Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Minor disasters

Weird note: I woke up with pink eye this morning. So picture me typing this with funky red eyes. There you go, your accurate mental image for the day.

In spite of that, I am a happy girl this morning. Why? I think it's just in comparison with yesterday. I KNOW it has to be better than yesterday's hell, so I'm cheerful. Yesterday:

--I knocked my computer out for an hour with only my finger and static electricity.
--I got a flaming paper cut all the way down my finger (no, not the same one).
--I somehow messed up the settings on a website I work on, screwing it up completely. Had to figure out how to fix it.
--I confused the time of a meeting, and wandered around for 10 minutes looking for people before someone told me.
--Without thinking, I used antibacterial liquid on the hand with the paper cut. You probably heard the scream from wherever you are.

After all this, I shut my office door, put up a sign that I was editing and please go away, and listened to calming music while I edited a publication by hand. And I survived the rest of the day with no more mishaps.

Today is my grad class day, so I've got to pop out now to talk about Intercultural Communication. Later!

Medieval Word of the Day: swinkful: Full of toil or trouble; disastrous; troublesome, irksome; painful, distressing.

10 comments:

Renée (R.E.) Chambliss said...

Pink eye is no fun at all! (Which says volumes about how bad your day yesterday must have been.) Did you wake up with your eyelids sealed shut? It's a lovely (not!) sensation.

Hope yours eyes get better soon and that you have a good class today. :o)

Susan Adrian said...

Renee:

Fortunately most of the time now I seem to get mild pinkeye, just irritation and redness mostly, not the full-blown swollen shut. Also fortunately we still have in-date medicine for it from earlier this year. This stuff is amazingly expensive, like liquid gold, but it works fast. If I could just remember to stop rubbing my eyes, and manage to not pass it on to my daughter...

Anonymous said...

Aw, man. Sorry about the pink eye and other stuff.

How was the class?

Anonymous said...

I've not managed to have pink eye (amazingly !), but it sounds like no fun at all. Glad you've got the meds and it's likely clearing up as we speak.

Taking a course on conflict and communication skilss (a two-dayer through work), and we were discussing the importance of different body language cues in communication conflicts. Is your class going there, or are you sticking to verbal communications?

Julie K

Susan Adrian said...

Thanks, Sara. Much better now--still kinda itchy, but what can you do.

And actually I have 3 classes every Tuesday. Whew, long day. They went fine!

Looking forward to some good reading over the next week. {wink}

Susan Adrian said...

Julie:

We cover all sorts of communication; in fact I have to read chapters on both verbal and nonverbal by next week. But we apply it all to intercultural situations.

We got HARD homework for this week, though. I have to "place myself in a difficult conversation"--preferably introduce myself to a stranger who does not speak English, and try to carry on a conversation. Geez. Can't I just write someone, or make it up? {g}

Your class sounds kinda fun!

Anonymous said...

So you're saying you've hit a bit of a swinkful patch, eh? Bleah. Glad the worst of it was over with in one day. (Though pinkeye doesn't sound too delightful, either.)

Your class sounds interesting (and very applicable to writing, too). I know where you can go around *here* (MI) to meet a lot of people who don't speak English: the Secretary of State's office (DMV...whatever you might call it there, where you get car and drivers licenses). The last time I had to get new license tabs I didn't send for them by mail so I had to go in to the SOS's office, and I think I might have been one of three native English speakers in the whole place (and it was crowded!).

Anonymous said...

Mrs. mitty--LOL! Yes, swinkful. Computer problems again today {sigh}.

Unfortunately here in small town Montana non-English speakers are thin on the ground. There are probably 3 or 4 in town...

Susan (unable to remember her blogger password and on a different computer)

Anonymous said...

Wow, now my metro area isn't HUGE but to be in an area *so* non-metro as to only have a few non-English speakers in the area...gee, sounds heavenly! Nothing against non-English speakers; just against a crowded populace! (I'm a bit claustrophobic.) Either my awareness has changed drastically or our population within this area has exploded over the last 15-20 years so that I am feeling crowded. Mebbe it's time to move to Montana! ;)

Susan Adrian said...

Mrs. M:

It's always time to move to Montana. {g}