Give me comfort in a bottle, please

I have my first cold of the season. I was thinking earlier about the fact that people always say things like “You’ll catch a cold,” or “I’ve caught a cold.” I’m not sure a cold is ever something that people are chasing after.

Wednesdays are my day off, and I planned to spend it commenting on students’ drafts, which I did. But I went out this morning to run a few errands and pick up things to tend to my cold. I called my Mom this morning and she gave me a shopping list: lemon zinger tea, honey, soup, and blackberry brandy. My Mom always tells me to drink blackberry brandy instead of cough syrup.

So like a good daughter, I went to the liquor store to do as my mama told me.

I walked into the ABC store and tried to look like I knew where to go. I finally found the brandy and stood there for a minute contemplating my mom’s trusty blackberry flavor or wild cherry. When I saw the wild cherry I thought of those Luden’s wild cherry cough drops I used to eat like candy when I was little. At this point the guy working there noticed me.

“You need some brandy?”

“Yeah.”

“Any particular kind?”

“Well, I’m sick and my mom told me to buy some blackberry brandy.”

At this point he came out from behind the counter and grabbed the bottle for me off the shelf.

“Well, this is the one that I have. Does your mom put it in her tea or something?”

“Yes.”

I lied. Mom drinks it straight.

“So you’re sick? I know something is going around. I’m going to get my flu shot in a few days.”

“I’ve never gotten a flu shot.”

“Oh, you should. It makes a difference.”

“I teach, so I think it’s inevitable.”

“Oh yeah, all those germs floating around. Do you teach elementary school?”

“No, I teach at the local university.”

“Oh. Are you one of those teacher assistants?”

“No.”

“So you’re a real professor?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.”

People are consistently surprised that I teach college students. I guess it doesn’t help that look as young as I do.

The conversation lasted for a few more minutes. I kept trying to walk towards the door and he kept extending the conversation. For some reason he told me how old he was (40) and told me that he reads blogs. I don’t even remember how that came up. The funny thing about living in North Carolina is that I sometimes have a hard time telling if a guy is trying to hit on me or if he is just being friendly. Either way, he’s too old.

I am having some trouble with someone who is too young as well. The worst part about it is that it’s one of my students. Again, I can’t tell if the kid is just overly friendly and enthusiastic and perhaps a bit of a suck-up, but a few things he’s done lately have started to make me feel a little uncomfortable.

He emails me almost every day asking about assignments. His emails are always littered with exclamation points. The other night he emailed me really late and ended it by saying, “I hope you’re sleeping peacefully.”

Umm. I don’t really want my students thinking about me sleeping. Or if they are, I don’t want to know.

Then yesterday he emailed me again about scheduling some time to talk about his paper. He said that I had looked stressed in class, and that he hoped my day was going okay. He told me I am an “amazing teacher” and that I “shouldn’t let stupid students get me down.”

It was sweet, of course. But again, I feel like it’s crossing a line.

At this point, I’m really happy that my “office” doesn’t have walls.

The one guy that I want attention from right now is a bit too elusive.

He’s one of my colleagues. I met him during orientation. I thought that he was quite cute and seemed interesting. His bio on the faculty webpage is clever.

But the problem is that I hardly ever see him. When I do, I see him from afar as he walks into the mailroom or down the hallway ahead of me.

I finally ran into him in the stairwell the other day. He heard someone coming down the stairs behind him so he turned to hold the door open for whoever it was. When he saw it was me, he said hi. When he saw that I was headed down one more flight, he stopped and turned to ask how my semester was going. We chitchatted for a few minutes and then headed our separate ways. I considered emailing him to invite him to coffee, but now I feel like I’ve lost my window of opportunity.

I’ll keep you posted, of course.

But for now it’s time for my blackberry brandy. Mom would be so proud.