Wild Wood Wanderer

At the place I work, there is a lady who locks up the coffee every night.  She says it’s because some students make coffee late at night, and then never turn the coffee maker off.  So she’s taking away the source of the problem.  Like letting the air out of a soccer ball.

 This is a problem for me, who, good graduate assistant that she is, gets up at 7 am (and then 7:09, and 7:18, and 7:27) in order to get here early and open up my ArcMap project while I surf the internet.  I live for this cup of coffee, and like the fact that I’m usually the one making it in the morning - helping all of those other sleepers, procrastinators, and type-a people out there in the world.

But the coffee remains elusive this morning, wafting its aromas out into the room behind a locked cabinet door.

I started my new job today.  I’m going through The Baltimore News archives, looking for park, neighborhood improvement associations, urban trees, and black and immigrant population references.  It’s pretty cool.  I just sit upstairs in an old 50s classroom that’s been converted into an office and go through the paper on microfilm.  Today, in addition to other things, I was amused to see how many medicine’s were available for women in 1897- apparently they had a lot of problems, such as “irregular behavior”, and apparently, things like acid phosphate could cure that. (”My dear friend’s 18 year old daughter had not been acting like herself for six months, but after she took two-thirds of a bottle of Dr. Fullman’s Amazing Pill, she was cured!”) Also, I found out that women who have red hair are never supposed to wear blue or yellow dresses because it would clash.  However, a “bright brown” or other autumn colors would be okay.  And the blessing of a neat house is that everything has its place.  Also, if you are a woman who rides a bicycle with her fellow, please follow the proper rules of riding, such as allowing the man to go before you when a narrowing path with low tree branches becomes frightening.  But men, don’t get ahead of yourselves, because in less frightening situations, you should always let your gal go slightly ahead, with your front wheel parallel to her handlebars, so that she may set the pace.

I think I’d give him a run for his money.

…first at me, and then at someone else ;)  In the past few weeks, I’ve seen/heard from two professors whom I was a T.A. for winter and spring quarters…in the past year.  So we’re talking a matter of months since I was their classroom slave.  One of my friends saw Prof A at a party, figured out he was a geography prof, and started asking about people in the department.  When she said, “Do you know E.M.?” he said “Doesn’t ring a bell”.  Can you hear the deflation coming out of me?  I completely revitalized and updated his entire lab, hoping that he would be thankful for many years to come, helped to do a fieldtrip on a Saturday, and drove him around looking for his car keys when he lost them.  He did remember something about a “buxom” girl in the department though, and asked my friend who she was.  Perhaps I should invest in a push up bra…

 Last week, I was leaving the geography building when I passed Prof B on the stairs.  I said “Hello Prof B!” and kept walking.  He stopped walking, turned around while shaking his finger and said, “Do you sing in the choir at church?”  I am not kidding.  I forced my mouth into some sort of contorted smile and said to him “No, I was your T.A. last winter.”  To which he said, “Well, there’s this girl in the choir and she has an absolutely amazing voice…blah blah blah.” 

 ”No, sorry, that’s not me.  Wish it were.”

 ”Okay.  Bye.”

So my strategy for teaching in the future will be to spend way less time on futile things such as “lesson plans” and “preparation.”  I’m just going to dye my hair bright pink and where short skirts and lots of make up, and then at least maybe they’ll say, “Well, I remember a slutty T.A. in the geography department…”

 Okay - last laugh.  I was in a meeting with the mayor today to discuss the city’s GIS needs.  He wants to do all of this stuff he’s seen on other websites, which is kind of ridiculous because the data isn’t even good right now.  Anyway, he actually referred to how we were going to “digitilize” the data.  Perhaps he borrowed Gee Dubs dictionary.  Nice guy though.

Just want to say hi, and hang in there, to all those people who experienced today as the worst day of the year.  There’s always the chance for a surprise snow storm, or a good cup of coffee, or an early night tucked in under your covers, reading your favorite Billy Collins poem. 

Oh the joys of new neighbors, ripe with excitement over their new apartment above me, installing unsecure internet access! I hope this love affair lasts…

Remembered the name of an author I’ve been trying to think of for the last year. Walker Percy - wrote an essay that I read freshman year in English class called The Loss of the Creature. It was the first thing I read that actually changed my life. Would include a link, but it remains burried out there in internet land, so I had to go old school and buy it from amazon.

Hope springs eternal for a new quarter. I’ve met with my advisor and have a plan. This is the same plan as I’ve always had, a.k.a. finish my thesis. But this time it was accomanied by my first chapter, newly edited, and concrete goals for the end of the quarter. Wahooo!

It’s hard to focus on finishing this thesis and finding a job and place to live all at the same time. All of my apples are up in the air right now, and I’m not sure which one is going to bonk me on the head first…