Murphy's Law, or possibly the result of my own disorganization

I was running a little behind this morning, sending out a million e-mails about tomorrow's fundraising auction. It was getting late into the morning, but I hadn't had a chance to shower or get dressed. And then the phone rang, and it was our grad secretary.

"Aren't you bringing Andrea's papers to school this morning? The student who is doing her marking is already here." Right. I'd told Andrea that I'd deliver them first thing in the morning.

And so I threw some grungy-ish clothes, tied my greasy hair back in a ponytail and ran for the bus. I thought to myself, "I'll just drop off the papers, grab a couple of books from the library and come home and work. I hope I don't see anyone today. But I hardly ever run into anyone at school these days."

After that, I:

• Had a spontaneous final meeting with the other organisers for the auction, after we all unexpectedly showed up in the history office at the same time;
• Presented at our history graduate student society's monthly meeting, to let them know what's happening with the auction and the conference (Whoops! Forgot that I'd promised to do that this afternoon);
• Ran into pretty much everyone imaginable, including seemingly every student I've ever taught, and my supervisor;
  
• Interviewed a candidate for a faculty position.*

All while feeling completely gross and greasy, and looking vaguely like I'd just stepped outside to take out the garbage.

In unrelated news, this article is the best thing I've read in a while. It makes me so happy to know that things like that actually happen.

* Candidates go through all kinds of hoops in our department -- presenting to faculty members, giving a guest lecture, meeting with undergraduates, and finally meeting with a pair of grad students. We're interviewing for a Europeanist and one of the two interviewers wasn't able to make it, and they were hoping that someone who knew something about European history could be involved. My friend Christina seemed so panicky about the prospect of having to do this alone. And so I went to this meeting. While the interviewee was dressed so nicely, and I looked kind of homeless.