1. Volunteer to be a respondent to a symposium presentation. You have subject matter expertise and the presenter expected you'd be the respondent because of this.
2. One week later, start whining about how the respondent gig is "too close" to another session you're involved in and it's more literary in tone than you're comfortable with.
3. Don't actually say NO, I CAN'T/WON'T DO IT.
4. Instead, suggest names of other people who could fill in (who are already participating in more symposium sessions than you are).
5. All of which make more work for me
a. two days before the deadline for all program changes
b. when I am SWAMPED chasing down other people's missing info
c. when I have NO help (volunteer or otherwise) at the office
6. Tell me how busy YOU are and expect sympathy or that I'll make it easy for you to wriggle off the hook.
7. Say you want to rewrite the info for the ONE session you are still doing because you hate being the only one listed who doesn't have a graduate degree (never mind that this is true).
8. Not actually GIVE me the rewrite, but go on about all the other projects you're in the middle of/past deadline on/whatever.
Because all of this--when I'm stressed to the hilt and trying to keep track of a million other details for 100+ conference sessions over four days and there's still a ton of missing items and I'm up against a press deadline that CANNOT shift to accommodate lackadaisical folks--just makes me want to go David Banner on your ass.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Blasts from the past
Hiya. Looks like the 'ol blog isn't QUITE dead.
Had two encounters with my past lives recently, both involving FaceBook (hence the need to write about/process elsewhere).
The first was a former student of mine who saw my name in a mutual friend's FB list and contacted me. Initially, I had no idea who he was; we have the same last name, so I friended him thinking maybe he was a long-lost relation or something. Soon after, he wrote on my wall, saying he'd just ran across a certificate I gave him, congratulating him on finally putting punctuation inside the quotation marks. That connected the dots. Kinda fun to hear back from him lo these many years later.
The second encounter just happened. My best friend from high school just sent me a friend request.
This is the same best friend who, after graduation, suddenly wanted nothing to do with me, dropped several of her oldest and closest friends, didn't invite me to or even tell me about her wedding (and involved other mutual friends in the secret keeping), and left me wondering for years if I'd done something hideously wrong as a friend to be treated this way.
Twenty-three years later, she wants to be friends and get in touch with me. I don't know what to make of it. And like I have time to be thinking/blogging about this when I have a huge symposium to pull together.
Had two encounters with my past lives recently, both involving FaceBook (hence the need to write about/process elsewhere).
The first was a former student of mine who saw my name in a mutual friend's FB list and contacted me. Initially, I had no idea who he was; we have the same last name, so I friended him thinking maybe he was a long-lost relation or something. Soon after, he wrote on my wall, saying he'd just ran across a certificate I gave him, congratulating him on finally putting punctuation inside the quotation marks. That connected the dots. Kinda fun to hear back from him lo these many years later.
The second encounter just happened. My best friend from high school just sent me a friend request.
This is the same best friend who, after graduation, suddenly wanted nothing to do with me, dropped several of her oldest and closest friends, didn't invite me to or even tell me about her wedding (and involved other mutual friends in the secret keeping), and left me wondering for years if I'd done something hideously wrong as a friend to be treated this way.
Twenty-three years later, she wants to be friends and get in touch with me. I don't know what to make of it. And like I have time to be thinking/blogging about this when I have a huge symposium to pull together.
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