So at the University where I work, anyone can be a first-year academic adviser, so I'm doing it! I just got my three kids assigned to me, and they are all from private schools and none of them is getting any financial aid -- and we give a LOT of financial aid. They also got many 800s on the SATs and 5s on AP exams. Yikes! (They all seem like nice kids from their writing, though.)

Airports have always been high stress environments for me, though I'm not nervous about the actual flying. It's all the lines, security theatre, waiting around, and did-my-luggage-arrive-or-is-it-separate-vacations worry that gets to me.

In other trip-related news, I've spent the last day and a half preparing for a quick getaway to Eureka Springs in the Ozarks after far too many months without a vacation. I don't remember getting ready for a vacation being this much work!

Yay for time off, Matt! Enjoy. I get the prep stress. I don't mind flying, but the whole indignity of the boarding process, and being squished into seats with coughing strangers is total yuck.

Cool Jesse! Not everyone tests well. My son Brendon tests absurdly high always and is basically non-functional, while his dad tests horribly and is extremely capable. Both brilliant, but only one knows how to use it.

Once I'm through security, I love flying. Wandering around the airport, people watching, plenty of time to read, perfectly acceptable day drinking. It's all good.

Cool Jesse! Not everyone tests well. My son Brendon tests absurdly high always and is basically non-functional, while his dad tests horribly and is extremely capable. Both brilliant, but only one knows how to use it.

Yeah, testing well is definitely a skill that gets you very far right up until it completely stops doing anything at all for you! Which is a shock for many of us.....

We have that to, but only in Arts and Sciences. We want to extend it to Nursing School and then, I will volunteer.

WRT testing, I am super good at it. Like, I can pass the nursing licensure exam without ever having taken classes. I usually go in to the test prep classes to demonstrate to the students how much of passing is just test taking skills and that that is what they need to focus on now that their nursing education is done, because they NEED to pass to work

Vortex, I think tone is the trick, which is hard when you're peeved! But if you have any kind of leadership role, you can just say that, but nicely.

I literally cannot control my tone. I sound like a condescending asshole. I hate it. Like, I have no tone between infinite patience and condescending asshole tone. Even if I try to sound nice, I sound super annoyed. I need lessons

Also, I need to share this cute sample video I made of my kitten [link]

In other news, I am on vacation and have been working since 7 am! The Beginning of the school years is terrible

My pet peeve that I cannot control my tone over right now is that I work with people who cannot use browser tabs or bookmarks or the address bar. So if we navigate away from what they have set as their homepage (like our Learning Management system) the way they navigate back is to close the browser and reopen it. Like, if they need to have the LMS and another thing open at once, it blows their minds and they use two different browsers.

Kitten! That does not sound very vacation-like, Sophia.

After several delays my plane did leave. Arrived at 3:30am. If it were not for the pure adrenaline of getting to see my hopeful future home, I would be a pile of gronk. I have driven by house 3 times and scoped our the hood like a creeper.

Super yum food a local all scratch bakery, so I'll be gaining weight.

If people cannot do basic web navigation they should not have a job that uses a computer. I will die on this hill.

Also it is not hard to learn, so by remaining ignorant is willful on their part.