Archive for April, 2006

A day in the life, or, that myth about pregnancy making you forgetful is true.

Published by theiowan April 27th, 2006 in Irritating and Pregnancy. 1 Comment

On Tuesday, I was all set to write 4 pages of the 8-page conference paper that I have to give next weekend. I had an outline, and I was psyched.

As I often do these days, I had a bit of trouble waking up, and didn’t get out of bed until around 8:30. I showered, ate, packed my gigantic bag of lunch and treats, walked the dog, and then my lovable chauffeur delivered me to my office door. The plan was to drop off my videocamera in my boss’ office so he could transfer the Writing Center instructional footage I had taped last week to his computer, then go to the library for the rest of the day.

As I got out of the car, I realized that I hadn’t remembered my purse, which, importantly, contained my keys, so I wouldn’t be able to get into my study carrel, where all of my books were currently residing. I asked Will to wait for me while I ran the camera upstairs, then I drove him to his office, dropped him off, and drove home to get my purse.

When I got there, I was a little tired, so I snuggled up with the schnauzer for what I thought would be a 5-minute rest. An hour later I woke up.

I made myself some lunch (it was 12:30 by this time) and prepared to head back to campus.

Now I needed to put the car somewhere where Will would be able to pick it up, park it somewhere for free, and then pick me up again around 5:00. The only problem was that since my keys had been at home, I had been forced to use Will’s car key when I drove home. So I had to get that key to Will. He was having lunch with some friends, so I joined them halfway through and had a nice carbonated beverage to drink while they finished. By the time it was done and I headed to the library, it was 2:00.

When I got up to my study carrel, I realized that 2:15 was the time I had promised my boss I would come back to pick up the video camera. I decided to lock my bags into the study carrel and walk over to the other building to pick up the camera. By the time I got there it was about 2:20.

As I was walking back to the library, I realized I no longer had my keys with me (once again). But I figured I had actually left them in the library, possibly in the bathroom. So I went to the library, got a visitor’s pass (since my ID is connected to my keys), and went to the bathroom to look for the keys. They weren’t there.

So I went to the lost and found. Not there, but they suggested another lost and found. I shuffled over there (I was getting tired by this point), but alas, no keys.

So I figured maybe I left them in my boss’ office, so I chugged back to the other building once again and found them in his office. Ugh. 3:00.

Happily, I ran into Taryn, who gave me a ride home, where I had a pleasant evening of getting non-work-related things done.

Executive summary: lots of forgetting, lots of walking, very little work. Oh well.

For those of you geeks out there,

Published by theiowan April 25th, 2006 in Nerdly. 0 Comments

Here’s some info on the text editor I use for making html web pages. It’s called SubEthaEdit from CodingMonkeys. Today there’s a chance to get it for free. BLOGZOT 2.0 on MacZOT.com is a promotion to get bloggers to link to the product, and if enough people do it, they’re going to give away $105,000 in software. So if you’re interested, go check it out!

Even though I really like this product (it’s great for debutante programmers like me, particularly because it does syntax highlighting, making it much easier to spot stupid mistakes) and think this promotion is cool (the power of the blogosphere, etc.), I still feel kind of silly posting this shameless shill. Not silly enough not to post it, however.

Observed moments ago while walking the dog:

Published by theiowan April 8th, 2006 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments

Two boys, approximately ages 5 and 7, playing on the sidewalk. One of the boys (the younger one) has just taken off his pants. The other seems to be ignoring him.

As I walk by them on the sidewalk across the street, the 5-year old shouts to me: “Do you know why I had to take off my pants? Do you know why I had to take off my pants?”

I wasn’t exactly sure what to say. Normally, when kids in the neighborhood talk to me, I like to chat with them for a while, despite the fact that I’m simultaneously managing my dog’s abject terror of them. But I didn’t really want to be the lady standing and talking to the boy with no pants, so I just kept walking.

More Rage.

Published by theiowan April 7th, 2006 in Irritating and Pregnancy. 6 Comments

So far, one of the main things I’ve noticed about being pregnant is its intensifying effect on my emotions. When I’m happy, I’m really happy. When I’m tired, I’m really tired. And when I’m enraged, I’m ENRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGEEDDDDD. Today’s target:

To all the undergrads in the H.C. White elevator at approximately 9:55 this morning:
Congratulations on being a bunch of selfish, lazy jerks.

I know it’s a pain in the ass to look at the elevator arrows to determine if it is going up to your classroom or down to the basement to pick up people who have entered the building through the parking garage. I mean, that would necessitate that you 1) are able to recognize the difference between an arrow pointing UP and an arrow pointing down and 2) are willing to wait for 45 seconds while the elevator goes down to the basement to pick up others who have been waiting as long or longer than you.

But you know what? It’s also a huge pain in the ass to be a sick, pregnant lady waiting in the basement to catch the elevator up to the sixth floor, to wait for the elevator for over five minutes, and then to see the elevator door open to reveal a bunch of stupid, lazy undergrads who ignored the arrows and packed themselves into the basement-bound elevator, all of whom are unwilling to exert a modicum of energy to make any room for you.

There was definitely room for one more person to ride that elevator. But as I stood there, I saw each you look me up and down, recognize that I was pregnant, and then decide that squeezing a bit to let the pregnant lady into the elevator would be just too much of a bother.

Also, a special shout-out to the girl who not only refused to move, but actually laughed out loud at me as the elevator door closed: screw you. I hope that someday when you are pregnant someone is as uncharitable to you as you were to me this morning.

And just so all of you know: I did, in fact, walk (actually run) up the SEVEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS and arrive at my Writing Center shift on time. And I did, in fact, nearly pass out and then have a coughing fit that brought several of my colleagues out of their offices to see if I was okay. You see, the cold I’ve had for nearly two weeks has firmly ensconced itself in my lungs, and that combined with the human being growing inside me has pretty substantially reduced my lung capacity.

But I’m really glad all of you got to rest your legs for a little while. After all, it’s a bitch being an undergrad.

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