Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 18:44:14 -0800 From: Matthew Skala <mskala at ANSUZ.SOOKE.BC.CA> Subject: Waiting wretchedly
I'm preparing PhD program applications, due the end of January (i.e. several hours ago, since the business day is over). On Friday the 19th I approached my supervisor asking for her input - to write a letter of reference, help me collect my other documentation, etc. Or tried to; it took me all of that day to find her, and I only did manage to locate her when she showed up at a lecture I was attending, late in the day. She said, "I'm going to Hawaii next week; we'll talk when I get back; bye!" So I figured she'd be back the 26th, and that would be pushing the deadline a little close but not too terribly so.
Monday the 22nd rolled around and I found a note on her door: "In Hawaii. Back 30th." OK, I thought, so I won't make the deadline. That's not the end of the world. First thing in the morning on the 30th I'll be at that door with my forms in hand. It'll be good practice for getting up early for FROST.BOB. I'll assemble everything but her letter of reference on my own, and then I can just pop it in the envelopes and sent the applications on the afternoon of the 30th, and the people receiving them will be lenient about the deadline (they have some good reasons to be).
Tuesday the 30th - no supervisor. Wednesday the 31st, today, in the morning - still nothing. But around noon I discovered her office door open, the light on, her stuff sitting on the chair, nobody there; so I figured she must be nearby. I hung around in the hall for a while, then heard voices coming out of the lounge. Poked my nose in there to discover my supervisor, one of my other references, and the latter's wife (also a Comp Sci prof) involved in an animated discussion of the problem of gender bias in university application processes. I arrived just in time to hear my supervisor saying that a man writing a reference for a another man will probably do a good job because there's some identification there - "Like, that's me when I was younger. But probably the worst situation is a woman writing a letter of reference for a man. Oh, hello, Matthew. Was there something you wanted from me?"
"Yeah," I told her, "a letter of reference."
Be that as it may, when I told her why I would need the reference by tomorrow or else not until next Tuesday, my supervisor did share one nugget of wisdom with me regarding the Quebec Winter Carnaval, and it is now my privilege to pass it on to you. That's why I am telling you this story. The nugget of supervisorial wisdom, in the style though not the exact words in which it was given to me, is as follows:
"Go easy on the Caribou, especially first thing in the morning. I went there, years ago, with a student group, and they have this stuff called Caribou. It's like pure grain alcohol mixed with wretched cheap red wine. In order to make it drinkable you have to chill it down to about minus twenty. People put it in these thin plastic canes and go around swigging it, and it's really strong and you get wasted almost immediately and feel wretched for the rest of the day. In the group I was with, the people who were drinking it threw up, first thing in the morning, and had no fun for the rest of the day. I dunno, I guess if you're gonna go to the Carnaval you have to drink the wretched stuff, it's kind of part of the experience, but go easy on it, especially first thing in the morning."
Matthew Skala mskala at ansuz.sooke.bc.ca :CVECAT DELENDA EST http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/