First school-free day since 20 January, 2004.
I sleep in. The cats attempt to thwart me with their six-thirty meowing, but I am more stubborn than they are.
I wipe down the kitchen counters. They have gotten nasty with sprinkles of coffee grounds, dripped water, and bits of stuff that can't be food as I've hardly cooked at all in the last fifteen weeks. Do ants like 409? Because they totally swarm the kitchen after I clean.
I go for a walk. Damn, but it's beautiful: one of those crystalline spring days with dark, leafy shady spots, blossoming catalpas (I think that's what they are, but the seed pods are wrong, so maybe these are some other kind of tree), and Libby Hill knee deep in blooming clover and buttercups.
I compromise the school-free nature of the day and go to school. I borrow an antique C++ compiler from Dr. Smith, then poke around and see that the seniors aren't around for me to bother about their project. I visit with Origami Girl who's watching her dude, Chevy Nova, and his friends work on his Chevy Nova out in the parking lot.
I tell them how the Nova is legend in the translation industry because Chevrolet tried to sell them in Latin America without changing the name. The guys hadn't heard that. Origami Girl helpfully observes that No va pretty well describes this one. Someone has put in a "performance" engine which is all silver and purple. She and I admire the pretty colors. The guys ignore us.
Origami Girl was also in the Electronic Devices class. She says, "So. That final. Do you think he hates us? Or was it just me?"
"I think that was just a 'separate the goats from the sheep' kind of final," I say reassuringly. "A lot of people didn't even finish, so if you were able to get through it, you probably did okay."
"He says he's not going to grade them till Friday," she tells me. "I think he hates us."
339 words | May 5, 2004 08:09 PM | Real true story