New Challenges

Hi everyone.
I was in Palm Springs with Dave when Uncle Don passed away so we didn't hear about it until we got back. I had a phone message from Aunt Janice, one from Gary and one from Debbie - all with no message except to call. I knew immediately that something was wrong. Called Gary and he told me what had happened to Uncle Don. Very sad. The Oregon Harmons didn't have a lot of contact with Uncle D and Aunt Ann but I have pictures from a couple of trips visiting them that will help us remember him. I know he'll be missed by so many.

Palm Springs was fun. Our friends, Dave and I rented a nice house with a pool and good air conditioning. We needed it. It was unseasonably hot there and in fact on Saturday it was 106 degrees. Dave stayed in doors quite a bit of the time. He hates hot weather. Unfortunately, our friend Eddie came over the first night we were there and as he entered he tripped into the sunken living room which had dark brown carpeting. Eddie had his sun glasses on so couldn't tell that the floor took a dip. Well he did and sprained his ankle. We didn't know how bad it was until the next day when he couldn't walk. Not good for him, since he's a waiter and his livelihood depends on being on his feet. He lost a week of work but is doing fine now.

Well, I wanted to let everyone know that the new job that I had mentioned earlier, has panned out and they offered me the job Thursday afternoon. There is still one final hurdle to jump before they will begin to negotiate salary etc. They have to get a waiver from the Affirmative Action Office to offer me the job without having to post it (i.e., take applications from others). But my future boss assures me that they will get the waiver and I'll get notice of appointment by next Friday.

It's going to be a real challenge to transition from my current job as Summer Session Coordinator to my new position as University Curriculum Coordinator, but I'm really looking forward to it. This is a job that I've coveted for a number of years and now that it has happened, I'm very excited. I'm going to have a wonderful office with a window overlooking the South Park Blocks, one of Portland's lovely parks (and part of PSU's campus).

However, the challenge will be learning the job. Unfortunately, the woman whose position I'm taking retired effective on Thursday and will NOT come back into the office. So that means I won't have anyone to mentor me on the position; we all knnow what she does, but no one (including her boss) knows how she does it. Her desk is one disaster area with records and reports piled three deep and it's going to take me a month just to go through the mess there. Plus, because of the nature of my current position, I will have to continue to do that job throughout the summer. So for at least three months, I'll be doing both jobs. I'm going to be working a lot of weekends and late nights.

But I'm still stoked about the job. I've been in Summer Session for almost 20 years and I'm so excited about having a new challenge, a new boss, new colleagues and an office with a view I can hardly contain myself.

Wish me luck.