A subtotal poem for today:
Minutes spent in the car (so far): 40 (30 minutes to work, five to Thai Kitchen for lunch, five home)
Minutes spent in the car singing along to the same four songs on the Wicked soundtrack: 38 (I needed two minutes to warm my vocal cords)
Copies made: 210
Staples dispensed into said copies: 100 (some were single sheets)
Times said ‘hi there, how are ya?’:
Drinks drank containing caffeine: 5 (2 cups of coffee, 2 cups of tea, 1 diet coke)
Drinks drank not containing caffeine: 0
Emails sent: 17
Texts sent: 6
Minutes spent thinking about that Kristen Bell clip from the Ellen Show where she cries when Dax Shepherd surprises her with a sloth for her birthday: 30 (at least)
Minutes of genuine productivity: 240 (my *morning* was at least very productive)
Times my Arcade Fire Pandora station has played Winter Winds by Mumford and Sons: 5 (really, Pandora?)
New things learned: 2 (1- Cornucopia delivers (does life get any better than specialty popcorn at your front door?); 2—something weird I heard on the audio book I’m listening to that was not appropriate for me to know, and definitely not appropriate for me to share, but it was new and vaguely educational all the same)).
Invoices checked over for food deliveries next week: 7 (v. v. excited for next week)
Today I also had perhaps the most delightful exchange with a professor I have ever had, which is really saying something considering that I once had a professor tell me in broken English in front of a room full of people that he would marry me if he were thirty years younger (and not already married).
Maybe I don’t have my PhD, but I can make a copy. Or ten copies. Or 175 double sided stapled copies from a packet of mixed single sided and double sided sheets. I can also load paper into the copier, clear a jam, insert a new toner cartridge, AND turn the power switch off… not to mention on. Now, this isn’t to say that I haven’t had my fair share of copier troubles in the past—I’ve wasted entire afternoons at the mercy of those wretched things, sorting out misplaced staples and errant print jobs and tricky full body paper jams. But for some reason, the copy machine is the medium by which all academics can be broken. Sometimes the gap between administrator and innovator feels insurmountable… and then, I catch some TA trying to make a copy by sticking the paper in the output tray and pressing the start button over and over again. And seriously, THANK GOODNESS FOR THESE MOMENTS. I have very few opportunities to feel like a smarty pants working for a group of high powered intellectuals who get paid to act like high powered intellectuals.
Today, a very sweet tenured professor asked me to show him how to make a single copy. My brief lesson was peppered with “Now slow down! You are going too fast!” and “Brilliant! Brilliant!” and “Look at you go, aren‘t young people magnificent? Just look at you go!”
Who, me? Magnificent? Brilliant? Why, thank you!
And just because it is too funny not to share:
Kristen Bell and I need to be friends.
Ok, Friday down: Bring on the weekend!
Ok, Friday down: Bring on the weekend!
