I started my new job this week. The title of my job is the same as the title of this post, but it's too long to write out again, so from here on out, I am an EMPA. When I talk to people, they want to know what I will be doing at my new job. I'll try to explain.
I work for Indiana University's Center for Survey Research. They conduct surveys for various clients. I (and 5 others) were hired to work on the annual National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE). Over 600 colleges and universities participate in the survey every year, and our job is to process all of the materials that come in from the colleges and universities and are sent out to respondents.
We are spending this week learning more about NSSE and some of the tasks that we will perform. We spent this afternoon pouring over sample spreadsheets of student information "cleaning" them. Our job was to practice finding all of the capitalization, punctuation, and address formatting errors so that we can e-mail and mail the surveys successfully. It was very quiet and very tedious.
Yesterday, the EMPAs had to wait around for the PowerPoint presentation to be set up and we discovered that of the 6 new hires, 5 of us recently moved to Bloomington because a significant other is attending IU for grad school. It sounds like the other grad school spouses are spending their time a lot like me: watching lots of television and movies.
It's nice to start a job with lots of other new people. Even though there are still awkward silences during our break times, we're all learning together and have the shared experience of being in Bloomington because of someone else's education. Hopefully, it will lead to something a little bit more exciting next year!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
One car
Luke and I only have one car. We decided that we would sell one of our cars when we got married since Bloomington has pretty good public transportation and we would save money. Being a one car family hasn't been too rough yet since I've been home and can pick Luke up if he needs a ride.
Today, I'm taking the car to Effingham, Illinois, to hang out with Michelle. Luke will be staying in Bloomington to work on homework and watch the Colts.
Luke just saw a local Wendy's commercial. They are having a contest for 4 free Colts home game tickets. Luke says, "Guess what I'm having for supper!?" And I reply, "Are you going to walk?" Luke is sad now.
Today, I'm taking the car to Effingham, Illinois, to hang out with Michelle. Luke will be staying in Bloomington to work on homework and watch the Colts.
Luke just saw a local Wendy's commercial. They are having a contest for 4 free Colts home game tickets. Luke says, "Guess what I'm having for supper!?" And I reply, "Are you going to walk?" Luke is sad now.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Our thing
It only makes sense that Luke and I would spend a lot of our time together watching movies, especially since we met and started to get to know each other through our movie watching, but it has gotten a little extreme since we have moved. I guess that not knowing many people has something to do with it. However, this is more than just simple movie watching. We have a goal.
Anyone who had ever visited Luke's apartment knows that he has a pretty large DVD collection (let's estimate somewhere in the 200s). Then Luke got married and came to be co-owner of all of my DVDs (whether he wants to be or not). One day, Luke decided that we both have to see all of the movies in our ownership. So we went through our (alphabetized) collection and pulled out all of the movies one or both of us has not viewed. I counted somewhere around 80 movies that we now have in queue to watch...in alphabetical order. After we watch each movie, the person who added the movie to the collection has to explain what they like about it and why they bought it.
Whether I want to or not, I had to watch Brotherhood of the Wolf and I will have to watch From Hell.
Now I, being the kind and gracious person I am, have given Luke the opportunity to stop a movie. He was obviously not enjoying Bridget Jones 2: The Edge of Reason. And I did not blame him at all; the first movie was done much better and this one strays so far from the book it's barely recognizable. Ten minutes into the movie he was obviously in pain. I told him that if it didn't improve in 15 minutes that we could stop the movie. Luke is incapable of doing this, though. He has a goal. He will do everything to complete this goal. So Luke sat through the entire movie and complained about it. If I was on the fence about this movie before, Luke has now completely ruined it for me.
The next movie that was formerly mine was Chasing Liberty. Okay, small confession here: most of the movies I added to the collection are chick flicks (Luke also had a chick flick to add to the collection, though!). Chasing Liberty is one of my guilty pleasures. Watching it brings back fond memories of living with Michelle and checking this movie out from the Vinita Park library over and over and over until Michelle finally gave it to me for Christmas. I didn't want Luke to ruin it for me.
FYI (and Luke's), I know that most chick flicks have completely implausible story lines and that there are scenes that are cheesy. I can smell cheese. Trust me. However, Luke feels the need to point these things out in the movies I love. So each time one of these scenes came on, I had to remind tell Luke, "Don't ruin this for me."
He did pretty well with Chasing Liberty. Anyone want a copy of Bridget Jones 2?
Anyone who had ever visited Luke's apartment knows that he has a pretty large DVD collection (let's estimate somewhere in the 200s). Then Luke got married and came to be co-owner of all of my DVDs (whether he wants to be or not). One day, Luke decided that we both have to see all of the movies in our ownership. So we went through our (alphabetized) collection and pulled out all of the movies one or both of us has not viewed. I counted somewhere around 80 movies that we now have in queue to watch...in alphabetical order. After we watch each movie, the person who added the movie to the collection has to explain what they like about it and why they bought it.
Whether I want to or not, I had to watch Brotherhood of the Wolf and I will have to watch From Hell.
Now I, being the kind and gracious person I am, have given Luke the opportunity to stop a movie. He was obviously not enjoying Bridget Jones 2: The Edge of Reason. And I did not blame him at all; the first movie was done much better and this one strays so far from the book it's barely recognizable. Ten minutes into the movie he was obviously in pain. I told him that if it didn't improve in 15 minutes that we could stop the movie. Luke is incapable of doing this, though. He has a goal. He will do everything to complete this goal. So Luke sat through the entire movie and complained about it. If I was on the fence about this movie before, Luke has now completely ruined it for me.
The next movie that was formerly mine was Chasing Liberty. Okay, small confession here: most of the movies I added to the collection are chick flicks (Luke also had a chick flick to add to the collection, though!). Chasing Liberty is one of my guilty pleasures. Watching it brings back fond memories of living with Michelle and checking this movie out from the Vinita Park library over and over and over until Michelle finally gave it to me for Christmas. I didn't want Luke to ruin it for me.
FYI (and Luke's), I know that most chick flicks have completely implausible story lines and that there are scenes that are cheesy. I can smell cheese. Trust me. However, Luke feels the need to point these things out in the movies I love. So each time one of these scenes came on, I had to remind tell Luke, "Don't ruin this for me."
He did pretty well with Chasing Liberty. Anyone want a copy of Bridget Jones 2?
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