my arms are rubber

I wish I had a penchant for exaggeration because I don't know how words can possibly express how unbelievably exhausted and, well, made of rubber I felt last night after painting for two days at S.'s house. Oh. My. God. I was hurtin'. I could barely walk. This morning as I made an omelette, it was all I could do to whisk the eggs. There's still more work to do, but since I had a tooth extracted this morning, and this qualifies as "oral surgery," I am not allowed to do anything strenuous for the next day or so. But the living room looks incredible and the little red bathroom is just darling. Amazing what a couple coats of paint'll do.

A nap is in my near future. Indeed.

ughhh, they're making us move

The third and fourth floors of my building here at school have to move over to the abandoned building on campus, the one with the ghost of Angie Milner. While we're allegedly going to be in healthier environs in a year when we move back (no more asbestos), the disruption to all of our routine little faculty lives means that

1. We have to pack all of our shit into boxes and put THREE labels on each box. I already got in trouble yesterday--by the Wonka of all people (who has not yet begun packing, I'll have you know)--for writing in teeny tiny letters on the box itself that inside were textbooks.
2. We'll all be in offices that are far, far more depressing than the ones we're in now. Orange carpeting. Brown metal bookshelves. No windows. And a ghost.
3. Nobody is handing out extra anti-depressants or even anti-anxiety drugs to help us get through this.
4. Many people have to share offices, but I'm not among them. We pre-tenure faculty need a quiet place to work. So we can interact with the ghost all by ourselves.
5. I actually have to leave the building in order to teach. This means coats and umbrellas and all that.

I usually don't fear change. I'm usually very good at adapting to a new home. But I love my office and I love my hallway and the people in it and this all makes me want to throw a little tantrum. Cuz we all know how much effect that would have. And have I mentioned how easy it is to get LOST in this new building of ours? The organization makes ZERO sense. I got lost trying to find my BASEMENT office. One colleague has a window in her office--that opens into a hallway. A window out onto the hallway. I shit you not. One flight of stairs skips the second floor altogether so you go from floor 1 to floor 3 in one flight. Department people-in-charge even organized TOURS in the beginning so the faculty wouldn't get lost all by ourselves.

Yeah, this is gonna be something.