Tom is Away

Sweet home chicago

Delayed, delayed, delayed.

okay, so maybe next time I’m having conferences, I’ll try not to get caught looking up photos of space whales when my students enter the office.

packed for Chicago. Still have 5 essays to grade by morning.

Hi,

I’m the woman who works at the municipal building, and even though we’ve talked on the phone and in person more than a dozen times this month, and you have paid the borough nearly $300 dollars for the privilege of being inspected, and are the ONLY PERSON who has been getting inspections, I do not remember you and I do not recognize you and I’m going to act like I’m too busy to look you in the eye or even acknowledge your questions.

Sincerely,

The Woman Whose Only Redeeming Characteristic is that She Just Issued You A C.O. for the Next 3 Years

student questions I don’t know how to answer:

“Were you rebellious as a teenager? Because you remind me of my high school english teacher, and he used to have mohawks and stuff when he was younger, and now his hair is thinning, and I noticed your hair is thinning.”

snow forecast in chicago on wednesday and saturday.
Yes, you already guessed that those are the days I’m scheduled to fly into/out of there.

sometimes you put off work for weeks, and it turns out it was actually a pretty easy job in the first place.

okay, to be accurate, when I say a week’s work, I meant a week’s worth of MY work, which is more like 2.5 days worth of real adults’ work. But still.

suddenly, a week’s worth of work has to happen in one day.

a thing that’s only funny because it didn’t happen: after passing the inspection (which, by the way, is a thing that happened today), I was too excited, apparently, to drive safely, and backed out of my driveway blindly, coming within inches of sideswiping the inspector’s car as he drove away from the house.

and some days, things just go right.

enjoying how god damn metaphorical the weather is today.

Dishwasher repaired, water heater permitted, and now waiting for a guy who probably isn’t aware that he’s my nemesis

Okay, so I guess my tenant’s mom is going to hang out with me all day. This is a thing I want to happen.

Waiting around for final inspections. Envisioning all kinds of terrible things.

I keep getting reminded that more people read this site than I normally think

I’m not quite sure why I ever thought this bar was not lame.

things I learned on the elevator today: elevators that go all the way up to the top floor “are retarded.”

It’s literally unbelievable to me  that one of the leading candidates for the Presidency of the United States in the 21st century actually believes that Satan is actively assaulting the country.

every piece of paper I collect from students is infested with millions of germs. Fighting an uphill battle.