The Absence of Your Haus

It has been a while since I've written anything that hasn't been an assignment of some sort.  It's an interesting feeling to write something without some sort of weight that is being placed upon it.  Now, I can filter down my writing absence to four categories: School, Work, Church, and Family.

School: In August, I went back to Graduate School.  I enrolled in the UA Masters of Public Administration program.  I knew going into this program that I would have one absolutely awful semester.  That semester ended up being this past spring.  I took 3 courses: Economics for Public and Nonprofit Managers, Program Evaluation, and Public/Nonprofit Management Information Systems.  Since the MPA program caters to working professionals, all of my classes are 2 1/2 hours on a weeknight.  I was in school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights from 5:30 to 8:00.  This was after working all day, and I don't exactly live close to the UA Downtown Campus (where two of the classes were held), so I was usually lucky to get home before 8:45.

Work: I'm still working full-time at the University of Arizona.  I've been a Senior Business Analyst in our central IT department for the past four years.  For those wondering what a Business Analyst is, it is a person that examines the process that a person uses to perform a task, and then determines if the process can be done more efficiently through changing the process or utilizing other tools to perform the task.  In my case, I am responsible for keeping track of how sections of UA Human Resources does its work and determining if they can do things more effectively through the use of our PeopleSoft HCM system.  It is a mentally challenging task that has its rewards and frustrations.

Church: Last July, I was called at the Executive Secretary in one of the largest wards in our stake.  Keeping our bishop's schedule straight was almost a full time job in and of itself.  My phone would ring almost every day, many times during class.  Then, our stake rearranged all the ward boundaries in March.  We were moved into a different ward.  I knew the Bishop from our interactions when he was on the Stake High Council and I was Elder's Quorum President in the University 4th Ward.  We were out of town the day that everything happened, hearing about everything second hand.  The next morning I got a Facebook message from our new Bishop asking me to give him a call.  I didn't think much about it.  Having been Executive Secretary, I knew most of the members making the shift in wards and figured he would want some insight into the people in the ward.  I was correct in that assumption, but another shoe dropped in our conversation.  After a pair of interviews later that week, I was called and sustained as the 2nd Counselor in the Pima Ward Bishopric.  The added responsibilities have taken their toll on my schedule, but I've been able to also enjoy the blessings that result from the opportunities that come from the those responsibilities.

Family: Annie is closing in on being 8 months old.  She's a handful, as she has quite the personality, four teeth (two on top, two on bottom), and is now mobile.  I put up a video of this glorious experience on Facebook recently.  She's eating a few solid foods, and is starting to sleep a bit more at night.  Of course, that sleep doesn't usually start until close to midnight, which isn't all that pleasant.  She really is a wonderful little girl, and we love having her as a part of our family.  Being a parent is a joy, but is also very tiring.

So, now that the summer is upon us, I hope to have a little more time to write, read some books, and generally work towards maintaining my sanity.  Well, we'll have to see if maintaining my sanity is a possibility.  That might not end up working out.

Thus Sayeth Your Haus