~Wednesday~ Due to the nasty, nasty weather this morning—some wind and torrential rain, I drove over to the Wofline bus stop on Gorman, where I can sit in my car across from the stop until I see the bus coming, and which drops me off much closer to my building than the city bus.
For two reasons, it’s obviously exam week (which means no classes):
- Not only were there no students standing in the aisle of the bus by the time we got to Fraternity Court, there were still one or two empty seats.
- A good majority of the students on the bus were doing last minute cramming on their way to an exam as evidenced by either:
- Flipping through textbook pages
- Flipping through spiral-bound notebooks of class notes
- Flipping through broken-holed tattered-edged pages of notes that used to be in a spiral-bound notebook
- Glancing, folding, and glancing again at notepad pages with class notes on them.
One (absolute cutey-pie) got on at one stop with a cup of coffee in his hand, which might not have been so noticeable if it wasn’t in a glass tumbler. Who wants to carry around an empty glass all day?
I love it when I hear good news from previous colleagues of mine at IBM. I’ve heard two such things this week. The first one was in a holiday card from my friend Susanne, whom I worked with in Information Development while at IBM. She was a technical writer, but mostly did project management work for publication projects. She was devastated when she was first laid off from IBM. This is what her card said:
| I changed career direction and used my Masters in Library and Information Science as an entry into the schools. I am subbing part time at several private schools both in the library and the classroom. I love it! Not sure where it will lead but for now am enjoying this very much. I’m so grateful IBM got rid of me!!!
Susanne |
The second news item was from my friend Rob, with whom I did “Defect Prevention” work many years ago in IBM when Quality was the big buzz. Recently he applied for IBMs Transition to Teaching program and asked me to write a letter of recommendation for him. Here’s what his e-mail to me and the other person who provided a recommendation said:
| Today I received notification from the IBM powers that I have been accepted into the Transition to Teaching program. I want to thank you both for your assistance with this. I start classes in January at NC State and have arranged to have a reduced work load at IBM between now and the time I complete the teacher program (May 2011). Then it’s off to find a teaching job. I love it when a plan falls together.
Best regards, |
Yay, and yay!
I spent my morning working on a prototype web page that will be used to request an invitation to join our Google Apps @ NC State Beta when it’s ready to roll. This was in preparation for an 11:00-12:00 meeting, which ran past 12:15, of our Student E-Mail Initiative Implementation Team.
I went over to the Talley Student Center where they were having an H1N1 Vaccination Clinic open to everyone now from 9:00-1:00. They were offering both the nasal and the shot options, and although I would have preferred the shot, I didn’t “qualify” for it.
While standing in line, a plus-sized girl bent over the table to fill out her form and to reveal a thong in the spare tire area that was exposed between the waist of her pants riding down and the hem of her blouse riding up. Not a pretty sight. It was like putting one of those little round spot Bandaids on a head wound. But I digress…
I got the nasal spray, and I was surprised to feel some liquid being shot down my nostril instead of a spray around the inside of it. That was in the right nostril, which she did first. In the other one, I didn’t feel much of anything, so perhaps that one did spray.
I was able to take my tissue and walk away immediately as I had had the seasonal flu shot, too. There were several people sitting in chairs in a sort of waiting/holding area, which is what you had to do if you hadn’t had the seasonal flu shot prior to getting this one.
I wasn’t planning on getting the H1N1 vaccine, but 1) it’s required for everyone going on the Alternative Spring Break trip, and 2) I was able to get it free through Blue Cross Blue Shield.
I came close to finishing up my house-cleaning before heading to dancing with the guest bedroom and bathroom cleaned and the guest bed sheets washed.
Dancing was a ton of fun tonight. There was a good crowd (for what reason no one can fathom), and I had two affirmations on my dancing from two people who haven’t seen me dance before: “You’re very good,” one said, and the other, “You’re very, very good. It’s obvious you love dancing.”
I danced several two-steps tonight some leading—a couple with Rob, one with Geromy, and one with Joe T., and a couple following—one with Bill and one with Carl.
Geromy has completed and passed all of his prelim exams, so I bought him a congratulations drink, “To Dr. G!”