Can't wait till I get a new job.

I can't wait till I get a new job.

I'm so over teaching freshman writing.  It has its nice moments, but the admin put in place conditions where you don't get respect, and it's ill-paid, and I deserve more and better.

Interesting library shift where I got to shelve...

1) A few books related to African-American military regiments from the Civil War era, where a designation like "4th", "29th", and "30th" appeared in the otherwise regular Library-of-Congress call number.

2) A book by radical mid-19th c. Unitarian minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who actually led an African-American military regiment in the Civil War (!), as I found out from reading the back of the book.

3) A book that I had returned a while ago, that I had checked out and used in my dissertation intro.

. . .

It's funny, you have to do a test cart and then 2 probationary carts before they let you go shelve for real, and my last probationary cart was on the first day of the term.

"It's the first day of school and you guys are giving me an exam, what's with that?!", I joked with my one supervisor.

Bedbug neuroticism.

So, it hasn't been as bad as I thought to plastic sealtight bin up my stuff for my move, but you do get very neurotic.

The bins are a bit expensive - like over $15 each - and I was trying to figure out if I should get a few more for my bathroom and kitchen stuff, though there's an incredibly low chance that any bedbugs would be in there, what with no natural fibers and the great distance from my sleeping area.

At first I leaned against it, thinking I'd just fill up a box and haul one box of that stuff over with every trip and put it in my kitchen or bathroom, but now I'm learning towards actually sealing the stuff away and then going through the sterilization routine.

It might be a bit overly neurotic, but it's a bit like "better safe than sorry", and it's not that much more money or that much more work.

Great bartender who likes films.

So, the other week after seeing a movie downtown, I hit up some new bars, and at one I started talking with the (early 20s) (black) (female) bartender and we started talking movies, which she used to watch a lot with a boyfriend and now she does herself as a hobby a lot.

So, I asked her what recent film she liked a lot, and she not only told me about "The Revenant", but also gave a really cool, informed perspective on the acting.

Then, we started talking about other movies we've liked.

"You know what I saw for the first time last summer and I can't stop talking about?", I was like.

"What?!", she was like.

"This old movie called 'Imitation of Life,'" I was like.

"No way!", she was like, and she then started telling me about how it's her favorite movie of all time and her and her mom watch it together like once a year, and her favorite scene is when the Sandra Dee dancer character is on a rotating stage in a martini glass.

GOTV story: odd volunteers.

Last Saturday I went out for food with some folks from the campaign office after doing a few canvasses.

At one point, someone mentioned this odd couple who were in there for a while.

The guy had a duct tape patch on his t-shirt and was carrying a suitcase, and the woman said she was Canadian but couldn't back across the border because she had been  in the U.S. 40 years without papers.

And, they kept taking absolute *piles* of food from the snack table, just heaps and heaps on a single paper plate, and then another plate just like that right after that, and at one point the guy went to the back fridge and helped himself from there too, even though volunteers aren't supposed to do that (because it's the campaign staffers' food?).

"I think they were homeless," one of the other workers was like.

"But did they volunteer?", I was like.

"She did," one of the other workers was like, "And she was really good on the phones, I heard her."

"How about him?", I was like.

"He just sat there and watched."

Later, someone said that they thought that they were probably living out of the suitcase, though the couple said that they were just taking a bunch of books back to the library to return.

A dream of class.

The other week, the week before school started, I dreamt -

I'm in in a classroom as a writing instructor, and I notice a couple students from last year's section, and then another one in a seat against the wall beyond the table.

(There's a row of students there, since the classroom is over-capacity.)

I acknowledge them and surprisedly say hi, but I'm unsure if they have to retake the class for some reason, and so I don't want to acknowledge them too much.

Dollar store convo.

The other week I was picking up some stuff at the dollar store near my house, and the (younger) (quiet) (Latina) cashier asked me how I was.

"Hung over, honestly," I was like.  "Too many martinis yesterday, and I stayed out till four."

"That sounds like fun," she was like, "But I can't because of this," and at that she patted her belly.

"Oh," I was like.

"December," she was like, "Just in time for New Year's."

"Congratulations," I was like.

Then, quickly, as if she hadn't even heard me, she was like, "Though, that's what got me here in the first place," and at that she looked at me and laughed.