so...

this week i got to play professor. most of the real profs i work for went to conferences in various mountainy places and left me to attempt to function. two classes, two labs, a review session, and a test. good thing the bulk of it was econometrics so it's difficult to get them any more lost than they already are. i'm pretty much convinced that it's even more difficult to teach someone else's material than your own, because at least you can be inside your own head and know what you want them to come away with. also, you get to know what you'll be presenting more than twelve hours before you have to present it.

i am also, like they told me i would one day be, glad of all the mildly awful experiences that got me used to "public appearances" and kept me from having breakdown-level anxiety. because i remember that, from back when i was so shy that everyone knew it, and it was no fun. years spent prancing around wearing not much more than fringe in front of large crowds go far towards getting over being stared at. i'd still rather kick myself in the face than talk, but i suppose we can't have everything.

the most amusing part of the whole thing, though, was proctoring the exam today. because everyone was worried and for once i didn't have to be. AND -- eeeeeveryone in the room was leaning eeeever so slightly left at exactly the same angle. which i had to work hard not to laugh at, lest i scare the children.