Yesterday, I am pulling up on Mr. B, rushing to make it to class on time and a (random) student, out on a cigarette break outside, hails me.
Hey there, prof Camic? – she says, seemingly trying to match the face with one she has seen elsewhere. I think your loft is awesome!
This arrests me on the spot, even though I am terribly aware of the clock and of the fact that class should be starting in 7 minutes and I have yet to print out my lecture notes.
You know about my loft… You are a blogger yourself? – I ask, tentatively.
More like a voyeur. I read blogs. I read Ocean.
What can I say but: well now, ha ha! I keep it funny over at Ocean, ha ha! All about light 'n breezy entertainment, after all, ha ha!
Not always so funny, is it? – she counters. You can be very serious.
Ohhhh, is she referring to this post or this?
Ha ha, well, sure, right oh, yeah, well hey! (I mean, what else can one say?)
I move on. Knowing that around any corner I may find a person who knows that I last threw up from drinking too much when I was 15.
Listen, Ocean is just a lark, okay? Just a lark. La di da lark.
P.S. Why is it that when the chancellor of the university spoke last week at the Law School (I did not attend) and subsequently we, the faculty, received an email with basically the following: "chancellor’s missive: what we can do to uphold standards and fight moral corruption at the university" (or words to that effect), I automatically panicked, thinking surely it must be referring to faculty blogs, or more specifically, certain faculty who keep larky blogs, or, hey, one particular faculty member who regularly posts on Ocean?
3 hours ago
Ahh, Nina. You're safe. You never say anything about the administration at all, you don't post any nude photos, you use alaises for people. All I can remember are photos of the pathways to class and seasonal changes. The raciest thing you had was re-arranging your office nick-nacks! Don't freak out full tilt paranoid about it. They are after Mullarky, not larky.
ReplyDeleteChill, woman!
I half expect someone to one day come into my office and say: your blog detracts from the seriousness of our enterprise here at UW. At which point I will have to decide: eternal poverty, with Ocean at my side, or a very very tame little blog about weather and such.
ReplyDeleteI think it's cute when you reveal how your mind works. Like, who buys farmer's market produce and then pats themselves on the back for putting the farmer's daughter, adorable little waif, through school? You do, that's who.
ReplyDeleteAnon (do you have a name or pseudonym?): you put a nice spin on it, so thank you. I always thought, however, that I have the oddest of odd thought processes. In my days of family life, there was a pat response to some of the things I said/did. "Never boring," someone would remark, looking at me with pity, I thought. (It was not necessarily a compliment.)
ReplyDelete