Weather report

The precise meteorological term for today's weather is "totally gross," drippy enough (or threatening to be drippy enough) to require an umbrella and a raincoat. And by raincoat I mean the one that seems to be waterproofed from the inside, so that I accumulate my own humidity as I walk along the steamy streets, and not really waterproofed on the outside, so that if it gets serious about raining I'll be soaked through.

I had the. most. boring. class. ever. this morning. This is my Pre-calculus lecture. We're not going to cover anything I didn't review for my test this summer. It's two hours long and meets at 9am in a big old auditorium that I guess they are trying to keep nice: "PLEASE no EATING or DRINKING" says the big sign at the door. So I have to sneak in my coffee. Like a kid sneaking booze into a high school football game. Not that I ever did that. I didn't go to football games in high school. Or college.

No, the coffee sneaking is just one of the petty demoralizations that fill my days at Hunter. It's not unlike the bathroom situation. Many of the bathrooms have been remodelled, I think to make them ADA compliant. The non-handicap stalls are often so tiny that you have to bend over the toilet bowl to close the door. My mom used to refer to cramped spaces as "so small you have to step out into the hall to change your mind." Exactly. The powers that be installed sparkly new hands-free sinks, but usually only one (of two or three) is functional.

But it's the toilet paper that makes me think they really hate students. It is, of course, the one-ply institutional stuff that shreds when you even think of touching it. They've installed it in such a way that it doesn't roll smoothly from the dispenser. It tears off, flimsy piece by flimsy piece, if you are lucky. It takes an inordinate amount of time and a very light touch to gather enough to be effective. This is not how I want to put my carefully-developed hand skills to work.

And I don't want to put my finely-honed writing skills to work informing the chemistry department that the home-grown lab manual, which they have obviously been reprinting for years, has a typo that takes the form of a racial slur. I don't want to, but I'm afraid I must.



Molly, I'm with you.

While the technical term for today's weather is "totally gross," I'm afraid the layman's term is "slightly bitchy."