Chaucer Notebook stolen, speech went OK

Truth. I had a horrible feeling -- a feeling of dread -- two days ago that my Theater 425 folder that I didn't pick up yet had been discarded. It was just a feeling - bad though it was - but I made a mental note to call my teacher about it or go by the Theater office. I had the intense feeling that my whole project (my Prompt Book - the Canterbury Tales) had been taken apart and thrown away. In my hopefully-paranoid vision, all of my papers were gone. The teacher had told us that we could pick them up anytime after finals. I had put it off, thinking I could pick it up later. Anyway, I was worried.

The very next day, I got an email from the head of the WKU Theater Department (along with everyone in my class...) saying that all the Prompt Books from the class were outside the Theater office and ready to be picked up. Relief. Maybe I'd been wrong about the whole thing.

So today I shlogged up the hill and then up the two flights of stairs at the Gordon Wilson building. Panting hard, I checked out the box outside the Drama office. No prompt book. I checked again, taking each one out and inspecting it. Still no prompt book. Nancy, the official secretary there, was really sweet and helped me look again, but it was no go. It was just plain gone.

I was really upset for awhile - I could feel my face getting red. I went over to Garrett and called Rickey. What kind of jerk would do that to somebody? People can be so bad. Rickey (my husband) thinks that probably somebody needed a big folder and figured that since it was in the hallway they could take it and nobody would see. It wasn't anything PERSONAL...

To make today even worse, when people were introducing themselves today in my 352 class, I told about being in India during the Indo-Pakistani War -- when I was a teenager "the age of most of the students in this class..." There was an uncomfortable silence. Then I said, "Well, it was pretty interesting..." Still silence. The teacher (who I really like) said... "That's just a little more information than we needed..." Darn. I messed up again. It was just one of those days. Onward and upward!

We played a card game (silently) that was supposed to show us how it feels to be an outcast - somebody who "doesn't understand the rules". I forgot who played the high cards twice, so lost two or three or more tricks I could have won. Ugh.

So I was kicking myself anyhow when I went to get my final project. All those color copies. Ugh. And my prompt book took so long to put together. It used at least a ream of paper. At least I still have it on disk. I'm going to run it out again. I already called my teacher about it, and she says she put it in the office, and remembers which one was mine. At least I got a good grade on it. She said she liked it and I got an A on it.

I was carrying humongous amounts of books to the bus today. I am a bus rider, a commuter, though I don't live THAT far from WKU (I'm still in Warren County - just past Lost River Cave). Riding the WKU shuttle is loads cheaper and you never have to worry about getting a parking space.

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Well... the day's not totally horrible because I get to finish the book I have been reading now, "Realms of the Dragons" edited by Philip Athans. It's full of great short stories about all kinds of dragons, half-dragons, shape-shifting dragons, dragons with treasure hoards, dragons with secrets, dragons with breath of acid and of fire. It's totally great.

Heavy sigh.

On the good side: I ordered 6 boxes of cookies from Ginevra today - it's Girl Scout Cookie time! Everybody order GS cookies even if you can't eat them! The ones I ordered are for Rickey.

THE SPEECH

The speech went great in Argumentation/Debate this morning. I stayed up late yesterday making notecards. I took notes on everybody in the class, putting down some good speech info. Each speech had to be 2 minutes. He help up a fist when our two minutes were up and made a cutting signal when 2 1/2 minutes went by and we had to stop.

Most people made the speech up on the spot. Some were GREAT at it. One is the head of the WKU Improv group - no fair! (haha) I may do an article for 401 about those introduction speeches. It's revealing what people say about themselves. The teacher said "good job" after I did the speech! Yay! That's a good sign. He said "good job" to 4 other students. The other ones got a nod, or a "who's next?", which of course was worst. I think the person who ran out of material probably did the worst. Almost verbatim:

"Well, I can't think of anything else to say, so I guess I'll stop." They slunk back to their seat. We all felt sorry for that student.

Not good. Dr. Kacer would have said, "What? No tap dance?"
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Tomorrow will be C-O-L-D! But I get to sleep in! Yay!
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Sunday: Desperate Housewives. Great show.

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I returned some books at Lemox on Center Street and went grocery shopping. I had forgotten how it feels to be a poor student and go through Mother Hubbard's cupboard figuring out what to experiment with. But it's kind of fun too. I have been really cooking again! It's cheaper and we can save so much money. You know what they say about necessity...

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I love listening to the students while I'm walking to class. Sometimes they talk on the phone and I can't help overhearing. Here's a good one I heard today:

"Well, it's not like I'm going to quit school and go do that right now or anything! Don't get upset! It's not like it's going to happen tomorrow!" They then said "I love you" and hung up.

It does make a curious person (like me) want to know what is going on, but of course I can't ever ask. Are they going to join a commune? Become a singer? What IS it???
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I saw a great bumper sticker today. It read, "Good friends help you move. GREAT friends help you move bodies."

;-)