The New Year

[Rena A Cronin]

Rena had spent the past few days holed up in her office, outer door locked and secured that no-one could get in unless she wanted them to: this allowed her uniterrupted time to get the final mailing list done in a somewhat timely manner. Like Santa(if any around here believed in him), she had a list and checked it twice then had sent it to Artemus so he could look it over. Once it was back in her hand, it was time to inform the incoming students that it was almost that time of year-the dreaded first day of school. Along with a school calendar and class schedules, the manila folder also includeda list of items that the student would need, parental permissions forms that needed to be read over and sent back signed (you would be surprised how many came back without a parents' signature) and the seemly unnecessary health documents.

There were three long tables arranged in her office and at each table two people who were willing to do the repeatedly stuffing and addressing of the envelopes. It took them a good four hours of stuffing, addressing and then stamping 1000 of the informational bulletins then arranging them by mailing zones. At the end of the time, a prearrangement had been made for delivery-hopefully the time range would be enough for the majority of them to be back within the two week timeframe. Granted there would be stragglers but they would be dealt with on a one on one basis.

Now all they could do was wait...vacation time was over.

[Rena A Cronin]

Rena had been missing from the school for over a month so when she stepped into her office there was a slight mutter that she kept as low as possible. It was her own fault though:Artemus told her to get an assistant but she blew the suggestion off. Shrugging off her jacket, she dropped it on a nearby chair and wandered behind her desk...wondering where to begin. She just dug in: arranging piles, sorting mail and throwing away junk.

It didn't take as long as she expected though and she was finished in about four hours. No interruptions helped too, since no-one knew she was here. She then sat down, logging the requests that had filtered down to her desk; setting aside of bills that needed to be taken care of before she left; filing what needed to filed or creating new folders; updating records. This was good since it kept her mind off of what was going on at the ranch. Grabbing the bills, she moved to the left filing cabinet and opened the top drawer, pulling out the checkbook. Tucking the bills inside, she placed the book in her bag and left her office, turning towards the cafeteria and food.