Wait, what were they arrested for? They're in boxer shorts! Naked, I could see an arrest, but in clothes that are more decent than 1970s sport shorts?

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Question for hivemind. I am trying to set up an appointment with a career counselor type person in my Uni's HR dept. Here is the first draft of an email I composed:

Hi, [HR person]. I met with you a while back in the summer of 2004, and, as a result of our conversation, met up with [dude who runs the pertinent program], and have taken the GRE's, and am in [master's school's] Masters of Higher Education Administration program. I'm going slowly, as I am still working full time, but I am enjoying the program so far and am very happy to be on this path. Thank you for all of your help pointing me in this direction.

While I am still enjoying my work in [my department], I have been wondering if it might be a good idea to explore jobs at the institute that may be more stable, as far as workload and hours go. [My department] is a very exciting place to work, and my boss has been very supportive of my decision to pursue my Master's degree, but the tendency for workload to be all or nothing, with times of 12+ hour days, and 50-60 hour weeks is something I'm trying to assess in light of my current, parallel commitment to school.

I want to make sure that I do a good job, wherever I am at [uni], and am excited to be pursuing a Higher Education graduate degree while working here, and very much hoping to put that degree to work here, once I obtain it, 4-5 years down the road. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to talk to you or one of your colleagues to determine what a good path would be, combining my contributions here at [uni] with my commitment to furthering my education.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

I sent it to Tom for his feedback, and he said that he thought it might be best to not be quite as forthcoming, because HR-land is, generally speaking, CYA-Land. So I pared down to this:

Hi, [HR person]. I met with you a while back in the summer of 2004, and, as a result of our conversation, met up with [dude who runs the pertinent program], and have taken the GRE's, and am in [master's school's] Masters of Higher Education Administration program. I'm going slowly, as I am still working full time, but I am enjoying the program so far and am very happy to be on this path. Thank you for all of your help pointing me in this direction.

I am excited to be pursuing a Higher Education graduate degree while

working at [uni], and very much hoping to put that degree to work here, once I obtain it, 4-5 years down the road. I was wondering if it would be appropriate to talk to you or one of your colleagues to determine what a good path would be, combining my contributions here at [uni] with my commitment to furthering my education.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Thoughts? Advice?

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Wait, what were they arrested for? They're in boxer shorts! Naked, I could see an arrest, but in clothes that are more decent than 1970s sport shorts?

Creating a nuisance I think.

Which is funny since stopping a train and taking it out of service is DEFFINATELY a nuisance, but not one created by them.

And they have to do it in winter because in summer nobody would even notice. So utterly not obscene in any way.

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{{{Aimée}}} and Grrrr, and seconding everyone else who said go ahead and write the letter about the tatting shuttle. Beloved family member's belonging, would mean a lot to you -- the Ladies' Aid people may well turn out to be not only not resentful, but genuinely happy to reunite you with the shuttle.

Poor one-eyed Erin, stumbling around half-blind with c-notes shooting out her ass.

MG, the color and cut look just terrific on you.

Very trivial hivemind question for haircoloristas: I'm bored and annoyed by mine, mousy brown with whitening temples that are not at all taking to the crunchy nontoxic dye I've switched to. It worked fine the first time I tried it, but the last couple of times my hair has just shrugged and ignored it. Any suggestions for something that'll turn brownish (and whitish) hair plummy/deep auburn/cherry Coke-ish without being a completely toxic chemical soup? Should I start playing with Manic Panic?

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Nora, I think Tom is wise and your second draft says what you want from them without going into more detail than you want to reveal.

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JZ, I've been giving my poor fried hair a break with the L'Oreal color mousses. The cherry red is pretty and bright; they have a cherry coke color, too.

Not sure if it will cover grey, but it's also cheaper than Feria, etc.; only $4.99 in MO.

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Nora, your original version sounds fine to me, but if (as is likely) I'm overshare-y and Tom is right about the need to CYA, the revised version is excellent.

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{{Aimee}}

Nora, I think both versions work, too.

This is me, doing a drive by post to make you all jealous until this afternoon when I'll have some more time to post for real:

I have an smonster at my apartment!

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I have an smonster at my apartment!

jealousjealousjealous

if (as is likely) I'm overshare-y and Tom is right about the need to CYA, the revised version is excellent.

Yeah, I think my preference for the second isn't so much that I'm convinced that you really need to CYA in this kind of situation, as the fact that I tend to be the opposite of overshare-y and even kind of "why the fuck do you need to know this, anyway?" So the "I'm coming in to talk long-term plans" emphasis of the second feels like it would be comfortable to me than the "here's what I don't like about my current job" of the first.

This is, of course, not everyone's read on these things.

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We don't have a smonster, but Leif is convinced there are monsters living in the storage room.

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