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Post by Mary on Jul 18, 2004 10:43:22 GMT -5
Jeez, that stuff sounds perfect, Mary! If I didn't know you better I'd be disinclined to believe you.. Damn. How much did you pay for all that? And have you decided what you'll be donig with makeup? Oh, let's not talk about cost... thrift stores or not, buying all that shit is rather expensive! Certainly more than I can justify when I'm still desperately awaiting my first summer paycheck (august 1st, please arrive!!!!) I wimped out on makeup. I just don't like the stuff, I'm no good with it, and I hate putting too much stuff around my eyes, I'm like, totally phobic about my eyes. So I just went with this really dark red lipstick, way more rouge than I would ordinarily wear, and deep blue eye shadow. Despite the relatively muted makeup, the outfit as a whole was still a smashing success, and the whole evening was great fun - it was like going to some bizarre cabaret from hell that had been taken over by militant drag queens. Lots of folks in the audience were decked out in such gloriously over-the-top fashion (there was one woman who was wearing nothing but boas - just boas stitched together and sewn together covering the various necessary parts of her body....) that I didn't really stand out much, but the important thing is that the boy was sufficiently impressed with the outfit (and told me, only half-jokingly, that I should really wear fishnets more often!) We went back to his place at like 2 a.m. and promptly watched 5 straight hours of second season Six Feet Under, and then I just hopped on the subway and headed straight home, so I still haven't actually gone to sleep yet. Fuck. And I have soooo much preparation to do for lectures this week, I feel like now that it's somehow 10:30, I can't afford to go to sleep at all. I'm going to be a walking zombie by the end of the day... Cheers, M |
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Post by samplestiltskin on Jul 18, 2004 14:45:02 GMT -5
Glad it turned out so great. My weekend totally sucked but it makes me feel somehow better when I hear about yours... After all, I do feel like I had a little bit of a hand in it.  |
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Post by Mary on Jul 18, 2004 17:37:48 GMT -5
Thank samps! Yes, you and lumen, and the other RS fashionistas, definitely had a big hand in making my saturday night rule I wish I could repay the favor sometime, but I fear my fashion advice could never be that awesome... ...unfortunately, apparently my karma was too high after saturday, because I have had the most amazingly bad sunday thus far. It's almost comic. I think there's a moral in here somewhere about how you should never try to go to your office and get work done when you're deathly exhausted and have been awake all night. Bear with me, long story, but worth reading, for the sheer one-crap-thing-after-another hilarity of it: So it all began when I arrived at the office of the journal I work for. I had some stuff to print out, my home printer is on the fritz, so I go in there on weekends to print out my lecture notes for the upcoming week. Anyway, i'm sitting in there and this woman sees me and asks me where a particular building on campus is. I leave the office to walk her to the balcony so I can point directly to the building. Upon returning, it occurs to me... I've just locked all my keys in the office. Not just my office keys, but also my apartment keys. I have no cell phone, so I have to go find a pay phone to see if I can call some friends and get some help. Also turns out I have no change, so I go and get money out of an ATM and then buy some random crap I need at a drugstore and ask them to give me 8 quarters instead of 2 dollars change. (Bloody 50 cents for local calls from pay phones these days!) Then I call my friend who also works for the journal, but he doesn't pick up, so I leave this long rambling message asking if he could drive to campus and let me into the journal office so I can get my keys. Then I call home to see if my roommate is around, if maybe he could let me in, but as luck would have it, of course, no one picks up, so I leave another long rambling message for him. While I'm on the phone, i'm aware that this really awful crazy homeless guy who usually hangs out in front of my apartment buiding is kinda hovering around me, but I'm not really paying him much heed. Well then I reach into my bag and boom, my wallet is gone. So then I'm locked out of my apartment, I have no keys, and some asshole has just walked off with all my credit cards, driver's license, etc etc. So then I start calling my credit card and bank companies to cancel all my cards from this same pay phone. Then I call my voicemail to see if my friend called me back, but no, he hasn't. Then I call my friend who I'm supposed to hang out with tonigh and leave her a message explaining what's going on, so boom - I'm out of change and can't make any more calls. So at this point I just decide to walk home and sit on the steps of my apartment, waiting for my roommate. Except upon getting halfway home I realize that I need to call my friend from the journal back and tell him he can't pick me up on campus anymore bcause now I'm home. So I go to the 7-11, buy more random crap, get 4 quarters change, and call him to leave another equally incoherent message. (Fortunately I had just put my change and cash in my skirt pocket instead of my wallet before that asshole stole my wallet—it's really not going to do him much good...) He pcks up this time, and informs me that he's just been hit by a car while on his bike and he's in an emergency room and, obviously, can't help me. He's the only person on the journal whose phone number I know by heart, so boom, I'm fucked - there's no one else I can call until I get into my apartment. So I go buy a magazine, and sit on the front steps of my apartment for about 45 minutes, at which time, thank god, my roommate finally materializes after a long run. So now I"m istting in my apartment, finally, but I still have no keys, so I can't leave!! (hence this post) Moreover, all my lecture notes and my con law book are locked in the journal office along with my keys, and I'm supposed to give a 10 a.m. lecture tomorrow! With no notes and no book. And now I can't write the Wednesday lecture, like I planend to, becaues I can't get my book. Oh yes, and, since that jackass stole my wallet, I'm supposed to be meeting the boy tomorrow night at a bar for some drinks, but I can't get into the bar without my driver's license. Wonderful. Guess I have to call and change that plan... Soooo the upshot of all of this is that there's really nothing left for me to do but finally go to fucking sleep. Cheers, M |
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Post by PC on Jul 18, 2004 18:01:28 GMT -5
Wow, that really sucks Mary.  I hope the next few days are a lot better! I've had a bit of a cold since Friday, but it wasn't so bad, since I spent most of the weekend sleeping or listening to my new box set. I think I'm going to take a day off from work tomorrow, which is most likely where I got my cold from.  |
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Post by samplestiltskin on Jul 18, 2004 19:12:36 GMT -5
Oh my god, Mary! I've had days like that, but not QUITE like that... goddamn. I'm so sorry. Seems like you handled it really well though. Yeah, just take it easy for now and try not to worry too much. Things work out.
My CV axle just went out about 3 and a half hours ago and my car is presently 10 miles away at some gas station, and I have no money to tow/fix it and I have rent to pay very soon, but shit.... suddenly I don't feel quite so sorry for myself...
*hugs to mary!* Just take it easy girl.
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Post by Meursault on Jul 18, 2004 19:21:43 GMT -5
Wow Mary, if that was me i'd be like hunting down the homeless guy to break his neck, and then take him to the spot the woman jumped in the water in Vertigo.
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Post by tuneschick on Jul 19, 2004 5:51:52 GMT -5
Holy shit Mary - here I was, thinking how great your Saturday sounded... only to read about your Sunday with my jaw just about resting on the desk. That's insanely shitty.
One thing I can say about you - you don't do anything half-assed. When you have a bad day, you go all out!
Hope today turns out better... and good luck with that lecture today.
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Post by lumencandle on Jul 19, 2004 21:49:08 GMT -5
Mary, I hope that the rest of your week is really great and makes up for your shitty day yesterday! at least you stayed calm...very admirable.
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Post by Mary on Jul 20, 2004 8:48:55 GMT -5
Thanks guys for the well wishes.... eh, mostly all these things were just a hassle, but no big deal. I cancelled all my cards and most of them will just come again in the mail, so it's not even like there's much I have to do. Got my keys back yesterday when the journal had a production meeting. Anyway, I've been a good mood lately—my class is going sooo well this summer, the students are so smart, my advisor wants me to publish the most recent chapter of my dissertation (finally!) and of course the boy is so nice Erm, but back to fashion. Here's a random question I've been thinking about lately. What kind of dress standards do you guys think should apply to college instructors? I mean, not professors, but like, graduate student TA's and stuff? Do you expect them to dress professionally when they're leading a discussion section, or are jeans and a t-shirt perfectly acceptable? Just curious! Cheers, M |
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Post by RocDoc on Jul 20, 2004 13:16:50 GMT -5
...see, but IMO, unless we've been to Berkeley...
San Fran and Berkeley seem to be a world to themselves, while realizing that 'The City' is still NOT the same as what's across the Bay...
It's like the 'naked at the drag burlesque show' idea...in San Francisco, it's a yawn....been done. Like someone 'dressed in feathered boas'...yeah, so?
As a TA, if(like in most Universities)it's practically a peer situation and the school doesn't DISallow it, my guess would be you're allowed to dress like the rest of your students do. Unless your students are all sleazes of course.
But then maybe you wish to separate yourself from them anyway...'Ooooh look at the way classsy TA we've got...'
...as you trip and fall down the stairs, heh. ;D
A sorta Mary Clouseau...
(*...pops up from the floor...)
'...of course I MEANT to do that!'
~
MAJOR kudos on keeping your cool on that Sunday from hell, Mary...
Ironically, your lack of sleep probably CAUSED the first events...and then your lack of sleep probably ALSO didn't give you enough energy to even begin to freak out and get pissed about what was happening to you...
Basically you were too tired to even give a shit anymore...
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Post by Mary on Jul 20, 2004 14:30:36 GMT -5
Thanks rocdoc but ya know, berkeley and sf aren't really THAT alien!! I mean, it would be totally weird to see someone walking down the street naked here. (OK, unless fucking Wavy Gravy was getting together a bunch of overweight naked hippies to roll around in the disgusting plot of mud that is "People's" Park) About 95% of the undergraduates here are completely indistinguishable from the undergraduates at conservative, preppy, frat-boy-dominated Dartmouth (where I did undergrad), except that they don't have to wear 27 layers of clothing to protect themselves from the almost year-round subzero temperatures! I'm actually old-fashioned about this. I think both students and teachers have an obligation to dress professionally and in a way that signifies proper respect for scholarly pursuits. I don't even like it when my own students wear flip-flops or sweat pants! I also don't like it when students wear incredibly revealing clothing, because it's distracting and I think the purpose of class is to devote oneself to contemplation and civil discussion, not to show off one's boobs or big biceps. I'm not opposed to t-shirts and jeans - I don't think people have to be dressed formally - I just want them to dress respectfully, and in a relatively non-distracting manner. But most of my friends think I'm totally insane and reactionary about this... So I pretty much always wear either a skirt or a nice pair of pants (never jeans, and absolutely never in a million years shorts or sweats), and plain, professional-looking, solid-color tops when I teach. Last week it was unusually freezing in the morning when I left for class so I put on a pair of jeans instead of my usual skirt, but I instantly felt terribly inappropriate the minute I got in front of my class, and very nearly apologized publicly for wearing jeans to class, except that I anticipated they'd all stare at me like I was completely out of my mind! ...so there ya go, it's my secret ultra-conservative side... Cheers, M |
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Post by samplestiltskin on Jul 20, 2004 15:37:21 GMT -5
Arp. I lived on campus the entire time I was an undergrad, and definitely slept-walked to class many a time in pajama bottoms, t-shirt and tennies. I also went to the grocery store in this attire. What can I say? I paid for my own education and I wore what I wanted. And of course my appearance certainly reflected how I felt about myself at the time. Personally (and this is a big "IMO") I think as a TA, professor, or anyone else for that matter, you should be respected no matter what you're wearing. But I am a ridiculous idealist with no real concern for how things really are.  |
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Post by tuneschick on Jul 21, 2004 7:07:21 GMT -5
Mary, I'm shocked!  Personally, I was never that concerned with what my TA's wore - or my professors, for that matter. My Canadian Lit TA - my very favourite TA of all time - usually wore skirts or pants in class (sort of "business casual"), but would wear jeans for our weekly 6-person study group. It seemed appropriate to me, because the study group was very casual and intimate... she would just sit at the table with us and lead discussion, and managed to make everyone comfortable without losing our respect. So that doesn't say much... but honestly, I had profs who wore bow ties to class everyday (aw, my Mass Media teacher, how I loved him) and some who would wear jeans (my Video Production teacher, who I'm still convinced was a coke addict, wore ratty cutoffs no matter waht the weather.) Everyone else fell in between, but I can't say that it really affected how I felt about them as a professor. |
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Jul 21, 2004 9:42:08 GMT -5
You know, female authority figures always inspire respect in me strictly for the uniform. Policewomen, traffic wardens, nurses... mmmm.
Now the problem with teachers, lecturers and TAs is the lack of uniform. A woman who's gonna boss me about and set me deadlines needs stockings at the very least, and possibly a whip.
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Jul 21, 2004 9:44:10 GMT -5
Of course, qualifications and demonstrable expertise inspire respect too. Did I forget to mention that?
But you don't need that professional string to your bow if you've got a fem/dom outfit and a bit of attitude.
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I hope the next few days are a lot better!
