Working late today. Staying on campus because I’m the faculty sponsor for the campus chapter of AWM (Association of Women in Mathematics), and some of the officers organized a “derivative bee” together with the AMS chapter (American Mathematical Society). It starts in the evening, and there will be free pizza, so I’m staying late.
I did buy a cup of green tea today on campus, but as I’m getting a free dinner, it all works out.
Got some tea today because drunken asshole college kids woke me up at 3 am being loud as fuck on my (our) front porch. The best place for my bed in my studio apartment is right next to the wall by the porch, and that’s where the drunken assholes hang out to smoke and talk late at night.
Those kids are often alright. I’ve hung out with them a few times, back when I was drinking more and was more gregarious. But they do get loud on the porch when they’re drunk, and are often up well past midnight on work nights.
I’ve found that civility is way better than anger and an attempt at control, so I play it that way. It always works for a while, then they get drunk and excited and forget.
Once I heard the philosophical conversation they were having, and felt bad that I had to ask them to quiet down. Drinking late into the night and arguing passionately about big ideas is what students are supposed to do. (There’s an old painting or wood cutting of that happening listed in one of Dale Pendell’s books…I’ll try to find it later.) That’s certainly what I did. But now I have to run the Uni, so I have to get up early. So I ask them to shut up, but I regret the necessity, and I’m nice about it.
This is certainly another good reason to stop living in apartments in college towns. That shit is not tolerable when you’re old (38 years) and sober (91 days).
