this sudden drive in me came from, but it is strong! I do have a few guesses and hence where the update begins...

This past weekend, I had the unique pleasure of attending a partial Nicaraguan Catholic/Protestant wedding. Translation: Extremely long bilingual ceremony with a huge party afterward. Anyway, during the ceremony (in between taking pictures because photography was the reason we had this unique pleasure in the first place) I was fascinated by the bilingual aspect of the ceremony. Also, they had a lot of Latin music. The priest played the accordion and sang at one point. It was a cultural hodge-podge and I was front and center and loving it!

Then there was the reception. As I said earlier, this was a cultural hodge-podge of a wedding, so the reception was no different. It was bilingual as well. There was a lot of food. Most of it traditional Nicaraguan food. But for kicks and grins, let me walk you through the line of food...

The first table had traditional fruit, meats, and cheeses. Then it moved on to a tub of refried beans, another tub of guacamole, a tub of pico de gallo, and a plate of fajita chicken meat with peppers. The next table had bread-sticks and chicken alfredo delivered from Pizza Hut. Then we end with homemade chicken enchiladas.
The next table had every two-liter beverage you can imagine and beside it was a keg of beer.

Did anyone catch the random Pizza Hut delivery? Just checking. I actually laughed out loud when I saw it because I was so amused. But I know that there were people there who were so thankful that they brought something in that they could enjoy without question. Me, I passed. I can order Pizza Hut any day. Bring on the ENCHILADAS!

Anyway, the next portion of the evening was the dance. This is the part that I enjoyed the most. Not because I danced, but because I watched others dance. Everyone was having so much fun! The music was so fun! There was Salsa dancing, line dancing, American music, Latina music... you name it, it was playing and everyone was dancing to it. At any given point there were about 5 different versions of dancing going on.

Now, I've always had an interest in learning another language. I've always wondered what language I would choose. I want to know them all. After visiting Europe and loving the Netherlands so much I thought it would be Dutch (I have to be different). But who knows when I will make it back there again, and most of them know English. And I can truthfully say, as of today, I have never encountered another person in Arkansas that I could not communicate with because they knew Dutch and I didn't. So this option was not practical.

I went to RA Conference a few weeks ago in Edinburg, Texas (if you have a map, it would be easier to find if you look for the southernmost point in Texas that is surrounded my Mexico... that's Edinburg). We had a blast. It was a great deal of fun. But I so very much enjoy the Hispanic culture. Some of it came out in the chants that schools did, some came out in the skits for roll call, but mostly, I just liked interacting with people and sharing. I spent a lot of time just talking to people from other schools around the area.

So, at some point this weekend, I decided to look up Spanish learning software; namely, Rosetta Stone. I've heard rave reviews about it, so I thought I'd check it out. Five hundred and forty dollars they want for this software. FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY DOLLARS!!! I was shocked and appalled.

Now I realize that with this software I would learn this language in a fraction of the time it takes most people to learn a language. I realize that even with my discount at the university, I would still spend more trying to take all of those classes and learn it that way and it would take so much longer to do, and I also realize that this will dramatically increase my marketability on my resume... so I realize that it is well worth the money... but the fact still remains... I'm about $500 short of being able to buy it... lol.

So I leave you with this... has anyone ever used Rosetta Stone to learn a language? What about another type of software? Any recommendations? I've heard good things about "Tell Me More" software, which is overall a bit cheaper. Ideas? Suggestions? Comments?

Do tell...

Chelsea's Momma For Obama!!!

Okay all you political folks, please put aside your traditional views to go ahead and read this blog. It will be worth it. If you are wondering how I could be excited about this, then imagine who you would think would make the best president, and insert their name where Hillary Clinton is in this story. I'd like you to share in my joy.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton came to Little Rock for a rally in support of Barack Obama for President. Among famous faces were Blanche Lincoln, Charlie Daniels, Mark Pryor, David Pryor, Vic Snyder, Ted Dansen, and Mary Steenbergen. There was a facebook group created for the event and they sent out a message yesterday encouraging people to make their own signs for the rally. Who am I to disagree?

So a few of us got together and made signs. All morning I was trying to think of a sign I wanted to make. While in the shower (where I do some of my best thinking) I came up with "Chelsea's momma for Obama" since that is the whole point in the rally in the first place. So I ran that through one of the people going. It was a hit. So we made two signs that said that. Then we made a "MCCAIN: The Real Bridge to Nowhere". Then a student brought one that said, "UALR hearts Obama". I believe we had one more sign but I have no idea what it said.

Well... when we get out there and I start to hold my sign, people are constantly asking to take a picture of it. Then Ted Danson and his wife Mary come out and I can see the glee on his face when he reads my sign. Blanche Lincoln comes out to speak and she points to my sign, turns around to Hillary and says, "Haha Chelsea's momma.." Mike Beebe and Hillary are elbowing each other and laughing about it. This made my day.... until....

Hillary Clinton takes the podium. She speaks for a while. Then she says, "I love all these signs you all have made. I think my favorite is this one over here (she points to me) "Chelsea's Mommma for Obama!"

If I would have had a full bladder I would have pee'd myself right there. I was giddy like a school girl on lollipops and pigtails day. Seriously.

So for the record, out of 3,000 people at this rally.... Hillary picked me. I'm her favorite. I rock.

The end. Be happy for me regardless of party affiliations. Because, let's be honest... that was freaking cool.

Is listening extinct?

Today has been one of the more frustrating days of my life. And yet, I believe that it may be one of my more profound days professionally.

(NOTE: This post will be random at best and I'm willing to bet that there are two, maybe three people that will get it if they read it the entire way through. No feelings will be hurt if this is not your cup of tea.)

First off, I will start saying that the frustrating part of my day and the profound part of my day have nothing to do with each other. Have you ever just had a day where little annoying things kept happening one after another? That day that, if only one or two annoying things happened, it wouldn't ruin your day, but the fact that they just coming really wrecked it? Its like the straw(s) that broke the camel's back. So... as a result, none of those things are of notable importance and will not be mentioned.

I had the unique pleasure of attending a webinar today titled "Teaching Troubled Students: Campus Policy and Threat Assessment." When I went into it, I didn't really know what to expect, but I was still excited about it because, A) I'm a professional development dork, and B) this a big concern, especially in housing. The presenter was Gary Pavela, who has astounding credentials to be presenting this program.

Anyway, the third slide of this presentation said, "Good teaching, good mentoring, respectful listening, and treating students with respect as active participants in the learning process are the best campus "security measures" we can devise." The next slide said only this, "Only way to prevent violence... Get into their heads and hearts."

For some reason, this really struck me. Listening has been on my mind a lot lately. In the past few months, I've become more and more aware of the lack of listening among student affairs professionals. It started with a very simple misunderstanding. When it was passed to me, it just turns out, the people weren't being listened to.

Then, I observed a conflict in progress. I could tell immediately that there was a lack of listening. I was able to step in and solve the problem by simply listening.

This made me reflect on angry parent phone calls. Thus far this year, I have been forwarded my fair share of angry parent phone calls. Thus far this year, there is not one problem I wasn't able to handle calmly and promptly. Upon further reflection, I realized that all I was doing that was different from those who had handled them prior, was listen to them.

After all of this, I keep seeing "call for programs" for several upcoming conferences. And I'm thinking to myself, I should do a program on listening. But then, who in their right mind goes to a conference and attends a listening program. I'm going to have to be extremely creative with the title to get people there. But at the same time, I feel obligated. One of my talents is I am a good listener and I see its importance. For so many student affairs professionals to "know" that listening is important, few demonstrate this through action.

Which brings me back to today. The very beginning of the seminar on preventing school violence, listening is named one of the most important preventative measures.

So, in essence, not only am I going to start developing a program for "listening", but I believe that when I begin work on my doctorate degree, my dissertation will be about listening in some form or fashion. I'm very passionate about it and I believe the lack of it creates most of our unnecessary burdens as professionals and the increase of its use could be a powerful recruitment and retention tool for universities... not to mention, the development of our students as positively contributing members of society.

So, if anyone comes across any literature that would be of use to me, please send it my way. This is growing to be a passion of mine.

And I leave you with some wonderful listening quotes...

“To listen is an effort, and just to hear is no merit. A duck hears also.” Igor Stravinsky

“Listening is the only way to entertain some folks.” Kin Hubbard

“The first duty of love is to listen.” Paul Tillich

Our First Brand New CAR!!!

What a rollercoaster ride today has been! Good grief!

As most of you know, my poor little 2000 Malibu has been quite the guessing game lately. I named her "Peggy" long ago, so from here on out, that is what I will refer to her as.

Well, for quite some time now, Justin and I have known that Peggy was on her last leg. Each time I took her out, I was more and more nervous as to whether she was going to make it or not. So, Justin and I made the plan to search for a new car.

We started looking on Labor Day. We had our hearts set on a Honda Accord. We were reserved to buying used because you get more for your money. Well, turns out, the Honda dealers do not want to sell on Labor Day. So we window shopped instead.

In the meantime, Justin started thinking that maybe we should get a Civic because they rate the same as an Accord and they are quite a bit cheaper. Since he is the one that will be driving it the most, I wanted him to be happy with the car. So, after some discussion, we decided to look at both.

Now to the good part. We got up this morning to go look at cars again. We had no intention of buying today but I kept reminding Justin that we needed to at least be open to buying today should the opportunity present itself. It just so happens that the Accord and the Civic are selling like hotcakes now because of their longevity and awesome gas mileage. So we might have to act fast in order to get what we wanted.

Well, the second lot we looked at (Honda World in Conway) had this lovely little silver 2006 Civic that only had 22,000 miles on it. So we went in to ask to test drive it. The salesman was very helpful and honest with us, first off. His name is Chad if anyone needs a new Honda. Anyway, he was straight with us and said, "I would love to sell you this car. I would. But right now with the popularity and the mark-up, there is only a $1000 difference in that one versus a brand new 2008 Civic." After more discussion, we found this to be true. And personally, I think a new car less 22,000 miles is worth an extra $1000.

So we went and looked at the new ones, and sure enough, they were darned near the same price as the used. They had a tan one and a beautiful apple red one. (For those of you concerned, its that darker red that isn't quite maroon, but the color of a red delicious apple, AKA beautiful). We test drove it and fell in love! This car is wonderful! It is not over the top with leather seats and moon roof and blah blah blah. But it is all the car we need and it gets 36 miles to the gallon! And did I mention it was pretty? And safe? And amazing?

Anyway, as I said, we were not expecting on buying and our salesman was not pushy in the slightest. He was very upfront and honest with us from the get go. Well, we started asking questions about the buying process and what not... just getting ourselves prepared... and everything just fell into place.

Well, if any of you know me well at all, you know that spending money stresses me out! I was great while we were talking. I was great while we were drawing up the papers. Even when we got the trade in value on Peggy... still... cool as a cucumber. (Of course, I should be here. I kept saying if they offered me a pack of gum and a handshake I would take it. But regardless... still cool.)

Then it came time to make the down payment and sign papers.

DUM DUM DUM!!!!

I thought I was going to throw up right there at Honda World. I was in a weird mood the whole way home. I'm trying to be excited and Justin and the salesman and trying to get me excited and all I can think of is... "where will this money come from?" and "I've never been in debt before" and "what will this do to insurance?"

Well this is the part where God is good. Justin and I thought we would have to re-allocate some funds in our budget to be able to afford this car. But, after looking at our budget tonight, we are able to pay $200 extra on the car EVERY MONTH!

So right now I am on cloud 9 and a half! God has blessed me with a great marriage, a great home, a great job, a great family, great friends, and now great security with our auto situation and peace of mind financially. I could not be more blessed and I am so very thankful right now.

And now, I'm off to cuddle with my husband and/or play Rock band in celebration of our first major purchase in life. :-)

And in case I you haven't heard, I still miss you all a great deal.

Ah to dwell in the past...

Hello everyone! The title to this entry is much unlike me, as Adaptability is my highest strength according to StrengthsFinder 2.0. But, last night, I had the wonderful opportunity to go back to Conway and have dinner with the girls from last year's staff of Conway Hall.

Now up until this point, I have to be honest, I hadn't realized how much I missed them. I mean, I knew I missed them, but I think I had so much to do and was so overwhelmed with starting somewhere new, that it just didn't hit me. And better yet, I don't think they realized how much they missed me either. It was just so nice to see everyone. We joked, ate pancakes, and laughed so hard and loud that my face was hurting and every other customer in the place wanted to hurt us.

But we didn't care. When Gena and I left, we were so happy and yet so sad at the same time. And it got me thinking about where I have been and where I am going.

What is funny, is that earlier that day, I had a little bonding moment with my new staff. Some of them were hanging out in my office and we were just joking around, not doing anything in particular. Up until this point yesterday (right before I left to go have the reunion dinner) I hadn't really showed them my smart-ellic/sarcastic side, at least not to its full capacity. Apparently, I unleashed it during this hang out time. It was a lot of fun. We all just kind of relaxed and bonded as fun people instead of being clouded by "our roles". Which, to those who know me well, you know this meant A LOT to me.

So anyway, when Gena and I were leaving the dinner, while I was sad that those wonderful ladies are no longer a part of my staff, and that is terribly sad seeing how close we were, it is exciting to know that I will probably get something similar with this new staff. I remember the beginning stages of the last staff when we hadn't bonded and the breakthrough times we had where we slowly but surely became close friends. So it was a bitter sweet thought process on the way back to Little Rock.

Which brings me to today. I have really been missing members of my cohort lately. More than I anticipated doing actually. I desperately want to have updates from everyone. I'm trying to figure out who will be at the same conferences I will be.

While trying to do a favor for one of my RAs, I stumbled upon the foreign languages website. And the pictures on the front page are....

The square in Belgium and the Eiffel Tower!!!!

Ahhh... Europe. It just brought back so many memories. I'll list a few for those who know what I'm talking about...

The crazy elevator that tried to eat my good friend Brandi.
The first time we saw the toilets in Amsterdam.
The bicycles being meaner than the cars in Amsterdam.
Dr. Ness in the Red Light District.
Titanic in French.
The club in Maastrict (did anyone get that website?)
Michael and the swans that were infected.
Banana pizza.
The first time we saw the Louvre.
The Arc at night.
Our hotel a couple of blocks down from Moulin Rouge.
The pimp bus the brought us there.
Dr. Ness's face when he ate the "butt candy".
Nu'Rodney's elevator music.
Peter.

And so many more. But I'm making myself warmly sad thinking about them. If any of you have anything to add, please do.

Know that if you are reading this, I more than likely miss you a great deal. And would really like to hear how you are doing.

RA Training and Opening

Hello everyone! I was worried it might be a bit longer before I got to update but, alas, the time is here.

First off, RA training was tiring, but a blast. We started by doing the strengthsquest test and discussion which went amazingly well. It seemed like everyone enjoyed it and might have given some people some inspiration. We then went on the retreat to the 4H center in Little Rock. This was a blast! I am a very interactive trainer, so we did some interactive ethics and diversity activities the night we arrived. The next day we got up for breakfast, then started the team building activities. Before I go on, I should digress for a humorous story.

When we arrived at the center, no one was at the front desk to check us in. So myself and another RA started roaming the place looking for someone to help us out. The only person we could find was the lunch lady. So, we asked her to find someone to check us in and she did. Well we have dinner and do our activities and people started to go to bed. Apparently, throughout the night, some of the RAs and CAs decided that it was creepy that there was only a lunch lady around when we arrived. They also thought it was weird that there was all this nice equipment around and there are people staying the night, but no security and the doors were not locked. Finally, they thought it odd that there were no peepholes in the doors of our rooms. Well that was the final straw for them. They spent most of the rest of the night comparing our experience to a horror movie and watching under the doors for people walking in the halls.

So, I found out about this the next morning. While we are at breakfast, I decide to have some fun of my own. After everyone got their food, I stood up and made an announcement. It went something like this...

"Can I have everyone's attention? I just wanted to give you guys an update on what happened last night. I don't know if the sirens woke anyone up, I asked them to keep quiet but some of you may have heard. I also didn't want you guys to be freaked out today when the police come and ask us some questions. Does everyone remember the lunch lady from last night? Well, apparently when she left work last night, she stopped at the town down the road and murdered an old man. The police do not know where she is or why she did it, but they are asking anyone who was here last night for any information they may have. So, if a few of you get called out while we are doing activities today, I'm going to ask that you be very cooperative with them."

There was a long silence. Then, one of the CAs who was freaking out the night before exclaims, "I told you guys!"

I then said, "Everything I just said was a lie. I just wanted to mess with your heads!"

It was really funny. Some found it more funny than others but, I think everyone appreciated the joke.

The ropes course was fun, but somehow not what I imagined it would be. I came out looking like a battered woman because some of the obstacles are meant for the longer legged person. So I found myself dangling by my arms in between ropes a few times. But it was fun. I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be. I went down the zip line... and screamed at the first drop. But it was worth it. It also rained but I think that just added to the challenge. It kept us cool also.

Finally, training came. It went really well. Some of the food did not go over well because the kitchen got kind of fancy and we were just hungry. But I think it was a good experience. The Behind Closed Doors went extremely well. This was the first year that the police had been involved here. I believe that will continue in the future.

And finally, I can take a few moments to catch my breath. I have been telling my RAs all week that my husband is going to leave me if he doesn't get a homecooked meal soon. There is a dodgeball tournament tonight but after that, hopefully we will get back to normal.

Tonight we have our first floor meetings and a surprise. If you are in housing, you probably know what the surprise is, but for all others, I can't tell you until after it happens on the off chance that a resident reads this before the surprise occurs.

In private, I'll have to generally tell you guys about my opening day experience. There were some awkward moments that could have gone really, really badly. But I handled them like a pro and nothing was blown out of proportion. Give me a call if you want to trade opening stories. :-)

I miss everyone and very badly want an update from you.

Before the RAs Arrive...

Hey guys! Thanks to my lovely friend, Brandi, I've been inspired to give a quick update before I begin work.

The RAs arrive Saturday so I'll be working a full 19 days without a day off. That sounds nasty, especially to people who work in factories or jobs they hate, but I doubt I'll notice much. I'll miss my husband. But that's about it. I live for RA training and move-in. How dorky is that?

So, before they get here, I should not be on my blog... lol. This is how much I love you guys. :-)
I need to finish putting together their RA manuals. When I started going through the manual to look for things that needed to be changed, I saw that they had information from 1994 in there. And it seemed like a lot of handouts that were from other schools and it didn't match. It is a lot of great information, but you all know me and how OCD I am, so I'm retyping and citing a lot of stuff to make it look uniform.

I also get to plan training from SCRATCH! How pumped am I?! Very pumped. Very. Here are some things I get to do.

First, I get to introduce a true Behind Closed Doors to the university. In the past, they had acted out some minor scenarios but nothing really critical and they police were not involved. This year, I get to involve the police and build that relationship and I get to introduce them to some major scenarios.

I also get to do StrengthsQuest 2.0 with my staff! After learning about this program at SACSA two years ago, I've been hooked. I was super jealous when some of the GA's last year got to do it during a staff meeting. Then I heard Steven got to do it with his staff at his new school. So, I had to pitch it. I'm so excited about it.

I also have a good budget that is flexible enough to do some really cool stuff. My RAs don't have to worry about wanting to do a really cool bulletin board or cool door tags and not having the money. We can go shopping and get their supplies that they need.

Finally, since I was a wee little tot, I've wanted to do a ropes course. I've done the low ropes course, but when I did that I was under the impression we would get to do the high ropes. Boy was I disappointed. So... I'm taking my RAs on a retreat and we are doing the Ropes course! I could not be more excited about it. I have 10 RA's and only one of them is a returner. So we are going to need some intense teambuilding. I know it is kind of scary being new at a university and having almost a whole staff that is new, but I'm really excited about it. I have so much flexibility with all the newness.

Anyway, this is what's going on now. It may be a bit before I get to update again. I hope to get some pictures of my apartment up soon. That takes initiative on my part and that's not my strong suit when I'm at home.

Would you like the red pill or blue?

Ok, so I have to share a story that really happened to my husband but it affected me. And, let's be honest, it's pretty darned funny.

I am in a meeting all day and my husband is at home. Justin hears a knock on the door. He opens the door. There is a man in a very nice suit standing there and he says, "You must be Justin Turner."

He says, "Yes."

The man in the nice suit then opens his laptop and says, "And this must be your wife, Rikki."

Yup, my picture is on his laptop. Justin, now completely freaked out says, "Yes, that's her."

Man in nice suit then says, "Can I come in?"

Now what would any sane person be thinking right now? I told Justin I'm surprised he didn't offer him the red pill or the blue pill. Justin doesn't know what to think, but allows him to come in anyway.

This was the problem....

We had a wireless router plugged in. Man in nice suit had already taken the liberty of disabling it from his office before he came over for the chat.

Apparently, at my current university, we have an FBI ballistics lab and some other random things that requires the network be ridiculously secure. It is for this reason they have software that only detects wireless routers. Then it shuts them off. Then you get a visit from Morpheus. If you plug it back in after Morpheus leaves, they will fry your router from their office rendering it useless.

This also applies if your Wii is connected to the internet playing Rockband with your friends in Illinois... as a purely hypothetical example. So... no Rockband... no shooting Germans (Medal of Honor)... none of this with our friends from afar.

Its not as bad as it sounds, or I'm making it sound. But after the guy left, my husband was freaked out for a good two hours afterwards. He was extremely cordial, not rude in the slightest. But something happens to a man when a really well dressed man shows up at your front door with your wife's picture on his laptop.

Celebrity Bashing

Hello all. I'm starting this blog with out really knowing if and who I will invite to view it. It may end up being just for me. At any rate, if you are reading this, consider yourself lucky.

Now, with this being my first entry, I hate starting on a negative note. But two separate instances today have made me very sad on behalf of people. While listening to an unnamed radio station via the internet, I heard a theory about Nicole Kidman's baby. The story was long and drawn out as to hook as many people as possible into this story (which I cannot blame them for doing, that is their job). But the essence of the story is that there is a consipiracy theory that Nicole Kidman can't actually have babies, if she could, she would have had some with Tom Cruise. So her sister was a surrogate and Nicole simply pretended to be pregnant but is far to skinny now and her sister has been in hiding. Blah, blah, blah. This is not the disturbing part. After this story is told, the DJ says, "I don't know if it is true or not but if it is, it's just funny."

Why is that funny? No part of that is funny. If you know me, you know that I like to laugh probably a bit more than the average bear. But should this story be true, it by no means qualifies as funny. Here is an example of a funny, personal story. (Notice: All people in the following story are completely fictitious. The events that follow may or may not be.)

There once was a farm girl who lived on a farm. Her name was... Farmina. Farmina woke up one morning to do her daily chores. One of her daily chores was to feed the cows. Being a quirky farm girl who also attaches to animals easily, she named all the cows. Farmina was a farm girl, as mentioned before, but perhaps could not be described as a 'creative namer'. She called the cows to the trough. "Here, Dot!" she called to the heifer with a dot on her forehead. "Here, Google Eyes!" she called the heifer with big bug eyes that often were crossed. "Here, Munchkin" she called to the runt calf. "Here, Hussy!" she called the mean heifer cow. One by one, they show up and crowd around Farmina as she feeds the cows. Farmina, a savvy farm girl, pats each of the cows all down their bodies as she leaves so that each cow knows exactly where Farmina is as she exits, as to not scare any cow into a kicking frenzy. This didn't work. Hussy, as mentioned before as the 'mean heifer', takes this opportunity to "stretch" her back leg in a one fluid yet spastic motion that sends Farmina face first into a fresh cow patty, aka cow dung. Ironically, Farmina pulls herself up and says, "Crap!"

That's a funny story. Whether or not you laughed out loud is neither here nor there. Every human being can at least read that story and say, "I could see someone laughing at that."

If you were paying attention, at the beginning I mentioned there were two instances today where I was upset with the human race. The second is on the same radio station. Two days ago I heard the aftermath of some Britney Spears bashing. Apparently, one of the DJs had gotten a hold of a Britney demo where there was no technical help. It was Britney's voice bare bones, no help. The DJ and several callers where going on and on about how horrible it was. "Terrible!" "She would be on the bloopers for American Idol" "It's like a bag of cats being thrown into a wall!"

Today, as I'm bringing up this station on the internet, I see the "Britney Demo" button on the side and it says "Does this sound good? You decide." So, excited about utilizing my free will, I listened. It was fine. Maybe not radio quality, but I sure could never sound like that. And, what's worse, its a very heartfelt song about her sons.

Why do we find ourselves so easily tearing down celebrities? Their life is so much harder than ours. They are still humans. Saying mean things still hurts them. And I'm guilty of it too. Please don't take this as myself chastising others, I'm included in this soap box. I just found myself sitting at my computer this morning sad that as humans, we find it so easy to lash out at others. This is not only confined to celebrity bashing. We bash each other all the time. This happens at work with flaming e-mails. This happens on facebook and myspace more and more, especially with the invention of the honesty box. It just makes me sad.

The end. If you made it this far, go you! I give you an imaginary cookie. Now you decide what to do with it.