Rub It In

Posted by Braden

My first few days of work as an RA have been comically difficult.

Two nights ago, I was assigned to "rove" for the first time. The shift, which lasts from 8–12 p.m., requires you to go through the buildings, check to see if anything is broken, talk with the residents, lock all the doors, close the blinds, turn off the lights, etc. Normally you just check your tri-hall and associate tri-hall, so a total of six halls. Because the semester hadn't technically started yet, there were fewer RAs working, and only two of us were available to rove through the 24 buildings. So a few more halls to check--that's not bad. But according to the Weather Channel Web site, which I checked before I left to rove, accounting for wind chill and humidity, it was going to fee like -8 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Fortunately, I was running up and down stairs a lot of the time, so keeping warm wasn't too hard, with the exception of my face. Hidden ice on the stairs was a pain, however.

Another part of my job is having the sidewalks around my building shoveled by 8 a.m. It has been snowing almost constantly the past two days--we've accumulated of about 8 inches of snow, and counting. I shoveled Monday morning . . . and Monday afternoon . . . and Monday night . . . and Tuesday morning . . . and I'll probably shovel again when the snow finally stops. *Sigh.* Weather aside, I do enjoy the job so far!