~Friday~ Uncharacteristically, I woke up in the middle of the night. It was just before 3:00, and about a minute after I woke up there was this loud pop outside and then my power blinked off and back on. It was just long enough to reset my clock, whose 72-point font was blinking a bright red.
While setting my phone alarm, so as not to have to mess with the clock just then, I thought how incredibly coincidental that of all the minutes in the night, I woke up right before that happened. Otherwise, I surely would have missed the bus in the morning. Don’t call me Shirley.
I actually drove into work today, as I wanted to have my car to run around during the day, and arrived there at about 8:15. Since I was going to be in my office for less than two hours before I had to go to a meeting, I parked street-side behind my building where you can park free for two hours.
At 9:35, I drove over to the Coliseum Parking Deck, using my first (of twelve) free parking permits for 2011 for being a user of public transportation.
I met with the student leader and the other advisor of our 2011 Alternative Spring Break Gulf Coast Team, and we finalized everything for our early morning departure. And I mean early morning. We have to be at the student center at 3:00 for a 3:30 bus departure to the airport.
I joined Anna and Sarah at Cup A Joe Mission Valley for Kaffee Klatsch, and on the way there, I passed a guy on the street at the Western Boulevard and Avent Ferry Road intersection who was wearing a sandwich board advertising a “Haircut Sale” at Great Clips today—$6.99. I was already planning to get a haircut today, using my $7.99 coupon, so that was bonus.
I stopped there after lunch, but there were five people ahead of me, so I made a quick stop next door at the ABC store, where I picked up a half gallon of Canadian Club.
I was at work until 5:30, spending a good deal of the afternoon finalizing everything for the March 9, 2011 University Information Technology Committee meeting, which I’m responsible for from an administrative perspective, and which my manager is going to cover for me next week while I’m gone.
I stopped by Great Clips again on the way home, and there were only three people ahead of me this time, and one of them was this totally hot white kid who reminded me of, ironically considering yesterday’s entry, Eminem. He had a tattoo on his neck, and his pants were hanging down showing enough of his gray jockey shorts to get a rise out of me.
His girlfriend was with him, and she was a totally controlling bitch. “Don’t get it cut too short,” she barked at him as he took a seat with the stylist.
After the cutting started, she walked up to his chair where the stylist was mid-cut and said, “You gonna get it cut that short all over? That’s gonna look retarded.”
He said, “Not all over, but most of it. You’re one to talk.”
To which she replied, “Yes, I know my hair looks retarded. That’s what happens when you try to bleach your own hair. It turns orange. I know that.”
There were so many things intensely offensive about their conversation, not the least of which was the repeated use of the R-word. Why can’t people understand how offensive that word is when used in that manor? Does it really take having a friend or loved one with intellectual disabilities to get how that word is offensive?
It makes me wince as much as, “That’s so gay,” does. These words hurt, people. R-Word. Spread the Word to End the Word.
I spent the night doing laundry and packing for my trip to New Orleans in the morning. I have to get up at 2:00, give six of our students a “wake-up call” at 2:15, and I have to be ready to be picked up by our team leader, Tracy, and her boyfriend Dave, at 2:50AM.
Tomorrow’s going to be a rough day.
A final note: I am going to be blogging on behalf of the team for the next nine days, and it’s virtually impossible for me to keep up my blog and that blog too, so I’m pretty much going to do what I did last year during this trip, and that’s post a pointer here to the entry on the team’s blog for that day. Because, esentially, I’m going to be doing what the team is doing. 🙂
If you want to follow our team directly, the URL is: http://web.ncsu.edu/servicebreak/category/north-america/gulf-coast/.