Can I See Dead People?

When I take the train to and from school I always sit by the window. I like to see the birds and nature, but mostly I like to watch out for bodies. If someone was killed and left on the Main-Bergen line, don't worry I'll spot them between the hours of 7:00-8:30 a.m. and 4:50-6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Now, if your loved one has met their demise after 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, I'm sorry, you're just going to have to be patient until I spot them next week.

Soon I will figure out how to put pictures in my blog so you can get a closer experience to what it's like living in my head. If you're not too freaked out after today's blog.

Not so P.C.

At work yesterday my kids took a quiz and because some of them get time and a half (educators will be familiar with the term-it means that for kids with learning disabilities they get extra time to take their exams) we had to wait to do some paperwork until they were finished. This was not a major blockage and something we're all pretty used to by now. Except for one new professor who declared "We just have to wait for the retards." She wasn't trying to be funny, that's just the word she chose to refer to them. Our mouths fell open and there was uncomfortable chuckling, but then she asks "Why do they get this retard-time anyway? Are they stupid?" I was astounded! I thought maybe she was trying to be cute, but then I realized she just didn't know that this was inappropriate (not being native to the U.S.) So I gently told her that this is not the vocabulary we use and gave her some alternatives. From the grading we've done so far I can tell you the "retards" did very well.

In the Arms of Morpheus

The thing about insomnia is you feel like you have no control over it. One minute you're in the "arms of Morpheus" [more on this in a moment] and the next you're wide awake, ready to face the day, but then you look at the clock and realize you still have 3 hours to go before the alarm is going to explode.

Frank and I were reading The Hardy Boys' mystery #7 and the character Frank Hardy used this term for sleeping..."in the arms of Morpheus". Apparently Morpheus was the Greek god of dreams and the drug morphine derives it's name from his. I didn't explain all this to Frank, only that it meant they were sleeping. The book is a bit over his head as far as vocabulary goes ('scrutinize', 'rhetorically', and some others), but he's following the story and enjoying it. I have some more DSA books coming from the Scholastic Book Club at school.

Okay, I'm going to try and go back to sleep.

Oh, and I don't understand why this post says 11:28 p.m. because it's actually 2:40 a.m.

Not really claustrophobic

I used to be claustrophobic, but I've outgrown it. But I do still have this weird way of being in crowds. I find people very interesting so I like to watch them and observe how they interact with each other and their environment. Unfortunately the longer I observe, the less "human" they become to me. They just become nameless organisms like any single celled organism in a petri dish. That's when I start to get uncomfortable. I don't really freak out about it, I just get an uneasy feeling that some organism will start to devour all the others.

Procrastination Station

So this is where I'll be typing some mundane life observances while intermittently studying for my Ph.D. qualifying exam.