One of the reasons I wanted to be sure to get my new headlight installed yesterday was that I knew a big storm was blowing into town, and, indeed, the big storm arrived last night. I kept thinking that my shower head was dripping more than usual, but the noise turned out to be rain.
There is an upside to a big storm in LA: the driving conditions are more hazardous because of the buildup of oils on the roadway, so your fellow drivers slow down, keep their distance, and are more courteous.
No, no, just kidding.
One of the stranger things about me is my blood pressure. The actual reading when taken with one of those arm-constricting armband thingies is incredibly low -- I've had nurses say, "That can't be right," and take it again. I've had medical charts list me as "legally dead" and appointments made to take my body to the coroner before anyone realized I was sitting right there, doing a crossword puzzle.
Despite the physical evidence of my low blood pressure, I am very much a type-A person. I get hot under the collar a lot, particularly in needlessly stressful situations.
Like today.
Today we had to get "D" clearances for our classes for next semester. We were told to get there around 9am. I got there at 8:30am; I got #67 in line. The guy who got #1 arrived at 6:15am.
And getting a "D" clearance isn't even the same thing as registering for a class -- no, a "D" clearance means you have departmental approval to take that class. We register next week. But you have to get the "D" clearances before you can register, of course.
I managed to be present when my number was up -- most people filled out their forms and dropped them off, because they had hours yet to wait -- so I saw how this process worked: the guy in charge of checking the clearances takes your form to a back room, where he opens a binder and writes the student's name on the class list or on the waiting list if the class is full. Your form gets checked off -- you're approved to register.
I found myself thinking, Who the hell came up with this system? Have you heard about computers? Why is there the two step process? Why was signing up for classes easier at De Anza Community College than it is here? We should just have first-come, first-serve registration.
Another fun bit today was switching the section I'm listed in for Production class. I've always been in this section, but I'm listed as being in the other one, so I had to go through the rigamarole, paperwork, and cross-campus jaunts of switching the section numbers in several different computers.
Why? I don't know.
I had to get the Add/Drop form at the Student Services window -- the same window servicing a hundred and fifty students today for "D" clearances -- get the instructor to sign it, go back to Student Services for a stamp, and then take the form to Registration.
I ask the instructor to sign the paper. He's seen me, I've been in class since day one, he knows I have to switch the section.
Well, before he'll sign, I have to fill out the paper entirely, including the section number and my social security number and all the other minutiae. I don't know, maybe he thought I was going to be malicious and add some unsuspecting dope to the class if I didn't fill everything out beforehand. So I had to run around and find the official class number.
Then I go back to Student Services and learn that I can't just get the stamp, I have to wait to talk to someone. Why? The switch has to be entered into the Film School's computers. I wait.
I finally get the stamp and go over to Registration, where I've already been once today getting the form I had to fill out to get "D" clearances. The clerk looks at it and says, "You have to go through Petitions for this."
"Where's Petitions?"
"Student Affairs." A different building, of course.
At this point my blood pressure is definitely showing up on the armband.
I go over to the Student Affairs building and ask the nice lady in the Petitions office about the form. She looks at it and says, "You want the Grades office. Other side of the building."
Rose, the lady in the Grades office, is very patient with the troubled, angry woman who walked into her office waving a sheet of paper. I explain the situation to her and she says, "We don't handle section switches. You have to go to Registration for that." I indicate that I am frustrated by this news, but she calls over to the Registration office to confirm that that's where I should go, and she tells me what i need to put on the paper to expedite processing. I thank her profusely and apologize for any grumpiness I exhibited towards her. She absolves me.
I go back to Registration, where the same woman who sent me over to Student Affairs in the first place says, "Why didn't you say it was just a section change? I asked you if you were adding this class and you said yes, but you're not adding it, you're just changing sections."
No jury would have convicted. Of course, no jury in Los Angeles ever convicts to begin with, but even in other parts of the country it would have been justifiable.
I got that straightened out and came home, where I promptly napped for two hours. This wasn't an exhaustion nap either -- this was a depression nap. It's the second half of the semester and I'm feeling scared and depressed, like why the hell am I trying to play the screenwriter game, isn't this like playing a fool's game, yadda yadda yadda -- all the Critic's favorite sayings.
I had already decided to go home and see Darin this weekend; I'm going home tomorrow afternoon rather than Friday night or even Saturday morning.
Speaking of Production class, remember last week's episode where we got into the big brouhaha about Hugh's video? He didn't even come to class today, and I didn't see him hanging around, trying to get "D" clearances either.
It was a pretty fractious group today, very on edge, very defensive. The teacher wasn't much better, berating us all for not commenting on pieces more. It's like, totally pointless what he thinks of anything we do -- he's completely lost control of the class.