is there a sign on the door saying knock as hard..

…as you possibly can?? Our office is in a small old building that used to be four apartments, and it’s amazing how many people who come to the front door will stand there pounding on it instead of just opening it and coming inside. I can’t figure out why they think you have to knock – it’s an office. It looks like an office from the outside, it has a sign saying it’s an office, and it really doesn’t look like a place you’d need to knock on the door to gain entrance, and what campus office makes you stand outside pounding on the door anyhow?? I find it especially annoying because I’m the closest to the door, so I’m the one who is perpetually startled by these yam-fisted bangers. I guess we need a sign saying come on in, but it also irks me to have to state the obvious to people.

Even worse were the people at my last job, where our office was in the main hallway and where the doors were always wide open. People would come and stand in the doorway and knock on the wide-open door. I guess they’re just trying to be polite but still. Common sense, people, common sense!!

I suppose if this is all I have to be annoyed about, I better be grateful. I’m not at my old job!!!!

I did have my first ..really annoying student today, though. A design major who never did come back and review the audit we did last summer until my coworker called her, trying to get rid of some of these who requested audits and didn’t ever pick them up. The audits tell them exactly what they have left before they can graduate, and they take forever and are very complicated to do. And are also very important, especially given how surprised a whole lot of them are at what they are missing. Like the one who called to find out why he didn’t get a diploma when he was some 20 hours short of having enough credits for graduation. But I digress!

This one first of all had a megaphone-mouth and second of all interrupted me incessantly and third of all her audit wasn’t up to date because she requested it during the summer and now she’s in a full load of classes this semester which we hadn’t factored in. And she failed this one and is repeating that one and how will that affect her hours now and she’s just screwed everything up boo hoo hoo and she needs to get her act together but it really isn’t all her fault because this happened and that happened and whine whine whine and could I just work this up for her again right now and tell her what she needs if she does this minor and what she’ll need if she does that minor instead and can she graduate in summer do I think if she just changes her major entirely … all pretty much said without taking a breath or letting me explain to her that we only do one audit and it isn’t our problem if you don’t come back to get it for three months and I’m not an adviser so I can’t really tell you that if you change your major now you’ll be totally screwed. Even though you will be.

I finally had to confer with my coworker since my head was spinning from all the what-ifs, and D told Megaphone Mouth that if she’d go talk to her adviser and figure out exactly what it is she’s majoring and minoring in, we’ll do another audit for her. Which is more than I’d be inclined to do, but oh, well. Of course when I told her it will take some time to do another one since this is her second one and she’ll have to go back to the end of the line behind the first-request people, she wailed, "BUT I NEED IT RIGHT NOW!!!!"

Of course you do! That’s why you waited three months to come back and pick it up!

See? I’ll  never be short of Aggravation Tales, even after moving to a GOOD job!

And speaking of aggravations, during OD’s most recent spate of unpleasantness I actually opened a journal on another site. I have no intention of moving anywhere else, and I really don’t think OD is headed for disaster at all, but I’m going to post here and there both, just in case. It’s called journalcommunity.com and is MUCH smaller than OD – and it’s also free. Of course, it was down when I tried to get on this morning too, so obviously all sites are going to have their issues. There are a bunch of OD people over there, though – one of my favorites uses it, and I saw scads of names I recognized. So, hey,  if OD vanishes and never returns, that’s where I’ll be!