The best part of waking up

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

Here is a conversation I just had with a student:

Student: I never got my fellowship letter. I asked you to mail it to two addresses so I wouldn't miss it.
S: I know you asked me, but I didn't say yes. Asking somebody to do something for you doesn't actually obligate them to do it.

There's a lot of research about the entitlement of the "millennial" generation, and while I encounter exceptions to those rules every day, I have to say, people in their late teens and early twenties are entitled in a way I cannot fathom. Por ejemplo, this morning we had coffee and pastries available for 30 minutes prior to guest speaker event. People were supposed to grab coffee and something to eat and then grab a seat before the panel began.

About 30 minutes into the panel, there's a knock on the door. We let the late-comers in, but instead of sheepishly taking seats in the back, they walk in front the audience, including someone videotaping our event, to get some coffee and scones, and then LEFT. I was blown away by the rudeness, and when I confronted them later to tell them it wasn't cool, their response was "but we wanted coffee." I told them coffee was available before the panel began, but they claimed that time was "too early" and they wanted coffee to bring to their 10:00am class.

"The next time you think your desire for coffee is so important you have the right to intrude on an event with important guest speakers and a 60 person audience, I want you think of how pissed I am right now and make another choice*."

The next time they saw me after that lecture, they both ducked like I was about to throw something at them. Mission accomplished.

*K taught me the phrase "make another choice." Maybe she can devote a post to why someday.

Everybody's working on the weekend

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

I have to work today. It is Sunday. Yes, in addition to the exorbitant salaries and heaps of prestige, university administration can, at least in my case, come with occasional weekend working. In fairness, most of today's work is just looking nice and being friendly at social events, but that's not the same as looking like crap and being cranky at Target, which is how I usually fill my Sundays.

Working on a Sunday is my WTF for the week. Please enjoy yours:

Double Twin Twins

From an unnamed production office for an undisclosed television show in an address-withheld building in LA where the elevators are shockingly slow...

 

The guy in the foreground in the green tee shirt and jeans who is matching the guy in the background in the green tee shirt and jeans is the same guy who was wearing the red tee shirt and jeans when someone else was.  I am coming to question his affection for tee shirts, jeans, and Christmas.  I am also questioning what he must think I'm doing with the pictures I keep taking of him with his head cut off.

Celebeerty

From an unnamed production office for an undisclosed television show in an address-withheld building in LA where the elevators are shockingly slow...

It seems as though no one is my office today is getting much done, but I have absolutely no idea why.

That's a lie.  This is the recycling container in our office.  This is why:

Yesterday one of my coworkers and I were given the illustrious college-degree-required task of going to Ralph's and buying alcohol and candy for some special celebrity guests that were coming to tape our show.  At first we were at least excited for the out of office field trip time, but I disappointed us both with my extreme alcohol and candy efficiency once we got to the store (it was almost as though I was overly familiar with those particular aisles thanks to years of experience frequently buying alcohol and candy and consuming too much of it each day.  Weird!)

But- No one was disappointed when the celebrity guests left some Ralph's club savings beer behind.  What could we do after 13 hours in the office, but go upstairs and drink until it was nearly time to come back?  Thanks, nameless non-beer-drinking semi-famous people.

I don't wanna wait

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

So it's Anything Goes Friday, where we play whatever music we feel like. My officemate and I were in meetings all morning, so our wonderful workstudy students (undergraduates who help us in our office to offset the cost of tuition) decided to take it upon themselves to decide the theme for the day. They have chosen "Terrible 90s Alt-Rock." To achieve this theme, they have created a 3rd Eye Blind Pandora Station. Said station features the following:

A live version of "Champagne Supernova" by Oasis

"Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows

"Barely Breathing" by....someone. You know the song" "I am barely breathing/And I can't find the air/Don't know who I'm kidding/Imagining you care..." Duncan Sheik! I'm pretty sure that's right. I know I could easily look it up, but I will not.

"Black Balloon" by the Goo Goo Dolls

"Push" by Matchbox 20

"Absolutely" by Nine Days ("This is the story of a girl/Who cried a river and drowned the whole world")

And of course, that 3rd Eye Blind classic, "Semi-Charmed Life".

This station could easily be renamed "Songs Featured on Dawson's Creek".

Business as usual

From an unnamed university in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...

So first of all, that strike was b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Not that I participated, no, I watched TV, went for a run, met a friend for lunch, and took no less than 4 naps in a show of solidarity. But apparently people went nuts. I live about a mile from campus and could hear helicopters overhead all day; I saw on the news that people took over a major a highway. Now generally, I assume that one day of chanting with signs does not do any good, but apparently now Gov. Kindergarten Cop wants to create a constitutional amendment saying that our K-12 schools and universities cannot receive less funding than our prisons. I applaud the sentiment, but am pretty horrified that that sentence ever needed to be uttered. I bet somewhere Gray Davis is having a beer and thinking "suckas!"

Anyway, today, I volunteered to help out our dean's assistant with errands in preparation of a big event that our department is having this weekend. Why? My answer is three fold. 1) I will take any chance I get to get out of the office. 2) Among other places, she is going to Costco. HOT DOG FOR LUNCH Y'ALL. 3) I fancy myself pretty strong, so I like taking opportunities to nonchalantly show off how many flats of Hansens I can lift.

Exhibition A

From an unnamed production office for an undisclosed television show in an address-withheld building in LA where the elevators are shockingly slow...

 

I work in a big office building on the second floor.  A couple hundred people work on this floor, and about that many are on the first, third, fourth, and fifth floors.  And all these floors look out onto a big open courtyard.  Which is why this woman in the red dress's choice to completely change her outfit from this dress to another and pull on some black nylons in the MIDDLE of this courtyard was really effing weird at best.  For as many people as could see her hoist up the silver sequin number she put on and then left (yes- she went full Loehmann's-community-dressing-room and then then immediately LEFT), there are the appropriate number of bathrooms in the building.  Like, bathrooms where there are stalls.  Stalls that- if you went into them- a bunch of people trying to make a bunch of stupid TV shows couldn't see you adjusting the crotch of your pantyhose as you held your floor length semi-formal dress up to your chest, and I wouldn't have to be an iPhone camera sniper without a zoom reporting on this instead of doing something that someone isn't paying me enough for.