Am I late?

It's September, so the summer is coming to a close and the world is getting serious again.

For many children it's time to go back to school. For others, it's time to have that September nightmare of finding yourself in a classroom stark naked; or everyone in the classroom is speaking gibberish; or coming into an empty classroom to discover the final exam was yesterday, and you missed it!

No, I don't have issues from my years of education, why do you ask?

One thing I've been remembering a lot this week is "late slips" from my Junior High School years. I was late so often, I routinely went to the office to get a late slip before class, even if I wasn't late... my first taste of the fun to be had by confusing people and shaking up their world view. (So that's where that started... I didn't realize that until now.)

I've been having these "late slip" flashbacks because we've unwittingly moved to within 2 blocks of both a high school and an elementary grade school. I think it's the grade school that has bells. Bells at 8:55am, 9am, 10:30am, etc. etc. until the last one at 3pm.

It's the set of "you're going to be late in 5 minutes", "yes, you are late now" bells in the morning that really bug me.

It always makes me think "Am I late?" until I realize the bell does not toll for me.

I wonder how many more people they are scarring for life with those bells. Poor kids.

Is that rude, or just end-of-term staring into the distance?

I was on the UBC campus yesterday on my way to an appointment when I stopped to have some coffee and lunch. (oooh, she stopped for coffee, that's unusual - I think she may have an addiction going here...) And I was wondering if a woman in the cafe was being rude, or just trying to avoid doing the term paper she was working on.

The front of the cafe had windows that could be fully opened up, and since it was such a gorgeous day they were wide open, so I sat at a table facing outside for the view. There were a few other occupied tables, most with a single person facing outside as well, but there was one woman at a single table who was facing inside.

And she was staring at all the people who were facing the other way. Or was she?

She had a very thick book with her - Don Quixote - and a lot of paper with hand written notes and a computer. Aha! I recognize that, it's a term paper in it's primeval form, on it's way to becoming an end-of-term must... finish... this... damned...paper assignment. I remember those!

So she probably wasn't staring at other people to be rude, she was just desperately trying to avoid the term paper!

I remember being a student. It was great to be able to reduce the world into something to stare at when trying to avoid term papers. But, when you leave school, you have to avoid staring at strangers in case they get upset and think it's a challenge they have to respond to... similar to why you don't stare into the eyes of predatory animals unless you want to be attacked by them.

But for now, in a cafe on campus (right beside a great pub... I love that campus, it would have been so much fun to study there) a student can get away with end-of-term staring into the distance, and at other people.

Life will get more complicated later, so she should enjoy it now! I envy the place she is at in life right now.