{ my name is Maggie Durant / oh baby, ain't that something. }

[delga]

This part of the post was going to be about how I don't really want to watch any shows that aren't NCIS and then that turned out to be even more boring than it sounds, so I cut it down to this one (complex) sentence.

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Today was insane. Considering I had time to tweet about how little there was to do, there was still a surprising amount going on. The computer centre is nearly always fully booked now, and so I tend to go in early to make sure all the machines are on when the students get there and also so that I can sort out which phone messages to reply to at 9am. It's not really a class so much as a group of people trying to work shit out on a computer. Some people can't turn it on; some people are taking qualifications which prove they can use databases. So. A bit of range.

Anyway, I was sorting out receipts, photocopying new sign-up sheets and hand-writing the dates on them through to July, as well as getting assaulted by modems on telephone lines when the centre's Chair of Trustees turned up with a woman from a local college. The woman was there to see the facilities available and decide whether or not there would be a way for the college and the centre to set up a mutually beneficial relationship. I somehow got roped into that meeting and emerged about ninety minutes later with an intimidating list of things to get done. That is to say: I am now an unofficial liaison between the centre and the college. What? WHAT? WHAT IS THAT? I'm about to type up a 'report' of the meeting to send to both the woman and the Trustee, and then I have to finish the second how-to-email booklet for Monday's class, and I'm also supposed to be working on a plan of attack for how to tackle putting some of the courses online. GUYS. I AM FREAKING OUT. Mostly because I think people think I am way more competent at this shit than I actually am. The woman who I'm liaising with happens to be involved with things like ESOL/PETL/DETL (English for Speakers of Other Languages/various post-grad teaching qualifications) and she told me that the college is looking for more LSAs.

BUT. It's also pretty cool. I mean, if I can actually pull this off then that's a massive boost for my CV, plus connections at that college, and a support network that can help me get in touch with all the right people. This part doesn't erase the part where I am still freaking the fuck out but you know: it helps.

First on the agenda is writing and sending that report; second is devising a questionnaire to gauge local interest in basic-skills-type courses; third is organising a meet'n'greet/coffee morning at the centre in March on behalf of the college. Aie.

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After I left the meeting and finally headed back to the computer room, I had about half an hour to sort out the detritus that the first group had left behind before people started turning up for the afternoon session. I sorted out some paperwork that got left behind, spoke to some people from the Camera Club about a forthcoming hobby course on using photoshop, and then spent two hours with a woman who is about to embark on a Psychology BSc: I was trying to teach her how to (a) get to grips with the Open University portal and (b) use her email. Like: how to log in, what an inbox is, how to compose new emails and add contacts. Everything. What the menus mean and what it means to forward an email; spam and how the spam filter can be a bit wonky; how to select emails in any given folder and move them to other parts of the account. It was kind of crazy. I mean, the email one-to-one that I did on Wednesday was the exact same thing with somebody else, but I don't know: this one was way more exhausting. My throat was dry by the end.

The session ended, and I had more receipts to file and student numbers to assign. I got home at around four and I'm wondering how I'm going to adjust to working full-time because I am terrible with this stuff now. I'm shattered!

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I should really watch this week's Criminal Minds at least but NCIS is on tv tonight, so guess what I'll be doing instead?