How come I can’t comment on anybody’s blog lately? What’s up with that? “Timed out” is all I get.

Day three of the new semester is here and I go to class in a few minutes..

I’ve met with three classes so far and so far? Sweet. Very nice, mostly older, people. Most of them seem very determined to learn and very glad to be in school. Most of them have just lost the only job they’ve ever had, since high school, and they are very nervous about being in a classroom again. I plan to be gentle with their fears, and hardnosed about their scholarly obligations. School is now their job, and just as they HAD to be at work, they now HAVE to be in class.

Absence rate? About 60% in each class. Go figure. We’ve had a quiz already and those who weren’t there, got a zero.

Next week, I’ve already got people who have to: go to court during our class, go to the dentist during our class, pick someone up at the airport during our class, pick up someone at the jail and take him home during our class, and meet a Workforce counselor during our class.

The girl who is going to be missing because she’s got chemo? I’m going to let her make it all up. I’m strict but I’m not completely heartless. Just a little heartless.

Because, you know, life is full of choices, and a good choice would be to meet obligations willingly signed up for. These classes all have waiting lists, and anyone who doesn’t plan to take it seriously should give the space to someone who would.

Now, I’m off to class. I peeked at the roster last night and there are only two people I’ve had before, and I’m kind of shy about meeting new people even when I’m supposed to be in charge.

Remember that about your own and your children’s teachers, if you would, please. We are people, too, and often we are as shy and nervous about meeting you, as you are about meeting us.

Remember, too, that while I will, indeed, be looking at you, ALL of you will be looking at me, and I have a very low opinion of my personal appearance, and you are all beautiful, and it makes me self-conscious.

Let us all have mercy on each other.

Oh, UPS, just when I would never have believed it could get any more absurd . . .

This is quite possibly the WORST business I have ever dealt with.

Local UPS Store: very polite, very helpful, very nice, quite professional. (Thank you, Jasmin.)

UPS Corporate: rude, unhelpful, ridiculous, unprofessional. (That’s you, Tanya.)

Over on Planet Feedback, where I’ve posted this saga, (updated as to just a few minutes ago) everyone else thinks so, too.

I usually say good things about a product on this blog, but this time, there isn’t anything good to tell. UPS Corporate seems to be a Carnival of Absurdities, and the inmates are running the show.

I might not be this upset, if the packages weren’t for children who have been waiting since well before Christmas.

I’m really angry, yes. UPS: NEVER AGAIN. Never, ever, EVER again.

I go back to school tomorrow. I’m ready.

Well, actually, I’ll BE ready by the time it’s time, tomorrow. Right now, I’m sorting papers, putting textbooks in neat little tall crooked stacks, combing the house for a red pen, and trying to organize five different curriculums. Curriculi? Curriculums.

Broccolum? Broccoli?

Is it time to go to class yet?

Oh, and while I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I’ve been listening to a random playlist, courtesy My Hard Drive.

1. Ben Folds & Rufus Wainwright – Careless Whispers
2. Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos – Hosanna Filio David (Antiphonal, Modo VII)
3. Steve Conte – Could You Bite The Hand
4. Eric Schoon – A Song For Emma
5. Yves Montand – La Vie En Rose
6. Justin Timberlake – Sexy Back
7. Elliott Smith – Needle in the Hay
8. Mandy Patinkin – And The Band Played On
9. Desmond Dekker – Ah It Mek
10. Tragically Hip – My Music At Work
11. Jessi Colter – I’m Not Lisa
12. Four Horsemen – Aphrodite’s Child
13. Bryan Ferry – Dance With Life (The Brilliant Light)
14. Yuko Sasaki – Love in the Cradle
15. Whitesnake – In The Still of the Night
16. Alicia Keyes – Karma
17. Talking Heads – Burning Down The House
18. Barnes and Barnes – Fish Heads
19. Matt Wertz – Lonely Tonight
20. Tears For Fears & Julian Lennon – Stand By Me

AND, I’m eating raw lemons, loading the dishwasher, watching “Toy Story,” scrubbing toilets, trying to get the stupid sliding closet doors’ little track thingy back in the track (yes, plural; when one goes they all go; I think they’re in a union or otherwise in some kind of cahoots) doing some writing, and getting five different syllabi up-to-date. Not necessarily in that order, and with a lot of hand-washing in between.

Syllabus. Syllabi. Omnibus. Omnibi?

I do love me our quirky language.