Proctored another standardized test today.

I proctored another standardized test today.

I went out on another coffee run at one point, and I convinced the countergirl to pour my coffee directly in my thermos, since company policy forbade her to do that. She poured it a little full, so I stood by the exit sipping it off before heading it out, and the (later middle-aged black) greeter for the bookstore (the coffee place was in the bookstore) said hello to me, and we started to chit-chat. Of course I started to mention the inauguration, and I said that I was comforted that Obama was in charge, and when she said it was time that the world started respecting us again, I mentioned Guantanamo, and she said that that's true, but what are you going to do with all the prisoners if there are terrorists among them, and that it was on the news last night that two guys released from Guantanamo later were arrested again in attacks against the U.S.

"It's a tough issue, what you do," she was like.

"Yeah," I was like, "But it's nice not to have the secrecy like with Bush, and to have someone opposed to torture, even if they're not sure what they're going to do with all the prisoners yet."

"Mmmm-hmmm, that's right," she was like.

"Yeah," I was like, "It's so nice to have someone professorial in charge, who is smart and has a good moral compass. Bush just didn't have that."

"Ya think?", she was like. "Duh."

I started to say something again, but she interrupted immediately and mugged a face and was like "Duh" again, and then I started to say something a second time, and again she jumped in and mugged a face again and immediately was like, "Duh."

She then was done with that and started talking about how some of Bush's advisors advised against Iraq but had to toe the line and tell him what he wanted to hear, and now that they're out they're writing books and saying this.

I then told her about Bush's half-ass and poorly-planned farewell party and how it was the same level of foresight shown with Iraq, and she was like, "Now that is fitting. Well, retribution is, you know, a bad word, and it may be a bad word, but it's true nonetheless, retribution is that."

Later I brought the coffee back. Earlier some high school kids hadn't come back from break in time even though they were warned they only would have 5 minutes and they were responsible for being back on time, and this time they streamed back in at like four minutes and thirty seconds.

"Damn right," my co-proctor said.

Later when I was double-checking the exam books to make sure that they were in order, my co-proctor was like, "You don't have to do that."

"But this job doesn't make you do much, so I want to make sure what I have to do, I do right," I told her.

"Well, they could pay you for just looking pretty," she said.