There are a couple of gaps in the switchboard coverage schedule and when the first one happened we panicked a bit. Well, I panicked.

We called around to try and find the former supervisor to no avail and finally I just sat down, put on the headset, hoped I understood the controls – and took the calls.

And I rocked.

I was polite, friendly, helpful, and emphatic. One of my co-workers stepped in to help too and between the two of us we had it covered.

The next time we had a gap, I brought along my laptop and kept going with my regular job.

The most interesting bit? How gratifying it was.

All day long I’m confronted with huge problems: systems down, sites needing work, training issues, etc. But these were small problems – someone needs transcripts, another has an admissions question, or wants to talk to a specific person.

Those small problems were no less important than my website work, but were so quickly solvable. Even the people that were upset were okay once I just listened. And cared – if only for a moment.

I had been dreading covered that switchboard again – but no longer. It had been my first campus job waaaay back in the day and I’m enjoying the challenge of solving all those small problems again.

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Our group has card access to our new office – but not to the building. It’s usually open by the time we get into the office, but it will be a problem during the off hours if we need access.

So, when we got an email from the Lock Shop telling us our keys would be ready for pick-up in one hour… we waited an hour and then rushed over there. Or ambled. I would have rushed, but my natural walking speed is much faster than my coworkers.

Except the keys we got didn’t work in any door in the building.

We checked.

Back to the Lock shop for new keys and these now opened the door to the office complex.

The same door that our keycards will already open.

As far as the building – nope, still no keys for that.

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My family celebrated an early thanksgiving this weekend. We went down Friday night after work, then stayed the night and spent the day with my folks and my sister and her family. My nieces were fun and the food was good – and we played some seriously cut-throat games of “No Thanks” and “Qwirkle”. I lost terribly at the first, but I’m all over those brightly colored shapes and patterns of Qwirkle.

Yes, I’m a toddler.

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We drove back this morning after breakfast and I spent the afternoon working on Christmas presents for friends and family. There was a lot of paper and glue flying around – and I finished a really amazing gift that I’ll post pictures of once I actually give it.

I’m glad origami was a hobby that stuck with me. It’s kind of amazing to take a simple piece of paper and transform it. And then combine those shapes into new ideas with another fold, a print on paper, or just a different perspective.

Still got more work to do, but I’ll have plenty of time over the thanksgiving break to work on these.