I know I must be nervous about the new semester starting because
- I’ve been spontaneously waking up and actually getting out of bed before 7am every day for the last five days (ok, the first two were not by choice…) [Jim would say this is because I am finally hitting that age where I don't need 9 hours of sleep. I saw pshaw. I'm just nervous.]
- I’ve been indulging in retail therapy — and not the usual kind that involves buying household goods and yard stuff; instead, I cleaned out my closet two weeks ago and decided that I needed some fashionable new clothes, mostly involving things I see my students wear, like belts, cami tanks with those built-in “bras” (which are really just another layer of spandex) to wear under clothes that aren’t made for women with actual bras to wear, a cute pair of wedge flipflops that will surely make my ankles ache, and nail polish. The belt was the biggest step, I think. Oh, I take that back… the unmentionables I had to buy because the pants I bought are “low-rise”. I finally found some without the so-called “Stretch,” which has to be the most unflattering fashion idea on earth for any woman with hips.
Oh, yeah, and I’ve been avoiding my syllabi, which are mostly done anyways. As of now, I have 5 hours to obsess about my grad class, which should be enough time to get me ready to perform.
The shopping therapy certainly helped. I was aided by my friend, Laura, who is Canadian and has lived in L.A. so she automatically knows good fashion and has, thus, helped me immensely — both with finding things and with my stamina, which is pretty measly when it comes to clothes shopping.
However… three things have set me all aflounder already this term, all of which occured yesterday.
(1) We moved buildings, from Williams to Stevenson, which was our original building, but it’s new to me. I have to get used to walking in a different direction out of the parking garage, but that’s no big deal. The big deal is that I can’t seem to navigate once I’m inside the building. Asbestos abatement has moved from the 3rd and 4th floors to the 1st and 2nd floors. The problem is that we have to get from the 1st floor to the 4th floor, where my office and classrooms are. This shouldn’t be a problem, except that I can’t figure out how to do it. The stairs seem to end mid-climb, on the 3rd floor. And the elevator, around which they have built a protective hallway (as if that somehow mitigates the asbestos flying about…?), is at the opposite end of the building and isn’t accessible from the main entrance to the building where the stairs are.
So yesterday, when I was testing things out, I walked up one flight of stairs (I’m still not sure how I got from the first floor to the third floor in one flight….), then wanted to find the elevator because I’ll be damned if I walk up 4 flights of stairs (or even 3) every time I have to go in the building…). So I found the elevator on the third floor, went up to the fourth, and found my office (which is another story). Coming out of the building, I took the stairs to the third floor (to use the restroom, because the 4th floor Womens was closed), then took the elevator to the first floor, whereupon I was guided like a rat in a maze out of the building, only to find myself on the wrong side of Stevenson to where I needed to be. Not a big deal, except to get where I was going, I had to walk two blocks out of my way. By the time I got to my car, I was practically in tears and had to go drink with Laura. (The tears are because of the office, see next.)
(2) The Office: Happy enough finding the hallway I share with 15 other colleagues, good colleagues that I’m happy to be situated near. Even talked to Gerry for a few minutes; and I’m glad to be near his office since I never saw him last year. Finally, walked down the hall to my office, opened the door (yay, the key worked! many don’t!) and looked inside. I say looked, because stepping inside to look was fairly beside the point. I haven’t had an office this small since I was a grad student at VCU and shared an office with 3 others: Then, we couldn’t even open the door all the way because there was only enough room for the desk and a chair. So this is better. But not by much. There will be no room for student conferences. Mostly because there’s no room to put a second chair. At least my super-narrow office in Utah had a window and was long enough (and crooked enough) to have an oversized chair in the “seating area” as I called it. I’m bitching, I know. Everyone has small offices… all my newbies colleagues will as well. (Oh wait, Laura says everyone in the Business building has the exact same size office. With a window. Yay. That makes sense since they get paid 3x what we do. They obviously deserve bigger spaces for better work. Oh yes.) /OK, now I’m whiny, which is worse than bitchy./ Needless to say, I will not be using my office. Ever. Which is good news, because of #3.
(3) During the move from Williams to Stevenson, the movers lost my $4000 computer. Yes, that’s right. Gone. So, really, there’s no need to go into the office because the only reason I do is to use my big-ass computer. Good thing I backed everything up before the move! //Update: An hour ago, they found my computer. Phew! But I still probably won’t be using the office.//
The good news in all this is that my office has a new fancy phone, on which I’ve already received two spam voicemails (who knew that was even possible?!), and it has LOTS of bookshelves. When Laura was helping me troubleshoot the “where should I work since I hate my home office as well” dilemma yesterday, we talked about lots of possibilities, but this morning, it occured to me: I have all these books at home that I need but only use when I’m writing an article or something. Why not move them all to my school office?! Then I can get rid of the big-ass office desk I have at home, buy a smaller desk for my old iMac (or keep the desk and put both my iMac and my MacPro from school on it) and shove it all up against the wall, which will make my home office a lot more spacious and less claustrophobic. (Of course, Laura’s idea was to just move to her neighborhood, but I do love my house, even tho it’s a tad bit too small for my computing needs.) So I think the plan will be to move all my books to the office over the next two weeks and move my computer home, where I’ll use it a lot more anyways. I guess the other good news is that I’ll save the dept lots of money by not having to buy ergonomic office furniture for me ;)
Trying to find the bright side and feeling particularly overwhelmed and grumpy…
cheryl.
