the maze

This semester I am teaching at two campuses. I am teaching in the afternoon at my regular campus and I picked up a morning class at the Union campus which is downtown. This is proving to be a mistake on my part. I took the class for the extra money but it is turning out to be more of a hassle than a blessing.

This is how the first day of school went on Monday. I left home early, it was a beautiful day, I had actually slept 9 hours, gotten up, ran, ate breakfast, showered, and put on full makeup (for me that's mascara, eyeshadow, and lipstick), I even managed to fix my hair. I was in a great mood and ready to start the first day of school off right.

I left at 9:15 knowing I needed to be early to find my new classroom and get set up.

All was well until I reached campus at 9:50 and realized that there was no parking. No, I am not talking about employee parking...I am talking about any parking at all. I drove around for 30 minutes and even looked on the street. There were people parked everywhere and no parking signs everywhere as well.

So I did what any pregnant women would do in my position..I parked illegally in the employee parking lot with my legal parking tag. I parked on a curb, not blocking anyone or anything. My class is from 10:50 to 12:20.

Once I parked I found my classroom pretty easily and immediately realized that I am not in a Math building...which would be fine....except that I had the smallest chalkboard on the planet..no garbage can, no eraser, no overhead projector....nothing. Keep in mind in the math building they have dry erase boards, real projectors, and document writers...way more advanced than what I was dealing with.

I just sighed and decided not to worry about it until I talked to my department head.

I had a few minutes before class so I walked down to the adjunct/evening office and asked if the student worker could call and get an overhead projector for me, and possibly some more chairs since there were only 15 desks in my class and 20 people registered. He was very nice and said, "OF COURSE!".

Class started and 5 people sat on the floor in the hot windowless cave I am teaching in.

30 minutes later the student worker came to me with a note and said he was sorry but that he couldn't get anything and that I should contact this lady on the post-it he handed me. The woman on the note was my department's secretary at the other campus, one of the 5 people I know who work at SWCC, and what is even funnier is that she has nothing to do with overhead projectors or chairs at the Union campus.

I left class feeling a bit defeated, reached my car, and found a $15 parking ticket and a we will tow note.

I emailed my department head and he agreed to try to get me some chairs by wed. class, no promise of an overhead or any tables or desks for these chairs. In his defense he tried to request me a different classroom, and was DENIED.

I knew at that point that I was going to have to resort to my own devices in order to make this all work out.

Fast forward to this morning, I am checking my email and I get two emails from the president of the school. One says that the Union campus is crazy and that I should be patient with students about being late to class because of the parking, haha...and the second email is an encouraging letter on how we should be working extra hard to retain the 13,000 students we have this year. Funny she expects students to want to attend a class that is in a hot, windowless, technologyless, box with too few desks and chairs. Can you hear me laughing????

Anyway, today I missed my morning run so that I could get to school early enough to basically get my own overhead projector and chairs and desks even though really the extra desks weren't going to fit in the room because it is TOO SMALL for 20 people.

Today I left at 8:45. I got there at 9:15 and there was no parking again. I asked a campus police officer who was standing in the full parking lot what I should do mainly where I should park legally..he shrugged his shoulders. So I drove 1/2 mile down union and parked at MLGW and walked dragging my rolling suitcase just praying I wouldn't get another ticket.

Once I got to school it took me about 5 minutes to find one large table and a couple of desks. My plan was to move out two small desks and put in a large table and jam three people there, and I was hoping to squeeze in 3 more desks somewhere. These people were already practically sitting on top of one another.

After that it took me about 10 minutes to find an overhead projector on wheels, (I promised my mother I would not try to carry one all over campus..they are quite heavy and I still had my rolling bag and purse to carry), which would have been great, had I not been on the 3rd floor of building F.

At that point I thought I was golden. I was stuck in the tiny room but at least I could teach the first lesson today using the overhead.

So I am sure you are dying to know what could possibly be wrong now.
Well, my building is E and my classroom is on the first floor. I know you are thinking what I did which is that I will take the elevator to the first floor of F and get off and push the cart to building E outside which is not that far from building F..maybe 40 yards.

Nope....not gonna happen because there are steps to get outside and inside both buildings which I cannot go down pushing a cart. So I asked a nice man what I should do....he said I should go back up to the third floor and ask someone up there how to get to building E using the crosswalks between buildings....seemed easy enough right???

From F I went to A to B to E which took at least 15 minutes and I got on the elevator....took it to the first floor which was the gym...there were two exits... one with stairs and one that led outside..my only option at this point... one of the two or get back on the same elevator. I chose the outdoor option. I get outside and see about 50 stairs at a steep incline and a main road behind me and realize that the main road route would take me an hour if I could even make it all the way around the campus again pushing this cart, and of course you can't push a cart up stairs.

A young lady saw me staring at all those stairs contemplating and took pity on me and said she would help me carry it up all those stairs. I almost said ok but then remembered the baby and decided to go back inside and get back on the elevator....but I couldn't because I was locked out.

Luckily the young lady waited to see if I got in..she saw that I was locked out and had to run up the 50 stairs around and in the building to let me in. Thank God for her!

Once I got back in I got back on the elevator and went up one level and finally made it to E on the first floor with a new set of directions, and to my room with only 5 minutes to spare. I had some male students carry and cram in one table and one desk.

Luckily three people didn't show today, so we had enough chairs, and only one person fell asleep during class....