It’s been a while.

As I may have suggested from time to time, my stress level for the past several weeks has been extremely high.  Part of this has to do with my inability to say the word “no,” particularly when coupled with a project I am asked to run (and that’s asked-asked, not asked in a “you will do this” way) that’s outside of my comfort zone, and part of it has to do with the routine kicking into high gear that happens this time every semester.

And part of it has to do with the title phrase.

We’re all scrambling a bit–the office that I work for is funded off of a major grant that comes up for renewal every four years.  I say “renewal,” but it’s actually “re-application,” because you have to prepare a full application and go back into the pool with everyone else.  It can be stressful, especially when, as in this cycle, everything is being held up because the Congressional approval that is needed to launch the application process is delayed because Congress is thinking about other things.  Normally we get the announcement in September for a late October deadline.  This time, it was February, and the application is due next Friday.

A colleague, who I do like generally, has this tendency to ask questions in a frantic manner, and can only ask them when she’s thinking about them.  This means that she’ll call up several times in a morning and basically ask me how I justify my existence at this university, one aspect at a time.  At the best of times, I can barely humor this.  When I am stressed out, like, say, I was last week, it makes me want to reach through the phone and throttle her, so I go to plan B and don’t answer the phone.

I am not the go-to person.  When I explain this, I invariably get an obsequious, “Yes, but you’re so knowledgeable and it’s so much easier to ask you.”
“Easier for you,” I finally snapped on Thursday morning when asked a question so ridiculous that I could barely retain my own incredulosness.  The phone kind of stopped ringing after that … for at least an hour.

On Thursday, I am leaving for Egypt with a group of 18 people in tow, who include my parents.  We had an orientation three weekends ago at which, for the first time in history, every single person who is going was in attendance.  Easy-peasy, I thought, because it can be hard to try to explain the importance of appropriate dress to people who aren’t there.

Apparently not.

On Saturday night, I got an e-mail from someone who, in sentences that apparently reproduce her confusion verbatim, asked me if she is supposed to check in with Delta or Air France at the airport.  A fair question…and one that I spent some significant time at the orientation discussing.  In addition, I actually stapled a sheet to the itineraries with explicit instructions answering that very question.  So, in other words, she has the documentation … it’s just easier to shoot me an e-mail and ask than it is to go look for it.

I also got a second message from someone who informed me that “sleeves are a fall thing” (this in response to my directive that sleeveless attire is inappropriate) and asking if she can get away with wearing a T-shirt.  Again, you might think this is a reasonable question, were it not for the fact that I not only spent lengthy time discussing this, but actually had visual illustrations demonstrating what one should and shouldn’t wear.

It’s just … y’know, easier to ask me than look at your notes.

I shouldn’t be a grump, I know — and I should be happy that she asked me in advance, rather than doing what one of my undergrads did in 2006 and inform me at 9 pm the night before we were supposed to go to the old city that she had nothing with sleeves and “assumed that would be OK.”  (That evening ended with us parading into store after store while she rejected garments that she didn’t like, and was concluded after I threatened to purchase the next item that I found with sleeves and staple it to her body.  And no, for the record, staples were not involved in the outcome, but I was pretty serious at that point.)

So, on behalf of everyone who is considered an expert on topics, please do us a favor: if you know that you’ve got the info somewhere, or that someone else is the appropriate person to ask … every once in a while, maybe considering looking for it or asking someone else for a change.

Please?