Dinner With Sandy

When I arrive, Sandy’s left a message for me to call her. Originally, she was the one who liked my work on Synesthesia, and pushed to have me come teach an introductory Flash course here. She’s being kind enough to lend me her laptop (which I’m working on as we… uh… speak?), which I ran up to my room. We hop in her car and chat a bit about the coming week as we drive onto campus.

She gave me a quick tour of the building I’ll be working in (shit – I’ve forgotten the name already). Also, this is her year to serve as Department Head so her old office is open for use. I’ll be sharing it with the other Coal Royalty Chairholder. The door to her (and for this week, my) office has a big poster of Janice Joplin on it. What a great omen. :)

The lab is pretty nice – a good number of computers, and I spent a few moments envisioning how I’m going to lecture and how I’ll need to move around the room. The building (and even the stairwells and the hallways) are massive!

We go to a small restaurant, tucked away in a small grove of trees. Sandy referred to it as a place to get "meat and threes." When I asked her what this meant, it was slang for an entree and three side dishes. I ordered the catfish (which rocked), and we talked a lot of tech/Flash talk the entire time. The overall experience level of the students is lower than I imagined, and I may even have a few professors sitting in. Cool – I’m much less nervous and much more excited.

I want two things out of this week. I want the students excited by Flash’s possibilities, and I want the faculty to feel I earned every damn penny they paid me.