I got my first paycheck of the new year. Yes, indeed, there was a raise! I'm very pleased, especially considering the rising gas prices. I'm gonna need every penny to get by.

In other news, my leaky faucets were finally fixed in my apartment. When I first arrived here last fall, the kitchen sink in my apartment dripped, and my bathtub faucet issued a continuous stream of (hot) water. Looking back, I see I never blogged about it. I wonder why. Anyway, I asked the maintenance man to fix everything, and he said he needed tools he didn't have yet that he'd have to special order. I checked up with him a couple of times after that, but he still didn't have the equipment, so I finally just gave in to inertia. This was a bad decision, because the bathroom never really dried out, causing mildew to grow and the paint to peel. It didn't really bother me for two reasons: one, it's not like I rub my naked body up against the shower curtain or tiles, and two, I like to camp out -- and that's a lot worse than this. In my defense, I've been kind of occupied by classwork the last year.

Well, Monday I come in from classes and discover that the water is cut off to my kitchen sink. I also notice the trashcan under the sink has been pulled out. I figure it's the maintenance man, but I don't see a note. I'm really annoyed for about thirty seconds, then I realize the water's still connected in my bathroom, so I calm down, wash my dishes, and make supper.

Tuesday morning the maintenance man knocks on my door and explains the situation: a pipe busted in the space under my apartment, pouring water into the apartment below (glad I chose the upstairs!). He got to work in my apartment. He tried fixing the faucet in the kitchen sink, but wound up breaking it (so it continuously gushed water like the taps were wide open). He shut the water off going to the sink, and promised to replace it with a new faucet this morning. He wound up fixing my bathtub faucet so it didn't leak, and recaulked the bathtub as well. So in the end, it turned out all right.

You know, if I'd had this fixed a year ago, I could probably have saved as much on my water bill as I just got in my raise.

Classes start back tomorrow morning. All my upperclassman friends from last year showed up this weekend, and I've been helping them move in while we get caught up. It's really good to have them back -- the campus just feels empty and hollow during the summer.

I taught the freshman orientation course this past week. I love freshmen -- they're so happy and excited and full of energy. It's infectious.

It's about nine pm. A few minutes ago, four girls came up to my office window and serenaded me with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," then ran away giggling.

Kids!

It's been raining a lot lately. Last night it was raining pretty hard, so I took a chair from my office and sat out on the front porch of the building to watch it rain. It was late twilight, creeping into evening. I was tired and being lulled into a hypnogogic state by the rain. I noticed a thin black shadow near my foot that I hadn't remembered seeing before. I shook myself awake and looked closer at it. It seemed to move. Was it a shadow of a tree branch?

The thin black shadow was connected to three feet of sinewy black snake -- it's head was about six inches from my ankle.

I jumped up and put the chair between me and the snake. It slithered backwards -- quite compellingly beautiful, grace in motion -- and disappeared in the huge rain puddle in the flower bed beside the porch.

I don't think it was poisonous -- the head was too small, and the wrong shape, and it was solid black, without the normal identifying markings of poisonous snakes in this region -- but it gave me a fright anyway. I guess it lives under the building, and the rain flooded it out in the open.

Live and let live, I say. Still, I didn't feel like sitting on the porch anymore that night.

I got a deferral for jury duty. They said they try to work with college professors and let them do their duty during the summers.

I got summoned for jury duty. It's during the second week of classes. No, they COULDN'T have tapped me during the summer, when I was doing nothing and would enjoy the courtroom drama; they HAVE to do it when I'm trying to get my class going.

We'll see what happens.