"It's enough to drive you crazy if you let it..."

...working 9 to 5."

Well, hopefully I get to keep doing so....

I don't know if you've heard or not, but the economy isn't doing so hot right now. Many companies are downsizing across the nation. Surprisingly, SoDak has felt the crunch too, though we were able to stave it off for a little while. Today, the governor's new budget proposal came out and it has my co-workers and I worried.

I work for Cooperative Extension which is part of the College of Ag. & Bio which is part of SDSU which is part of the Board of Regents. The BOR budget has been cut $5.5 million. Of that, Extension is being cut $1 million. That is almost 20% of that cut, which is a decent percentage in my mind.

The problem comes in that I am the 4th newest person to be hired state-wide and the 2nd newest in my specific position. I don't have much along the lines of seniority, and my area of the state is fairly well covered with youth development educators. $1 million is a lot of money and I think the only way to cut that amount is to cut people--but I certainly hope I am wrong. The BOR announced today that they are doing away with 5 positions in the area of accounting and are completely closing the School for the Deaf--that is a lot of jobs that just vanished.

So here, I am, worrying. Plus, the Post Office in Kadoka lost my student loan statement for the month, so I got a late fee. I am now officially upset.

"What are you doing the rest of your life..."

...the north and south and east and west of your life?"

Today? Not much it seems.

Repeat after me (ala Bambi in the "bir-dah, bird" scene): Bore-dah. Bore-dah. Bore-dah. Bored.

Yup, I am bored. I was planning on not being in the office today and tomorrow for a business trip, but it got postponed. I hadn't planned on doing anything these 2 days and had worked ahead earlier in the week to compensate for my absence. Now, I am here with very little to do. Today I have:
-ordered toys off of Amazon.com and bid on some more toys on ebay. I love my job in that I get to order toys.
-goofed off during an on-line teleconference. I know I learned something about the teenage brain, but I couldn't tell you what it was.
-sent numerous pointless and quasi-important emails. But nothing earth shattering, except for this one which was sent to everyone in Extension on my side of the state:

All,

Due to a series of unfortunate events, [coworker] and myself are mourning the abandonment of our county laptops in Brookings. What was supposed to be a short stint with Chuck to make sure that they worked appropriately and that we could function adequately with them has drastically turned into an extended layover with no escape for weeks to come.

So, we are inquiring if anyone is planning on going to Brookings in the near future and, if so, we would like to plead our case for you to graciously return said laptops to this side of the state. Thereafter, we can make further arrangements to pick them up. If you are making such a trip, please let [coworker] or myself know. We, and our laptops, would appreciate it.

Thanks again,
Jessica & [coworker]

I got a kick out of this, as did many of my fellow educators who informed me they couldn't pick up my computer, but that they liked the email regardless.

Now I think I am going to build a robot. I have nothing better to do, and it sounds like a good idea. Who doesn't build robots at work? Additionally, I haven't removed my Christmas mix off my iPod and it is not cool to be playing Christmas carols at the office in January.