For some seasons of my life I get to be a professor, and starting tomorrow night, I will be in one of those seasons again. During those months when I teach, life around here can be a little crazier than normal, and sometimes I complain about it, but there's one big reason I'm glad to be a professor again....
"Let me 'splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (name that movie) Lately I've become even more absent-minded than I have been in the past. I'm talking scary absent-minded. I've discovered that quite often that I do not finish sentences when I'm talking to Pete or the kids, and I don't realize it until a few minutes later. So they hear a lot of, "OK, when we finish this book, I want you to vacuum and then you can...." (Strangely enough they never prompt me to finish my thought either.)
Or, I make a lot of statements like, "Can you please go tell what's-his-name that we're ready to, um, you know, with that that thing." No wonder this house is chaotic; the first mate of the ship makes no sense half the time!
Recently I didn't fully "park" the car in our driveway when I came in. So later when I was trying to locate Pete, I discovered that he was out in the road, retrieving our car that had rolled out there. Sigh.
A few weeks ago I misplaced my dinner --- while I was eating it!! I was looking all over for my half-eaten plate... I started to question whether I had ever had a plate of dinner at all, or whether I had already finished it and cleaned up already... until finally the nagging occasional beep of the microwave eventually reminded me that I had stuck it in there to heat up the rest.
And just a few days ago I spent a good 4 minutes going all over the house and both cars looking for my sunglasses. I re-traced all my steps from the night before, trying to figure out where the heck I'd left them. Finally I gave up and went outside to the bright sun with great resignation.... only to discover they were (in unison now)..... on the top of my head the whole time.
When I gave the kids a bath a couple weeks ago, I absentmindedly turned the shower on full-force- - all over myself.
Even in my dreams, I'm absent-minded. I won't bore you with the details of a dream I had the other night, but suffice it to say I realized I had thoughtlessly put an empty bottle of salad dressing back into the fridge.... something I would quite regularly do awake, too, I'm sure.
So, now, where was I going with all this??
Oh yeah, why I'm glad I'm about to be a professor again. The big reason is because being an absent-minded professor is ok! (They even made a movie about one) Being an absent-minded SAT tutor or GMAT instructor just does not have the same ring.... not to mention that it sounds like the students are not getting their money's worth. And being an absent-minded MOM... well, that's just downright frightening, true as it may be.
So here I go, back to professoring days.... and now I have an excuse for sounding and acting like a dingbat all the time.
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