The Horrors of an 8 a.m. Section.


Wed. Aug.23, 2000, Staff Meeting, Rockefeller Hall, Cornell : 
Prof. Thorne, the Instructor Almighty, sermonises on the merits of the TA
(teaching assistant) setting an example by coming to class on time, being
prompt, prepared, blah, blah, blah ...

I find I have been assigned a section that meets at 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and 
Thursdays. Good, I decide. This is the semester I can walk about with an 
I-wake-up-earlier-than-thou attitude. The semester when I can actually see
the rising Sun. More ambitiously, the semester when I can actually wake up
my roommate who wakes up earlier than people across the Atlantic perhaps...

I set the alarm on my music system for 6 a.m. That should give me plenty of
time to wake up, get rid of that obnoxious three-day stubble on the chin,
relish that early morning coffee, hear the birds chirp and so on.

Thursday, Aug.24 : 8 a.m. I jump out of bed. Realization dawns that I'm not
in section. I wash up faster than the eye can see, put on some pseude-looking
clothes that hopefully will offset the soporific eye, the dishevelled hair 
and the stubble, it's 8.05 a.m., jump into the car, drive like there's no
tomorrow. The roads are emptier than I expected. Guess it Is rather early.

8.07 a.m. Am nearing a signal and there's a TCAT campus bus in front of
me waiting to turn right across the other side. I have this vehement urge 
to pull left in front of the mammoth. And then comes to mind an episode of 
a friend of mine with a TCAT that was not terribly uplifting. I decide,
``Vachan jaaye par praan na jaaye'', as an old Hindi saying goes (with the
appropriate circumstantial alterations, of course) and wait for the TCAT
to leave, then follow suit.

8.09 a.m. I park my car in a University Parking Lot (I do not have a 
campus parking permit) with my parking lights on, fearing the worst and
run to Rockefeller 127.

8.11 a.m. I walk into class amidst peals of laughter. Embarassment, chagrin,
amusement and somnolence chase each other across my face. I soliloquize 
the customary ``Sorry'' and get on with the class of four students. I ask
them if there were others that left earlier. One of them replies ``O yeah,
lemme see...1, 2, 3, ...hmmm, there were at least ten others in the class
who left''. O well. I think he was jesting. I hope.

8.31 a.m. A sudden feeling of panic. Has the car been towed ?! I look out the
window. Nope, I can see the yellow in the distance. All's well that blinks
well.

8.50 a.m. It's over. No parking tickets. Homeward ho, breakfast and showers
galore ...

Wonder what I must have struck them as - with the unshaven, bleary-eyed,
uninspiring looks. O well. Another thing comes to mind - guess I must have
slept through an entire CD of music in the morning. Hmmm....