It's past time that I wrote down some new job stories, huh? This week is a good time to start, since it was certainly the most varied of my work weeks so far. Most of the things here are not tasks I do in a "normal" week -- although I'm starting to think we don't really have normal weeks Uptown, just different levels of urgency.

Monday and Tuesday our housekeeper was out to tend to her sick daughter. Monday we just canceled coffee and tea service, but Tuesday one of the other admins and I attempted to cover them. This resulted in the discovery that I don't know how to make coffee (not a surprise since I don't really drink it). Then, while we were clearing away the dirty cups and saucers, my coworker held up a cup to show me how the saucer was suctioned to the bottom -- at which point the saucer fell off and splashed old coffee all over the kitchen. "This is why we don't make the coffee," she said.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, our chef was out to attend to a family matter of his own, so I helped the housekeeper set things out for lunch. It was mostly just sandwich and salad fixings, plus a few ready made trays of things that the chef had ordered from Fresh Direct before he left, so the prep wasn't that difficult. The biggest problem was making sure we had enough food for the next day (including when I realized at 4:30 Friday afternoon that we didn't have enough for Monday). You have no idea how much food 30 academics are capable of eating in one sitting. Seriously. No idea.

Thursday, the coworker from the coffee incident actually covered the lunch prep while I went downtown to pick up some Very Important checks from the university accounting department (the amounts were too big to be trusted to campus mail), and also wrangle with the Bursar's office over petty cash receipts. (I lost the battle over the restaurant receipts, but did win the skirmishes over the florist and housekeeping staff Christmas presents, which given how nitpicky accounts payable is about receipts lately, was no small feat.) Plus, I got a slice from the Bleecker St. Two Boots. Yum.

My official university purchasing card finally arrived too, so on the way home yesterday I was able to buy a 3.5 lb bag of Jolly Ranchers for our candy dish. This job is a lot of things, but it's certainly not boring.