This morning marked my triumphant return to university classes, a return that was only slightly marred by my cranky tiredness. It's very nice to return to an environment where my basic worth as a human being is reinforced - I'd spent so long in a state of abject humility that I'd forgotten how the coat of self-esteem wears around the shoulders. I was tremendously cheered by the fact that 2 of my professors were shocked and appalled that I was threatened with failure - one gave me detailed information about the appeals process and the other muttered that I would fail "over [her] - and others' - dead bodies." Buoyed by this show of support, I was able to work up a good head of anger upon re-reading my host teacher's evaluation. (My supervisor has flouted department policy entirely and not even shown me his report for the semester, let alone collected the witnessing signature that makes it submissible. Lucky me; I have lots of material for an appeal...)
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In the afternoon the Boy kicked off the first in a series of ukulele lessons for the department. The crowd was all female, predominantly elementary, and roughly split between first and second year students - which made for a more heterogeneous mix than I'm used to. Very much fun, of course - there's nothing that isn't good about 10 chicks with ukuleles who have no idea of how to play them.
(The last time I played a string instrument was in highschool, and I borrowed Alexi's guitar to do it. By the kind of amazing coincidence that has become almost commonplace in my life, the girl next to me in the uke circle has the same RL name as Alexi, if you add one 'e' to his first name. (!!!) )
With diligent practice over the next 5 weeks, I may just be able to add ukulele to the list of instruments that I can sort of play. As the Boy likes to say, '4 strings good; 6 strings bad!'
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2 years ago today: "Delicate flower. Delicate flower!"
