The lentil above the doorway...
December 4th, 2003
I feel strangely light today, like I am walking a few centimetres above where the ground is or something. The ground seems to be closer than it should be. Or maybe it is farther away? I can't tell. I think it is because I had a medium coffee today in an effort to wake myself up. Caffeine seems to affect me really strongly, and I can never predict how it's going to be. Sometimes I feel like I have drunk liquid amphetamines. Sometimes, however, it makes me feel like I desperately need to go to sleep.
I can't stop laughing. I think I have progessed into the stressy slightly sleep deprived everything is funny place. I am marking papers and I just remembered an event from the last year of my MA studies that happened to one of my friends and co-cohort member, who was marking student papers. The student was writing about Celtic Archaeology, and they were specifically talking about doorway structures with niches for skulls to keep for ancestor cult worship I believe, but the student wrote there was a lentil above the doorway and I found out about this when Katherine staggered into my office, tears pouring out of her eyes and splashing into her mouth which was wide open in laughter as peal and peal full of laughter escaped and broke like crystal on the floor. I laughed so hard (mostly because Katherine was so infectious and any outlet when you are stressed opens wide) but it was so funny. Really. (For those scratching their heads, puzzled, a lentil is (1) A leguminous plant (Lens culinaris) native to southwest Asia, having flat pods containing lens-shaped, edible seeds.; or (2) The round, flattened seed of this plant. A lintel, on the other hand is: A horizontal structural member, such as a beam or stone, that spans an opening, as between the uprights of a door or window or between two columns or piers. Heh. I guess you had to be there).
***
I am hiding in my office and listening to loud music and I am trying to mark student assignments. I had great plans for today but it seems as though that didn't come true in the case of marking. I did arrange the exam and field about 56 questions and deliver exams to Special Needs and all other important things for my job but marking got the shaft yet again. I was ready to go home at 4pm, but just as I got my coat on, grabbed the hated marking folders and prepared to flee, a student just happened to knock on my door just before I left. So, I stayed. Even though I am sure a lot of my students think I am a heartless bitch I can tell you that I am really not and I can't turn a student away. So, I missed my bus, but I have another happy student, so I think it was a bus well missed. I did walk down to the library and considered going home, but since Chris is coming up here for fencing at 7pm, I decided to just stay and work (and write this too). I really should go and fence since I haven't for about 3 weeks now, but I can't summon the energy. Maybe I should look at things differently, and take fencing as an outlet. Some of my students are in fencing, I can use them as target practice. Heh.
***
My brand new work computer monitor screams at me several times a day. I wonder if it is unhappy with the refresh rate or resolution I subject it to. It seems to just start whining at a high pitched frequency for several minutes at a time. It's singing to me. This is amusing me more than it should, because I am listening to "Gott Sein" by Megaherz. Hee. megaherz, Megahertz, refresh rates.....ok it is only funny to me. I got the screaming to stop by punching the on/off button rapidly until the monitor gave up. Poor sad monitor.
***
I found out that one of my book chapter packages reached one of the editors, which is good. Unfortunately, the professor is on sabbatical in B.C., so the departmental secretary asked me if I wanted it forwarded to B.C. I said sure. I am also going to email it to the professor and send another paper copy to the department so I know it's there and I am off the hook until the edits come in. Can I just say I am blown away that I actually got this written and submitted? My thesis supervisor would roll his eyes as he is patiently waiting for me to submit a journal article or three based on my thesis, but this book chapter I have put off for a whole year (ack!) so getting it done has felt like a huge weight off my shoulders. Plus I actually kind of got interested in being a part of academia again. Maybe I will do my PhD. I have no idea.
***
I need this shirt from ThinkGeek.com. I think if you know how computers work and can fix them and are a damn people-pleaser you can't escape a lifetime of servitude. It's somehow gotten out that I know "those things", and as a result I am on the speed-dial to fix emergencies in the department, or even just to ask for general computer advice. I kind of like it, but sometimes I want to tell people to piss off because I have too much of my own job to do rather than go and muck around with a recalcitrant machine. But the lady doth protest too much...I can't say no to a challenge.
Currently Reading:
- The Thief's Gamble by Juliet E. McKenna. This is a lie, because I think I have only been able to read about 2 sentences in the past 2 days.
If I am allowed to lie, then I am also reading:- Noonthief by James Barclay.
- Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.
Books I have Read Lately:
- I have updated my reading list to reflect all the books I read while I was away from the journal. I'll fill in my thoughts as I go.
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)