Late and Early Stress

After a late night introducing a new friend to Firefly, I realized that I my wallet wasn't in my purse.  ACK!!!  I text my friend to see if it's there, and go look through my car.  Being that it was midnight, it was a bit dark, though. 

I thought back to when I had last had my wallet.  It was in the Downtown Disney parking lot, but I was pretty sure that I threw it in my car.  The next place that I went was the gym.  My purse (and gym bag) had gotten all turned around in the tiny lockers at that location.  I learned that the gym opened at 5am the next morning. 
So I go to sleep around 1am, knowing that I'll be getting up at 5am to call them.

Around 5am, I do indeed call the gym.  No one's turned it in.  I don't think that the lockers are used that much at that location, so I ask if someone could check the locker that I used (I remembered that it was #13).  The gym receptionist told me that he was the only employee there, so he couldn't look. 

I try to convince myself that I can drop by the gym on the way to work, but deep down I know that I'm going to have to get up at 5am and drive to the gym to look for my wallet.  I get up, brush my teeth, try to control my hair, and go to the car.  I figure I'll look through it again now that it's lighter.  Not really that much lighter, it wasn't even 6am yet!  This time, instead of just the passenger seat and back seats, I also looked around the driver's seat.  And there it was!!!!  Relief.

And, back to bed.

At 6:45am, my alarm goes off.  Instead of the lovely and relaxing sounds of classical music, DJ'd by Dennis Bartell, it's beeping.  I try to switch to music, but instead turn it off.  I convince myself that I'll rest of 5-10 minutes, and get up.

At 7:30am, I wake up thinking "Crap, I gotta go to work!"  Since my teeth were brushed and I had showered the night before, I actually was able to leave for work by my normal time of 8am.  That's including changing sweaters and nylons after I decided that the first set didn't look right.  I stopped for coffee and a smoothie on the way, and got to work fine!  But, geez, my 1am and 5am and 7:30am was pretty stressful today!

4th of July, 2012

I write a similar letter most every 4th of July.  It's my little "celebration."

How will you celebrate the 4^th?  The American Way to celebrate our independence seems to be drinking beer and blowing things up with imported fireworks; how patriotic. I love this country.  I love that I can publish the following and not be “disappeared.”  I love that I can read, work, vote, and own property.  I love that there are millions of gay citizens who are happy and proud, eating Oreos.  I LOVE THAT OUR FIRST FAMILY IS BLACK. 

But. 

I wonder how many women will be beaten in their homes while you celebrate your freedom.  I wonder how many people of color, of all nations, will be killed in the Middle East while you celebrate your freedom.  I wonder how many gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people want to kill themselves while you celebrate your freedom.  I cannot celebrate the independence of the United States until all of its citizens are actually free.  When childcare is universal and women have control of their uterus and birth control options, when people of color have all the opportunities as the White elite, when GLBT people can celebrate their love, when our country is free from our dependence on oil, and when we help other nations rather than attack them, then, and only then, will I celebrate this country.  

Waiting to celebrate,

Dr. Auntie M

President of the College

The president of the college where I work recently retired.  Although his replacement was already chosen, there were a few days in which the new president had not officially been approved by the Board of Trustees (school board) but the new president was officially retired. 

So I took over.

There I am, in the president's office.  Notice the picture of the kids and my brother-in-law?  My "Coffee is like a sauna in a cup" mug?  My water bottle?  And, of course, I'm noshing on a granola bar.  The paparazzi clearly interrupted my work, too. 

And what was my work?  Well, I was considering what changes and mandates that I should make.  Here are some of my ideas:

• Share professor pass rates amongst the department (to shame, I mean "motivate" bad professors).
• Merge the small programs for at-risk students into a larger, pod-based system.
• Mandate that coffee, with creamer, be served at all meetings.
• Provide training to all employees on their bargaining contract (or the contracts of their underlings).
• Provide training to all faculty on cultural competency.
• Require cheese trays at all social events sponsored by the college.

That's as far as I got.  Then I was kicked out of the office so that the next person could sit in the chair and pretend to be in charge.  Someday, I might really be a college president (if I don't stick with teaching), and we'll see if my Cheese Mandate makes it through those long years of administration.  I think that there's a good chance, don't you?