Tales from the Steppes

2005-02-14

10:11 p.m.
Am I right side up or upside down, is it real or am I dreaming

This day has just totally blown. Completely. Ok, it could have been worse. I could have a dead rabid weasel attached to my butt. Or any other part of my anatomy for that matter. Even if the weasel wasn't dead but merely rabid or dead but not rabid. All of these would in fact make it worse.

So what was so bad today? Let's just meet the contestants and see which one is the winner.

Contestant A is a single white male head of the Landscape Architecture program. But no love on his mind today! No no, today he is looking to have my thesis approved by the Internal Review Board before continuing with the research. That's right, something that should have been mentioned, oh, several MONTHS ago has now become an issue. So now I will be preparing stuff to meet with them. More deadlines and deliverables than I can shake a stick at. With no help from my first or second advisor, as I am the first person in the program required to do this. Will I graduate this spring? The crystal ball says "I think NOT." Unless, of course, this Internal Review Board has their act a bit more together than the rest of the university.

Contestant B is a married Pakistani male, father of one. He's got a lot on his mind today too! Turns out, my having bronchitis last week was a wee bit inconvenient and now, he needs those numbers for Friday's PHED committee meeting YESTERDAY! Gosh, it's really, really too bad that I am the only person on the face of the planet capable of figuring this out. It's not like we have any other Fred team members Fred that could handle this Fred in a pinch. Like maybe ..... Fred? Get off of my ass, take a number and go wait in the bar. I'll let you know when it is your turn to whine at me.

And then there are contestants C. I say "contestants" because they are a cute couple that just met tonight. You might could say that their meeting was like the stars colliding in the heavens. But I would say it was more like their cars colliding into mine as I was NOT MOVING. The look on my face as I got out of my car must have been priceless. At least these gentlemen were cooperative. And it was raining. And it truly was an accident. But oh my fucking god this is the third time in 4 months that someone has hit me. While this is very funny (no one was hurt), I am getting a bit tired of talking to GEICO on the phone.

I suppose I could continue with a lament upon Valentine's Day itself, but I don't even really need/want to go there.