Thursday, September 16, 2004

A Day In The Life

The sun is not yet up yet and I find myself waking to the buzzing, the godawful buzzing, of the alarm clock. When I hit snooze, apparently I actually hit the "time" button and changed the time displayed in those little red numbers. So when I finally crawl out from under the blankets a mere ten minutes later, I think it is about three hours later than it should be. I hop to it and run to the shower. But I soon cleverly deduce that since the sun is still not up, it's not as late as the damn clock said it should be. When I get to the class I TA for (on time, thank you), Dr. Flaky But Easy To TA For says, "Whoops. I forgot I have to miss class next week. You don't mind doing the lecture for me, do you?" Well, I guess not. I'll spend hours prepping for YOUR lecture and not do my own seminar readings. No problem. 11:10 AM Diligently I am working at my desk. Diligently! I'm reading, taking notes, and trying hard not to laugh and disturb my officemates. Alexander Hamilton's (do you suppose they called him Alex back in the wig wearing days?) elitism is fantastic. Well, yeah, only propertied men and merchants should vote. There are the only ones who can be "entrusted" with "considering the general public interest." How can you disagree with that? The educated rule!! Or, ummmm..., I mean, everyone should vote. Right. Everyone. Okay, but the point of this. Suddenly there is sun shining onto my desk. From the window. Okay, the sun is a celestial body that the planet we live on (Earth) revolves around. It emits light and heat. Here, in the City of Lakes, we haven't seen light from that particular celestial body in three days. Thunder, lightning, rain, wind, and umbrellas have been present, but not beams of light from the sky. So why now? When I'm diligently (diligently!) working? 11:50 AM Walking across the Mighty Mississippi. No sun remaining. 1:15 PM Into a building that houses the math department here and the math library (a whole library devoted to mathematics - imagine my delight and adoration!! why did it take me two years to find it?!). There's a notice on the bulleting board proclaiming "10th Annual Conference on the Hyperbolic." Duh. Sign me up. Or don't. Because I don't know what that could possibly be about. Into the bathroom of this building. Okay, people. It's been rainy and windy and I walked across the river. Imagine the state of my hair. I glance at mirror and my hair is amazingly awful. I laugh and smile at the Asian chick checking out her own reflection, "nice hair I have" I say NICELY. And she goggles. (Side: I've been in this bathroom lots of times before and never seen another woman in it. Apparently there aren't many math girls.) I brush my hair. She goggles. Like she's never seen another woman or a brush. As I leave she's still goggling. Hopefully this is a good sign that some lonesome man who only gets geeky math girls in his classes will want to meet a semi-intelligent, semi-cute girl from another department and take her out for tea. 3:30 PM I get down to my math class. Class ensues. 6:30 PM Bus it home.

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