The Downfalls of Tenure

I have a lot of older men as teachers this semester, an overwhelming amount it seems. They are generally nice old guys but sometimes they can be real grumps...more importantly though they are easily distracted. It can happen mid-sentence too. Now I'm all for older people working and for just old people in general...but there are times when it just seems like the university is giving out tenure like it's candy. Shouldn't there be some sort of test as to the teaching abilities of these people...like how older people have to take tests a lot to make sure they can still keep their drivers license. Shouldn't we value the education of our future the same as we value their safety on the road?
My OChem lab teacher happens to be a kind (but often grumpy and cruel) older man, who gets side tracked by the drop of a hat...or the inhaling of oxygen. Anyway, the man should not be in charge of twenty-odd college age students trying to run extremely difficult experiments with little to no help or guidance...we're drowning here people. He tends to forget who he's helping or tells you he'll get to you in a second but of course gets side tracked by the next student who approaches him. You really have to hound him to get anything from him, and often times I worry that he confuses my problems/experiment with someone elses. Today he was in fine form.
It was 8 o'clock in the morning and I was already having a crappy day. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. So with about an hour to go in the class period (a whopping three hours) I stood in line and asked him if he could help me and three other people do an IR of our crystals (an IR is an Infra-Red spectrum of our crystal that will help us to hopefully identify one of the three unknowns that they have given us in our compound). He told me he had to help this other student but he'd be right over.
10:30 comes along and I'm still waiting...albeit not very patiently. Then I start seeing him talking to other students (not the one I had to wait for) and then he's wandering in and out of his office. So I go up to him and politely ask if he'd like us to just wait until Tuesday since its 10:30, to which he responds "an IR only takes 37 seconds to run and five minutes to prepare", which I am left to assume means he'll get to me in a minute.
10:45 comes crawling along (and by this time I'm really anxious to get home and take that necessary shower that I skipped this morning before I have to head off to my next class). A TA approaches him and at 10:50 he finally comes over and tells me we'll do the IR. Then we spend 5 minutes in his office looking for something he's inevitably misplaced. Then get to the room with the IR and have to watch him flounder around for another few minutes and yell at someone else for misplacing a different peice of apparatus he needs...only to concede that we can't do it today because he can't find all the things he needs. Then the three of us get to listen to him explain how the IR works (which we were already lectured on for two hours before) and it's painful. He looses his place in the conversation three or four times, and this guy standing next to me is getting just a little bit too close (there was touching) and so I'm just about ready to throw in the towel and my professor says "well, I guess we'll just have to do this next week. Sorry".
"Sorry"? He's got to be kidding me. He just wasted an hour of my time, when I already knew we should do it next week. Oh well...old men cannot be helped.
Anyway, the day pretty much got worse from there. A tenant called asking if she could get a parking pass because she's had several tickets and thinks they're going to boot her car. This wasn't a good time for me because I needed to take a shower and get ready for the day. After asking me to just drop the pass off at her apartment, which I told her we're not allowed to do (trying to keep the shock at her audacity out of my voice) finally told her if she could get here in 20 minutes like she said I'd give her a pass. So I take a record winning short shower and throw some clothes on to be presentable. She never shows! I waited for her and didn't do what I wanted to do with my brief, precious, moments of time between class, work and all that other crap so that she wouldn't get yet another ticket. Then an hour and a half later I had to leave to go to class. If she came over after that I feel bad for her but really I was there when she said she'd be there. Besides...who doesn't try to get a pass after the first ticket?
My gosh...I feel a very strong need to quote Michel from Gilmore Girls "people are particularly stupid today, I cannot talk to any more of them".

Bragging rights

I've never liked shopping that much. While my mom would try to teach me to shop around and finally make the purchase when I knew I'd found the best deal, I just wanted to buy it and not worry about whether or not it was a good deal.
Despite my obvious shortcomings when it comes to shopping I sure can find a good deal. For example...Kelly and I were on our way to the grocery store when we passed Kelly's favorite store, Wild Ivy. It's a little store where I once bought her some place mats and napkins. It's filled with lots of little things to decorate with etc. (Kelly can give a much better description). Anyway we decided to go in just to look around. Once inside Kelly was immediately distracted by the many things to choose from but I kept a level head. If I have learned anything about this shop it was that while things looked great, they also carried a deadly poison...a price tag that rarely carried an appropriate number. So while Kelly was running around looking, touching, hefting, admiring and acting like a six-year-old in a candy store, I maintained my composure. That's when I saw it.
I couldn't believe it. It was like one of those rumors you hear about, never really believe but deep down inside wished was true. It was a discount rack. The sign said 40% off so I was wary. If this was true it could open countless possibilities. I didn't want to startle it so I approached slowly. Reaching out to it like it was a scared puppy i touched it. It felt real enough so I picked up an object. To my surprise it didn't disintegrate in my hands. I slowly beckoned for Kelly to come. As she approached I took from the shelf a small ceramic container. We have been looking for something like this for a while but never found anything that satisfied our needs. Kelly was stunned...it was perfect. If only they had two more of varying sizes...but wait! Just behind the one we picked up we saw a much larger one. Inside it was a smaller one, and inside it was a smaller one still. A set of three containers that was just perfect for what we needed it for. As I turned the largest one over to peek at the price tag I was worried that our dreams would be crushed. As I looked at the small white sticker I quickly did the math in my head. At 40% off this was actually affordable. I quickly glanced at Kelly and she looked back and as if we were telepathically linked we began to gather up the three containers. As we slowly backed away from the bargain shelf I wanted to say, "Don't worry we'll meet again someday." It then took another 20 minutes to get Kelly to the register only 10 feet away but we finally made it out with our purchase in hand. I know I'm not the best shopper but I sure know a deal when I see it. And as for the bargain rack...we will meet again, someday.

Stranded...almost

I had an interesting day today. Brian went to the Rocks today to climb with Jeff and Dane. And so I decided to see if I could get my hair fixed. There's a sale going on at a furniture store though so I went early over to Moscow. And then I realized that no amount of sale could make those couches decent prices, and therefore I didn't spend as much time there as expected. I still had about an hour to go so I decided to go to the pet store around the corner. I went in but the kittens were sad and the puppies were sleepy. When I got back in Brian's c ar (he took mine) I turned the key and it wouldn't start. The battery was fine because the radio went on but it just wouldn't start. We've had the problem once before and it was just a loose wire so I tried calling Brian but I couldn't reach him. So I walked to the hair salon got it cut. It's better but I'm still not one hundred percent happy since I feel like it looks kind of unfinished. But what can you say. Then I did some window shoping and tried calling Brian again. Nothing. So I decided to walk back to the car. When I got there I put the keys in the ignition and oh yeah...it started.
My mom would be happy though because I got some walking in for the day. Now it's off to the more glamourous part of my day...that's right...cleaning the house!

Looking back...

Ever had one of those days? Well on Friday I had one of those days. The kind of day that you wish you could redo or have not exist...like on Voyager where there'd be this crazy alien thing that means that a large chunk of time (aka an episode) techinically never happened...wish I could have had a non-episode day on Friday.

Okay, to give you some background. There is this INCREDIBLY annoying girl in a couple of my classes. Her name is Heather. She likes to talk A LOT in class. She asks tons of questions...which I technically don't mind. The part that I mind is when she answers her own question, which brings to my mind the question of why ask the question if you know the answer? Not only does she do that but she also talks over the professor to finish the sentence the professor is saying which just makes it really hard to follow the class. I also went in to get help once and she was there and when I asked a question she talked over the professor and answered it herself. One of my teachers does a really good job at shutting her down but this other teacher isn't as confident and is a little to nice and doesn't want to embarrass or discourage students just lets Heather rule the class.
All the people I sit next too are so annoyed and bothered by her. This class is hard enough to follow without someone disrupting it every five minutes. She's hindering people's education...she's hindering mine.
So I finally snapped on Friday. I wanted to say something to Heather but got nervous so I went and talked to my professor. But she didn't leave the classroom and Heather was still sitting there so I couldn't really express myself. And of course I got a little emotional. I just decided I should go. So as I got up to go so did Heather. We left and she went one way up the stairs and I started to go down. I told myself don't do it, but before I could stop myself I said "Could you not talk so much in class". She turns around and says "I'm just asking questions". I told her that I had no problem when she asked questions I just didn't appreciate her talking over the teacher and answering her own questions. She started arguing with me and I could tell that this wasn't the first time someone had been annoyed with her. She kept arguing with me and I of course was too emotional to really say what I wanted to say and she ended up walking off saying that she didn't need to argue with me.
I was so upset afterward. I ended up going back and talking to my professor. When I had talked earlier she had thought I was upset with people having side conversations. So the overall deal is that I had a talk with my professor and told her it was Heather. She understood but didn't know what to do. She even mentioned that Heather had answered a question of another student during office hours just like she did to me. She also mentioned that the Physics 201 professor had warned her that she would be hearing a lot from Heather in Physics 202. She explained that Heather is pre-med and likes to hear things confirmed again and again. She then said she'd try and encourage Heather to ask some of her questions outside of class, because she doesn't always get through the material because of her.
Even though this talk with my professor went well, I still felt really awful. I felt bad for making Heather probably feel bad, but at the same time I feel like she's had it coming and if someone doesn't explain to her things she's going to be rudely awakened someday. I felt stupid for crying infront of her and therefore not making much sense.
I'm sure I shouldn't have been so mean and I'll try and apologise to her after Break. I just hope that maybe I got her thinking, because I understand her point of view she just refuses to understand everyone else's point.
I feel bad though, and stupid. I hope that she is able to understand and that maybe I'll feel better and not like such a jerk. Who knows. I guess I just wish that this could have been my non-episode.

Meanwhile...

While Kelly was out getting her hair cut I took the opportunity to go rock climbing at the U of I student recreation center. Dane and I had a blast, except for the part where Dane tore a callus off of his finger, ouch! I brought the video camera and we got some good footage despite Dane's attempts to record the ground and not the actual climb. Here's one I had to redo for that same reason, at least this time he managed to record it.

This is what happens when Dena has a mid-life crisis

So today I did something that every girl hates to do (especially Cooper girls)...I had to find myself a new hair stylist.
I had heard from someone in my physics class that there was a good salon in Moscow. So today when Brian was rock-climbing with his friend Dane, I took the plung.

I did the unthinkable, I chose this new person to try something different with my hair. I wanted to add some side bangs to my do, and this new girl Toni did a good job on this. The only problem came when she was doing the rest of my layers. She went a little heavy on the layers on one side near my ear and on the other side near my chin. So basically there are two parts of my hair that need some help. I didn't notice this until I got home though of course because the mirror there was too high and I couldn't really see. So I think I'll go in later on this week (thank goodness for Spring Break) and ask her to do a little touch up! Hopefully she'll agree with it.

In other news Brian and I are so happy to be on Spring Break. We're planning on resting a lot and doing homework and trying to get ahead on some of our homework too! It's already looking like an amazing vacation since we got to sleep in to 10.30 this morning, something we haven't done in months and months and months. We also did some fun browsing at furniture stores today. We're looking at maybe getting a couch this summer for the new apartment.

Anyway, we're looking forward to this much needed break. I hope that everyone is enjoying themselves and having fun. And a note to my mom and dad, hope you are having fun with Will and Traci and Nic. Love to you all!