If you didn’t know and couldn’t guess, I do have a job. I already mentioned I live in an Animal House-esque dorm; well, they don’t drink (that I have busted them for) and they haven’t (yet) put a horse in anyone’s office (and then killed it), but it’s full of 25 boys so you get the picture. 
To get an idea of the kind of school I work at, know that I was told, sternly, not to call it a “dorm” because: “we live in houses, not dorms.” Now, I don’t have anything against trying to give teenagers who live away from home a feeling of family and comfort, but jeez, I seriously get snapped at every time I slip and call it what it is: a dorm. Plus, I went to high school where they weren’t afraid to call them dorms, every college in America calls them dorms, and I worked at a different high school where I lived in and, again, called them dorms, so honestly, that ain’t a habit that’s about to be broken. The trusty online lexicon Merriam Webster, which we know to be fact, says a dormitory is: “a residence hall providing rooms for individuals or for groups usually without private baths”. Truth be told; I live/work in a dorm. Just don’t tell my boss I said that.
Living in said “house”, I get paid to “take care” of high school boys every other weekend and every other Tuesday, among random re-assignments. The free apartment, free [dining hall] food (not half bad, really) if I need it, and free utilities would have been enough, really, but they offered to give a “Campus Resident” stipend, as if I should expect that (my last place of employment screwed me over I guess), and I wasn’t about to not take the money. So that job really entails leaving my apartment door (the one that is directly connected to the hallway, yikes) open and making sure people show up a few times, alive, on my watch; half of them leave on weekends anyway so it’s even less of a duty. A miniscule effort goes into leaving notes on my personal whiteboard when I go somewhere, and I guess it counts as work to walk around and make sure their rooms aren’t totally embarrassingly dirty and unsanitary (only when I am “on duty”, of course), but really this part of the job is worth it because I can turn up the heat (or the AC) as high as I want, leave the faucets running, never turn off any utilities, and take the longest showers I want. I’m not inclined to, and in fact have extreme environmental guilt when I, do all of the above things but the point is I could if I wanted to—for free. I’m not saying we should waste resources and take advantage of free stuff but really, the idea of it is magical.
Another part of my job, and the reason I ended up at this school anyway, is coaching. Field hockey in the fall, skiing in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. Just like the good old days of college. Only now I am in charge and actually have to show up with a game plan; the bonus is I can party on Friday nights (haha, good one) and the probability of pulling my groin is quite slim. PS. People don’t give coaches enough credit; I may be a bit obsessive, but I could spend hours on practice and game plans, line-ups, and preparation—for high school. Did I mention I’m competitive?
This coaching aspect, which I absolutely adore, is the whole point of my rant today. One would think during ski season we spend the practices skiing, but no. Mondays we have off (fine with me, and good for the athletes), Wednesdays are random bits such as watching video, running, strength circuits, or possibly time for ski tuning or…nothing at all, Fridays are race days, and the other two days we actually do train on-snow, as they call it. Compared to my last ski coaching job, in which I had to stand on the freezing, windy hillside six mornings a week for 3-7 hours and get up at 5am on weekends, it’s nothing. So I’m not complaining about the amount or type of skiing, what I’m getting at is the inconsistency and my issues with remembering how the days change all the time and my problems with things not being exactly as they are supposed to be. We haven’t exactly had a regular plan going, so basically I check my e-mail every afternoon hoping I haven’t missed the start of practice already. It’s nice to be the assistant though—it can never be my fault, whatever “it” is.
Today, in marathon-training land, was a 5 mile run. There aren’t really good loops around here that equal 5 miles, and I am absolutely against doubling-back on my tracks (too boring, not to mention for wusses), so I made up a less-than-fiver-miler than suited me. No problem, just shaved a half mile or so off to make it fit into the 45 minutes I had between work (admissions office, long story) and ski practice. Really, I don’t mind shortening a run. Little did I know, ski practice was running. I show up at home, stinking in my cold, sweaty layers, thinking
I can get nice and warm and cozy, make some tea, and find the ski team for some non-physical thing or other. No. I must immediately go to the sacred meeting area, do a head count, and pretend to be psyched to run. Awesome. In addition, for added fun, there are circuits at the end. After the run. The second run of my day. Ski practice circuits, for you newbies out there, are painful and repeated exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups, jumping, ab-work (til you almost die) and other fun activities. Did I mention they are painful and repeated (over and over…and over again)? At the end of the day I didn’t feel too badly cutting my marathon training a half mile short.
Then, I slept.
To get an idea of the kind of school I work at, know that I was told, sternly, not to call it a “dorm” because: “we live in houses, not dorms.” Now, I don’t have anything against trying to give teenagers who live away from home a feeling of family and comfort, but jeez, I seriously get snapped at every time I slip and call it what it is: a dorm. Plus, I went to high school where they weren’t afraid to call them dorms, every college in America calls them dorms, and I worked at a different high school where I lived in and, again, called them dorms, so honestly, that ain’t a habit that’s about to be broken. The trusty online lexicon Merriam Webster, which we know to be fact, says a dormitory is: “a residence hall providing rooms for individuals or for groups usually without private baths”. Truth be told; I live/work in a dorm. Just don’t tell my boss I said that.Living in said “house”, I get paid to “take care” of high school boys every other weekend and every other Tuesday, among random re-assignments. The free apartment, free [dining hall] food (not half bad, really) if I need it, and free utilities would have been enough, really, but they offered to give a “Campus Resident” stipend, as if I should expect that (my last place of employment screwed me over I guess), and I wasn’t about to not take the money. So that job really entails leaving my apartment door (the one that is directly connected to the hallway, yikes) open and making sure people show up a few times, alive, on my watch; half of them leave on weekends anyway so it’s even less of a duty. A miniscule effort goes into leaving notes on my personal whiteboard when I go somewhere, and I guess it counts as work to walk around and make sure their rooms aren’t totally embarrassingly dirty and unsanitary (only when I am “on duty”, of course), but really this part of the job is worth it because I can turn up the heat (or the AC) as high as I want, leave the faucets running, never turn off any utilities, and take the longest showers I want. I’m not inclined to, and in fact have extreme environmental guilt when I, do all of the above things but the point is I could if I wanted to—for free. I’m not saying we should waste resources and take advantage of free stuff but really, the idea of it is magical.
Another part of my job, and the reason I ended up at this school anyway, is coaching. Field hockey in the fall, skiing in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. Just like the good old days of college. Only now I am in charge and actually have to show up with a game plan; the bonus is I can party on Friday nights (haha, good one) and the probability of pulling my groin is quite slim. PS. People don’t give coaches enough credit; I may be a bit obsessive, but I could spend hours on practice and game plans, line-ups, and preparation—for high school. Did I mention I’m competitive?
This coaching aspect, which I absolutely adore, is the whole point of my rant today. One would think during ski season we spend the practices skiing, but no. Mondays we have off (fine with me, and good for the athletes), Wednesdays are random bits such as watching video, running, strength circuits, or possibly time for ski tuning or…nothing at all, Fridays are race days, and the other two days we actually do train on-snow, as they call it. Compared to my last ski coaching job, in which I had to stand on the freezing, windy hillside six mornings a week for 3-7 hours and get up at 5am on weekends, it’s nothing. So I’m not complaining about the amount or type of skiing, what I’m getting at is the inconsistency and my issues with remembering how the days change all the time and my problems with things not being exactly as they are supposed to be. We haven’t exactly had a regular plan going, so basically I check my e-mail every afternoon hoping I haven’t missed the start of practice already. It’s nice to be the assistant though—it can never be my fault, whatever “it” is.
Today, in marathon-training land, was a 5 mile run. There aren’t really good loops around here that equal 5 miles, and I am absolutely against doubling-back on my tracks (too boring, not to mention for wusses), so I made up a less-than-fiver-miler than suited me. No problem, just shaved a half mile or so off to make it fit into the 45 minutes I had between work (admissions office, long story) and ski practice. Really, I don’t mind shortening a run. Little did I know, ski practice was running. I show up at home, stinking in my cold, sweaty layers, thinking
I can get nice and warm and cozy, make some tea, and find the ski team for some non-physical thing or other. No. I must immediately go to the sacred meeting area, do a head count, and pretend to be psyched to run. Awesome. In addition, for added fun, there are circuits at the end. After the run. The second run of my day. Ski practice circuits, for you newbies out there, are painful and repeated exercises such as squats, lunges, push-ups, jumping, ab-work (til you almost die) and other fun activities. Did I mention they are painful and repeated (over and over…and over again)? At the end of the day I didn’t feel too badly cutting my marathon training a half mile short.Then, I slept.
No comments:
Post a Comment