Summer Time!

Well folks, I suppose it's time to update again. I've been out of school for 3 months, and I'm enjoying the lack of homework and free-time on weekends immensely. In my last post, I said I was working for the Corporation Counsel of Marathon County, but I never told you what that means.

The Office of Corporation Counsel consists of three attorneys, a paralegal, three legal secretaries, and me (I'm a receptionist). Our office deals with Children in Protective Services cases, child support, divorce cases, paternity cases, mental commitments, and any case involving Marathon County. For example, we represent the County if someone wants to sue the County. I do a variety of tasks, involving almost all of the above areas. I take paperwork to Judges' chambers for signatures, frequent the Probate Office to "file" paperwork (ie. get it stamped and authenticated), get the mail, answer the phone, make copies, fax paperwork, send out mailings, and anything else I'm asked to do. I actually really enjoy it. It's been an interesting experience; I've learned a lot about how the circuit court works and the processes involved in in it. However, next Friday is my last day in the Office of Corporation Counsel.

I'm moving on to a year-long position with Americorps. Basically, I'll be getting paid for service work, which is excellent. I'm placed at UW-Marathon County, which is a junior college in Wausau, and I'll be designing a program/event/something to increase college access among at-risk populations in Wausau (ie. non-native English speakers, alternative high schools, charter schools, etc.) (Note: if you went to Eau Claire and are familiar with BluGold Beginnings, I'm looking to design something similar to that). I've been told I'll have a variety of other tasks to do as well in this position, and that my position is a pretty important bridge between various organizations in the Wausau area. I start training on August 23, and will hopefully jump into my projects at UW-Marathon County the following Monday.

I also noted in my last post that I was hoping to do some work with the Marathon County Historical Society. Mission accomplished. If anything has kept me busy this summer, it's definitely been historical society projects. I helped create an exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of workers' compensation in Wisconsin and Wausau Insurance. Wausau Insurance began almost solely to support the workers' compensation law. It was bought out by Liberty Mutual about eight years ago, but it was such a large part of the Wausau Community that we decided to commemorate what would have been its 100th anniversary. It was incredibly interesting to learn about the history of workers' compensation and Wausau Insurance, and totally awesome to play curator for a few weeks. I also planned and helped facilitate our annual Children's History Day. The day was a total success, and the kids really seemed to enjoy the activities we planned for them. A large part of the day was dedicated to the Civil War, since this year is the 150th anniversary of its start. The actual curators at the historical society created a wonderful exhibit about Marathon County's involvement during the Civil War.

Because I'll be starting a full-time job shortly, I will have less time to devote to projects at the historical society. However, I'm hoping to finish a few more tasks before I leave, involving developing activities for our new Children's Discovery Room, cleaning/organizing for our Curator of Education, and creating yet another small exhibit. Once I start my new job, I'm hoping to be a docent on the weekends for our historic house museum. I may also help the Curator of Education with activities for the Junior History Club.

Other than working, working, and working :) I've been reading, biking, relaxing, watching tv, shopping, spending time with my family, and taking a few weekend trips. It's really been a great summer, and I'm actually looking forward to not going back to school in September for the first time in TWENTY years. That's pretty excellent.