Where oh where do I begin?
Last weekend the family, Mr.3 and I all went down to Moab, which wasn't hellish at all but a lot of fun, even if my calf muscles were cramped for the next two days and I waddled around like an old person who had soiled their diapers....
Monday and Tuesday can be lumped together, beginning of the last week of classes, and the start of something seriously wrong with scheduling. The bug asked me how easy it was to schedule things (classes) and actually it is very easy, I send an email to the scheduling department and boom, class created. However you can't just schedule a class without some backup information. This summer there was to be a colloquial Arabic intensive course to be offered, however the individual teaching the course got a better summer job, and while the departments were able to get a replacement, the replacement can not teach graduate students. This put out a lot of graduate students. So the bug "apparently" asked one of the senior Arabic professors if he would be willing to offer an independent study course for a couple of the advanced Arabic students...this was approved (or so she told me) and I scheduled it. Next, Tuesday morning, she comes to me and sets up 2 directed reading courses for an undergrad, a total of 6 credit hours, and in the process she mentions that she will change his record so that it counts for a year of Arabic...at this point I am beginning to worry that she is just allowing students buy credits, but she says that it is approved by the professor, so I am ok as I can be. Later that day she calls me on the intercom stating that a student needs thesis hours and we have to set them up right now, with the same professor that she has been scheduling everything else with. At this point I ask her if she has asked the professor, at which point she remarks that the professor doesn't need to know. Wait a sec....he does, even though she insists that thesis's don't get a grade until they are finished, that professor still needs to give the "T" to that student...so I tell her that I will not schedule anything else for her until she really talks to the said professor. Tuesday evening I worried about it and determined that I needed to talk to Kate about the situation.
Wednesday was also the year end awards party for the center...it was crazy in the morning and I had planned on talking to Kate later, however due to a specific event with the bug I couldn't, for fear of crying unnessacarily. There is a paper contest within the department that I entered, I entered it last year as well, and while my position makes the awards for the language awards, I had never had to make any sort of awards for the paper contest. Well, at the last minute the bug decides that we do need to have awards for the contest and that I should make them. Not only didn't I win, but to add salt to the wounds, I had to make the awards. And yes, I know that is small of me to be upset that I didn't win, but she did take delight in making me make the awards..so I was upset about that and instead of talking to Kate about the scheduling problem I wrote her a long email about it.
Thursday: The email proved to be a good thing because it was something that she could take to our boss, and we are going to make a standardized policy about scheduling. I also told her about the bug insensitivites, something that will never change.
So in my position I get to handle all the people who come into the center, all the students, faculty and resident crazies that visit from time to time. The rest of the center is extremely limited in its exposure to the public and I see myself as the primary "customer service representative" of the center. So a little later in the morning, while I was being tortured by some story the bug was telling me, I was happily interrupted by a student coming in to ask questions about the program. The kid introduces himself, has just graduated from BYU and is interested in ancient middle eastern history. I tell him that the bug (standing right there) was the person to talk to about the program, but also that I know from my own experience in the history department (where I got my BA in History with an Ancient Middle East emphasis)that there is not an established program only an emphasis, and then I tell him that the bug will have much more information about the Middle East program for him. She then takes him away. After she is done with him she comes back into my office and accuses me of "advising" him. I tell her that I offered him as much information as I would have offered anyone else, regardless of whether or not she is in the room, and that I was telling him what the HISTORY department does from my own knowledge, she then says that she should be the one to direct him to the history department. Fuck that, and besides she didn't know about the Ancient Middle East Emphasis anyway. But she can't leave it at that, she then accuses me of making her miss deadlines for vital paperwork by scheduling meetings for grad students. These meetings I scheduled were in the capacity of scheduling meetings for our director and scheduling department space...both my jobs, and nothing to do with babysitting her in her job. Apparently the students aren't letting her know when they are having meetings and that is somehow my fault. She actually told me that I do not schedule those meetings, but have to come to her first and that she makes sure that they are done...whoa honey...I don't think so.. She has recently been making students reschedule their oral comps (which are hard enough to get all of the professors schedules to match up as it is) so that she can be there...Which is something that shouldn't be done, it is the students responsiblity to make sure that all of their paperwork is signed, she facilitates that but is not responsible for it. But according to her, I should be responsible if it doesn't happen and that I should coordinate all of my scheduling with her first...she said "I need a secretary here in this office to ensure that my paperwork gets done correctly." And of course after she is done with the inital chew out, she continues to lecture on and on and on. The entire time I keep saying "fine", "fine", "FINE" hoping that she will take the hint and leave before I become overcome with rage and beat her forehead into tabletop. She wound the lecture down with the statement "the problem is that you are just too darn efficient". Is that a problem for anyone but her? It just makes her look bad, but it isn't a problem by any stance.
After she finally left I was holding back tears of rage. I decided that the best thing to do was to write her an email letting her know how things really are. Basically that one, I didn't advise anyone and she knows that, two, I will continue to schedule as my job befits but I will under no circumstances be held accountable for her messing up, and 3 that I am in no way her secretary or subservient, but rather we are equal on the office hierarchy and I resent her condesending attitude and lack of respect for me. I wasn't angry in the letter but straightforward. My mom and Mr.3 said that it was a very proffessional letter, even Kate agreed, as I sent a copy to her before I sent it to the bug.
Once the emails were sent I went to lunch, I thought that I was calmed down but I wasn't, which became apparent when I talked to Kate afterwards and started to cry again. Kate understood and let me go home paid for the rest of the day.
Friday: I worried for most of the night before of the office terror I was causing, but I was reassured by Kate that I had done the right thing and she could tell that it was all coming to a head soon anyway. I assume that "I" was ok with the situation as well, he- a little out of boss character but in line with the fatherfigure characther- gave me a hug before he left for the day. I have a meeting with him and Kate on Monday afternoon and the bug has one on the next wednesday. But that was not what was bad about Friday...Roberta told me that she had accepted a new job at another university, and as she is the only Turkish professor on staff, it basically means that my MA program is all shot to hell.
So there has been a lot of introspection on what I am going to do with my MA program this weekend, introspection and a break-down of sorts that resulted in balling and wailing that should have discouraged Mr.3 but surprisingly didn't....which leads me to the short but good list of things of what went alright/great with this week...
1. Mr.3 still manages to love me even after seeing be completely break down for stupid reasons.
2. I had my Linguistics final and that class is over.
3. I made cookies with Libby today.
4. Saw the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy on Friday evening.
5. Got to feed baby geese as well today.
6. And gave the turtles a bath...
Well now that I have written a novel for you I am going to go back to what I was doing before: trying to figure out how I can get Douglas Adams quotes into my Kabbalah paper. More hopefully tomorrow.
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