Wondering Things at Work in the cafeteria

    Well, everyone is so close together in the revamped Dalton cafeteria that it's easy to eavesdrop on people. My adjunct colleagues (I guess to be economical) don't lunch here, so I lunch alone, which is fine. I read The Writer magazine and write down thoughts (like this one) amidst clanging dishes and the quiet roar of so many voices around me. There is a TV embedded in the building's support column, maybe 30 feet away. It has "closed captioning" but I can't really read it from here. I had a light breakfast and now, after a meal and a dessert, should I get another dessert....
    It turned out, yeah, I ate another dessert (gluten free chocolate cake with vanilla yogurt with it, like a frosting). Then later, after my classes, I was thirsty, but instead of buying a water bottle, I got a drink at a fountain and bought one of those "Cadbury egg" chocolates with the gooey center -- what a mess on my fingers as I drove!
    But before I had class and left the dining area I heard a woman across from me talk about how you should help a doctoral candidate more with his/her work, doing a book. I'm not that ambitious and don't have a doctorate.Well, I want to write a book that involves some research (about nature), but geared toward a general audience. But I should consider writing a book for my "Core" course, as the present handbook is lousy. Could I make money doing that?

School Starts, Getting into a routine is hard

    School has started and both classes seem pretty polite. Or maybe it's partly that they don't remember a damn thing about logic and are trying to get it all down. The fourth class I had them read and then write about a few "case studies," judgments concerning the  use of guns and cell phones. I hope they were at least a little interested in it. It was hard to tell.
    One student wanted to "sit out" the class and told me so. He said it was "too nice" outside. I said we would go on a class walk next week, and would he come to this class? He did and I hope he thought he made the right choice. This generation of college students is very distractible. I hope they are learning something-- we'll see with the first quiz next week.
   I'm getting into the "school" routine, but not the writing routine. Both things are very isolating and wish I was doing this "more" with someone. But that is the nature of both. I am a very independent person anyway, I guess, but sometimes I would like someone here to confer with and encourage me with my writing.