It Begins

One of the things I've missed most about teaching is blogfodder. Frankly, things that usually happen to me aren't nearly interesting enough to write about.

Well, I could probably wax poetic about my cats, but then I'd be in danger of turning into one of "those" bloggers. I can has actual content, plz?

Look! It's a cat! Inside pants! Knitted pants! Love me, Internets!

As you hopefully inferred, I have the pleasure of teaching again this semester. So far, everything's going smoothly as butter.

What's that? The professor's office, undergraduate labs, and classrooms have all been sealed off because of asbestos contamination? And nobody can find the professor I'm teaching for?

Well, shoot.

The classroom I had to teach in was one of those quarantined because of asbestos. I, and all of my class, got a free day off. Those folks have been pretty lucky, missing one week because of asbestos, and another because of the MLK holiday. I wondered briefly if they'd go for the hat trick and not show up after the class is shuffled off to a random building in the nethers of campus.

My wondering was for naught; the next day, the classroom was open! Turns out that the air quality people had mistakenly identified some fibers caught in their filters as asbestos. Monday may have been out of luck, but Tuesday's class caught both barrels of organic chemistry straight to the torso. The labs were open so that they could be prepped for the teeming hordes that would soon pass through them, and all was well with the world.

All was well. Until I went to teach again - in the same classroom I had been in the previous day - and found the hallway again sealed up. An e-mail was waiting.

"Whoops," it said, "turns out those fibers were asbestos after all."

Of course, I'm paraphrasing. I think the original language was closer to "by reading this e-mail you are hereby releasing the university from any liability pertaining to our inadvertently exposing you to airborne asbestos."

Until the police tape and sealing plastic are removed, my class is taking place in the criminal justice building. I had no idea where it is, because as a grad student, the only three buildings that matter are my building, the undergrad science building, and the dining hall.

Apparently, I shouldn't have felt bad about my abysmal knowledge of the campus geography, because half of my students didn't know where the building was, either. I suppose I should give them the benefit of the doubt; it's not like the time and location of the class were clearly announced by the professor during his lecture or anything, right?

Right?

In a peculiar twist, however, a fair number of students from the other TA's section knew where the building was, showing up even though their classroom had not been changed. I applaud their enthusiasm!

And, as a gift, I present you with this chemistry joke.