professionalism

On Mondays I'm at school ALL. DAY. because my classes are at 9 and then again at 3. I spend much of the time in between classes grading or prepping, but lots of times I just goof off. Well, today I spent some time talking to Hillary about the cyst in her shoulder.

A: How big is it?
H: I don't know.
A: What kind is it?
H: I don't know.
A: What was the point of the doctor's appointment?
H: I don't know, to tell me I have a cyst?
A: Can we name it?
H: Yes. Something feminine. Like Emily.
A: I have too many Emilys in my classes.
H: Ophelia.
A: That's great because she went nuts. Get thee to a nunnery, Ophelia.

Hillary then goes on to tell me that she's not too too worried about the cyst because it's a cyst and not a tumor, though when her doctor's office called and asked her to come in at 12:30 instead of her 3:00 appointment, she instantly assumed that it was because she only had days left to live.

A: And they wanted to give you exta time with your kids.

She's also got a couple of teeeeeeeny weeeeeeny cysts on her legs, so her reasoning is that the one in her shoulder can't be a big deal because if the ones on her legs aren't, then this one can't be either.

A: Nice reasoning.
H: Shush. I like my reasoning.

Pause.

A: I kinda wish it was a little more dramatic. With a happy ending, but more dramatic for a little while.
H: I know. So boring.

I hang up the phone and not two seconds later a student pops her head into my open office door. She has a question about class today and she waited until I was off the phone with my oh-so-important phone call. I told her she could've interrupted me, that I was just talking to a friend about her cyst. No, she says, it's fine, I was just going over my paper one last time.

Woulda been a lot funnier, a lot more dramatic, ahem, if she'd said she knows all about Ophelia and that perhaps that name's a little too cliched.