Had my first day today. First things first, I'm dead tired. I really couldn't get to sleep last night. I had tried all last week, sometimes successful, sometimes not, to get to bed at a reasonable time. If I had been more consistent on the side of successful, I probably would have gotten more than 4.5 hours of sleep last night. Oh well. Tonight, it's the Daily Show and The Colbert Report and then bedtime for bonzos.

The first half of my day was spent at a Human Resource led orientation. Orientations are usually very boring, but luckily, this one was only 4 hours. And despite the boring factor being on the high end of the spectrum, I learned a lot about how I'm going to be putting those dead presidents into my pocket, how I'm going to pay for my tooth cleanings, how I'm going to get new eye glasses, and what should happen should I find an appendage "dismembered."

I must say that I truly get a kick out of the applause HR speakers get at orientations like this. First off, there's always that awkward moment where you wonder if anyone is going to clap or not. Usually, someone does, so that means everyone else has to clap as well.

People will clap for anything. They clap at the end of movies, even though none of people from Hollywood are there with them, and yes, they clap for HR employees giving a seminar on PPO's and HMO's. It's never really a rousing ovation, either. It's kind of a going through the motions types of things.

I have to give a big shout out to people who work in HR types of jobs. I don't know how people look at insurance claims and accounting slips all day. It takes a special type of person to be able to do this.

The second half of my day was excellent. I went into the Gender and Sexuality Center and got a tour of the office, which is nice and cozy. It's weird to know that I'm going to have my own computer, inbox/outbox thingy, mailbox in the dean's office (probably), and all kinds of cool responsibilities. As I said, this is my first "real job," so all of this type of stuff is new to me.

I got a tour of practically the entire building in which I'll be working. I met tons of my fellow employees in the building. Although I am having a hard time remembering all of their names and what exactly they do, I'm sure that it'll all become old hat as time marches on.

But yeah, it's a bit overwhelming at the moment. All the more reason why I'm really pumped about going in tomorrow. I'm ready to keep this train moving along.

It helps that the Center I'm working for works on issues and causes that I find both fascinating and very important. Should be a great learning experience.

that's all for now.

peace and love