Table Wars

On the first few days of the scoring project, everyone was pleasant. No one was annoyed by the scrapes of chairs or the shuffling of papers. Now, though, five days in, people are irritable. If you haven't done this kind of work before, I can't even try to explain how tedious it is. Add to that the importance -- students have a lot at stake based on their scores -- and it can really wear you out -- and down. I'm annoyed by the person sitting closest to me; she doesn't pay attention to her stuff expanding onto my area. Yesterday I was pushing it back over. The fact that I'm not using every square inch of my space just means I want some room, not that I'm inviting her to use it. She has a maniacal little laugh, and she often comments on "how cute" some of the responses are. There are no points for cuteness. I'm scoring each essay based on the rubric then moving on to the next. I don't want distractions.

The chair scraping is awful! Imagine hundreds of people in a room with metal framed (cushioned) desk chairs on concrete. Unless you scoot your chair out just right, it makes a noise like nails on a chalkboard. The rooms are very quiet because we're all reading, so when that noise comes out of nowhere it can really throw you off. Some folks also make too much noise with wrappers. If you're going to open a hard candy, just do it and be done! Opening it more slowly doesn't make it quieter! And the worst offense of all -- which has nothing to do with noise -- is when you're trying to get out of the room for a break and someone steps in front of you -- texting. Grrr. If I make it through these next few days without knocking someone down or slapping somebody, I'll be a little surprised.

Outside of the scoring room, everyone is still nice. But you can tell it's taking a toll. People push the wrong button on the elevator. When I went into the dining hall tonight to get some tea, a man was looking for his plate of food. He had put it on a table but forgotten where. Everyone is walking around bug-eyed from day after eight-hour day of essay reading. The section of Tampa we've mostly taken over -- there are literally thousands of us here -- looks like the scene of a zombie apocalypse. If you're in town, don't worry. We're not trying to eat your brains. We just want to regain full use of our own.