Bring On Autumn

Over the last month or so, I have felt the fingertips of autumn: brushing a smoky crisp smell through the air and sometimes dancing on the tops of trees.

The craft stores even have their supplies of autumn-themed crafts and decor out -- and I think it's never too early to smell dried corn husks and straw!

Summer is one of the busiest, social times of the year -- there are all kinds of events and family things to be a part of. I am still helping out my friend with weddings, and that has taken up a few weekends already -- plus there have been family events, coworker farewells, summer music festivals, and other things, leading up to me not having had many weekends to myself.

Work is taking me to task right now: our 2013-2014 group of trainees are on their way out. Most of them have their last days on Thursday or Friday, but a few have straggling appointments on Monday of next week. The incoming trainees start on August 1. Between now and then, I have a bunch of stuff to do: double-checking evaluations from each of the the outgoing trainees and ensure that all of them signed by all the necessary people; reorganize the staff manual; print copies of the training manual, staff manual, and EHR manual, and insert it into an orientation binder for each trainee; and order / reassign keys for the incoming cohorts. (That's in addition to finalizing leave approvals for June, writing a procedure for turning in leave, calculating and graphing the average number of appointments the Behavioral Health office in the medical clinic had during each semester of this academic year, and reorganizing and renaming the evaluations so that they are easily identifiable.) Most of this needs to be completed before August 1.

I do so much during each day that I don't have the gumption to come back to my apartment and do anything productive. Thank goodness I've had leftovers to eat the last two nights!

All of this seemingly random life-at-the-moment reflection has to do with my topic and my first two paragraphs, I promise! :)

Today was our goodbye lunch for the doctoral psychology interns and our postdoctoral and post master's fellows. There was a lot of running around that wasn't expected. The Training Director and I set aside two hours for decorating the rented conference space in a building on the other side of campus, but I got a whole thirty minutes to help her. Tuesdays are our days for rotating staff meetings, since we have an hour in the morning where we are closed, and today was a day when we had two of them which were pertinent to me. (I don't attend case consultations as they are not relevant to my position.) After those two hours -- during which I accrued more minutes to type up and found out that I had to run extra errands because the Training Director's Purchasing Card didn't work at the store today -- I went downstairs to print out my Chipotle catering confirmation and get my computer set up so that I wouldn't have to do it at 2pm, which was my expected RTO time. While I was logging in (to Windows and our EHR platform), the student staff person stepped out to make a personal phone call, my supervisor went to the restroom, and a counselor stopped by the desk to ask me about an appointment that was put on their schedule during the last staff meeting, all while the phone was ringing. My boss made it back before the student staff member did and I proceeded to get ready to leave. I informed her of the counselor's query as I was gathering my stuff up and locking my computer, and she told me that we have a department vehicle to use, since I wouldn't get reimbursed for the miles, gas, and wear-and-tear on my personal car. Before she can vet the car's existence or use status, her personal line rings, and the office line rings again. I answer the office line and put it on hold. She calls over to the accounting department, verifies the car's existence, and finds out that it won't be in use until this afternoon, but I'd have to go over and fill out a form. I wasn't about to take MORE time to go do that, so I leave and she resumes duties at the front desk. I drive halfway across town to get the cake from Whole Foods, hop to a nearby grocery store to get ice and 2-liters of soda, drive back to campus, call the Training Director to help me carry it all in to the rented conference room, scramble to help in whatever way I can knowing that I have to get the catering order in twenty minutes, stay an extra ten minutes, leave to get the catering order remembering that the confirmation sheet was still on the printer in the office, stand in line at Chipotle because I don't want to be rude to the lunch crowd, have a minor heart attack when the guy ROLLS (!) out this cart stuffed with boxes and bags of food, stuff it all in my car that still has furniture leftover from my visit home this weekend, drive back to where our conference room is reserved, round up folks to help me carry it in because after all that I'll be DAMNED if I'm carrying it in multiple trips, set up the food, eat, cry during the supervisors' speeches, have delicious delectable moist cake, combine leftovers, take down the decorations, and go back to the office, where I knew paperwork related to the days' company-card purchases, my daily administrative duties, and a pile of "these need to be dones" were waiting for me.

So, after the last few weeks -- and especially the last day -- I am ready to shirk everything and schedule some much-needed ME time. I am ready to embrace the things that I envisioned myself doing when I envisioned myself in my apartment: reading, crafting, painting and refinishing furniture, scrapbooking / smashbooking, taking personal photos, and keeping it organized.

I probably won't shirk everything -- I am much too conscientious for that -- but the idea is surely appealing.
Once the hump of orientation is over with, and the semester is underway, and our new administrative assistant (who starts Monday!) is acquainted with her position, I should have some breathing room to do all of that. It should be officially autumn, then. Free time and beautiful stuff happening outside -- what could be better?

...that being said, I do have a weekend coming up where there is NOTHING on my calendar. No plans. No coworker's concerts to go to, no family events, no music festivals...nothing -- blissfully. (That's even how I wrote it on my weekly calendar!) I will undoubtedly spend Saturday morning straightening up my apartment and doing the requisite cleaning stuff, and Sunday will probably bring calendar cohesion and meal planning time, but the rest of the time will be spent on finishing the Brewer reception photos, reading, and perhaps some SMASHbooking, since I am only up to February. What a blissful weekend.

What a great preview to autumn.