New People and the Resulting Annoyances

I have been meeting a lot of new people lately. We are more than halfway through the semester and it feels like I have had a tidal wave of new students looking for a reliable multi-divisional tutor so I have had my free time eaten up by working with students (or working through the newer textbooks myself just to make sure that I am up-to-date on my information). At the main job, the fall temps are leaving come November and the new temps are coming in for the winter, which is still essentially a skeleton staff since our events are highly concentrated around the holidays and then nothing for months. They've also been sending me to dance classes to refresh and learn new things. It sounds silly, but it's been very helpful, and I've been pushing for it for a long time since I am their only full-time performer and that kind of makes me the star of the show (which is the lie I tell myself to make me feel better about my job, which is actually not a bad job, but I am so deeply ashamed of it). And then I've been trying to get familiar with my future students at the new dance studio, sitting in on classes or guest teaching when I am able.

There are many new people in my life. And new people mean a bunch of different things: more anxiety, more bullshit, more explanations I need to make, more nasty comments. I've been bracing myself and my family's been scolding me for being so tense lately. But surprisingly, most people have been pretty good, pretty accepting. By general rule too, the younger the person, the better they are about it. My future students have all been good, a couple asked if my scars hurt or how I got them. New temps have been annoying, but they always are, mostly because I'm in makeup a lot so they don't see them right away and then they act all shocked and horrified because they didn't know. But one new guy is being exceptionally obnoxious and trying to spread the rumor that they're self-inflicted for sympathy (and I say "trying" because fortunately everyone knows me well enough to know better). My students usually find me through Dad so they already know what they're getting into with me. But it's the 40+ yr olds that can't behave themselves or keep their mouths shut.

I can't even keep track about how many say really nasty things about me while I am STANDING RIGHT THERE. How I shouldn't be allowed out in public. How they won't take a class if I'm teaching it because they can't take me seriously. How I should have the decency to get "some kind of surgery.' How no one could be expected to look at me for a whole class period. Really nasty things. It's like high school all over again. People have no boundaries either. One guy grabbed my face a few nights ago when I was teaching foxtrot (adult group) as a guest teacher (regular had an emergency) to see if they were real and what they felt like. First of all, I have to know you and like you to let you touch me and secondly, you don't touch my face unless I consider you family, and that's a grand total of five people. Needless to say, this guy is not one of them. I almost decked him. He got pissed off at me though when I pulled away and told him that wasn't acceptable, not to do it again. He made a complaint. Fortunately, the studio sided with me but I'm already getting complaints before I even start working there as a regular and I'm already rather stressed thinking that the studio will reconsider my job (and of course they will if I make enough people complain about me, if only because they're uncomfortable looking at me or can't keep their hands to themselves, ugh for customer-is-always-right mentality). And if these people sign up for my classes, I can't say no. And if these people go to the management and say that they won't sign up for my classes because of me, then I really may lose my job, even if it's not my fault.

Like I said, new people = stress. And I should be really happy. I have a plan for the next year to keep a relatively steady income and yet.... The bullshit. I'm so tired of it.

My Day Off

I ended up having a pretty wonderful day off yesterday. Dea had classes in the morning and in the evening with a huge break between, so I went over to her school to spend the down-time with her and bother Dad because he doesn’t get enough of that at home. Orson introduced me to two of his students this semester, both of whom seemed to have heard of me since one of them mentioned the possibility of needing tutoring for his chemistry classes.

I took the liberty of reserving one of the auditoriums (it’s not a black box theater but the stage is collapsible and they use folding chairs for seats, so otherwise it is completely bare, as it was today, and it has a great dance floor) and surprised Dea by bringing her there for an extended dancing session.

It was very relaxed day, not full of chores and errands like most of my days off tend to be. And although Dea and I haven’t been able to dance together this year as much as we usually do (we usually do one or two competitions by the time October comes around), I think we probably had more fun tripping over each other today in an effort to reclaim our of-late unused muscle-memory. But we also have our best conversations when we’re dancing together. We never shut up. Someone even poked their head in to tell us we were laughing too loudly.

We had dinner on campus afterward but brought it out to the quad to have a picnic of a sort before she had to go to her physics class. She conned me into painting her toenails tonight when we got home and she had me butcher French at her all the while (un cheval porte un manteau vert, if you’re looking for an example of my stellar aptitude, and yes, I am very much aware that I just said a horse wears a green coat, but when she asks me to begin a conversation, it’s dead silence or saying something absurd, and I will always go for the latter). I read a bit to her afterward (we’re still not through the Well of Lost Plots) and I put her to bed when she fell asleep on me.

The day was pretty much perfect.

Seeing Pheeb's Family

Phoebe’s car was in the shop today so I drove her to go see her sister and brother-in-law (but really, we all know it was for her nieces, shhhh). The sister and brother-in-law know me from the few years that I lived with Orson and Phoebe while they were married, but now that they’re divorced, I don’t get to see the rest of Phoebe’s family that often. It makes me a little sad since they have the kids now, but it’s a treat when I get to see them. And the girls are smart and sweet: Colette who is seven and Simona who is five.

Simona apparently has a little crush on me too which is really cute to watch. She had to sit next to me the whole time and she told me all about school and her friends and the play they saw. She told me about her favorite foods and the movie they watched in class and then she sang me her favorite song although she got too embarrassed to do the accompanying dance.

When Pheebs and I were leaving, I knelt down to give the girls hugs. Simona launched herself into my arms, kissed both scars (to make them feel better, she explained when I asked her what the French kiss-on-each-cheek was for, but she said it looking at me with an indulgence one might bestow upon an especially dim-witted puppy) and then declared that she was going to marry me when she grew up.

Of course I smiled and told her I was too old for her but I think that’s one of the sweetest compliments a child can bestow even if they forget it five minutes later. Their concept of the institution is so innocent and naive that it doesn’t mean marriage. It says that they feel safe with you, that they think you’re fun to be with, that they like talking to you and spending time with you, and that they want to be as special to you as you are to them, and they call it marriage because they don’t have the capacity to explain all the nuances of why. It’s incredibly sweet.