Hello everyone! Happy 4th of July! It just so happens that it’s also time for our coffee chat!

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As always, I’m enjoying a homemade coffee but lately I’ve been enjoying coffee with oat milk. It’s not my favorite but it’s still good!

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If we were having coffee I’d tell you, all about how Camp Cuddles is going! My puppy niece is with me so I can dogsit her and she’s been a delight. I took her to the beach the other day as I had a day off work as a late celebration of Juneteenth, and it was a lovely morning walking along the beach and trails. She has also been a great work buddy, as I’ve been working from home. She has one of her dog beds in my home office and she either naps there or in my lap. I adore having her around!

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that my new job is going pretty well I think! My coworkers all seem lovely and have been very kind. They are also quite helpful too! There are a few other new people that I have befriended so I created a group chat in MS Teams for us to ask each other questions and hopefully answer them amongst ourselves first while we reinforced our learnings. It’s been fun and we do get along great! The job itself though I don’t think is quite for me. It just seems so simple and not very well supported as there are so many little tasks that I feel should be automated. The turnover, I’ve discovered, is also quite astronomical. While people leave for many reasons, most people seem to agree that the common theme is that there is just too many small tasks that take up too much of the day and there isn’t much time for actually advising students. Plus, many of us were hired after we applied as academic advisors only but then we were suddenly offered academic AND financial advisor positions. Apparently the two positions were merged years ago but when the company had trouble hiring for the hybrid role they would only post it as one or the other and then reveal the truth later. I knew that already as I was a referral but the others didn’t and they seem quite annoyed by that. Especially since we all applied as academic advisors only and had no interest in the financial bit. The financial part, coincidentally, is the biggest thing that I feel should be automated. There’s so many little things that go into it and I can’t believe that so much time is wasted on advisors doing manual calculations trying to figure out how much financial aid a student needs. It’s crazy! But it’s a job at the end of the day so I’m not doing much complaining quite yet.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that I’ve forgotten how much 40 hours in a week is! I feel like I’m always rushing to get to places after work or to cram stuff in on weekends. Luckily I work from home, so I am also saving the additional hours that would otherwise be wasted on a commute but even then, it’s a little much! I’m a huge fan of a four day work week idea honestly.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, how I signed up for a tai chi class at my local library! They started offering tai chi on the library lawn (outside) recently and I was told by people who attended in the past that it’s fun so I thought, okay, I’ll try it! I can’t wait to report back on what it’s like.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, all about how I decided I was going to do a daily declutter in July. I decided I was going to declutter one thing a day in an effort to actually get rid of more stuff! So far I’ve failed as I’ve forgotten every day but it’s only four days in so I think I’ll just try to catch up. Hopefully I can actually do it though! Maybe I’ll even do a post on it to share everything I’ve decluttered.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, how I’ve started really diving more into that slow living concept and am finding that I do have some pretty big issues with it. I don’t know, I like the general idea but I don’t think it’s very practical for most people. I do want to continue to look into how I can incorporate aspects of slow living, of course, but it definitely needs adjustments in order to really work for me.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, that this car shortage thing is super frustrating! I finally decided I was ready for my next vehicle now that I have a job again but now the issue I’m running into is that there aren’t cars available! Well, I guess there are but I have specific cars in mind and none of them are available. It’s so annoying because I feel like it’s messing up my plans here!

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, all about my recent trip to Chicago. I know I talked about what I did in the city in my recent life post, so I won’t get into all that but I do want to just talk about it a bit here too. I loved going back to the city! I hadn’t seen it in so long and yet it felt like it was just yesterday that I’d last enjoyed a day there. It felt so familiar and lovely. Seeing all the art in the museum, walking through the beautiful parks downtown, and then visiting new places in the city, including my sister’s apartment that I hadn’t been to because of the pandemic, was so fun! I love exploring Chicago and I love being there. I think if the winters weren’t so harsh and the city/state of Illinois was more affordable, I’d love to stay in the area. Oh, and if I hadn’t been here all my life too. I just need a change of space, despite how much I’ll miss it.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, my updates for my goal to create peace. I think I’m doing pretty well in balancing it all out. Like I said, work has been taking up a lot of time so I prioritize my mornings to be peaceful. I also try to be sure that my nighttime routine is quiet and peaceful too in order to get plenty of rest for the next day. On weekends I also try to balance it out by doing something fun out of the home but then coming back and enjoying peaceful hobbies such as reading.

If we were having coffee I’d tell you, my update for my other goal, positivity. I’ve seen a lot of tiktoks recently on manifesting and so I’ve been focusing on positivity in my life. I do think that I am naturally a positive and optimistic person anyway so it isn’t hard but even then it can get challenging. I think overall I take things too calmly but I’m feeling hopeful for the second half of the year and what it’ll bring for sure!

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So that’s what I would share with you if we were having coffee! Feel free to share what you’d tell me too!

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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