Author: Abby Reynolds

This week I have been in my office (temporary workspace 😉 in the counseling conference room to assist kids in 7th grade with their Career surveys.  It’s called “Cluster Finder” and it’s through the school’s website.  Many kids were absent or did not complete the survey the first time it was done, so I just help them get started and provide definitions for words they don’t know.

It is crazy to me that these 13-year-olds are already thinking about what kind of career they want and meeting with people that represent that career path.

Last week, the marketing director asked me to come in on May 11th (even though I was scheduled to be at SWM) to help them set up and work their health fair.

I loved being back there!  I was a greeter for awhile, and then I worked at the raffle table for a couple hours.  After that, I milled around the property to see all of the booths and offer water to the workers.  I also spent time at the front desk during mail sorting time, because there were extra packages for Mother’s Day.  At the end of the day I helped them fold their tables and chairs.

At SWM, they have a closet of food in cans and boxes.  Mrs. Grossmann, the counselor I am spending most of my time with, asked me to move some cans from the ground to the upper shelves.

I did that in about thirty minutes, but she didn’t come back for me, so I just started organizing all of them.  French Style Green Beans, Cut Green Beans, Sweet Peas, Peas and Carrots, Carrots, Sweet Corn, White Corn, Asparagus, Sliced Yams, Sliced Beets, Garbanzo Beans, Black Beans, Red Beans,  Chili Beans, Baked Beans, Chili, Chicken Noodle Soup… I could go on but I already feel bad for typing that many and I think the point is clear.

I went crazy on that closet and it was so much fun.  It was not something I anticipated doing but I was glad to do it and I had lots of fun.

I am all for observing but I have been doing it for almost 12 hours so far and it’s the same thing over and over.  I get to watch the counselor lady I am shadowing go classroom to classroom giving a climate survey to 7th graders.

A lot of the kids I’ve seen are very disrespectful, and many of the teachers don’t seem to care.

I miss Gambrill!  It’s not very fun at SWM.  Luckily I’m going back (to Gambrill) this Friday because they asked me to come in to help set up and work their health fair.

Things haven’t changed much since my last post since I’m still at the front desk, so I’m going to make a list of the things I do every day.

10:00: call resident’s who have not canceled their emergency light.  Record all uncanceled lights, check on residents in person who did on answer the phone.

10:45 (any of the following): answer the phone (“Gambrill Gardens this is Abby how may I help you?”), make dinner order form copies for residents, show newcomers around, unlock doors for residents who locked themselves out of their apartments,  give treats to dogs who walk by the desk (very fun), write up and file Repair Work Order forms for residents, write up new package slips, organize incoming prescriptions from Walgreens, and go to various buildings to let in paramedics for non-emergency calls.

1:00: mail sorting

1:30-4:00 same as 10:45!

*My duties are not destitute and I enjoy them… but I also enjoy alliteration and assonance.

Last week, Debra (the marketing director) asked me to design a registration slip for the upcoming health fair.  I made a sample in which three of them could fit on a page, but she wanted to use less paper.

So, I removed the Gambrill logo and contact information and just left the necessary fields (name, address, number, and email) and squished six slips on a page.

This week I am at the front desk, but today I was given 67 sheets of these pages I made and paper cutter.  So, that is what I did for the last hour and a half of today.

Fun statistic: There are 6 slips on each page.  I was given 67 sheets.  67 x 6 = 402 slips.  To separate all of these slips, I have to make nine cuts on each page.  67 x 9 = 603 cuts.  It is a miracle I did not lose a finger with these odds.

The past couple days I have been making (as the title suggests) a LOT of copies.

There are two kinds of resident application folders: regular (non-assisted living) and Ivy Terrace (assisted living).  In the past, I made copies and assembled the regular folders, but yesterday and today I have made copies for the Ivy Terrace folder.

Fun statistic: I have gone through a little over 3 1/2 reams of paper (1 ream=500 sheets) making copies and I have been here for four weeks tomorrow (20 days).  That means I average 437.5 copies per week or 87.5 per day.

This is not a DRILL!  This week I will be with the marketing department again.  It’s my fourth week at Gambrill but my third week with marketing.

I actually enjoy it far more than I expected, but it looks like I won’t be spending time with finance.  No loss there (sorry, people who love finance) but I would’ve tried to get out of that anyway.  I would much rather be helpful, and I don’t much enjoy working with numbers!

This week has been incredibly busy, but I love it!  I have been working all week on my spreadsheet.  First, I enter the residents last name, first name, and room number.  Then I enter the floor number, their main phone number, and their secondary phone number.

After I have all of that information set up, I can go through the key check-out cards.  The cards provide Gambrill with a record of which (and how many) apartment keys, outside keys, and mailbox keys each resident owns… the only problem was the number of cards that began to take up space.

There were over 400 cards when I started, and now I am down to a little over 300.  There were old cards from residents who died or who no longer live here, so I threw all of those away.

Then, with the current cards, I can enter the date the keys were attained by the resident and each key’s number.  This is the longest part of the process.  I am going through all of them alphabetically by the last name, and I am currently on “M” now.

I’m hoping I can show off the spreadsheet somehow either on here or during my presentation!  I would just have to cover or change the resident’s names.

This week at Gambrill I am back with the marketing department, which I did not anticipate but I am happy to be there again because I love all of the organizing tasks.

This morning I took my first ukulele lesson with one of the new residents.  His name is Charlie and he’s very patient with me.

Today I proposed the idea of putting all of the key check-out slips (there are over 330) into an Excel spreadsheet and they loved that idea, so that’s what I’ll be working on tomorrow!

Thank you, Dr. Urbano… if you’re reading this.  I wouldn’t’ve been able to propose this wonderful idea without you forcing me to use Excel instead of Google Sheets a year ago!