2.16.2005
Maybe this is why my job sometimes makes me feel like s**t
A colleague of mine is going through a rough time with the ol' tenure track. I sent this story in an email to this person but then thought it might amuse others too...
So, last weekend one of my neighbors (GUESS WHICH?) put a load of my laundry in the dryer that included things that were not to be machine dried. (We have a whole protocol for knowing when it's OK to do this, and it had gotten screwed up, in between the time I put my clothes in the washer and the time I went to get them, by a new set of signs--of which I was not aware.)
Actually, it was his son, a temporary resident of the building, who did it; all the more reason not to get mad. But I didn't know any of this and so I sent a very nasty email which ended with the words "What does it take to get people to follow basic courtesy?"
After I realized that it hadn't really been his fault I apologized and he responded by saying that he understood why I was testy, because he and his wife had once shared their apartment with someone who was on a "tenure tract."
Tract, not track. Now, remember that I am a persnickety member of the grammar-and-spelling police.
But I love the idea of the tenure tract--like a gastrointestinal tract, where we are either incorporated into the body or ejected as waste at the other end.
Or is the tenure tract the book we have to write? If only it were only a tract...Hell, I could do THAT in a weekend...
So, last weekend one of my neighbors (GUESS WHICH?) put a load of my laundry in the dryer that included things that were not to be machine dried. (We have a whole protocol for knowing when it's OK to do this, and it had gotten screwed up, in between the time I put my clothes in the washer and the time I went to get them, by a new set of signs--of which I was not aware.)
Actually, it was his son, a temporary resident of the building, who did it; all the more reason not to get mad. But I didn't know any of this and so I sent a very nasty email which ended with the words "What does it take to get people to follow basic courtesy?"
After I realized that it hadn't really been his fault I apologized and he responded by saying that he understood why I was testy, because he and his wife had once shared their apartment with someone who was on a "tenure tract."
Tract, not track. Now, remember that I am a persnickety member of the grammar-and-spelling police.
But I love the idea of the tenure tract--like a gastrointestinal tract, where we are either incorporated into the body or ejected as waste at the other end.
Or is the tenure tract the book we have to write? If only it were only a tract...Hell, I could do THAT in a weekend...
