Scary

Dan and I moved into our very first apartment together yesterday. (Photos to come, I promise!) The cats are traumatized to the extreme and probably won't forgive us for a few days.

In other news, I have a problem student in the class that I am teaching. He is extremely disruptive in class and basically acts like a high schooler.

A few weeks ago he got really upset at me for asking him what his paper topic was and I got so alarmed by his violence that I contacted the Dean of Student Affairs, in case anything further happened.

Well it did. Today I kept him after class because he was screwing around, as usual, and he went off on me. To the point that another student actually stayed in the hallway when she heard, to make sure that I was ok. I contacted the Dean again for help and he's being charged with two counts of student misconduct and has to have a meeting before he's allowed back in my class.

Oh yes, and there will be a plain clothes police officer in the hall outside of my class on Monday. Just in case.

God it's horrible that these are the plans that we have to make. Apparently the police officer is standard in these situations, to make sure that the student doesn't come and do anything stupid. At first I just thought they were being over dramatic, but when you think about the different things that have happened recently...

I'm just glad that I have such great support from the other departments. And a house full of boxes to unpack and distract me.

It's a World of Laughter, A World of Care...

Imagine if you will...

I am sitting in a small conference room with seven other graduate students, all of us preparing for the wacky adventure called teaching.

It's during a break. We are chitchatting, discussing ourselves, our lives and other unimportant things. I confess that I'm living with my boyfriend in his parents' basement until we find an apartment. Another woman laughs and shakes her head, "All these things you keep saying remind me of my ex."

I smile and nod. "That's cause I think I am dating your ex. Did you date Dan Lastname?" Her expression answered the question for me. She looked HORRIFIED. I, on the other hand, having come to the conclusion a few days prior to this, was laughing hysterically. I think it's the funniest damn thing that's happened to me in a long time.

It's a strange situation, you can't deny that. She's in another class with me and sometimes I look at her and wonder "Why did they date?" and at other times I look at her and understand "Oh, that's why they dated!". It's a weird opportunity to observe this woman who he used to love. I try not to compare, and we're very different so it's easy, but still... there has to be something about me that is similar to something about her.

It's a small, small world.