proctoring and swooning (literally)

I know, I owe you the final installment of the exciting Portland Trip series, and I also have a couple pictures from said trip to post. But things have been a little crazy for a few days, and I have a backlog of mildly interesting stories from my present life to tell, so we'll get to that first.

I've been particularly busy with TAing stuff this week, since my classes had a test today. It's generally the same couple students that come in to get help, and they are sweet but increasingly annoying. One of them seemed irritated with me because he showed up on Monday at the computer lab at 1 p.m. and I was not there. H was in the lab and called to ask me where I was. I said, "um, my TA hours start at 2." Apparently this kid didn't know about daylight savings. And even after he found out, he was still like, "I was waiting for you earlier and you weren't here..." as if I'd done something wrong.

Anyway, I proctored the exams this morning, which started off quite smoothly, but took a bad turn somewhere around 9:30 a.m. As the first class of students was taking the exam, I was looking at the stack of blank exams left over, and I thought to myself, "This doesn't really seem like 45 exams." And lo, I counted, and only 30 exams were there. So I was stuck with the dilemma of how to get 15 more copies of the exam during the 10 minutes that I had between the first class and the second class (not to mention traversing the 3-block distance between classrooms). This problem was exacerbated by the fact that I had no money on my copy card and no cash with me. So I frantically texted E, and enlisted him to meet me at the 3rd floor UC copier at 10:25. (If I haven't mentioned this lately, it bears repeating: E is my hero.) My copier-using skills have deteriorated significantly since I worked at the employment department, so I ended up having to do all kinds of sorting of pages, and then at one point I had to unjam the copier. So it gets to be a couple minutes after 10:30, and I send E to the classroom to tell the students about the technical difficulty and keep them occupied until I get there. E comes back momentarily (the classroom, at least, was just in the next building over) to inform me that Dr. J was in the classroom, and that he told him what was up. So now I'm thinking, "Great, what is the professor doing there? And why is he showing up the one day I'm having a major crisis?" It turns out Dr. J had stopped by to give me the answer key, and had been surprised to find me not there, but had turned the idle time into an impromptu review session, as any good professor would. (Amusing side note: the first time I met this class, I was running late because I'd tripped and fallen in a puddle and scraped my arm. So when Dr. J asked the class if they knew where I was, someone evidently said, "Maybe she fell down again.")

When I arrived with the exams, the ever-calm Dr. J said that he would just have the class do one less problem to make up for the lost time. About then I noticed that I had screwed up on the copying and copied the second-to-last page twice instead of the last page. "Um, I think it would be a good idea if they skipped the last problem," I said. So that's what they did, and it all turned out okay. Dr. J and I figured out that it was probably the copy people that screwed up, and our only error was not counting the exams before hand. It's nice when stuff isn't our fault.

Speaking of falling, I had a novel experience on Halloween night. DWE was in town, so we went out for a late dinner and then went to the Castro to see the throngs of people in costumes that flock there every year for a big "street party". I had 2 beers at my apartment, and 2 glasses of sangria with dinner. Then we spent a couple of hours walking around. We stopped at a bar on my way home and I ordered a bourbon and coke, which they served to me in a pint glass. I probably shouldn't have finished that drink just from a sheer dehydration standpoint, but I felt just fine: not sick or dizzy or even particularly drunk. So we walked the rest of the way home (did I mention that for all but the last 8 or so blocks of this walking, I was wearing heels? I know, what was I thinking?) So when we got back to my apartment, I went into the kitchen to have a glass of water, still feeling fine. DWE comes into the kitchen, and as we're standing there suddenly I'm overpowered by an intense, bizarre feeling of dizziness and lightheadedness. The next thing I knew, I heard DWE's voice saying my name, and telling me to wake up. I was lying down, and I felt as though I had been awakened out of a deep sleep. "Where am I?" I asked. "You're on your kitchen floor," DWE said, looking utterly concerned. Evidently I fainted. DWE said that he was particularly freaked out because before I slumped into him my right arm started shaking, and he was worried that I'd had a seizure.

To make a long story short, I checked with Dr. O the next morning, and he told me that I almost certainly did not have a seizure (one of the questions he asked me: "Did you experience any incontinence?" As if it wasn't bad enough to faint in front of DWE...at least I didn't pee myself) and that it sounds like I just fainted. I felt more or less fine the next day, and I'm totally back to normal now, so I think it was just one of those fluke things. And at least DWE was there to catch me. =)