WIPpet Wednesday: Grunt Work

It’s been a long week. My kids had off from school last week for parent-teacher conferences. My older one is in 7th grade, so no conferences, but we had our 10yo’s first one ever (since we used to homeschool her). It went so well! She loves school and has adjusted well. And we’re on our way with getting her the help she needs for her disability, so it’s all good.
After the conferences, I had a weekend full of concerts. It was the annual Christmas Gala, and I loved the featured piece we played: Gloria Magnificat Te Deum (John Rutter).

On to my WIPpet.

In this story, both Adam and AJ are graduate assistants. AJ works in the student health center, and Adam works for the head of his department. These are both real jobs where I did my graduate studies, and I had Adam’s job. For the sake of the story, I’ve split the job into two, research assistant and glorified gopher. In reality, I did both these jobs myself. A lot of what I write into Adam’s experience is stuff I had to do, including the snippet below. I’ve also pretty much described the adjunct/grad assistant office from my time there. It really was just one long, windowless room shared by about 7 people. It sucked until I got moved to another office because I was helping my employer with an NIH-funded study.

WIPmath: 12/9/15: all 3 numbers are divisible by 3 = 4/3/5 = same as a 3-4-5 right triangle = triangles have 3 sides = 3 paragraphs (because I was feeling silly and because my kids think 3 has something to do with the Illuminati and would probably shout, “Illuminati confirmed!”; I think it’s a YouTube thing).

Adam lugged an older model computer monitor up the stairs to the departmental office. Behind him, Renee had the tower. They’d had to carry everything halfway across campus or risk losing their parking spots. He groaned as they hit the top step, nearly toppling backwards. He caught himself at the last minute and hauled the monitor onto the landing. His arms felt like jelly when he set the thing down to open the door to the office he and Renee shared with three adjunct professors.

It was nothing but a long room with a build-in desk taking up each wall. There were cupboards above the desks, and four of the six stations already had computers. The adjuncts all shared one desk, and the graduate assistants shared the other. There was an empty station at the far end of the room on the same desk Adam shared with Renee. The two of them had been given chairs from the department. They weren’t horrible, but they were hardly comfortable. Judging by the work he’d already been assigned, however, Adam suspected he wouldn’t have to spent much time sitting in his. Renee, in her second year, was the research assistant, so most of her work was in the library or the main department offices. As the newbie, Adam was mainly there to fetch and carry. Good thing Renee had been amenable to helping him retrieve his “new” computer, or he’d have had two trips to get it. The thought alone made him wilt.

Renee plunked the tower down, and Adam slid it under the desk. He began attaching the cords. Dr. Weinstock, the head of the Communications department, had already had an extra mouse and keyboard in her desk. Adam had no idea why, and he hoped they still worked. Everything about the computer was ancient—the monitor looked like it belonged in the last century. When everything was connected, he pressed the button on the tower to turn it all on. To his relief, it booted up in under five minutes.

Like what you read? Be sure to check out the other entries and add your own. Just post a bit of your WIP, connect it to the date, and link up with us. Many thanks to Emily Witt for giving us this space. Happy reading and writing!