Also I may be about to get mildly hurricane'd
Well, I'm pretty much settled in. Even hung the posters (many of the same ones from college, but nicely framed -- because I am an adult, dammit) on the walls finally. I hate bare walls, but I'm also pretty good at finding creative ways to injure myself, so hammer + nails + stepstool/countertop/edge of the couch = disaster waiting to happen. I should probably get some actual art (apart from a Hieronymous Bosch print because I'm just edgy like that), but I'm rather attached to my posters, even though other people find some of them... disconcerting. Particularly the Touch of Evil poster with the giant disembodied head of late-era Orson Welles (same one Wilson had in his office on House, BTW, though I had it first). But ever since college, he's the one I bounce ideas off of when it's really late and I'm trying desperately to write a paper.
Of course he doesn't talk back. Well, he hasn't yet. I'm not ruling it out.
Let's see: school. I have two once-a-week classes and one online, and all seem like they'll be pretty interesting. (Though I despise online classes. I didn't think I'd have to take any, and when I found out I did... I didn't react well. But I'm over it. Mostly.) Going to have to adjust back to reading 200+ pages a week, but it's interesting reading and I can do it pretty fast, so I'm not too worried. I will, however, for my Law, Deviance and Social Control class, have to do an experiment where I go out in public and personally do something deviant and report back on it. Though -- the professor was clear -- not something that gets me hurt or arrested. So there goes the fun stuff. In another class, I have to do a ride-along with someone from the sheriff's office. I foresee... awkwardness.
I started work at the tutoring center last Monday with no training other than "Here's where you'll be sitting," but I saw a grand total of one student all week. Obviously, that's not going to last, and when I have five hours of back-to-back sessions I'm sure I'll be praying for the sweet release of death. But things are run substantially differently than at my last writing center -- primarily, this is not a writing center but a tutoring center for all subjects. And I'll be doing philosophy tutoring two days a week, so we'll see how that goes. But so far I've worked with just three other writing tutors and shared space (because of course philosophy doesn't get its own room) with this utterly batshit guy named Simon. I think he might be an actual professor that does ESL tutoring on the side, but he is... odd. You might be getting Simon Stories throughout the semester.
So it's just the two of us in this room, and a duck starts quacking. This is the ringtone on my phone, but my phone is on silent and -- I check it anyway -- not ringing. Simon stands up from the computer, looking confused. "It's a phone ringtone," I say.
"Yes," he says. "It's mine."
After another moment, he drops down beneath one of the desks. I peer over, and it appears he has plugged his phone in to charge. But instead of running the cord up behind the desk, he has left the phone on the floor beneath it. So he crawls beneath the desk and, without unplugging the phone, answers it. Under the desk.
At that point it had gone to voicemail, so I didn't get to find out whether or not he would have had an entire phone conversation crouching on the floor, but I'd put my money on "yes." Because he stayed under there, twiddling with the phone a bit and asking me if I knew how to extend the length of time the phone rings before going to voicemail because, he says, he can never get to the phone before it stops ringing. I did not say "Perhaps you ought to leave it on the desk instead of, you know, the fucking floor." At the time I thought it would sound rude, but now I'm wondering if that thought had ever actually occurred to him.
I think I'm going to change my ringtone.
So of course I did not get to one-tenth of the things I was sure I'd be able to do in the week before classes started, and because of... embarrassing reasons which I may or may not explain later... I got distracted and I already feel like I'm playing catch-up. But, then, I pretty much always feel like I'm about a step and a half behind, so this is nothing new. I just have grades riding on it now. Yay? Also have to find a social life. Anyone know where I can get one of those?
Of course he doesn't talk back. Well, he hasn't yet. I'm not ruling it out.
Let's see: school. I have two once-a-week classes and one online, and all seem like they'll be pretty interesting. (Though I despise online classes. I didn't think I'd have to take any, and when I found out I did... I didn't react well. But I'm over it. Mostly.) Going to have to adjust back to reading 200+ pages a week, but it's interesting reading and I can do it pretty fast, so I'm not too worried. I will, however, for my Law, Deviance and Social Control class, have to do an experiment where I go out in public and personally do something deviant and report back on it. Though -- the professor was clear -- not something that gets me hurt or arrested. So there goes the fun stuff. In another class, I have to do a ride-along with someone from the sheriff's office. I foresee... awkwardness.
I started work at the tutoring center last Monday with no training other than "Here's where you'll be sitting," but I saw a grand total of one student all week. Obviously, that's not going to last, and when I have five hours of back-to-back sessions I'm sure I'll be praying for the sweet release of death. But things are run substantially differently than at my last writing center -- primarily, this is not a writing center but a tutoring center for all subjects. And I'll be doing philosophy tutoring two days a week, so we'll see how that goes. But so far I've worked with just three other writing tutors and shared space (because of course philosophy doesn't get its own room) with this utterly batshit guy named Simon. I think he might be an actual professor that does ESL tutoring on the side, but he is... odd. You might be getting Simon Stories throughout the semester.
So it's just the two of us in this room, and a duck starts quacking. This is the ringtone on my phone, but my phone is on silent and -- I check it anyway -- not ringing. Simon stands up from the computer, looking confused. "It's a phone ringtone," I say.
"Yes," he says. "It's mine."
After another moment, he drops down beneath one of the desks. I peer over, and it appears he has plugged his phone in to charge. But instead of running the cord up behind the desk, he has left the phone on the floor beneath it. So he crawls beneath the desk and, without unplugging the phone, answers it. Under the desk.
At that point it had gone to voicemail, so I didn't get to find out whether or not he would have had an entire phone conversation crouching on the floor, but I'd put my money on "yes." Because he stayed under there, twiddling with the phone a bit and asking me if I knew how to extend the length of time the phone rings before going to voicemail because, he says, he can never get to the phone before it stops ringing. I did not say "Perhaps you ought to leave it on the desk instead of, you know, the fucking floor." At the time I thought it would sound rude, but now I'm wondering if that thought had ever actually occurred to him.
I think I'm going to change my ringtone.
So of course I did not get to one-tenth of the things I was sure I'd be able to do in the week before classes started, and because of... embarrassing reasons which I may or may not explain later... I got distracted and I already feel like I'm playing catch-up. But, then, I pretty much always feel like I'm about a step and a half behind, so this is nothing new. I just have grades riding on it now. Yay? Also have to find a social life. Anyone know where I can get one of those?