It's-A Me, New Faculty Guy!

Monday - Wednesday of this week was the new faculty orientation, waaaaaaay out at the western-most outpost of the educational empire that is The Community College I Work At.  My fellow incoming faculty members were equally giddy about the whole thing.  There was lots of sharing war stories about the hiring process, of past years working as adjuncts, of various policies I'd never heard of, etc.

Tomorrow, on the way home from a quick visit to see my mom (who has been doing a bang-up job recovering from surgery), I'll stop by campus and set up...wait for it...

MY OWN CUBICLE.

This is huge.  I will have my own CUBE.  My own phone w/ PHONE NUMBER.  My own COMPUTER.  Sorry to e-shout, but I am very excited about this.  The whole thing that murdered us as grad students, and continued to suck once I was a part-time faculty member, were the logistical hurdles associated with not having any facilities worth a damn.  The Bunker at UCSC was, you know, funny, but it wasn't actually a great place to work (i.e. a cold concrete room underground with no natural light and computers built in the early modern period, c. 1450 - 1750 CE.)  I shared a cube with several other people while I was part time at The CC I Work At in 2011, which was better than nothing, but I still didn't have anywhere to put anything.

Now I have a cubicle.  It's like winning the lottery.  Phrases I look forward to using in the future include:

• "Come to my office hours IN MY CUBICLE."
• "Let me go get that FROM MY CUBICLE."
• "I'll be IN MY CUBICLE if you need me."
• "What do you think of how I've decorated MY CUBICLE?" 

This is a big deal, you guys.