Aaron's Orientation

Aaron here. I will be the substitute blogger for the day.

Today I had my first day of work. So last night I double checked that my alarm was set for 6 am and then turned on the fan and went to sleep. At 7 am Kate said "Sweetie, it's time for you to get up." I barely heard her over the noise of the fan. I rushed around the house and did my chores and made it to the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) for my orientation on time.

When I got to MAG I got in line to get my orientation packet. I then looked up to make sure this was the right line and noticed that the twenty or so people that were ahead of me all looked like high school students. The perpetual nagging feeling of not belonging started to become more acute at this moment. Apparently the lady behind me noticed this too and asked me if this was the right line. I assured her it was (since people always like a yes man) and we joked about how much high school students sucked. I then died a little inside because I secretly had wished my job would end up a little like high school, but I digress.

We started out our orientation with learning about MAG. The history, collections, and activities offered. One of the highlights was that our room was the only non-air conditioned place in the whole building. All 167 of us enjoyed that tidbit. Now you may wonder why a statistical analyst or a nurse or an admissions administrator would need to know about MAG. I would guess if you did wonder that then you were probably the person in algebra class asking your teacher if you will ever use this after eighth grade. JUST STOP ASKING QUESTIONS, OKAY?

After learning all about MAG we had diversity training. I was excited about this segment because The Office episode about diversity training was very entertaining. Again I was disappointed to find that TV didn't accurately portray real life, but I do feel that I learned a lot. For instance, the people who put together the diversity packet have a different order for the way numbers go, in their world it is 2, 3, 1, and I found that to be ok.

We then all had to learn about safety. We learned that cross bows and machetes are not allowed. Who knew? At my table in orientation two recent college grads were talking about how the pay might not be the same as other corporate jobs they were looking at, but if you take into account the benefits U of R offers, you get about the same amount. For instance the lady for the safety office discussed how they offer personal escorts. Now I don't need one, since I am married and all, but I have never heard of a corporate job that offers escorts or at least advertises it as a benefit.

Then we learned all about confidentiality. That is all I have to say about that.

Really not much else happened throughout the day. We discussed topics and waited while people tried to fix technical difficulties. All in all I would say I waited around about an hour while people tried to fix things or find cables. It was very orienting.

During the last section we had to sit through the lady next to me struck up a conversation. She noted how she went to Cornell, like Andy. Then we talked all about Ithaca for the next half hour or however long it takes three people to fix a VCR. I thought how nice I made a friend. Then as we were going through the presenters packet she started guffawing over the grammatical errors. Apparently my guffaws weren't guffawly enough for her and she never spoke to me again. It is always sad to lose a friend, especially an ivy league friend.

I left for home at around 4:15 confident that I would be fully orientated if only I had a half day more of this. Lucky for me I do, tomorrow.