Students and My Job

I love my job!  I love it because it is not all desk work and even though I have a routine every week, there is always something a little different going on.  So I get routine-which I love and need, but I also get variety-which I need to keep me from getting bored. 

So this week was interesting.  I have been doing a BUNCH of mundane database updates and maitenance of records and groups and yada yada yada.  It is necessary and feels wonderful when I am done, but whew... it makes for some long days.  Also this week I have had a number of middle school and a few high school students coming in to work with me to earn money for retreats. 

So my variety for this week came on Wednesday night.  We have had some middle school kids breaking into our elementary age area and stealing stuff (candy, prizes, etc.).  We have an idea who it is, we have an idea of how they are getting in there and we have an idea of all their activites while in there, but we haven't been able to catch them in person or on tape.  Well, on Wednesday night, I had one of our leaders rush up the stairs to my desk, saying he heard kids in the elementary room.  I rushed down there with him and 2 other leaders joined us and we went to the room to try to catch them.  Well, somehow they knew we were coming becuase when we got in there (all from different doors) they were gone.  There were 2 kids outside, but they said they were lost and didn't know how to get into the church.  After questioning them and a little investigating, we found out there were 5 other people still hiding.  So I went back to the elementary room and stood very quietly outside the door.  Sure enough, I heard tiny little movements and even tinier whipers coming from the costume closet above that room.  So I went in there and found 5 girls hiding in the dresses and cloaks.  It was all kind of a fun adventure.  And to top it off, Thursday we were able to take down the camera and were thrilled when we saw that it had recorded them and everything they did while they were in there.  Yeesh...pubescent girls can be trouble!

My other variety came today...  One of my high school volunteers, a freshman boy, has been at my desk helping me all afternoon.  I made some comment about how I accidentally messed up my addition and didn't print enough handouts for the elementary kids a few weeks ago.  He just shook his head and sighed and said, "Thats the symbus of all math functions!" 

What?!?  I'm glad I'm not completely vocabulary retarded, but really?  I don't hitnk I have ever used the word symbus...ever!  I know some people, and I really admire them, that have great vocabularies and get to use cool words. (Rani, you are one of them!)  I'm not one of them.  So when anyone, much less a freshman boy uses big, unusual words like symbus, it just stops me in my tracks.

I love my job!  It is so much fun.