Okay, okay, okay.
I'll get back to doing homework.
Eventually.
I'm spending the week in a grad class. There are several people in the class with me
who've had to put up with my antics previously.
One person sits next to me before remembering how annoying
I am, and he moves to the other side of the person next to me to get away. (In truth he moved down so a left-handed writer
could have the end seat, but I like my version better.)
Today one girl sits away from me when I'm outside at lunch, getting
up and moving if I venture too close with my laughter and shenanigans. (Actually, she is telecommuting to her job
during breaks, and she's trying to conduct business in a semi-professional
manner, which counts me out. Also, she moves from sun to shade because it's rather toasty out.)
We get three breaks a day: One at 10 a.m. for free muffins
and coffee, tea, and juice; an hour at noon for lunch; and another break at 2
p.m. for free cookies and soda and water.
I try to walk with some of the people over to the dining commons where these free
goodies are hidden away upstairs and through the main hall that the university is trying
to renovate, but my classmates are too fast for me.
(Truth be told, I have shorter legs.)
One lovely lady humors me and walks with me at lunch. Personally, I'll bet she's worried I'll
wander off by myself, get hit by a car, and ruin an otherwise productive
afternoon of work-shopping. (I cannot say
she's completely unfounded in her concern.
I have recently taken up both jay-walking and jay-running as major
competitive sports.)
A couple of people smartly sit on the other side of the table, far
away from being caught up in my whirling dervish of idiocy. (Okay, it's really because they sometimes are the last ones to arrive so there are only a few seats left. For some reason, we file in and sit
immediately like trained monkeys, and the seats they pick are the last ones left
that don't have wads of something indefinable stuck to them.)
There is a charming young woman who has an easy out.
She's German. If she wants to
ignore me, she is perfectly within her rights to tell me she doesn't understand my accent. (In reality
she speaks English impeccably. It's a
wonder how she hasn't smacked me in the back of my head for all of my
mispronunciations and general all-around potty mouth.)
The newbies have no idea what to make of me. I don't particularly give a damn. I'm older than they are, for starters, and
for finishers, I'm nearly done with my degree so who the hell cares what I do? What I say? ... Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I care. Why else would I be writing about it? (Waving to the newbies.)
But really -- If I keep upsetting people, eventually I'll
end up the only one standing. I'll be
class-less. I will, quite literally,
have no class.
Now that I think of it, I may already be there.
