Life is Good

You would think that a new blog after a week of deadly, ringing, earth-shattering silence, means that the craziness is over. What can I say? HA! Would seem to cover it pretty well. Craziness ends with commencement on December 12 at 10am, which is about 24 days, one hour, twenty-three minutes and ten seconds from now.

So no, the craziness has not yet ended. Instead of advisement, it's now registration, which means endless lines of students with forms to sign, questions about classes, overrides, overloads, and grade changes. It's senior portfolio presentation time as well, which means high drama in the hallways as students hear whether they're "walking", the euphemism used to describe graduation, or not. And it's also general end-of-semester blues, which entails the usual temper tantrums, late nights, and tears and lots of chocolate and coffee.

But sometimes there is a little haven of peace. A few moments when you realize that the clothing line may have a point after all. One of those moments happened yesterday. I should probably tell you that Steve and I have been harassing each other, beyond what we normally do, about the other person bringing in a) fancy coffee, or b) a hot breakfast. You see, I did Steve a few favors a while back, and so I figured he owed me a Starbucks pumpkin-spiced latte. For those of you unfamiliar with that beverage, let me just say w-o-w. I think I would gladly donate one of the kids for charity for a medium pumpkin latte. So anyway, I would send Steve random little messages a few times each day reminding him about the coffee I felt he owed me. You can probably see how that added to my merriment, while doing very little for his.

But then last week, during advisement, Steve saved my butt a couple of times too. For some reason only known to the Gods and our department secretary, Steve has no advisees and I have 70. Let me repeat that. Steve has no advisees and I have 70. Yes. 70. I don't know why or why, as the secretary likes him even less than she likes me, and Steve is an atheist, so I know God has nothing to do with it either. So anyway, last week, as I'm dealing with the long line of students at my door, and would run out of manilla files, or registration permits, or the batteries in my mouse would die, all it would take was a quick message to Steve, and he would show up with the necessary office supplies. So then Steve figured, I owed him a hot breakfast. So now my little emails about coffee received responses that involved hot biscuits and donuts. And of course, neither really happened, as we were either too busy working, or too busy complaining about work to step out of the office.

And then yesterday we received an email that our paper got accepted by a major conference. After doing a little "We're going to Memphis" dance in my office, I called Steve, and he finally did the right thing. He instructed one of his interns to drive to Starbucks and pick up two tall pumpkin-spiced lattes. Let me tell you, I was so excited, I almost cried. I nursed that cup the whole day (yes, I microwaved it too), and realized that Life is indeed Good. Sometimes anyway.