I've been driving for nearly 20 years now. In all that time, I felt confident in the fact that if/when I got pulled over by the boys in blue, I was guaranteed a ticket. One, I have a very heavy foot and a need for speed. Two, well, every traffic officer I've ever met has seemed to be immune when I bat my eyelashes at him. So, yesterday, when I got pulled over by the State Police for going at least 10 miles over the speed limit, I was positive that I was about to get the very ticket I had told myself only minutes before that I couldn't afford. Per usual, the officer asked for my license and registration and insurance, and though flustered I managed to give him the necessary documents. But while I was searching through the glove-compartment for the insurance cards that were current, he glanced at my license and noticed that I was from Pullman and I said yes, I'm a graduate student there in the English department. He says, "Oh, so you're going to be a teacher" and I say yes, that I hope to be someday. He walks back to his car and when he returns hands me back all my documents and says well, just a warning this time, but please slow down. I thank him gladly and stunned, pull back onto the road. Truly, there is a first time for everything. Perhaps the word "teacher" or "graduate student" clued him into the fact that a speeding ticket really, really is not in my budget and let me go. Either way, I was very happy with the warning and went 60 the rest of the way home, good thing too since I probably saw at least 5 more State Police patrols on my way home.
While yesterday was semi-productive, today seems to be filled with procrastination. I'm supposed to be reading Jane Eyre, but I've been sitting in my reading spot for an hour now and have yet to read one word. I hope this is not a sign of things to come, because the start of the new school year is in less than 48 hours.
Ahh...the new school year. So many possibilities along with so much to do and so little time. My two main goals for this semester--securing a ph.d. committee and surviving my self-directed reading class in one piece. I have lots of heavy Victorian novels to read (literally, they way probably three pounds!) and I can only hope that they will be somehow helpful in sparking potential dissertation topics. Even the 60 pages or so of Jane Eyre that I have read have done that--isolation and the fear or non-fear of it. I can only wait to see how that idea continues to develop. But what I can say about the start of the new school year is that it brings the renewal of a steady paycheck!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment