Whew!

I really need to chill. For some reason, everything is driving me crazy.

Fridays are a little odd because there are not that many folks on campus, a large % are 1L's. Every place I attempted to study, something got under my skin. Loud talking, music, even youtube watching. Moved to the library and I became ultra-sensitive to every noise around me. Out come the ear plugs. Now my ears hurt from having them in for hours. I guess I should take them out more often. So I end up grumpy.

Then I walk out to the parking lot I use, which is not a school parking lot. It is usually never manned. There are exceptions. This time, one of the people that runs the lot came over and asked me how much I paid. I tell him and he says I owe more. Yes, the charge changes, but when it does there is always a sign (which there wasn't this am, I always check). He keeps badgering me. So I simply say, the sign wasn't up. He keeps saying it was. (1) I don't actually have the money to pay more and (2) he has picked the wrong person to berate. I then say, nope, not going to pay, which I didn't. I am now banned from the lot, but happy that I left without a fist fight. Not from me, but this guy was doing everything but hitting me; grabbing my car door, my bag, my arm. While I am still a little pissed over the whole interaction (I don't care who was wrong or right, he was a total prick, I was leaving and the event he was upcharging for didn't even start for another 2 hours). The lesson, nothing was accomplished. I will park in a different lot for the same amount of money and that parking lot will likely be mostly full everyday. I hate these kinds of interactions. I will now spend the next 24 hours vacillating between feeling I was in the wrong and angry that I keep revisiting it.

Ugg...the weekend is off to a helluva start.

Second week of class

And I'm already tired.

Rains, pours...fill in the cliche

In this season of disappointment and recessionary depressed economy, I feel guilty for being happy. We thought that this semester would be really difficult money-wise, but in a day, we are back to equilibrium. I think we have found a renter for the apartment and a friend contacted me about a potential part-time job. So I am breathing a huge sigh of relief. And to top it off, I may get to ditch a class that I really am not diggin'. I am having a little fun with Tax and Evidence, plus the seminars are going to be much more work than I thought.

And I appreciate the folks out there that are blogging. It makes my day much more entertaining, I have found.

Why I fear sickness

For the last 2 years I have been lucky enough to have almost all my classes with the most perfect student. One who never gets sick (or only on weekends), attends every class, and takes perfect notes.

I, on the other hand, have no immune system (well, it's gotten better since I actually started eating vegies on a regular basis). I get everything from stomach flu (oh god, I am going to die) to, very likely, swine flu. Cupcakes and other goodies bought me notes from perfect student. But now perfect student has abandoned me for the last year in LS. He is at another school for the last year. There are others I could ask, but it's just not the same. I got notes from someone when I had catastrophic flu (read, almost 2 weeks out with 102 fever). There were numerous words that weren't. Put another way, when taking notes, the English language simply escaped them, though they were born and bred in the US. Another person took so few notes it was pointless. Still another took notes that made absolutely no sense to what we were reading. The notes were basically reminders to her of what she wanted to remember. Needless to say, I never asked for another person's notes again, with this one exception (or in really dire circumstances).

Why am I going on about this? Because I have a headache, a slight sore throat, and a bit of a runny nose. Now this could be nothing but what I call library fever (I am allergic to SOMETHING in this damn place). I take an antihistamine if it gets too bad and it goes away. In the winter, it gets much better, not sure why. BUT there are numerous industrious souls dragging their sick-asses to school and infecting everyone they touch, sneeze on (thanks by the way), cough near, or germinate through door handles, faucets, etc. Yes, I get it, LS is a bitch and it sucks to miss class. But really, do you HAVE to come to school when you look like you are dying???? There are times, when I believe that there should be laws that if you (1) have a fever; (2) are snot-person; or (3) have a cough, it should be illegal for you to come to school. You should be stopped at the door and sent to the quarantine room until a special car picks you up and deposits you on your doorstep.

Before LS, when I worked (granted in academics), I sent people home when they dragged in. First and foremost, you are a danger to everyone around you. We look at colds and flu as if they are nothing. But one of the people I worked with had reduced lung capacity from childhood pneumonia, so a minor cold could be life threatening to her. The flu kills people every year and yet few people have qualms bringing it to work or school. To give you an example, we had a young woman demand to drag herself in every day that she was sick. And she was desperately sick. She gave it to a few people in class (likely through touching desks, etc.). One of those people had a compromised immune system. They were in the hospital for over 3 months.

So the next time you decide to "be brave" and bring whatever sickness to school with you, just know that everyone around you hates you. Especially me, because I know I am going to get it and now I can't stay home because I lost the best student notetaker on the planet. So I hope I get a variant that can be transmitted back to you. Yeah, I am that petty.

I Digress

Okay, just spent yesterday ranting about library noise. However, if everyone was as entertaining as the 2 (1L's? Lost undergrads?) near me this am, I might give them a pass. This next part might sound mean and it is not, really, for the following reasons. (1) Everyone has been in similar situations, though not quite this one (no one has been clued in everyday of their lives. And everyone wants to believe SO) and (2) unlike other annoyances, I felt quite maternal in my sympathy.

Young woman walks up and sits at table with other young woman (YW1 and YW2). yw1 states that she is having serious relationship problems which have lead to class related problems. yw2 sympathizes appropriately and turns back to books. yw1 goes on about relationship. It seems that she is confused whether to get rid of partner because of underwear found in glovebox of partner's car. Said partner claims it is yw1's underwear, yet yw1 can not recall ever purchasing said underwear. Additionally, the underwear is at least 2 sizes too large for yw1. The partner explains this away as her (I kid you not) "fat period." The conversation went on for approximately 10 more minutes in this vein with yw1 attempting to figure out if said underwear were indeed hers with yw2 suppressing serious laughter. I wanted to go over and share a piece of wisdom handed down for generations of women in my family...Git another one cause they makin' 'em everyday. (Also taken from the Sweet Potato Queens, though my great-grandmother said this all the time). I just wanted to hug her...Bless her heart.

And so the library madness begins

At the beginning of the fall semester, I have found that the exact same thing happens until about mid-semester...No one knows how to act in a library. Others have similar experiences.

It begins with a slam of books, a crunch of chips, a whispered conversation. Not bad, I can deal with that, not a problem. Then it elevates to real conversation, a cell phone ring, and a loud conversation about how ____ got so drunk last night at the generic get to know you event hosted by whoever. Now, I am the first to admit that I am cranky. But come on! Really?! You spent how many years in college and you still don't know how to act in a library. Do I really have to shoot death glares or berate you into silence? Do I really have to walk over to the study room, knock on the damn door and tell you that the whole floor can here your screeching laughter? And are you so clueless that you haven't figured out that all of the other folks in the library are trying to stare you into a little quiet?

This cycle will continue until about the middle of the semester. Many of the perpetrators will either avoid the library or avoid being any where that I am (smirk). Of the few that do not get it, others will begin to come forward to shut them up. By the end of the semester, many of these self-same people will be freaking out over exams and outlines and studying that one potato chip crunch will send them into a frenzy of shushing.

But for now, excuse me while I go tell some 1L to shut the hell up, I am trying to blog.

First week...out of schedule already

Usually it takes a couple of weeks for me to get off schedule. I outdid myself and was out by day 2. Going to make for an interesting semester.

Also, tried to talk to some 1Ls. Were we like that? They seemed to only want to congregate amongst themselves, so I bid adieu quickly. I suppose its the whole shared experience thing.