I'm currently sitting here waiting for my visiting teachers to show up. I haven't cleaned my house and I hope they don't notice....I've also realized that our landlord should be sitting on the porch when they arrive and this could freak them/him out. Stupid cats...
Summer is very boring right now. I don't get to start on my practicum until June and I'm supposed to be getting IRB approval in the mean time, but my stupid partner won't get back to me. So I have nothing to do but sleep in until noon and sit around reading all of my new books...this would be okay except that I'm almost done with them and then what will I do? *sigh* Maybe I should get a job...but I don't know what my schedule at the museum will be like, so I can't yet. Oh well. Sorry, this isn't very interesting.... On the bright side I got straight A's again...so I still have a 4.0 GPA for grad school...maybe they'll let me wear special tassels or something...that'd be cool. :D
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Thursday, May 12, 2005
So apparently I'm a jerk...
Growing up in Utah I've always been the quiet, nice one. Everyone always mentioned how I didn't say much, but that I was a nice person. At my jobs I was often commended on being so efficient and such a good worker. Many times my supervisor would compare me to workers they'd had in the past and say how I "really had it" and that they would like it if I could stay with them forever. One employer liked me so much he said I should drop out of school and work with them full-time (I'm not sure how serious he was). My teachers always complimented my work and told me what a good student I was. Then I moved to Texas.
I now have a former best friend/roommate who will not even talk to me anymore. I have tried on several occassions to mend our troubles, but she has refused point-blank to even consider associating with me ever again. This is a girl that I had been friends with for over a decade and within a matter of months now no longer considers me worth her time.
I got a job as a secretary. My co-workers complained about me not doing a good job, of being lazy. I was written up and given a "trial period" in which to prove myself or I'd lose my job. My fellow secretaries would not give me work to do and when they did would explain it to me as if I was stupid. This seemed to be a common conception around the work place that my intelligence was to be found wanting and my work below par.
Last semester I did a case study on a local museum. This was a critique based upon my experiences of visiting the museum, taking a tour with a school group, interviewing the curator, and attending one of their lecture series. I was less than impressed with the curator who also seemed to think I was an idiot, but as she requested to see my paper before I handed it in (to make sure I didn't "misrepresent" her or her museum), I refrained from saying anything negative and was, according to my professor, entirely too generous in my assessment. I forwarded the paper to the lady as she requested, and received back corrections to my grammar and punctuation. That's it. "It's" instead of "its," "than" instead of "then," that sort of thing. One semester later I am interviewing with a completely different museum for the possibility of conducting my practicum there. The interview is going well when the director brings up an experience her fellow museum manager had with a student last semester. Apparently this student wrote an extremely offensive and one sided paper in which she made "scathing remarks" regarded the establishment and the exhibits. This student, she claims, did not bother to ask for clarification on any subject but rather invented all sorts of cruel lies about the establishment. Robyn (the museum lady) now refused to even consider working with another student again because this was such a traumatizing experience in which her trust was betrayed and now this paper was out "in the public" for all to see. This was my paper. I explained this to the new lady and she agreed to still let me come this summer. I then went home and reviewed my paper and, finding it lacking any offensive material, forwarded a copy to the lady and asked her if this was in fact the paper to which she was refering as I was no longer convinced after re-reading it. She said that it was the paper and that she looked forward to beginning a discussion on my writing style and the manner in which I offend people (as she was amazed that I failed to see what was so 'scathing' about it). She also proceeded to say that she did not appreciate emails and would I please refrain in the future. Shocked and taken aback I did. Until three weeks later when I had some questions about the project. She had emailed me with several concerns about my methods and the prospect of me offending and alienating their small clientele. When I explained that I was there to do what she wanted and that everything would be cleared first and that I wouldn't do anything she didn't approve of, she answered me by saying that a staffing problem had come up and they would be unable to devote to me the amount of time I would need for my project. Good luck, and good riddance...
Apparently I have also offended some of my friends as well as their family, who no longer even speak to me in church. So apparently I'm a jerk....or maybe it's Texas?!?!
I now have a former best friend/roommate who will not even talk to me anymore. I have tried on several occassions to mend our troubles, but she has refused point-blank to even consider associating with me ever again. This is a girl that I had been friends with for over a decade and within a matter of months now no longer considers me worth her time.
I got a job as a secretary. My co-workers complained about me not doing a good job, of being lazy. I was written up and given a "trial period" in which to prove myself or I'd lose my job. My fellow secretaries would not give me work to do and when they did would explain it to me as if I was stupid. This seemed to be a common conception around the work place that my intelligence was to be found wanting and my work below par.
Last semester I did a case study on a local museum. This was a critique based upon my experiences of visiting the museum, taking a tour with a school group, interviewing the curator, and attending one of their lecture series. I was less than impressed with the curator who also seemed to think I was an idiot, but as she requested to see my paper before I handed it in (to make sure I didn't "misrepresent" her or her museum), I refrained from saying anything negative and was, according to my professor, entirely too generous in my assessment. I forwarded the paper to the lady as she requested, and received back corrections to my grammar and punctuation. That's it. "It's" instead of "its," "than" instead of "then," that sort of thing. One semester later I am interviewing with a completely different museum for the possibility of conducting my practicum there. The interview is going well when the director brings up an experience her fellow museum manager had with a student last semester. Apparently this student wrote an extremely offensive and one sided paper in which she made "scathing remarks" regarded the establishment and the exhibits. This student, she claims, did not bother to ask for clarification on any subject but rather invented all sorts of cruel lies about the establishment. Robyn (the museum lady) now refused to even consider working with another student again because this was such a traumatizing experience in which her trust was betrayed and now this paper was out "in the public" for all to see. This was my paper. I explained this to the new lady and she agreed to still let me come this summer. I then went home and reviewed my paper and, finding it lacking any offensive material, forwarded a copy to the lady and asked her if this was in fact the paper to which she was refering as I was no longer convinced after re-reading it. She said that it was the paper and that she looked forward to beginning a discussion on my writing style and the manner in which I offend people (as she was amazed that I failed to see what was so 'scathing' about it). She also proceeded to say that she did not appreciate emails and would I please refrain in the future. Shocked and taken aback I did. Until three weeks later when I had some questions about the project. She had emailed me with several concerns about my methods and the prospect of me offending and alienating their small clientele. When I explained that I was there to do what she wanted and that everything would be cleared first and that I wouldn't do anything she didn't approve of, she answered me by saying that a staffing problem had come up and they would be unable to devote to me the amount of time I would need for my project. Good luck, and good riddance...
Apparently I have also offended some of my friends as well as their family, who no longer even speak to me in church. So apparently I'm a jerk....or maybe it's Texas?!?!
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