the morning devolved

:(

I did get a lot done - wrote my exam for Biostats (a take-home, so it MUST be ready week after next), wrote a quiz for intro bio, updated the final-exam reviews and sent them to print, prepped Biostats for tomorrow, read a student's rough-draft paper for him and commented on it, did a little catch up grading, but there were other things that made this morning wind up as

(source)

.  And I know that's not an anime-ized Louise Belcher, but I like to think of it as one)
Anyway:

At 7:20 am, my office phone rang. This freaked me out. Early calls are bad and my heart dropped for a moment - had something happened to my mom? My brother? Who else would 2019 take?

Nope. It was the pushy textbook buyer. I told him no, I had nothing for him to buy.

So I worked away for a while, and then Colleague comes and gripes to me for the fifth time this month about his computer not working properly, about how Word randomly shuts down and it sends him an error message that makes me think there’s some schmutz on his keyboard doing it. I offered to pry off the CTRL key (which sounds like the offender) and try to clean under it and he just shrugged and said “No, I’ll just use Word as little as possible” and I am like ????? and I am also like “you know how low on spoons I am why do you keep trying to make me your Trouble Tree?” I mean, this is one of those situations where the problem would be easily fixable, not like the problems I have been venting about. And if the roles were reversed? I'd welcome the help to fix things.

After that, the nosy/pushy textbook buyer, whom I told “no” to when he called still came and barged in my office and commented about the “older edition” textbooks and how he now has a buyer for them and I said “No, I hang on to the one edition previous because sometimes our students can’t afford the textbook and I loan those out” and he was eyeing a few geology texts I took from my parents’ house this summer and I was all ready to say NO I INHERITED THOSE FROM MY DEAD DAD DON’T EVEN TOUCH THEM but I guess they were so old he didn’t want them. But yeah. We've tried to get this person banned from campus for their habit of walking into offices unannounced and being VERY familiar, but apparently that's not legal? So either you try not to be "home" when they come by, or you have to be pushy yourself.

Then finally, the bookstore called, asking about the Gen Ed class I teach and why hadn’t I requested a textbook and I said “Well, that’s a class several of us teach sections of and normally one person orders them….” and then the penny dropped that the dude who took an admin post used to do it and I guess I’d my duty now but NO ONE TOLD ME IT WAS and it’s just ANOTHER d....d thing to deal with. I mean, I got it ordered but….just another of the too-many extra duties I have now.

I had been wanting a grilled-chicken sandwich yesterday (We have a Freddy's now, in addition to the Sonic) but I didn't get one and ate at home instead but maybe I wait a little (for the lunch rush to subside) and go get one now. Because I'm irritated and nettled and unhappy.

I've done what I need to do for today so I think after I eat lunch I am staying home, and am cleaning up the place a bit before I have to leave for Thanksgiving. This is the only day I will have time.

But yeah. Too many people today and too many unpleasant surprises