concentrate

When I was a college undergrad, I did my time working retail. This was back before "online", let alone online shopping. So Christmas time was a zoo, Christmas eve being the worst. I was shocked at the number of shoppers on Christmas eve - grabbing whatever was left on the nearly empty shelves in order to have SOMEthing for Uncle Charlie!

Now, years later, I've circled around to another part-time job, this time at a college testing center. The equivalent to retail Christmas eve is last day of finals, which was yesterday. A steady stream of the anxiety-riddled.

At one point in the mayhem, an instructor stopped in. Instructors come by on a regular basis, usually to drop off or pick up exams. So this one - an older man - wandered in, and I met his gaze.

"Hi. Dropping off? Picking up?"

He looked at me rather confusedly, "Uhm... neither", then he turned to Assistant Boss, who was behind me, to say, "I'm in class giving the final, but if you have any questions about my tests for students here, it's okay to call me".

Assistant Boss said, "okay", and old instructor guy exited.

Then Assistant Boss looked to me and said, "That was weird".

And I said, "Yeah, why would he need to come in here just to tell us that".

And Assistant Boss, who is male, said, "No, I mean, why did he tell it to me instead of to you??"

"Oh, that", I replied, "because clearly my lady brain can't handle his complex instructions".

This particular instructor even looks similar to this manly man from a scene in Orange is the New Black:

Except in addition to regularly ignoring us women-folk, he often seems a bit spacey. Recently, one of my fellow lady-brained coworkers noticed him intentionally stealing pens from us. Weird, especially given that our pens are nothing special.

Maybe he thinks it's fine unless someone sees him stealing pens? And women don't count?

So I chalk his behavior up to him being a little "out of touch", or him losing his mind, and not worth the angst.

He teaches biology. Hmmm.