Chapter 10: My Future and Self Imposed Exile

For the next two years I threw myself into my school work and it brought me recognition from my peers and instructors. The beginning of my second year in my masters program I was offered a graduate assistantship. It gave me a better paying position then what I had at the police station and a reduction to what I paid for courses. I was extremely happy about both those benefits. While I would miss my police friends especially Lt. Barnes. In his own way he was my biggest supporter. At my last day on the job he had me come to his office and told me how I had vastly improved the support his department had and he appreciated it. He also told me not to become a stranger and that I would make a great detective. Then told me to get the hell out of his office has he still had cases to solve. I think the desk sergeant was glad I was going. He still couldn’t believe I had dumped a perfect 10 in his words.

In my new position I was teaching two different classes. One was statistical analysis basics and the other was using the SPSS package or the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Both of which were real snoozers and if I hadn’t drank a Jolt Cola every morning I would have fallen asleep during my own lectures.

OMG! I had a revelation, I had become a numbers nerd. I was what I didn’t want to be. So I did my best to make the lectures as interesting as possible. I used a lot of sports statistics when possible as class examples so at least I could keep the interest of some of the students. From the instructor evaluations at the end of the semester I received fairly good scores. Comments like “he made an extremely boring subject interesting.” So I guess I did marginally well.

With my new position as a teaching graduate assistant I was getting more money. With the extra money coming in each month I was able to afford better digs and found a place closer to the state university. Being closer to the university I was no longer living in fear of discovery of my abode by Ginny B. I was finally out from under the self imposed exile I put on myself. I went out and socialized more with the other students and some of the faculty. It was interesting to be considered a peer by the other instructors in the department. Even though I was considered a peer by some it was evident that I was still considered a junior peer by those department professors who were tenured.

There was a group of students, graduate assistants and junior faculty that got together once a week at a local watering hole to socialize ... Each would contribute a little something and this would buy a couple of pitchers of beer and some snacks. It was great fun to see each other outside of the classroom. Along with the beer and snacks there were darts, a Foosball table and a couple of pinball machines I was considered by the group to be the Foosball champion as it was rare for me to lose a game. We usually played for a round of beer. And more times then not some one else was paying for my round.

It was late in the fall semester that I had just gotten to the pub when I heard a young woman challenge who ever was the local Foosball champion to a match. I still had my coat on and hollered across the bar to hold on as I would be there as soon as I had my coat off. I hung my coat over the back of a chair next to one of the other graduate assistants that I hung around with.

I grabbed a cup to pour myself my first drink of the night. As I was sitting the pitcher back down on the table, I asked the other graduate assistants who my challenger was. My question was met with a shrug of the shoulders from one of the TAs and a simple I don’t know from the others.

I picked up my cup and walked over to the Foosball table and got myself in to position to play. Before the ball was dropped on to the table I introduced myself to her. “Hello, I’m James Mercer.”

I asked her what department she was with and if she was new. She introduced herself as Mary Kate O’Sullivan and that she had just started as a GA in the Poli Sci department. Poli Sci people were not regulars to our table even though anyone was welcomed. It was rare that anyone from the Political Science department actually joined us to share a pitcher they tended to stay to themselves.

From the drop of the first ball our match was hot and heavy. It lasted over an hour. First I scored a point in to the goal and then she would score. We were evenly matched on defense. It was hard for either of us to score on the other. Some of our sessions lasted 15 minutes. At the end of the match I had won by one goal. Both of us were covered in sweat and I am sure not smelling the best. I even had a blister on my left hand from spinning the handle so much trying to take a shot on goal. After the game was over I was ready to head for home, take a shower and go to bed. Worst part I only had one beer the whole evening.