Ea qui longiquate desiderare

Sunday night I spent some quality time with an old friend of mine, where we had great conversations, both serious and amusing, and cooked some fine, fine steaks. While it was great to sit down and eat a nice hearty meal in good company, I believe I would have made more of it had I known it may have been one of the final opportunities (but not THE final opportunity) for me to do so, at least for a long time. That is either my own fault for not doing so, or my memory revising the evening into something less than it actually was after the influence of my recent discoveries sunk in. But, the food was great, and I rarely get to spend time alone with this person despite spending many long nights and weekends with them all throughout a previous SU year. Good luck on the interview (if you get one, that is).

Yesterday was the first day of the Students’ Union’s 2005/2006 operational year. This is now my third ‘first day’ that I have bore witness to, and by far the most surreal. The first day in the office is an interesting paradox of youthful ambition. In the eyes of all the new employees, especially those who have recently escaped the dungeon of retail or service industry jobs, you can spot a boundless energy willing to jump at the opportunity to simply do anything relating to their newly acquired positions. The tasks that they will find menial and pointless in shy of three months appear like some kind of grand adventure upon which they are ready to immerse themselves into. However, since the SU Executive is never around for the first few days of term (due to their executive retreat), so none of the “Associate Vice Presidents” have anything to associate vice-preside over, and since they have no real authority, they can’t just head down to the Legislature/University Hall/Michael’s Craft Store and start kicking ass and taking names. So they sit and they read final reports of years past, which in hindsight, seven or eight months from now will appear as a cautionary tale, but when they first read may seem like needless pessimisim from a worn out predecessor. Other than that, they spend their time reading anything they can to acquaint themselves with the office desk and people they will be trapped with for at least a year. I’m overcome by the urge to tell them that they’ll be victim to some pretty nasty stuff over the year (everyone in those offices will be at one point or another and they will all want to quit at some point or another), but they wouldn’t believe me at this point anyway, so I let it go. The service directors lounge about and start to figure out exactly what their job is, while subordinates look woefully at them for something to do. But this year was just another day at the office for me, my work on Sunday was no different than my afternoon work Monday, and I did all the things I normally do, except provide minimal guidance to a new co-worker who does not appear to actually need any. I hope when I started this job I was as on top of things as he is.

Final note: Between Thursday and Sunday, I believe I have slept better than I ever have before. I have discovered this over the last two nights, which provided me with a basis to draw such a comparison.