~Monday~ I took the Wolfline bus in today, arriving at the stop perfectly timed so as to walk right onto the bus as it pulled up. At a subsequent stop a young man using crutches got on and a nice polite boy sitting across from me actually offered the guy his seat.
I attended a “Lunch & Learn” today for all of the advisors going on the various NC State Alternative Spring Break Trips in Spring 2010. In addition to Tierza and myself, who of course are going on the Gulf Coast Trip, there were advisors going to such places as Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC among others.
The topic of today’s lunch and learn was: “Recognizing and Managing Mental Health and Student Conduct Issues in Alternative Spring Break Settings.” Three very knowledgeable folks presented—two from University Counseling and one from the university’s Office of Student Conduct. Very interesting, and somewhat unnerving, at least to me as a new advisor.
Fortunately, at the end of the presentation when I was feeling just a little overwhelmed, my co-advisor Tierza leaned over to me and said, “I’ve dealt with most of these issues over and over. I was involved with the counseling center for many years and I’ve been on three trips. Any serious problems that pop up on our trip, you just refer them to me.” Yay!
There is a requirement brewing to have everyone going on any of the trips get an H1N1 vaccination, about which there is a lot of controversy. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.
Walking through the Free Expression Tunnel on my way across campus back to my office, I overheard this conversation—not that I was listening (Gladys Kravitz!)—which sounded like it was between a boyfriend and girlfriend:
He: You have to draw lines in the direction that the electrons are going.
She: How do you know which way they’re going?
He [heavy sigh] […pause…]: I’ll have to show you. I can’t just tell you. It’s in my notes.
She: You don’t remember?
He [irritated]: No, I don’t have all my notes memorized.
As I approached the Brickyard, I encountered preacher man off to the side again, exactly where he was last time I saw him in the rain a few days ago, and as I came into hearing range of him he was finishing some thought by saying, “But, no! You choose to return to the devil!”
A student coming toward me also heard this and he yelled over at the preacher, “Fuck you!”
To which the preacher yelled: “Thank you, sir, for your comments. Can you be sure that Jesus loves you?”
“Fuck you out here every day,” the boy screamed in return.
To which the man screamed back, “I wish I could be out here every day, but the university doesn’t allow free speech out here every day, while people die every day overseas.”
I found that too rich not to walk over to a nearby wall to take a moment to capture in my little notebook—both it and the student conversation back in the tunnel. (Can you say Gladys Kravitz?)
I wanted to capture these two writing affirmations received in the form of comments to my blog:
| Just marking my spot – nothing to see here – move along……..
and oh yeah, thanks for the afternoon’s entertainment via Digital Digressions. (I’m still a reader) — Steve |
and
| I’ve been reading a while—love the buscapades (:-) yes, count that as an affirmation!) and really appreciate your take on life in general.
Just end up being anonymous here because I don’t really do a lot of on-line ID stuff. |
I caught the 4:46PM #9 Greek Village Wolfline bus home, which was uneventful, and I hopped right into my car and headed to Durham for our Manbites Dog Board Meeting, which started at 6:00. The traffic was not fun, much worse this time than any of the previous three 6PM weekday board meetings I’ve driven out for recently.
We ended up starting at 6:30 instead of 6:00, as Michael had thought the meeting was Wednesday, so he drove over after we called him at about 6:15.
I stopped at the grocery store on the way home as I had to make Pimento Cheese mini-sandwiches for our Fall Gathering event tomorrow, which I did once I got home.
I wanted to do a little work on a presentation I’m involved with on Thursday, and about which I’m meeting with the two other co-presenters tomorrow, but it didn’t happen.
I’ve really been running on all cylinders for four or five days straight, and all without an adequate amount of sleep—not to mention exercise. I plan on just crashing tomorrow night, perhaps after hitting the gym.