In which Baker B is dragged into this century in shiny things

Well, he wasn’t dragged as much as poked and prodded into it. Yesterday we went to Verizon and I got a new iphone (a 6; happily the cheapest one was what I wanted) and he got my old 5C. Which is a perfectly fine little phone that I kind of hated to give up, but it’s over two years old and the battery life is deteriorating. Since he has basically no apps (just the ones that came on it so far, and he’s opposed to most of those), I don’t think it will be a problem with him. We have agreed that if he hates it, he can get a plain old non-smart flip phone. As long as it’s Verizon. He won’t hate it. It’s very strange to realize he has… a smart phone.

Let me just note here that when I went to Tracfone’s website to deactivate his phone, there of course were no instructions. I had to yet again to the support forum, post a question, get an answer in my inbox instructing me to go to Chat. Once in Chat it wasn’t much of a problem - this chat person didn’t seem to be working with ten people at once and take ages between replies, and she disconnected it pretty quickly - but honestly. Could it be more difficult to do anything with your Tracfone, other than watch the minutes vanish monthly?? I think not.

I’m having a weird slow period at work, which should help with the getting back into writing habit. Classes are over, exams are in progress, and I can’t do anything else to the December or May grads until grades post next week. And right now I’m currently being very distracted by A Student With Problems who is talking to Aggravation Receptionist. Very loudly. In one of those grating painful high-pitched-little-girl-with-“creak”-affectation voices that make me want to saw my own ears off.

This Student With Problems has already been an ENORMOUS pain in the ass. She is hoping to graduate in December (yes, now! Technically they do have till January 8 to clear everything up, but STILL. They walk in the ceremony Saturday. We told her she was short all this stuff back in August and she’s just now trying to do something about it.) She has several shortages, one being a C- in a class that she needs a C minimum for, and another that’s supposed to be counting in her major but isn’t. We’ve already had a number of email conversations and a phone conversation and she came into my office in person this morning for a face-to-face conversation, and I tell her the same thing in each conversation, which is that she has to talk to her advisor or the chair of her department about these shortages. She says she’s worked it out so this class counts here and that one counts there and I keep telling her if that’s the case the department has to send approvals to us. Instead she keeps emailing totally non-involved departments (General Education, the Registrar’s Office) and listing out all these classes that are supposed to be counting, and they all email her back and copy me and say, “Dude, seriously.... TALK TO YOUR DEAN’S OFFICE.” and I email her and say, “Dude, seriously … as I’ve already told you repeatedly, TALK TO YOUR ADVISOR. Or the chair of your department. Or SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY HELP!!!”

Of course I say it more nicely than that. My patience has worn quite thin, though.

She’s in here currently not to talk to me, thank god, but to talk to the Ass’t Dean about the C-. She had a very long tale about it this morning that frankly made no sense at all, involving having three different professors for the class and then they asked her what grade she thought she should have and she’s very modest so despite having A’s in most of her major work she said “C-” and that’s what they gave her and now she can’t graduate and she had nothing under a B in anything she turned in but there’s no record of her grades anywhere and she talked to the department chair and he just brushed her off.... and I am thinking WTF???? I don’t think so! But then again given the department she’s in… maybe it’s true. Who knows. Point being now it’s time for her to talk to the Ass’t Dean, who wasn’t here this morning. Now he is. Poor guy.

She is very very very chatty. She is a question-asker. I can hear her talking to Aggravation Receptionist nonstop, and she’s asking her all these questions. “Have you always worked in schools?” What was your favorite job? Do you think driving an hour to work is too long?”

When she was in my office and I was trying to tell her what she needs to do to get all this stuff straightened out, she kept talking to me on totally non-related subjects, especially while I was trying to look up things for her. “Are you from Tennessee? “(because I have a couple of pictures of my nieces’ kids, all three in University of Tennessee gear - the twins have on tiny cheerleader suits while the little boy is wearing an orange baseball outfit. Actually I don’t think that has anything to do with Tennessee - I think that was his little league outfit) “Are you from New York??” (..... no clue where that came from. At the time I thought she was looking at pictures of New York on my shelves, but then I realized I have no pictures from New York on display. I’ve got pictures of Charleston, pictures of Glastonbury, pictures of Bath, pictures of Stonehenge, and pictures of London. Which don’t look at all like New York). I finally said I was from Asheville, and she asked something about that but now I’ve forgotten what.

I can kind of see how she’s in this situation. She apparently would rather talk and talk and talk (in her ear-bleeding voice) than listen to what people are saying to her. Perhaps she should be majoring in Communications to be a reporter instead of what she is majoring in. She actually has a very good GPA and I imagine she will get all this stuff fixed in the end, but honestly.

And now it’s nearly time to go - hooray!

Last updated December 11, 2015