This week I have learned that it is impossible for me to read undergraduate prose within fifty feet of an unoccupied computer. Fighting through their awkward sentence constructions and stilted, thesaurus-driven vocabulary takes more concentration than I can muster when there is anything remotely interesting to do nearby. Honestly, it’s a mystery to me how so many college students can be so bad at putting coherent ideas together on paper.

But, with this understanding, I was able to make good progress for a while this afternoon by isolating myself at a table outside of Phoenix Grill, a little coffee-and-sandwiches deal on campus. Then I got distracted by an out-of-place smell. Confused, I turned to the student a the next table over, and he answered a number of my questions at once.

Me: Does it smell like weed to you?
Student: Heh. Yeah.
     (short pause)
Student: I’m smoking it.
Student: <showed me his bowl>
Student: <grinned dopily>
Me: Oh. Oooooh.