CROSS-EYED AND SUGAR SWEET

I work at the University of California, Santa Barbara as an Assistant Director/Producer in Off-Campus Studies. It sounds like a fairly big deal, it’s not. Trust me. I’m basically a cameraman and operate equipment that allows extension campuses of the UC system to participate in the class via high-speed Internet access. So, the classrooms at the satellite campuses view the professor through the camera that I operate and there’s a camera in the satellite classroom as well that I can operate with a remote. The professor can see and talk with the students on a monitor, basically a big TV, and the students view the professor on a big TV that is in their classroom. It’s pretty amazing and allows the students who don’t have the opportunity to make it to the main campus for a degree can still take these classes and obtain their education via remote technology.

In one of the classes that I’m filming, it’s a Wills and Trusts Class and the professor is a very kind attorney. A bright woman that is extremely interested in making the most out of the technology and putting forth the effort to engage the students at the off-campus sites as much as possible. Well, in her exuberance, the poor thing ended up cross-eyed after viewing the students on the TV. I’m completely serious. She was cross-eyed and had to go to the doctor. Her eyes literally got stuck. If this wasn’t bad enough to happen once, it’s happened twice. Girlfriend goes cross-eyed watching television. So, now I have to turn the TV away from her during the class. I wanted to share this, because when she’s talking about it – it’s very serious…and I can barely contain myself, especially because while she’s addressing the problem with me, face to face, both of her eyes are focused on the tip of her nose. And I almost can’t stand it; it’s just too much. I want to slap her silly and just roll on the floor with laughter, holding my belly and kicking my heels. I just know that god has a sense of humor.