Over the top accounts of mundane occurrences:

Long day at work – no time to blog during work – though I checked for comments (having just added that feature) and must wonder if all the hits on my counter are from Jen checking to see if I’ve posted yet– a big marketing packet was due, so much writing and editing – teaching myself how to manipulate graphics in text for a tri-fold brochure. “It’s so nice that you know how to do this.”
“I didn’t know how to do it ten minutes ago.”
“But you knew how to figure it out”.

A performance review of two of my staffers led to raises for them both – fun to reward good work. Met with a rep for a custodial firm to get a bid on cleaning – currently done by other staff who would like to not clean anymore. Interviewed new potential employee – will make him an offer next week – he seems great and will help out a great deal – the trouble is phasing him into a tight schedule. Nancy has left us as a desker to care for ailing parents – though will still be about as a student for sage commentary - and Diane has taken her hours for the time being. So, workday with Dianne meant less time fixing Nancy faux pas (which sweetness absolves). I told Nancy on her last day what a pleasure it is to have her around – good timing on that one.

Diane found the dayshift to be surreal –as nothing much really happens at night and nothing much doesn’t happen during the day. With three phone lines and an open door you do what comes next. Diane also couldn’t help asking the occasional James question, as I see him sometimes and I guess she doesn’t. Diane is now with Jack, yes that’s right Jack & Diane – Jack has a nose ring and looks like a monk – nearly shaved head – John Lennon glasses, tabi shoes – Bruce Lee bamboo button down in Thai silk.

The early am was filled with heavy rain and the desire to snooze – which I did – no time to blog before work as I was slogging off the work I had just left. On lunch I paid bills – did a load of laundry – walked and fed the dog – went to sick-with-strep-didn’t-go-to-work-since-Monday-Angela’s with DVDs, sushi, and a new non-strep toothbrush from Schnuck’s (as per request). No time to blog at lunch (painful six hundred dollars in utilities – I need a roommate!!!!). Nada called and is unable to swing it financially – I made a counter offer of necessity to delineate special territory of the Karlito hegemony (since my furniture oppresses in part through ratio to the non furnished perhaps a room in the home is less than half the home), so she’ll be by Saturday to Negotiate. Brad is 31 Monday & wants a party on Saturday. Bj is coming into town tomorrow – so pool for tonight will happen tomorrow – which is fine as I went and shot pool last night.
That’s a good anecdote – Brad met me after work and we decided to try Atomic Cowboy. We parked in front, under a one-hour parking sign, sensing this was a short-lived venture. Brad nearly turned into the hardware store before the entrance; a hardware store bar would be our sort of place. Half finished cigarettes under shoes at the doorway’s eye level command. Brad: “Well, we’re not going to be here very long.” A coffee house really, with six dollar-wait forever Gin and Tonics in self promoting glasses, thick belted pudgy/trendy girls listening to the ongoing audience participation talent night. Imagine yourself in the movie 2001, on the earth orbit space station surrounded by curvy space age plastic furniture that really belongs in a Montessori classroom– now fill that space with Eddie Brickell and The New Bohemians (all under the age of 24) & the contents of a 100 level photo class with price tags reflecting debt more than talent. OWICH – I got me some bitchy. Off to the Saratoga for three-dollar drinks and a five-dollar rack on a full size table the envy of all Christendom. It’s nice to upset conventional wisdom by paying less and getting more. Believe it or not, I actually really like The Atomic Cowboy. I’m glad it exists and I think it represents things I believe in. At the same time, it’s not the sort of place that I personally enjoy – it has that innate pretension of a bunch of art students starting a band on a whim– you wish them well, but wouldn’t pay to go hear them.

So after work today– back to Schnuck’s for a roasted chicken, some fresh carrots, a 20 oz Guiness and a bottle of Fleischmen’s Gin (look at all those possessives – must be a culture of conceptual ownership as I now own the Gin and the chicken for my consumptive bliss). Post work energy = dinner and cleaning to prep for Nicole’s paper revision meeting. Angela has warned me Nicole is often late. I drink my beer. Seven pm – I call Angela – Nicole is often late by a half hour – I watch the fish – listen to NPR – clean – frame a photograph– 7:45 I call Angela – “Call Nicole’s Cell” – I call Nicole’s Cell – I leave a message. Eight pm I call Angela and explain that I have resisted the gin as long as I am able given my stressful day and I have kept myself cogent for effective editing. My shoulder is holding the phone to my ear. The ice clinks into the rocks glass. I break the plastic ring seal that is keeping my gin fresh and safe as a bottle of milk. Ah gin, the crack cocaine of the eighteen fifty’s. The gin hits the ice, flows over, around and under it, as the cubes rise on juniper fumes – doorbell of Murphy’s law (more possessives). Had I poured this drink at seven then Nicole would have been on time.
What I am expecting – a paper on the film adaptation of The Color Purple that has been researched, written, reviewed by the instructor, revised, due tomorrow. What I get Nicole, an hour late, with a manila folder full of research on childhood obesity and advertising, no paper, “Where do I start now that I’ve researched this other topic at the insistence of my instructor? How do I turn this research into a ten page paper?” Switch modes, no problem. Here is the basic structure of a research paper. Here is a brainstorming exercise to get you to an outline of your key ideas from which you will derive the particular structure of this paper. Here is what a thesis sentence looks like, here’s how you cite these sources both in text and in your works cited page, “Can you get an extension (yes), let’s meet Sunday night to go over what you’ve written & make a revision plan.”
“Do you miss teaching?”
“Yes.”
“It’s what I’m trained to do.” Well, that and mixology.