Wednesday, April 11, 2007

And Things Just Got a Little More Complicated

Every Tuesday night, I go to an RA staff meeting. Most of the year, it's with my current staff. However, yesterday was a little different, as I went to the meeting for next year's staff (that is, the staff I will have when I am in Unit 2). As you may remember, I was not thrilled to go to Unit 2. At all. I'm still not particular thrilled at the prospect, but I decided I can get through it.

So, a few thoughts on the new "crew" and our first meeting:
-I was actually surprised at the large amount of familiar faces. Not only were two of the people from my CKC staff, but a little more than half the staff were returners. So it was nice to know that I'm not going to be working with a bunch of strangers.

-There appears to be an overall good sense of humor in the staff, which actually is an important factor to me.

-We played this "Survivor" game, which is basically where you are stranded in some secluded place (we were in Alaska for this one) with a bunch of materials, but you can only keep a small amount of them for some reason. We had to collectively figure out which 15 materials we could keep. It has one main purpose: making people feel either bad or defensive. This is because it always turns out that a relative few people in the group do the most talking, while the rest of the 28 people go unheard. The facilitators then go on about being fair, including everyone, blah, blah, blah. If this were a real survival situation, those quiet people would have already been eaten at this point, so I don't buy it.

(As it turns out, the other CKC vets and I had played the exact same game before. We each did something different: one tried to bring order by writing on the board, one didn't say anything out loud, and one [me] tried to artificially worsen the situation and make us an even worse-looking group by talking a lot and subtly encouraging the other blabbermouths to do so. 'Course, they didn't know that, hehehe.)

-I found out that one of my coworkers went to St. John Bosco, knew a few of my elementary school classmates, as well as one of my high school classmates before he came to St. Anthony.

-Overall, it seems to be a pretty good group.


However, there was one thing I heard that night that definitely perturbed me. While talking with one of the current RAs, I heard that the hall-style RA rooms didn't have their own bathrooms. This came as somewhat of a surprise, as all of the RA rooms at CKC have their own bathrooms. And, having a desire to switch to hall-style next year, this was a rather unnerving revelation, and it may make me rethink my preference.

Here's the thing: I don't like public restrooms. Especially not in dorms. I'm not sure why. It's very irrational thing, I know, but it's also very real. While I wouldn't call it a phobia, there's definitely some traces of such a thing (though I think "anxiety" is a better term). And being stuck with a communal bathroom means more than just using the bathroom in public. It means the following:
-I have to shower in there.
-I have to brush my teeth in there.
-I have to wash dishes in there.
-I have to get my water from there.

I am literally shuddering right now. It's not something I'm good with. When I first came up to Cal, I wasn't sure if I would have to use a hallway bathroom or not. If I did, I was almost ready to not live in the res halls at all, opting instead for an apartment. That's how serious it is.

Now, I could have thought for sure that there were some non-suite rooms in the units that had their own bathrooms. I would literally be willing to pay to have the RA Door (that is, the one with the little plaque that says "Resident Assistant") switched with the door of this room. Seriously. However, that's pretty much an impossibility.

I hope you don't find me too petty to be concerned over such a matter; it's not petty at all to me. And because of it, I may decide to set my preferences to work in the mini-suites with upper-classmen and transfer students, once again forgoing excited youngsters and the possibility of being thought of as an "older brother" character.

...*Sigh* I'm really torn about this.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

HAHAHA!

IT WAS JAMIE WASN'T IT!?

no. not "too" petty just very petty.

lucky. at least you're offered a toilet. I have to go across the block and use the Carl's Jr. restrooms... when they're open. when they aren't, i'm on my own.

Anonymous said...

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Public bathrooms ~Shivers!~

For once, a socialist openly sympathizes with a monarchist.

In any case, I love this quote:

"If this were a real survival situation, those quiet people would have already been eaten at this point..." I'm going to have to use this in some how some-day.

-Comrade Chavez