New Job; Still In The Mon Valley

Last Thursday I started a new job in the IT Department at California University of Pennsylvania. I admit, it is sort of funny to tell this to local people, and yet they immediately think I will be relocating to the west coast of the U.S. For some reason, Southwestern Pennsylvanians are not always mindful of all of the various cities, boroughs, townships, etc. that are right in their own backyard.

I must admit though, sadly, I do not know too much about the place where I work. When I was in junior high, I spent a week there in a music master camp (speaking of music, we just recently did a joint concert with the CUP band). My boss earned her MBA there, but other than that, I really am quite the uninitiated one. I am working as an Executive Staff Assistant to the VP of Information Technology; a position that surprisingly did not exist more than a month ago (his, not mine). This is quite surprising, in that before this, the school's IT department did not have a dedicated director.

I fully admit that upon graduation (which is coming up soon), I did not really see myself as being a high level secretary. However the pay is not bad and the benefits can not be beat. Of course one of the best benefits from my standpoint is the free tuition for graduate school. On top of that the overall situation is very good. I work in a department heavily staffed by men; which cuts down on workplace drama and a pressure to "fit in" to a pre-determined office culture. However it is true that academia has its own culture. One thing I learned after 3 days on the job is that the process and the pace of things in a college is very different from the corporate world. I am sure I have more to say about that as time goes on.

Currently my commute is easy and takes only about 35 minutes. I basically just hop on the turnpike (route 43) and I am there. I do not like the $2.20 in tolls however. Yesterday morning I went like I was going to my old job - towards I-70. I took the Speers exit and that took me up (eventually) to California. I had to stop for gas, but I did not notice any serious lag in time; I still reached California in just under 45 minutes (this includes my stop). So I don't know if I see the point in paying the toll; except for maybe come the wintertime, when going up that hill from Speers may get treacherous.