Like, ya know, I guess

First day of Spring Term and I'm an old woman. Yet again, it's Italian that's going to be the death of me. The entire class (with the exception of 4 boys) is composed of tanned, toned, frosted and chunky-haired girls. Not women. Girls. "Oh my God, like, Mexico was, like, really cool." "Cool." "Yeah." "My break was spent totally wedding planning. Like, who knew flowers were, like, so expensive?" (She turned to those of us in the back row for support on this, but no one really knew what to say.) "Ya know? But, it's totally fun." "Way. I want to plan a wedding." "Yeah."

I felt so out of place. I need blonde hair, a belly piercing and flip-flops.

Then, after we settle in, ("Mi chiamo ________. Sono alcoholica.") and break into coppie (of which I had no one to coppia, since they had all been in this class together last term and there was no one I knew so sono solo) the instructor, Jamie, says to me. "What was your name?" I tell her and she says "I don't have you on my list. Are you enrolled in this class?"

Feck! Could I be any more of an outsider? And now she's preying on my obsessive-compulsive disorder. I pull out the schedule. I check it three times before handing it to her. She shrugs and says "Okay" and hands it back. Okay? It's not okay! Shite. I'm on coals for 40 minutes until class ends. "Should I be worried?" I ask her. "About what?" "About not being enrolled in here." "Oh, you are. I found you listed."

Feck!

Of course it's my first class and, of course, I walk into the next two classes worried about not being enrolled even though I was enrolled and am enrolled, but now I'm going to have that gnawing fear that gnaws like a gnawing gnawer.

That said, I've chosen the part of Cambridge in "Henry V" ("Never was monarch better feared and loved/Than is your majesty.") in the Shakespeare class, and I think Creative Writing will be okay -- although when I heard one of my fellow-students say "I think Ayn Rand's 'The Fountainhead' is the best book I've ever read" I couldn't stop the reflexive gaping and eye-rolling. Bad me.