Apparently, having office hours in which I leave the door open is a clear invitation to everyone in the hallway to stare at me like I’m a specimen in a museum case. Is this a physics building sort of thing, or is this normal? I realize that a quick glance as you’re passing by is a normal reaction to seeing another human being in your general vicinity, but this slow-down-the-walking-and-stare routine is starting to get a little disturbing.

And it certainly isn’t like they’ve never seen me here before – office hours for TAs have been in this room all year. I’m also fairly sure that I didn’t put lipstick on my eyebrows or gel my hair into spikes this morning, either.

I’d be much happier if some of my students would stop by, but they’re all smart enough to get through the workbook we’re required to use for the intro labs without my help. At least, I hope so. We’ll see after the first round of grading.

There! They did it again. If I see one more mouth hanging open, I’m going to start throwing things in and keeping score.