Waiting for a co-worker with whom I am supposed to do some research today. No idea when this individual is going to show up. I will be ticked if it gets to be lunchtime and there is no sign of this person - we nominally agreed to start work at 8.

Not a total loss; I received a phone call yesterday from the secretary (I was in the field when she called). One of my students had written down the wrong day for the final - I had WONDERED why she wasn't there; she had an A. I assumed that she decided to take the C (what she would have got without the final) and use the time to study for another final. Nope, it was the kind of mistake I used to have nightmares about making.

The secretary said, in the phone message, "She's crying in my office...can you help her?"

Well, if it had been one of four or five people in that class, I have to admit I would have thought harder about whether I wanted to help or not. (Although I ultimately would have). But this person - I hate it when someone is serious about a class, and because of a moment's inattention or stress they risk blowing a good grade. So I got her phone number, called her up, and told her that if she was free today at 8, to come in and take the final. (And honestly? She reminds me a little bit of myself when I was a student. And I would have been crying in the secretary's office if I were in her place.)

No big deal - the registrar was willing to take the grade change when I explained to her why.

And this is why I kind of wish there was karma - I could have been a total hardnose about it and said, "no, the grades are already submitted" and make her take the C. (Not that there's any real reason for me to do that outside of being hardnosed). But I do hope sometime when I'm exhausted and fed up and stressed out and forget something important, that the person I'm being supervised to will show me a little mercy.

She shook my hand and thanked me and I told her: if all of the problems people had around me were this simply fixed, it would be a blessed life. Which is true. I hope she has a happier end to the week now that I let her take the final. (She wound up with an A in the class. She got the second-best grade on the final, and at any rate, I think she only needed like an 80 on the final to get an A.)