Autumn

Autumn is here...I had to use my heater this morning on my drive to work. At the moment I am wrapped in a blanket and have heater on at my desk because somehow the air conditioner is STILL ON...oh the south. This weekend we did have an office retreat up at one of our student's lakehouse on lake Logan Martin, it was BEAUTIFUL up there. We don't have lakes on Long Island, so I never understood all of the excitement of a lake. Don't get me wrong I still would prefer the ocean ANY day of the week, but when your pretty much landlocked I guess I should take what I can get.

Speaking of the retreat this weekend, it was SO much fun. We took our 10 student staffers, our GA and the 4 pro staffers 2 hours away to the lake for the day. The car rides themselves were fun for the various groups, but all being in a living room being silly was fun too. We actually did a bunch of activities, icebreakers, brainstorming etc. It was great. I lead a selections activity where I wrote the profiles for 10 people up for a job as an orientation leader and only 6 could get hired. Now each of them had their quirks, but the funnest part was that I named the characters after people I knew and even gave them at least one attribute of them to the character fun times!

My students are awesome and it def motivated me and pumped me up for the rest of the year. Another thing that will really evergize and excite me will be going to NODAC in Boston next week. NODAC is the National Orienation Directors Association Conference. I love conferences because it's a time to learn and network. I am presenting this year with two ladies from grad school which will be fun. Plus I am going to a preconference that is just for New Orientation Professionals called OPI and I've heard so many great things about it and how helpful and motivating it is. I can't wait! In addition to the fact that I'll be back in the Northeast in BOSTON where I have a bunch of college friends who I hope to see while I'm there.

Well let me get back to work and drinking my tea which will hopefully warm me up!