meetings meetings everywhere
Sep. 4th, 2003 02:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fearlesstempObligatory OC Commentage: I described the show's premise to my mother the other night and she said, "Oh, like Fresh Prince?" and I almost fell over because dude! It is so almost exactly like Fresh Prince! Carlton=Seth! Will=Ryan! Except they're not related, but still.
In other news: I have become completely obsessed with The West Wing now that it's in syndication on Bravo and work it into just about every conversation I have. This is because (a) I can't bear not having someone to blab to about my new obsession and (b) my life has been so boring of late that there's been very little outside of the TV world to talk about.
Which kind of changed tonight! I think I've mentioned before that I'm taking a grad history course at a local university to see how I like it, and today I had to go to the school's "Welcome to the Graduate History Program!" meeting. I was, of course, SO NERVOUS, proving that the new poise I've been rambling about to people in my life is a complete fabrication. I feel like I'm no longer shy because I don't meet new people that often nowadays, what with being a lame unemployed temp who chills with the same group of friends she has for years. But tonight, having to go meet a whole group of people for the first time? Nerves! Nerves!
I would like it noted for the record that I was NOT late; in fact, I was actually very, very early. This is good because it took me four tries around the MASSIVE circle at the main entrance to the campus to find the Visitors' Parking, despite the fact that the Visitors' Parking is right off of the circle and marked by a huge blinking lit-up sign. I am not exaggerating; a huge. blinking. sign. And I did not see it! I drove around the circle so many times, and so slowly, that the students sitting in the bus kiosk on the circle stared so much at me my third time around (I was going ridiculously slowly in an electric blue station wagon with a hole in the bumper -- suffice it to say I was conspicuous) that I had to get off the circle and drive around the rest of the campus a bit before I could go back to the Mysterious Circle Drive Of Hell Or At The Very Least Major Annoyance again.
Finally spotted the massive blinking sign and pulled in, parked the car, and realized that the lot was located as far as humanly possible from the building I was headed to. This annoyed me because (a) I am lazy and (b) I was not wearing sensible shoes. You'd think after twenty-three years living in this world, I would realize that umbrellas and sandals do not mix. If you feel you need to bring an umbrella, then odds are you need to change the sandals! Why do I never realize this? So my feet got all wet and gross and I felt self-conscious about the sandals, fearing they would realize a girl who can't even choose proper footwear does not belong in their university.
Speaking of the university, I must take a moment and marvel at how annoyingly designed it is. Everything looks alike -- no, seriously. It does. It was all built at once, and it's all symmetrical and white and with intimidatingly high arches everywhere, and it's difficult to get to one area from another because there are Very Specific Ways Of Getting Places which aren't obvious at first! I kept wandering around, ending up in areas cordoned off with chains and padlocks and stuff. It was like a nightmare! I almost got to the point of throwing down my bag, screaming, "I can see it RIGHT THERE, why can't I GET THERE?!?!" very dramatically a la someone in a horror movie. That, or maybe asking a fellow student for directions.
It was totally just like a nightmare.
Anyway, the meeting itself wasn't really a nightmare, except for the part where the guy who did most of the talking was boring enough to make me come thisclose to falling asleep. I talked to a couple fellow students, found the bookstore and bought my books, and got some cheddar cheese and pretzel combos on my way out. I call that a successful meeting, myself.
Post-grad school meetingage, I drove out to meet Anna and Jo to go to one of the Dean meetups in our area, a different one from the one Anna and I went to before. The one Anna and I went to a few months ago was nice, at this cool coffeehouse with lots of young people. This one? Was held at the library and we three were the youngest there by twenty-five years easy. I felt like we'd accidentally walked into the local AARP meeting, but no! It was Dean! I was surprised how many older people are, like, crazy into Dean. As my friend Jo said, "I didn't know there were liberal old people! I thought you just got bitter as you aged." I had felt the same way, probably because the most politically active member of the senior citizen set I know is my grandfather, a man who had always been a strong supporter of the Democratic party and now falls to the right of, well, everyone on the ideological spectrum. Tomorrow he wants to dictate a letter to me about Andrew Greeley, btw. My life is so exciting.
Regardless! Loooots of older peeps. Anna and I were so jealous of Jo (in that way where you're not jealous at ALL) because the one guy in the place who looked like he could be under forty sat down next to her for a minute. Said under-forty was sporting this orange-highlighted mullet/tail hair disaster from the early eighties that was so terrible, you couldn't look away. Seriously? Worst hairdo ever. The kind of hairdo that's so awful that when someone wearing it sits down next to one of your best friends, you canNOT look at your best friend because you know -- KNOW -- that if you make eye contact, you will not be able to prevent hysterical laughter. The type of hairdo that makes you want to kidnap the wearer and take him to a cabin in the woods until he grows the hair out to a length sufficient to style differently. The type of hairdo that, hours later, is still making me cringe and feel bad for the guy.
Anyway, Mr. Hockey Hair got up after a short conference with the guy sitting two seats down from Jo, and soon we had to do the sit-in-a-circle-introduce-yourselves thing I always, always hate and had been grateful for avoiding at the grad school meeting. Public speaking sucks! Okay, so it's not really public speaking when you're just introducing yourself, but still! All those eyes on you! Nerves! I'm pretty sure I made no sense when it was my turn. The other people were interesting and in only one or two cases suspiciously crazy-acting (one guy got all bug-eyed in passion over the whole thing, and later nearly had a fistfight with another guy in the meeting over being a bad listener or something -- I missed the bulk of the fight because I was in the bathroom! How unfair is that?). It was a pretty good meeting. Don't agree with Dean 100%, but nobody's perfect (save myself, natch), and he's not afraid to call Bush out. Not to mention the fact he's getting people fired up.
And lastly, Note to self: CALL AND ORDER NEW CONTACTS TOMORROW. Have been operating off of same disposable pair for almost twice as long as I'm supposed to. Eyes are very upset b/c of this.
And now I go off to lull myself to sleep with my tape of The West Wing. Happy times.
In other news: I have become completely obsessed with The West Wing now that it's in syndication on Bravo and work it into just about every conversation I have. This is because (a) I can't bear not having someone to blab to about my new obsession and (b) my life has been so boring of late that there's been very little outside of the TV world to talk about.
Which kind of changed tonight! I think I've mentioned before that I'm taking a grad history course at a local university to see how I like it, and today I had to go to the school's "Welcome to the Graduate History Program!" meeting. I was, of course, SO NERVOUS, proving that the new poise I've been rambling about to people in my life is a complete fabrication. I feel like I'm no longer shy because I don't meet new people that often nowadays, what with being a lame unemployed temp who chills with the same group of friends she has for years. But tonight, having to go meet a whole group of people for the first time? Nerves! Nerves!
I would like it noted for the record that I was NOT late; in fact, I was actually very, very early. This is good because it took me four tries around the MASSIVE circle at the main entrance to the campus to find the Visitors' Parking, despite the fact that the Visitors' Parking is right off of the circle and marked by a huge blinking lit-up sign. I am not exaggerating; a huge. blinking. sign. And I did not see it! I drove around the circle so many times, and so slowly, that the students sitting in the bus kiosk on the circle stared so much at me my third time around (I was going ridiculously slowly in an electric blue station wagon with a hole in the bumper -- suffice it to say I was conspicuous) that I had to get off the circle and drive around the rest of the campus a bit before I could go back to the Mysterious Circle Drive Of Hell Or At The Very Least Major Annoyance again.
Finally spotted the massive blinking sign and pulled in, parked the car, and realized that the lot was located as far as humanly possible from the building I was headed to. This annoyed me because (a) I am lazy and (b) I was not wearing sensible shoes. You'd think after twenty-three years living in this world, I would realize that umbrellas and sandals do not mix. If you feel you need to bring an umbrella, then odds are you need to change the sandals! Why do I never realize this? So my feet got all wet and gross and I felt self-conscious about the sandals, fearing they would realize a girl who can't even choose proper footwear does not belong in their university.
Speaking of the university, I must take a moment and marvel at how annoyingly designed it is. Everything looks alike -- no, seriously. It does. It was all built at once, and it's all symmetrical and white and with intimidatingly high arches everywhere, and it's difficult to get to one area from another because there are Very Specific Ways Of Getting Places which aren't obvious at first! I kept wandering around, ending up in areas cordoned off with chains and padlocks and stuff. It was like a nightmare! I almost got to the point of throwing down my bag, screaming, "I can see it RIGHT THERE, why can't I GET THERE?!?!" very dramatically a la someone in a horror movie. That, or maybe asking a fellow student for directions.
It was totally just like a nightmare.
Anyway, the meeting itself wasn't really a nightmare, except for the part where the guy who did most of the talking was boring enough to make me come thisclose to falling asleep. I talked to a couple fellow students, found the bookstore and bought my books, and got some cheddar cheese and pretzel combos on my way out. I call that a successful meeting, myself.
Post-grad school meetingage, I drove out to meet Anna and Jo to go to one of the Dean meetups in our area, a different one from the one Anna and I went to before. The one Anna and I went to a few months ago was nice, at this cool coffeehouse with lots of young people. This one? Was held at the library and we three were the youngest there by twenty-five years easy. I felt like we'd accidentally walked into the local AARP meeting, but no! It was Dean! I was surprised how many older people are, like, crazy into Dean. As my friend Jo said, "I didn't know there were liberal old people! I thought you just got bitter as you aged." I had felt the same way, probably because the most politically active member of the senior citizen set I know is my grandfather, a man who had always been a strong supporter of the Democratic party and now falls to the right of, well, everyone on the ideological spectrum. Tomorrow he wants to dictate a letter to me about Andrew Greeley, btw. My life is so exciting.
Regardless! Loooots of older peeps. Anna and I were so jealous of Jo (in that way where you're not jealous at ALL) because the one guy in the place who looked like he could be under forty sat down next to her for a minute. Said under-forty was sporting this orange-highlighted mullet/tail hair disaster from the early eighties that was so terrible, you couldn't look away. Seriously? Worst hairdo ever. The kind of hairdo that's so awful that when someone wearing it sits down next to one of your best friends, you canNOT look at your best friend because you know -- KNOW -- that if you make eye contact, you will not be able to prevent hysterical laughter. The type of hairdo that makes you want to kidnap the wearer and take him to a cabin in the woods until he grows the hair out to a length sufficient to style differently. The type of hairdo that, hours later, is still making me cringe and feel bad for the guy.
Anyway, Mr. Hockey Hair got up after a short conference with the guy sitting two seats down from Jo, and soon we had to do the sit-in-a-circle-introduce-yourselves thing I always, always hate and had been grateful for avoiding at the grad school meeting. Public speaking sucks! Okay, so it's not really public speaking when you're just introducing yourself, but still! All those eyes on you! Nerves! I'm pretty sure I made no sense when it was my turn. The other people were interesting and in only one or two cases suspiciously crazy-acting (one guy got all bug-eyed in passion over the whole thing, and later nearly had a fistfight with another guy in the meeting over being a bad listener or something -- I missed the bulk of the fight because I was in the bathroom! How unfair is that?). It was a pretty good meeting. Don't agree with Dean 100%, but nobody's perfect (save myself, natch), and he's not afraid to call Bush out. Not to mention the fact he's getting people fired up.
And lastly, Note to self: CALL AND ORDER NEW CONTACTS TOMORROW. Have been operating off of same disposable pair for almost twice as long as I'm supposed to. Eyes are very upset b/c of this.
And now I go off to lull myself to sleep with my tape of The West Wing. Happy times.
