29.3

I'd have long lost track of how many days I've been at Work, were it not for Pay Periods - 'tis the way of a true mercenary.

Having endured 2 days of an optional (What was I thinking?!) 3-day Commercial & Corporate Practice course offered as part of our pre-admission program, I am experiencing severe back-to-school daze. Seldom in all of my former academic life had interest so eluded me - certainly never, where foxy lady lecturers and useful topics were involved. Well the double whammy has lost its magical power, I discovered with horror this week. In 2 short (7hrs each excl. lunch) days there've been too many involuntary lapses in concentration, gaps of incognito during which my mind wandered, to be captivated by the physical beauty of the lecturers from whom youth has begun its departure, to ponder their self-appraisal of the way their lives have turned out, and that of my peers, who all seemed to be getting more out of listening than I was. What different creatures they are to me, these future pillars of community / forces to be reckoned with, hurling question after question at the lecturers, hypotheticals which revealed (unintentionally I presume) a penchant - more than that, a professional instinct - for Finding Loopholes. (I mean no scorn; merely envy.) Each thing that was said engaged me a little less than the thing before, until I gave up trying to decipher the broken bits of information scavenged between the daydreams.

I suspect that I will not fail *touches wood* the assignment+exam at the end of the course - no longer optional once I'd signed on to the packaged deal. Still I fret: what torture awaits at the other optional 3-dayer in October, or the month-long compulsory no-pass-no-certificate core course in February! *faints*

But it takes not much to forget my woes. Like an unexpected slap-on-the-back from an intimidatingly competent junior superior who always seems less than impressed with my work; or having somebody help me with the photocopying while I was away; or analysing inconsequential office goss with the girls in the lift down. Tut how my world has narrowed!