The Rocky Road That is Life

Ever have one of those days or a rough week? I've had that kind of month...

The wheels on the bus that is my life are rolling along fine, I guess. Several of my friends, on the other hand, have had broken axles and busted rims because when the road turned left, they didn't.

Sometimes, you can look down the road a piece and see a huge pothole or cliff ahead, and although you try to warn those on the road about the pending danger, they either can't see it, won't heed it or swear that it isn't that bad. If watching them struggle with the aftermath and fallout isn't one of the most painful things in the world, I don't know what is...

But time is a miraculous equalizer, though. And it may take a while to get there, but eventually, everything works out like it is supposed to, I guess. But it takes a firm commitment to staying the (healing) course and making an ernest effort to learn from the those twists, turns and potholes.

May the peace and blessings of the universe be with those who are struggling with heartache or dealing with loss!

The "Hit" Is On

Ever been hit on by a person you have no interest in "in that way"? I'm not talking about subtle eye contact and a flirty smile - but full on "wanna get a room?" stuff a la Harry Burns to Sally Albright (Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) in "When Harry Met Sally." It always makes me uncomfy, but I never quite know what the heck to do with it...

Last weekend while playing designated driver to a tipsy friend, I ran into a guy I knew from high school. Actually, he is the brother of a woman from my graduating class, but he is still someone I accepted a friend request from on Face Book way back when I first signed on. Hadn't seen him in easily 20 years and, although he was sober, he gave me "the look" (y'know, the full body once over that makes you feel like you need cryptonite clothing and a shower) and commented too many times in the course of 10 minutes about how great I looked. Then dude wanted to get a picture of just the two of us! Mind you, he's a full foot shorter than I am and his head came about to my bra line so guess where his face would have been in the photo? Did I mention he did NOT look like he did in high school at all? What?!?

Problem was I didn't want to be rude and blow him off in a way that would make it necessary for me to leave in a hurry (remember, I was "wing man" for my not-so-sober friend), so I kept deflecting his innnuendos in the hopes that he'd just give up and go the heck away. Didn't work and eventually we did hafta leave, but not because of anything I said to ward him off...

Today, I was propositioned by a friend from high school via Face Book IM. He said he'd had a crush on me in sixth grade (ummm...like, 25 years ago). Again, I deflected - with humor - but just couldn't say "not interested" because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Didn't mislead at all, but, still. I ended up texting a friend for some quick one liners I could use. My "let 'em down easy" game needs some serious help, it seems...

How do YOU handle unwanted advances?

Seriously?!?

In my spare time, I teach as an adjunct at two Hudson Valley colleges. My grades for both of the classes I taught this past semester were due on May 18. Today, I got an email from the mother of one of my students asking me to change the F he earned to a D. Her argument was that the F could keep him from graduating in December and starting the job he already has lined up for the following month.

Yep - you read that right: I got an email from a 22-year-old student's mother asking for a grade change.

The email that preceded hers was from the student's advisor. He basically asked me way I hadn't gotten back to the student about his grade. Mind you, the student emailed me this afternoon at 1:30pm - the third email since grades came out I'd received from him about the F; the advisor's email came at 3pm. I politely sent the student, his advisor and his mom the same email outlining that the grade was earned (I didn't "give him anything) because 1. the student missed two of his five media assignments (which were worth 50% of the final grade), 2. he made no effort to do the extra-credit or make-up work offered and 3. he totally bombed his final exam by earning the lowest grade in the class.

I'm totally shocked that he had his mommy write me. I'm stunned that he had no idea he was about to fail even though I warned him when I re-sent the missing assignments and extra credit a week before the final exam that he would do just that unless he got the work in. Someone should really tell him and his mom that in college, students do their work or suffer the consequences without having mom rush in and try to save the day.

Not even sure what else to say about that...

Updated Content on the Website (Finally!)

A crazy travel and teaching schedule had me busier than I would have liked this past semester - too busy to actually post new articles and calendar information for a while. But now the semester is over, summer is here and brand spankin' new content is waiting for you to read it over at tricountywoman.com.

Enjoy ;-)