The Water was Hot, but I Didn’t Drown.

Well, Monday didn’t end up sucking that bad, after all. It seemed like it at first, though.

I got up at 9am, with about four hours’ sleep, and then got back to marking while I listened to DVDs on Nazi occult religion so that I could prepare a bit for tutorials (through osmosis). I was in email contact back and forth with the prof I work for, who was still urging me to finish the marking before class.

He claimed that he had told the students the papers would be back today. I told him that those were big words coming from someone who didn’t do an inch of marking, and perhaps he’d like to do my straggling ones?

He was not amused, so, though I knew marking 15 papers in an hour could not be done in this time-space-continuum, I kept trying.

Finally, I ran out of the last remaining preparation time for my tutorials, so I got the bright idea of booking an AV cart for my class and showing the documentary in the mystical history of the swastika that I was watching. I emailed the prof to iron this out. His response: “Don’t show movies.” According to him, he shows enough movies in lecture, and we need to actually go over stuff.

So I translated this and sent it back… “So, you’re the only one allowed to slack off. And we can’t… because you do?”

He was not pleased, but he admitted the injustice of this. We compromised with me showing only ten minutes of Triumph of the Will, and then discussing it. As it turns out, there was ONE AV cart left un-booked for today, so I grabbed it. One problem solved.

Finally, when the voice of the other TA in the class (who also was not finished marking), was added to mine, the prof relented his draconian slave-driving and let us have another week of marking.

Whew. Another problem licked.

But I was still tired and under-prepared for my tutorials, so I was dreading them. Certain signs that the day was going to turn out crappy started to appear. I missed my bus by such a small margin that I was there in time to feel the wind from it as it zipped away down the street. Secondly, when I tried to buy a bottle of water from a vending machine, it came out HOT. Not just warm. Hot. Steam rolled off it. Yes, I would get the malfunctioning machine, wouldn’t I?

Yet these turned out to be just false omens, as the day took a sudden turn from triage to actual enjoyment.

The AV maneuvers worked well, I got to class on time, and we actually had GREAT tutorials! The kids enjoyed having a media treat (even in the form of the Nuremberg rallies), and we got a good discussion going. I think I may have taught one or two of them something, as well, which is a nice change of pace.

Then my PhD seminar from 3 to 6pm (which I did read for, albeit at 4am) was incredibly amusing and educational, with a nice free-for-all of one-liners on comparative religious understandings of sex. This then turned into a debate over whether the Jews or the Catholics were the sexier people… I’m not sure if I have ever had an odder grad-class discussion, especially when you consider that the prof is something like 70 years old.

Then the TA lecture from 7 to 10 was GREAT! The prof loves Zen Buddhism, and gave a great lecture and we watched a great film section. Further, he was super-placating because he was worried that he’d been unfair that morning about the marking situation. Then, to top it all off, I got a ride home from class.

And the great thing is that a rumour of my mouthy resistance to the prof has started to spread, and I have become some sort of Grouchoesque folk hero of TA rebellion. Wonderful! Saved from the fire, AND a snappy rep to boot!

So the day that I thought would be brutal was not so bad. Just goes to show that the urge to drink poison at 3 or 4am before a hectic day may be a bit premature.

It’s always good to learn a valuable life lesson.