I took a job candidate out to lunch, got stuck in a traffic jam trying to get her to her next appointment on campus (in a city that doesn't have jams!), arrived 15 minutes late to class as a result (which never happens to me!), then had 45 minutes until the candidate's research talk. Got a parking ticket because I had to leave my car on campus. Then taught my grad course from 4:15-7. And yet I also managed in this time to read an article for a journal and accept it. I can't really explain it. I guess I must have read it in the 45 minutes between my first class and the talk, then submitted it after 7 from my office. Since it was a good article I didn't have to do as much work on it, and since I had only 45 minutes I had nothing better to do. They told me that Jo Labanyi and Enrique Alvarez had suggested my name as a reviewer, so obviously I had to say yes.
I paid the ticket on line, and then appealed on the basis that it was my first ticket in 25 years, so I should get off with a warning. Obviously I was parked illegally, without a permit, but I figured that $25 is cheaper than $400, if I had purchased a permit I would rarely use. If you lose your appeal you have to pay another 10!
(Then my students told me that parking is their major problem. They likened it to purchasing a ticket to a concert, that they might deny you entrance to when you actually show up. They said I should have gotten a warning for my first offense.)
I was teaching Historias de cronopios y famas. Unless I look it up, I can never remember which is which. Cronopios are kind of impractical romantics, famas are anal-retentive snobs. Esperanzas are nondescript beings who don't belong in either category. I've never been clear on them. Today I was a total cronopio, arriving late and getting tickets, yet still managing to do an article review and teaching classes very well.
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