Ugly Duckling

Starting a new position is humbling in many ways-- I am the youngest and least experienced faculty member, so everyone has had more everything than I have.  But one perk of being the youngest is that no matter how ancient I feel with each passing day, no matter how many blank stares I get from my summer student because I referenced a show "before her time," I will always be young compared to other faculty members.

(Discussing the eclipse to come in a meeting)

Moi: But these eclipses happen not infrequently, right?  They've happened before and will happen again?

Mentor Boss: Yes.  The last one was in 1979.

Moi: (somewhat facetiously)  That's before I was born.

Doctor Angel (to Doctor Bear): Aw.  Joy is still a puppy!

Should Old Acquaintance

This weekend is a special weekend because I get to have not one, but three, throwback visitors from Baltimore staying at my place.  Jesse is here for Gen-Con, a large gathering of board game nerds from all over the nation, while Jamie and Greg are here because they are good friends who like to humor Jesse (and visit me!).

Though I haven't seen these guys in months-- in fact, it's been almost a year since I've seen Jamie, we soon fell into old patterns and habits.  And some patterns and habits are best left in the past and out of my one-bedroom apartment. 

Jesse: [burps loudly in succession]

Moi: Um.  Remember how I'm a woman?  And you want to pretend to be polite in front of me?

Jesse: We are too far gone.  It's too late for such things.

Pizza Party

For the last two months, summer interns have been swarming around the office.  I even got to have one of my own.  It made me feel very grown up.  Though I suppose grown ups are not supposed to feel as utterly unprepared and clueless as I felt "supervising" my student.  To thank her for all her efforts, I took her out to a light dinner on Thursday along with a couple of tremendous research coordinators we have.

I thought that was pretty good as far as nice supervisors go.  But Paige took it to another level.  First she designed a birthday scavenger hunt for her student.  And yesterday, her student got a sendoff pizza party that exposed certain deficiencies in our staff knowledge:

[Kathleen, on her upcoming second wedding anniversary]

Kathleen: My anniversary is either the 24th or 25th... I don't remember.

Nina: This is understandable because you've been married so long.

Kathleen: For some reason, dates above 10, I just can't remember.  I told my husband that when we were picking a date.

Moi: Wait.  Do you know when Christmas is?

Paige: I can never figure it out!  Is it 24th, 25th, or 26th?

Kathleen: I know Christmas is the 25th.

Paige: Oh good.  It was the middle one.

Everyone else: [Stunned hysterics]

I don't mind being upstaged on being nice to my summer student in a setting like this.  Junk food and inane logic is the exact kind of place where I thrive.