Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away

And that is exactly what happened to Justin and my dream of going on a cruise this year.

As you may or may not know, when we moved here I started working part-time teaching at a local community college. There were no openings for full-time, but as part-time they limit me to teaching only 2 classes a semester. Because the pay for that is pretty miserable and I need a bit more than just 2 classes to keep me busy, I applied at another local community college - HCC.

The guy from HCC called me before we moved and told me that he would definitely have classes for me to teach. Even when I arrived in town and met with him a week before classes started he said he needed to sort through the schedule, but that he would have classes for me to teach, however it looked like it would be a "late start" class (meaning that they start 4 weeks later). This was all fine by me since classes were starting in less than a week and I had not received a textbook, syllabus template or anything that I needed.

4 weeks go by and I have to call the guy again to find out what is going on. Now he tells me that the class he wants me to teach is an 8 week course that doesn't start for another 4 weeks. Of course, 4 weeks later history repeats itself and I find out that although he would have loved to have me teach, the class he was going to assign to me "didn't make", i.e. not enough students registered for that class. Even though he was not able to give me classes to teach for last semester, he will definitely need me for the next semester which is the current semester.

Classes started this week, but let me back up to 2 weeks ago. He calls me 2 weeks ago, asking if I am still interested in teaching for him (completely acting oblivious to the fact that I emailed and called him a few times over the last 6 weeks asking for classes to teach). He tells me that he definitely has classes for me to teach, he just needs to work out the schedule. He calls me back a half hour later to make sure I would be ok with teaching college algebra and statistics. My response - that's great. So now I am to wait for his call with my schedule.

The end of the week comes, with no response. In the meantime, Justin and I are talking about using the money that I earn teaching for him to go on a cruise. Where and when depends on how many classes I get as that determines how much we have to spend on our trip.

So, we are 10 days from the beginning of the new semester and I call to find out what classes I will be teaching and when I can pick up the materials that I need. My call is not returned. With a week to go, I send an email. This time I get a return call telling me that he really doesn't know if he will have any classes for me - he is still working on the schedule.

Since the semester started yesterday, I think that it is fairly safe to say that I won't be teaching there since I haven't heard back again. Therefore - no cruise for us. What kind of a person does this? How many times have I been told that I will "definitely" be given classes to teach? Did the meaning of the word "definitely" change and no one told me about it? It is one thing to get your hopes up for something and then feel let down when all along it was a "maybe" kind of thing, but don't I have every right to assume that someone is being serious with me when they say "definitely"?

Since the meaning of the word seems to have changed, I guess Justin and I are "definitely" going on a cruise this year.