I wouldn’t say that I’m a keen student, never have been. But last Saturday I really got a lot of college things done, and not only that, it was actually interesting. We’re taking now this class on research on education and I got to read some fascinating stuff. However, at some point I had to interrupt everything because I needed to get ready for the school’s Oscar-like costume party where awards would be handed to the best, brightest, hardest-working people who work there. In a bizarro world, I would have been delighted to attend such a great and exciting affair.
I was actually forced to go to the party; I literally had been cornered by one of the directors last Wednesday saying that I needed to go because they would show part of the video classes to the staff, so I had to be there to see the work being presented. The product had turned out to be so great that everybody else should know about it. Okay. I had no choice.
Well, not only did they devote an insignificant amount of time to the video, they also completely ignored who was involved in the production, and that really pissed me off. The video was basically introduced like this: “We’d like to present our newest product, the video classes, developed to our corporate clients.” And that was it!!! What about the hours I spent in front of the computer, trying to come up with ideas and different ways to write the explanations, and edit everything to a 12-minute class? What about the production assistant, that edited the demo class, researched pictures and controlled the teleprompter on the day of the shooting? And the presenter? Don’t you think it was extremely exhausting for her to stand in front of those lights for 10 hours, doing all the speaking and worried about getting it right on the first attempt because, well, there wouldn’t be a second attempt? It was a shame, it was disrespectful not mentioning our efforts to make the whole thing happen.
Needles to say that after this incident I just wanted to leave the place right away. They handed the awards to schools with best results, as well as the people who had enrolled more students. When my fed-up-o-metre was on the highest level, out came the champagne. And that was the only alcoholic option. And I loved it! The good thing about the party, apart from the never-empty glasses, was being able to talk projects with my co-pals — we’re even entertaining the idea of a podcast! (Or “padcost”, after two bottles of booze that’s the way it came out!)
The bad thing was being there long enough to see a couple of people getting sick. What the hell is wrong with these people? The first was this guy from Marketing and I honestly expected someone from that department to do such a thing. But the other person, one of the school managers, just unexpected… And I was the unlucky one that went to the bathroom (after not being able to hold it in any longer) and found her there, looking awful, as the stench punched me in the face. I couldn’t stay in, but didn’t want to just leave her there. So, I got her some water and when I was trying to find a way out of that pickle, another unlucky soul decided to go to the bathroom, saw the scene and said, ‘Oh, is she OK?’ I said, ‘Not really… I’ll be right back….’ Never to return, obviously.
-- Never too many beers -- 