free time = get stuff done

In an eerie echo of my time at ETS, I was told that I had no work scheduled for me today due to a wave of student cancellations at the other YB branch where I work. For convenience, let's refer to the two branches as YB Near and YB Far, given that the nearer branch is less than an hour away, while the farther branch is an hour and ten minutes away. YB Near usually gives me a full complement of work days, but because it's a smaller branch with fewer students, I sometimes work only four hours instead of six (I think the schedulers give priority to the veteran teachers; my own workload tends to be the lightest of the teachers in that office). YB Far is a much larger branch, but having worked there a few times, I know they also have dry periods. Students cancel or switch hours at the drop of a hat, so a tutor's schedule is never totally fixed, even after the work day has started.

So I got an email last night saying that, due to massive cancellations for today, there weren't enough classes to go around. Perhaps because I'm the newbie (same logic as with YB Near), I got the short end of the stick. It makes perfect business sense: they'll group the students with as few teachers as possible (the advantage of keeping us on part-time status is that they don't have to guarantee us work) in order to save money. Bringing me in to teach one student would be silly; they can just lump the student with another teacher who has fewer than three students at his desk.

This means I'm free today, so I'm going to get a head start on some of the things I've been meaning to do. Top of the agenda: haircut and clothing. I need some new shirts and pants, and my hair, while still stiff and bristly on top, is in screaming need of mowing on the sides and back. I'll be visiting my favorite $7 barbers today, as well as the nearby haberdasher for my sartorial needs. I need better shoes, too, come to think of it. The ones I currently wear, which are very formal, cut into my Achilles tendons, forcing me to double up on socks to protect my skin. I know exactly the pair of shoes I want, and just where to get them.

Later today-- necessary household items. Luckily, nothing I'm buying will be hellaciously expensive (aside from the clothes and shoes, but even those will be reasonably priced), though it still saddens me to expend funds that were only so recently acquired.

Out into the world I go!


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