Back at JMU

This blogpost is clearly overdue since I've been in Harrisonburg since July 31st. Oh well.

Being back at JMU is exactly what I needed right now. I needed to be surrounded by people I love, I needed to be doing what I love, I needed to be in a town that I love. Everything about JMU means love to me.

When I arrived I spent a lot of time fixing up my room....and sleeping. Then at the end of the first week FINALLY some people from my program were really around to start hanging out with. I've never spent so much money in one week in my life. We were at bars and restaurants and doing other fun activities - thank god LCPS is still paying me or I would have been mega screwed. It's been so great getting to know everyone, and I've already developed a close relationship with a couple people in my CPSA cohort. I'm thinkin' we're gonna be a great support system through our difficult journey as graduate students.

I started my new job earlier this week as well. I'm the GA for Substance Education, meaning that I am responsible for teaching the Calling the Shots alcohol class while I supervise 4 Program Assistants who teach the By the Numbers class. From what I understand, the students that will be in my class have more serious charges, like they are on their second strike or they got a serious alcohol charge, etc. It's a 3 week class that meets once each week for 2 hours. Looking at the curriculum is definitely making me a little nervous just because I have to be well versed in the world of alcohol. At the same time, I'm really excited to learn about tolerance and trigger levels and many other things. I'm also looking forward to taking "field trips" with my supervisor to different stores in the area where we look at the alcohol displays to stay current with what's available in Harrisonburg. I'm also responsible for staying as current as I can in the world of alcohol and drug news, so it's fun to go searching news articles for the new fads. Tomorrow I meet my PAs and I'm super excited to get to know them and train them for their classes as well. I'm sad that my direct supervisor is leaving Judicial Affairs to move to SWO but at least she'll still be on campus so I can still see her - she's phenomenal! Totally someone I love to work with, very relaxed and hands off and super intelligent and knowledgeable about alcohol. I'll miss her!

My apartment is great too, except I'm a little sad that Muñeca refuses to go downstairs (it's a 3 story condo and I'm on the 3rd floor) because she's too afraid of my roommates kitten. Hopefully she'll get over it soon because I don't want her to feel trapped like a princess in a tower. She's doing well though, and I did a lot of decorating in the house so it feels homey. The downstairs level is sunflower themed with sunflower pillows on the couches, sunflower table cloths and accessories, even sunflower febreeze. It's that serious. In fact, I actually made the sunflower pillows and I reupholstered the couch to make it yellow just so I could keep with the theme. Here are a couple of pictures of the first level:

Kitchen/Dining Room

Living Room

So there you have it. That's basically what my life at JMU currently consists of. I'll keep you posted on what else is going on - though knowing me it'll take me another 6 months to blog so I'd just follow my Twitter if you really wanna know.

In the spirit of Tacos,

Candace