tavie.com

Do you know how much I hate bureaucratic bullshit?

I usually have some amount of sympathy for bureaucrats, who are usually just imagination-free simpletons who are afraid of not doing their jobs right. I'm sure I'll be in that position one day, and I understand that if you bend the rules for one person then you have to bend them for everyone.

But goddammit, some rules don't make any motherfucking sense.

So, I went to my 20th Century Satire class today, which seems like it will be fine. No presentation after all, just a few papers and a couple of exams. That's fine. And it said on the syllabus, we have to have read the first 3 chapters of Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent by the day after tomorrow. No sweat, I'll just pop down to the library and check it out, and buy cheap copies of the rest of the books on the syllabus when I have some time to breathe.

So I went to the library, found the book, and remembered that last semester when I had tried to check something out without my semester ("Spring '04", etc) sticker on my I.D. card, I had been lectured by the librarian (oh fuck that, they're not librarians, they're work-study kids) and warned that although they were giving everyone a little leeway because it was the first week of classes, we couldn't check out any books in the future without our stickers.

So, thinking I would save myself a lecture, I handed the guy the book and the card and said, "I know I need a new sticker."

And he said, "Oh, I didn't even notice."

We laughed.

Then he said, "I can't let you check this out without a sticker or a receipt from the bursar."

"Are you serious? Last semester they gave us leeway because it was the first week of school."

"I can't let you check this out. I can hold it for you until you get the sticker."

"But Oasis is closed."

"They might be open since it's the first week of school."

So I went to Oasis, which is all the way in another building, and of course they were closed. Now I was exhausted, and hungry after not having eaten for 6 hours, but I ran up to the computer lab and tried printing out an unofficial copy of my bursar's receipt, that clearly states that I have paid all my tuition for this semester.

Then I went back to the library, and the guy sees me standing there with the printout. It couldn't be anything else but the printout, because my cheap-ass school replaced all of the laser printers with dot matrix a few semester ago. And unless he is a raving moron, he couldn't think it would be anything BUT my unofficial bursar's receipt printout.

But still he lets me stand there as the woman in front of me, a professor, starts reading from a long list of books that she would like placed on reserve. And he says to her that although they could do it faster at the reserve desk, he'd be glad to help her out. All while I'm standing right there.

So I stand there for fifteen minutes while he does this and finally he turns to me and says, "May I help you?"

And so I show him the receipt and of course he won't accept it.

Fucking asshole saw me standing there, and knows that I don't have access to anyone else's receipt other than my own, and that obviously I have paid my bill and if the fucking Oasis would stay open past 7 I could have gotten him proof of that.

He asked me if I would like to speak to his supervisor. I stormed out and did my frustration cry on the sidewalk. Dimwitted moron.

So I'm over it, I'll just have to get my sticker and read the 70 pages tomorrow. Fine.

Oh, also had my first Graphics Art Workshop class, which turned out to be-- he informed us ten minutes into the class-- Woodcut Relief. Half the people left because there was no course description in the catalogue and they all assumed it would be either silkscreening or lithograph. As for me, I had no idea WHAT it would be, and I admit that I'm nervous at the prospect of having to work with sharp tools-- I am not good with sharp tools-- but, hell, whatever. I'll do woodcut printing. Why not. I like the prof. He's gruff and hard-of-hearing and very New Yorky and told us he yells a lot and we're welcome to yell back. And he's worked with all these famous artists, which is cool. We have to call him Bruce; if we call him Mr or Professor Anything he'll yell at us. Also, there won't be any homework for this class, and the materials are relatively cheap, so why not.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:08 PM | shower me with attention