Double-Booked on the Terrace

 

Today did not start out fortuitously. I was still sick and ended up having to change my clothes, but I couldn't stay home because today was the big welcome luncheon for the new grad students, and I had to bring the sparkling water I'd bought yesterday. Then Travalon couldn't find his sunglasses, but somehow he got me to work on time. I was wearing my favorite turquoise top that I always seem to spill food on, and sure enough, during lunch sauce dripped from my sandwich onto my top. I got it mostly cleaned up with soap and water, but the stains were still faintly visible. Luckily when I use stain remover before doing the laundry, they have always come out... so far. Because of the luncheon, I couldn't walk with Seabird at lunch, but she stopped by to get the key to her new office in my building (where she used to work), and we checked it out. It's a big shared office, and I found this smiley face in it.

Then we took a short walk outside. I spent most of the day working on a spreadsheet for a faculty member and was sick of looking at my computer screen by the time five o'clock rolled around. That's when things got really interesting.

The committee I was on to write a report on ageism at the university planned to get together to celebrate finishing the report, and somehow I was the one in charge of organizing it. I sent out a Doodle poll to see when people would be available to meet up at the Terrace, and today at six was the clear winner. Then I saw an email from someone saying she couldn't meet the rest of my Union peeps at 5:30 tonight on the Terrace, and I thought, "I never got that email!"... but it was in my Spam folder. So just after work I walked down to the Terrace and found Travalon, and then a couple of my Union peeps saw us and joined us. Pretty soon there were three tables' worth of Union people sitting around drinking beer and eating French fries, but I had to confess that I would have to cut out for another gathering. Then one of the committee members arrived early for the other gathering, so she joined the Union gathering for a little bit but then spotted "Dave," a guy she knew, so she went to join him. When a second person from the committee arrived, she, Travalon, and I went over to join the first committee member and Dave, who was not on the committee. Eventually the leader of the committee joined us too, but we never saw anyone else, even though quite a few people said they could make it tonight. Were they wandering the Terrace, looking for us and maybe meeting each other and having their own gathering? Or did they all just flake? Who knows? The leader said we should try it again sometime, but I'm thinking a more organic time for us to meet up might be when the final report is presented at the Staff Assembly. A lot of us have never seen each other in real life, so that was what I was most looking forward to. Also seeing a member who left partway through for another job, but that person never responded to emails. When it was just the first committee member, Dave, Travalon, and I, we had a very interesting conversation about travel and music and all sorts of things. It was Open Mic Night at the Terrace, and one guy signed up for a slot just to propose to his girlfriend, which got the biggest applause of the night. Another guy told knock-knock jokes. I had never heard this one before:

            Knock Knock!

            Who's there?

            Spell!

            Spell who?

            Double-u, aitch, oh.

(Or, as the Irish would say, haitch.) It's so dumb that it's just fabulous. I must tell it to my coworker tomorrow who is the king of dad jokes.

On the way home, we stopped at the Chocolate Shoppe so Travalon could get his limited edition Scotcharoo ice cream. They even had a poster about it on the door. I was going to get some too, but then I saw key lime flavor, which is also only around in the summer. Such a hard choice, but darn, that key lime ice cream was so tasty! Then we came home, and while doing DuoLingo, I ran my hands through my hair and messed it all up. I had my reading glasses on, and Travalon said, "You look so good right now!" So here's what Travalon thinks is sexy:

I think I look like a worn-out professor who has just finished grading a bunch of term papers. "I just cannot read one more essay about how hubris is the downfall of the archetypal hero! Does nobody have any fresh ideas anymore? Were these all written by AI? And why did this student write their paper in Comic Sans Serif? That is not a way to get anyone to take you seriously!" I am, of course, only imagining what a professor thinks about, since I'm a grad school dropout myself.

Famous Hat