My first real job!!

Hello faithful readers! I'm now counting the minutes I have remaining as an employee of the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce. Only five more days of answering telephones and doing mailings! (That's really not all I do here;) I start Thursday at Gear UP at SOSU!! It's still pending some signatures from the higher-ups, but Sandy Decker, the Gear UP director, basically told me that's all we're waiting on! It's actually a full-time, professional position. My title will be Information Technology Coordinator for the Gear UP program. For those of you not familiar with the Oklahoma educational system, Gear UP is a college prepatory program created especially for low-income students who might not consider post-secondary education an option. My position sounds like I'll be a computer guru, and I will be working on the Gear UP webpage, but mostly I'll be doing public relations: press releases, brochures, newsletters, etc. I'm really excited about it! It should be a great place to get some much-needed experience in the field and learn if PR is what I want to do.

On the marriage front, Jay is in the midst of basketball season, so lots of traveling. They had a tournament over Thanksgiving (No, family members, he was NOT in the deerwoods just for the fun of it, and no they didn't give him an option of not going to this tournament over the holiday.), so Shadow and I spent three nights at Mom's. Way too much food and just enough family! When I talked to Jay Thursday night, he asked me to tell him what all I had eaten that day. Poor guy! They had Thanksgiving dinner at Golden Corral! Meanwhile, I had three consecutive meals of Thanksgiving...bleh. I really don't like Jay being gone so much, but it's all part of the job, I guess. I hate when he misses family events, mostly because everyone seems to think, as I indicated above, that he just chooses to do more fun things than hang out with my family. I suppose his having a fishing tournament the day of Cristy's wedding didn't help matters too much. I got so sick of saying, "It's a tournament he and all his college buddies have every year, and this year a guy from Minnesota flew in for it..." They literally had it scheduled before Cristy had her wedding scheduled; that's how big a deal it was. But hey, he made it for the family picture and wedding, and still managed to get back in time to win the tournament!

Potter Mania!!

Here's what everyone needs to start getting excited about right now: Harry Potter 4!! Mom, Kyle, and I are going opening night tomorrow night, which should be crazy-fun! Waiting in line at the release of a big movie (with people you like) is like waiting in line for a sweet roller coaster, only better, because you've got food and it's not 100 degrees! Also, everyone around you is just as pumped about the movie as you are, or they wouldn't be there, so the excitement is electric! By the time you get into the theater, it doesn't really matter if the movie lives up the hype. However, I think HP4 will, b/c this is definitely the best book of the series. By the by, does anyone else think Daniel Radcliffe looks like a brunette David Bowie in this picture? It's at the NYC premiere.

How does Corporate Communications Consultant sound (For a career.) (For me.)? Jay's corporate-America brother Brian called me out of the blue the other day after reading my blog to give me a super-sweet career idea. He said I should put together a corporate communications portfolio of newsletters, brochures, and press releases to market myself as a a way to a way to outsource internal and external public relations. Does that sound right, Brian? Anyhoo, I interviewed at Gear UP at SOSU the other day for a position as Information Technology Coordinator, which is basically digital and print PR and communications. If I get that, I think that would be an excellent way to get some experience for having my own business, while maybe starting slow on the side, getting InDesign-certified and some small clients.

I cannot BELIEVE how close Christmas is!! Every time I go to Wal-Mart (about six times a week), I see that sign that says how many Saturdays are left until Christmas, which is starting to give me this sick, panicky feeling. I'm thinking online shopping will be the way to go this year. Jay's family will be happy no matter what I do. Before we got married, they never knew whether they'd receive something from Jay or not; sometimes he'd give his mom something like a bag of frozen shrimp from Sam's, or his brother a random camera case...so just getting what I call a real gift from Jay (sort of) is probably okay with them.

However, I'm verrry excited about the holiday season because of all the family!! Yay for togetherness! I'm glad we're not one of those families with cliques and conflicts; it's all fun when the Pannells get together! (Well most of the time anyway...)

What am I supposed to be?

An Assistant Chamber Manager? A reporter for the local (crappy) newspaper? Information Technology Coordinator for Gear Up at SOSU? The first is my current job, which apparently I'm so overqualified for that my boss is interviewing for my position already!! This happened yesterday, and I overheard the whole thing! He actually invited me in to his office (it's open to mine) to tell the girl about what I do. He basically told her not to quit her current job (at Arby's), but he doesn't expect me to stay too long because I have a degree in Journalism, and he knows the pay and benefits are terrible (He didn't say the last part to the interviewee). So I guess now I don't feel guilty for applying for the other two jobs. We'll see.

Other news around Mauck Manor...is really limited. My social butterfly sister left me a voice mail last night while I was in class that went like this: "Hey Kim, you're probably cooking dinner or doing dishes or cleaning house or watching TV, but give me a call when you get this." Thanks, sister! I made sure to give her a call after I made goulash and spinach and watched "The Amazing Race."

Book of the week is Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan. It's a book I'm reading for my Native American Lit class that is actually very enjoyable to read. It's like watching a historical suspense thriller! And it fictionalizes some very important events in Oklahoma history: Back in the early 20th century, when Indians were receiving allotted land to make up for white settlers stealing their homelands, white people would find one way or another to get that land back. Whether the land had oil or not, the white people wanted it, so they would murder the owner, marry an Indian woman, or the government would basically force the Indians to sell by withholding their royalty checks (for grazing leases or oil wells). It was crazy!