August 29, 2007

Just One Of Those Days...

Last night I was up until after midnight, printing out notes for my lecture today. I also put together some stuff I had to FedEx. When I went to bed, I was exhausted ... but as usual barely slept. With the new schedule I now wake up at 6:15 - I know the majority of the world does the 9-5 thing ... but this has been a big shock for me.

As I am walking to the bus I realize I left all of my notes at home (realized the FedEx thing much later) and had to decide if I wanted to rush home to grab them (at which point I would need to drive to school) or keep going. I kept going.

I get on campus with a few minutes to spare, despite the fact that I had to wait 15-20 minutes for a bus to show. I was so happy to have the minutes I decided to stop at a coffee shop in the student union on my way to class and get a latte. Off with my latte I walked to class, focusing on how akward I was going to feel speaking in front of 50 students. Next thing I know, the lid pops off my coffee. Then (in slow motion) the entire coffee spills all over my arm, and makes a massive pool of liquid in the hallway of my building. Its 5 minutes to 9, my arm is wet and burning, and I have to get to class. So I head into class with my wet, red, burnt arm and look at the 50 faces staring at me as I load up the computer and my slides.

The 50 minutes of class actually flew by - I had a lot of material to cover. As is common, the beginning of a class is usually data dump, and my class is no different. I spattered out terms like "market segmentation " and "target marketing" as I watched two of my students slowly nod off into a slumber. So far, so good, right?

After class I headed to my office to get some work done, and next thing I know I have my advisor standing in my door. "Can we meet next Wendesday to talk about your progress?". Meaning, he wants to know where I am at with my dissertation. Let me give you a hint ... "what dissertation?". I putz around my office for a few hours and then head out for my trip home. At this point I wait another 20 minutes for a bus just to finally hop on and find myself becoming slightly nauteous shortly into the trip. I get off early and take a leisurly walk home.

Now I am adressing my sorrows with some cookies and ice cream. Suddenly things are picking up. If only I didnt have that horrid mid-week team workout tonight ;)

Image found at: http://www.sdarts.org/features/sdclassroom/sdclassroom.htm

2 comments:

LeahC said...

I taught a lab class my first year of grad school. I had the Monday morning 8am class. I am a morning person no biggie and I had a great group of kids....but...

One morning I was really prepared and I had my schpeal all ready and my lecture that I was going to give. I had a coffee mug on the head table and I said, "Good morning everyone" with a big sweep of my hand and coffee went EVERYWHERE. All over the lab stuff, all over the desk, the floor. I think everyone was like..."whaaaat is this person's deal" It was pretty funny

lifestudent said...

Luckily my coffee catastrophe was in the hallway ... but I am sure students saw :) Just think - it was only day 2. I have many more days to do stupid things in front of my class - and I am quite sure I will take advantage of that opportunity on more than one occasion ;)