Aaarrrgh. I know I said I don’t like to blog about work, especially while I’m -at- work, but it must be done. There must be catalogued evidence of this woman’s insanity, and I’m not talking about my own. I mentioned in an earlier post that there is some sort of feud between Jodie (the secretary) and the director, Dr. Carlson, for whatever reason. The other student worker, Belle, mentioned that it had to do with a scathing mid-year review that he gave Jodie, because - as far as we can tell - she doesn’t really do a whole lot, and she’s rather inefficient at it. She’s nice, but you can’t really pay someone to be nice and still have a budget. Anyways, for whatever reason, she has a personal vendetta against this man, and now she’s out to ruin his reputation. A girl was just in here, trying to sign up to be a GTA. Jodie told this girl, basically: “Now, you -might- have to work with Dr. Carlson,” dropping her pitch several decibels as she pronounced his name. “If that makes you uncomfortable, though, we can switch you no problem!”

Ordinarily I would suspect that there is a reason why the girl should feel uncomfortable with Dr. Carlson. If I were the student, for instance, and didn’t have any previous knowledge of Dr. Carlson, that statement would make me feel pretty suspicious about his character. That’s the kind of thing you say about a serial date-rapist or something. “He’ll put the Rohypnol in your coffee, he will!” However, I’ve noticed a tendency with her to talk as though her own feelings are the feelings of other people. “Don’t you worry,” she’d say even if you are in the middle of a yoga session, while wringing her hands with anxiety.

As far as Dr. Carlson himself goes, he happens to be one of the most popular professors in the Geometrical Anthropology program. Many of my friends, who major in Geometrical Anthropology and have taken his class, report that he’s a funny, warm, open man that cares about his students. Sure there might be a side to him that they haven’t seen, but then again, my friends are not batshit insane and the only one that seems to dislike Dr. Carlson is, in fact, out of her friggin’ gourd. Without further evidence, I’m gonna have to conclude that Jodie’s beef with him is for personal reasons. Which makes me furious that she is going around, advising students behind his back (she’s not even supposed to be advising, she’s a secretary for chrissakes), and trying to turn them against him!

I’m not sure that this tactic of hers is successful, though, because it’s hard for her to hide the fact that she is a complete fruit-basket. Still, it’s highly unethical, and I don’t know what to do about it. She could get fired if I report this, and then what would I blog about? Again, if I don’t report it, this poor man’s reputation might suffer. Then again, maybe he is an actual creepo after all, and she’s the only one that’s on to him. Crazies, I’ve found, are the best at detecting fellow crazies…

Yesterday, unbeknownst to all but the nerdiest English lit fans, was Bloomsday, the anniversary of the day that Ulysses takes place. To celebrate, a nerdy English lit group had a marathon reading of the novel downtown. I’ve not gotten around to reading beyond the first chapter or so, but I decided to attend part of it to get extra credit for my British Lit class. I managed to drag a friend along, who was incredulous when he heard that they were celebrating the day in the book, as opposed to Joyce’s birthday or something like that. I dunno. Makes sense to me.

Anyway, it was a big letdown. I figured that people that were crazy enough to want to do a marathon reading of Ulysses downtown would, perhaps, be crazy enough to do it with flair. I pictured a bunch of people sitting around, drinking burgundy, shouting out the lines with enthusiastically bad Irish accents. Instead, there was a rather tame group of people, reading quietly, so as to not disturb the other Borders patrons. Boooring. Besides, the whole stream-of-consciousness thing doesn’t really lend itself to marathon reading, I don’t think. A few years back they did a marathon reading of Moby Dick on campus, and that turned out to be pretty cool.

We came in during the middle of a shift, picked up two copies and were racing to see who would be the first to find the section they were on(neither of us having read Ulysses before). I won. And that was the highlight of the marathon for me.