A vs. The administrative assistant, Round 2

Today I'm forced to admit, quite shamefully, that I crumbled. The administrative assistant came in to where I was working and complained about my (intentionally) not filling in the pay period on the time sheet again. After I series of monosyllabic replies, she dropped the paper on the desk and said that she wouldn't file them if I didn't fill out the pay period and that I wouldn't get paid. I stewed in my anger for a while, not really believing that she would actually keep me from getting paid, and contemplating just not getting paid (with the financial aid I'm getting, I actually don't need the money. I'm just hoping I can save up enough to not need to take out a loan next year). I eventually caved, though, and went to explain my case (I've worked there for almost 4 years now and never filled in the pay period, but no one made an issue of it until this summer). I tried to get across how annoying her condescending attitude it, not just about this but also in other incidents of the past, but it really was beyond her and I totally lost the battle. She didn't even express regret for the toilet flushing episode that I found rather humiliating (honestly, it's a toilet. Sometimes there will be some brown streaks at the bottom of the bowl. I have literally shoveled shit, so that's nothing). I was angry for a bit after that, but, really, she's a very pitiable figure. Alone, no husband or kids, can't even have animals because she can't deal with cleaning up after them. All she has is work and being anal retentive. What a sucky life.

A is for apiary

A frustrating incident

Last night, in the first session of a class on the history of bilingual education, the instructor revealed that she often doesn't like to reveal what she does, because everyone wants to argue with her. This was most unfortunate news for me, as I was hoping the incident I had in the bookstore while buying a text for another of the education classes (Instructional Patterns: Strategies for Maximizing Student Learning) was some sort of fluke. Upon seeing the title, the lady at the counter launched into this rant about how all the kids really need is some discipline at home, and how when she was going to school the students had to share textbooks and she turned out just fine without a computer in the classroom (never mind the fact that this woman is a cashier at the university book store). Apparently everyone has a PhD in education and just have to share their infallible wisdom. I guess it is similar to people want to discuss their medical problems when they find out that someone is a doctor.

A feeling

I've got this horrible fear that I'm not perky enough to be a teacher. It could just be the people who choose to come back and teach how to be a teacher, but you never know. The only time I'm that chipper is when I'm nervous, otherwise I'm quiet/sullen/aloof/shy (depending on who is labeling me). Maybe I'd be better off as a professional bee painter. I'm sure I could do it as some sort of performance piece, illustrating the transitive nature of art and reality, as my painting is destroyed/transformed by the very canvas on which I paint. Something like that.

A tale with a point (get it?)

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea that only five hours later I would be standing in a swarm of bees. Luckily, I was wearing a bee suit, so my lack of epinephrine would not be my undoing (not allergic, but still, swarm of bees). I thought I was going in this morning just to speak with the volunteer coordinator in the bee lab about helping out with research this quarter, but, one thing led to another, and I wound up heading out to the bee field and changing classes. The bees were awesome (my favorite part is definitely painting little dots on the bees), but the book for the new class is not so good. You see, there has been a long running complaint that the textbook industry charges too much for textbooks, gouging an already poor population. Whoever made the book for this class decided, hey, we sell bound books for X amount, how about we just don't bind the books? This way, the books are cheaper, but it doesn't cut into our profits. So, yeah. Now I've got a nice stack of three hole punched paper on my hands. Real helpful.