a day in the life, plus some

so photo a day is place where you work -- so heres the deal for those curious souls. i am employed by a university and i work with fraternity & sorority members. yes this is a real job. no i do not party with them. yes i have a masters degree. no i am not a baby sitter. yes i attempted to pick up where you left off developing your child - and no i don't coddle them or punish them for attempting to make life decisions, instead i try to help them work through their decisions to see both the positive and negative. all that and a whole lotta 'ish in between.

the lovely MUC where my office resides and i instill vast amounts of knowledge into college kids

so lets begin. a day (and a little bit more) in the life of brianna - ms greek advisor. lets start on the positive. last night my panhellenic had a WONDERFUL event. i am MEGA proud of them this semester. so february is considered the month of the scholar per the National Panhelleinc Conference (governing body over 26 inter/national sororities). so to celebrate we invited all panhellenic sorority women with a 3.5 or above to join us for some light refreshments and a certificate in their honor for their academic excellence. three advisors came as well  - so nice to see them when its not a recruitment meeting (oh wait, thats next tuesday!) so delightful event, proud momma moment. especially because they executed it with very little help from me (i advise, not do).

so come home with a nice little "success high" and fool around on the computer. last work item for the day at 10:30pm: responding to the director of the physical plants email regarding occupancy in greek village (can we shove two more people in those townhouses or not???!) - meeting set for monday afternoon (could this have waiting until this morning, yep, but sometimes its just easy to get the little stuff outta the way quick!)

roll into work this morning to write my commitment letter in support of my IFC presidents desire to be SEIFC president (if he gets elected, ultimately i get elected - wooo lucky me kids!) - as i'm trying to knock this out one of my students comes in to chat about his experience at an interview weekend for grad school (he's going into higher ed, proud momma moment again! he's a great student and going to do great things). back to the letter, oh nope, co worker comes in to talk about frustrations we are having with bringing a co-ed latino fraternity to campus, oh upper administration -- how sometimes you frustrate us little guys! okay so now i REALLY knock out the letter and then helped him review his platform. i'm feelin' productive! the accounting office calls - phone call goes something like this "hi this is the accounting office, your check for the southeastern interfraternity conference and the one for brianna lom-"oh whatever that name is" is ready to be picked up" -- YUP, super customer service we have!

email, email, work on contract for a program, email -- next up off to the bank and j & k embroidery! $882 for per diem for the IFC guys for their conference this weekend, check -- the rest deposited so i can pay for hotel, check -- picked up embroidered button downs for IFC to wear at said conference -- check! we are looking good here kids. while at j & k i made a little friend, he so wanted to come home with me!

how stinkin' cute is this little guy!

email email - chit chat with a few student visitors, verify grades for chapters to extend bids (mega proud of one of my sororities and their work this semester with continuous recruitment, its not easy but they are rocking' -- proud momma moment!) ENTER GREEK WEEK MEETING! typically i try to get a student to oversee greek week for like an internship and i tag out, but i'm working with my grad student (who is amazing) and a student who is really responsible and on task so it makes it a joy. greek week theme - GREEKSTOCK - 5 days of peace, love and greeks! before you assume i suggested this idea, i totally didn't, student chosen, but, not gonna lie. I LOVE IT! peep the tshirt (feel privileged as this has not been seen by the students!)

a shirt i am actually EXCITED for

this year we are having a hypnotist, minute to win it games, blood drive, day of service, greek olympics and of course lip sync (with canned food drive) -- which we are going to be combining with our greek awards ---- GREEKSTOCK GRAMMYS! oh yea, i'm pumped. they are also working with the theme to try and add a risk management component -- a marijuana smoke out, fitting with the theme of the week. we'll see if this little gem works in.

after this i'm just trying to crank out some stuff before my departure tomorrow morning for the conference. getting my presentation ready, packing up stuff to bring with, you know the usual. chat with a student who got accepted into george washington in DC and explore a few housing options with her and figure a realistic budget based on her stipend (this chick is amazing, 4.0 student, 2 term chapter president and on SGA executive board, yea amazing!) email email, BAD EMAIL!!! although this is not a picture from today, it does express a feeling i get when i get a BAD email

bad email face

long story short, (because if i think about it any more it'll give me hives), the email was straight up ignorant. that i allowed to consume me for the rest of the day.. and into MY evening. i'm sure this email battle is not over and the ignorance will continue and if i didn't risk potentially loosing my job by putting this guy on MAJOR blast and all the ridiculousness that made my eye twitch this afternoon i totally would. i shared the email battle with a friend and was at least able to laugh it out a bit - sometimes you just gotta laugh, let it go and move forward (still on the let it go part, not gonna lie).

to end my work day -- i headed over to our fitness center to pick up cornhole boards for the service event that is hosted friday night of the conference. or so i thought, until i found out one of my sorority women was named a TFM sweetheart (too long and extensive to explain) but this isn't necessarily a good thing - i'm sensing an educational moment coming on monday post conference. 

needless to say, my days are never the same. in one day i can have laughter, tears, yelling, singing dancing, you tube videoing, planning, coaching, empowering, complaining, etc etc etc -- you get the point. but ultimately why i love my job. even though there is some ignorance and stupidity i still get some warm fuzzy proud momma moments (ifc even crowned me with the nickname of "momma dozzi" -- i refuse to allow them to call me that in pubic, but yet find it slight endearing).

so there you have it a day in the life of a not so typical job, but one i love none the less.

oh wait, the day isn't over -- i still have to pack for SEIFC, 7 fratstars in a 15 passenger van on the way to the ATL.... three words, pray for me! xxoo