Blogging on the Powwow

Let's face it, I'm a front row, dead center, hand-in-the-air, kinda gal. I'm a willing leader, either because of my natural tendencies or because of professional and life experiences. Some could say that I'm a natural steam-roller, too, because I sometimes think that everyone is on board with my, yes-- my , ideas. How could they not be?!  I have to remind myself to stop and assess and reassess. Let's just say that I'm comfortable in the driver seat. I'm most definitely not in the driver seat here in Washington. I'm barely in the passenger seat. In fact, I think I might be in the trunk. The MSW program in which I teach at Bridgewater State University uses a cohort model . Students get to know each other very quickly. They make close friends, exchange cell phone numbers, and brace themselves for their coming graduate studies. When I get to class, students volunteer, "Did Becky reach you? She had to do a removal of a child today and is going to be ...

What happens at prom, stays at prom. Not really. That's just a funny title for this post. In a previous blog post I wrote about going to "prom" here in Washington - which is the reception between AAAS ( American Association for the Advancement of Science & Technology ) Congressional fellows and Congressional staffers who are looking for a fellow to be placed in their office. Some of the AAAS staff were specifically using the term "reception," as opposed to "prom." A former fellow called it a "meat/meet market." It was most definitely a reception.  Before the event, I had three of my new colleagues to my apartment. We hung and talked about what offices we wanted to work in, what questions we were asking during our interviews, complained about the grueling training (even though we learned so much!), and other things that new friends talk about. We got ready for the prom here at my apartment. I got a kick out of that - like high sch...

I've already blogged about how new everything is here in Washington: sleep schedule, exercise location, transportation, work, shopping, living arrangements, and more. I'm in the middle of a two week training which is turning out to be a mini boot camp, where no one leaves the hotel ballroom for 8-9 hours other than to use the bathroom or to go through the buffet line before returning to our seats for a "working lunch." That's all 160 of us in the ballroom together, presented with speaker after speaker to get us ready for our year ahead. Yesterday I saw a man who started to doodle right around 4:00pm. On a Friday afternoon. In his mandatory dark business suit. Others were texting from time to time. I refrained from checking Facebook, but I texted my new colleague, three seats away from me, about whether she was going to attend happy hour. In case you're wondering, we both attended happy hour. I got a Diet Coke and she got a water with lemon. Clearly, I have f...

So, I've been here in Washington for eight days and I have attended three days of training. Let me tell you, everything is new! At least everyone around me in the sessions speaks English and I am surrounded by fellow PhDs, but everything is definitely new! I have a new schedule. For the past zillion years, I have had the life of an academic. My schedule is largely my own. I work until 10:30pm-12:30am, sleep 6-7 hours, and then get up and repeat. Now? I'm in bed by 10:15pm and up at 5:15am to workout before leaving for training at 7:30am. Leaving for my first day of training on what was called "Day 0." I've never had a treadmill. I always run outside or at the gym. But, here in Washington I was worried about running outside or getting to a gym when it was still dark out. And, sure enough, around 5:45am-6:00am, when I am ready to get on a treadmill, it's very dark outside. So, I have a treadmill here in my studio apartment. I run at the apartment or...