I forgot to mention a couple of things that I wanted to capture from yesterday, but that entry was long enough anyway. I know, “Aren’t they all?” But you digress…
The first thing was with regards to being an editor for a living and how it makes me crazy some times. I just can’t stop doing it, and regretfully, there’s way too much fodder in everyday life to egg me on.
I have two contradicting anecdotes on this subject, both with regards to something that happened recently about which I haven’t blogged.
On Friday, while in the Bass store in Smithfield, I had on my  t-shirt.
When I walked up to pay for the shorts I was purchasing, the cashier said, “Uh-oh. I can’t talk.” I smiled, and said, “Oh? Why not?” “My sister-in-law’s an English major, and she says I have the worst grammar,” she replied. I laughed and said, “Well, you don’t have to worry. I only edit written work, and only when I’m getting paid for it.” |
And now for the second anecdote, which immediately contradicts half of that last statement.
| So, I’m walking along Hillsborough Street, on the way to Mitch’s Tavern for the social hour with Dr. Cooke, and I pass, one time too many, the business that is called: “Smoothie’s.”
I see through the glass window and glass door what appears to be a student working the register, and she has one customer, a guy who also looks like he’s a student. I open the door enough to stick my head in, and say to the cashier, “Do you think you could see about correcting your sign? That apostrophe doesn’t belong in ‘Smoothies.'” She cocks her head a little bit, as if to say, well, you can imagine what, and I said, “Who owns Smoothie? You have the possessive form.” She cocks her head the other way, and noting what appears to be concentration, I can’t help but think of that wonderful euphemism: “The wheel is spinning, but the hamster is dead.” Finally she speaks: “What sign are you talking about? Is it one pointing to our store or something?” I point at the glowing, purple, neon light that is the middle of their giant front window and say, “No, this one right here. The very name of your shop. In neon. That apostrophe doesn’t belong there.” By now, the guy who is the customer is laughing, and she musters a smile herself. “Tell your manager,” I suggested, closed the door, and moved on. Physically, at least. |
The second thing that I wanted to capture was that I had several affirmations that I forgot to write about yesterday, and since my blog name is dailyafirmation, I would feel remiss in not mentioning them now:
- Dr. Dicks regarding my feedback on the professors: “Thank you for doing them. I particularly liked the line about you thinking Brent would be one of those professors whose class would be ‘a pain in the –ss’ while in it, but in the end, one you’d feel very good about having taken and done well in, and how you said that wasn’t unlike a couple of our current professors’ classes.”
- Dr. Cooke saying that my idea about a professor research poster session, and a possible way to teach a tools class, were “very, very, good, creative ideas.”
- Susan Katz’s thanking me for: “the diligence that you’re putting in to assessing the candidates. Your feedback is extremely helpful, and I for one, really appreciate that amount of time and effort you’re taking to provide it.”
- I also felt very good about Dr. Dicks’ and Dr. Swarts’ reaction to my ENG 675 Web site prototype.
Now for today…
I dropped off Joe at Flex, where, thankfully, we found his vehicle intact.
I beat the traffic to work, and shortly after arriving contacted my manager about rescheduling my Annual Assessment meeting to accommodate a school meeting I wanted to attend from 1:30–2:45 today.
We ended up rescheduling it for tomorrow morning, even though I don’t work on Wednesdays. However, we were doing it to accommodate my schedule, and I didn’t want to cram hers on Thursday morning. She actually works in Austin, and is only here in RTP today through Thursday morning—having to leave the office by 9:30AM to catch her 11:00 flight, and she’s already booked that morning. So, I’m happy to drive in tomorrow in order to attend my school meeting today.
I attended Lynne’s research presentation during that 1:30–2:45 time slot, and that experience is summarized in yesterday’s entry behind the cut. It’s smoke and mirrors how I can report yesterday on something that didn’t happen until today. But I digress…
I worked from home the rest of the afternoon.
Class tonight met only from 7:30–8:00 (instead of 8:45), and after relating some administrivia about how our “groups” are going to function, and how to send our project proposals to the MS faculty for review, Jason broke us up into our groups, after whose meeting we were free to go.
Jennifer Fritz and Kim Rothwell are in my group, as we’re all three doing Web sites associated with the university. Our charge was to familiarize our teammates with our projects, and make concrete commitments to each other of what we’re going to have done by our next meeting, which will be Tuesday, 1/30.
I went to Helios after class, where I stayed until it closed, and then dropped by Flex for Karaoke.
OMG, there were several phenomenal singers there tonight. I was glad I stopped by.
Chad’s sister was there, and she had an incredible, incredible voice—LeAnn Rimes-ish— and she and Chad sang Endless Love as a duet. Most excellent.
I imagined them growing up together, singing together all the time—just like sisters.