#*covid mention

[bedbugbiting]

I already wrote this post, but Tumblr ate it, so I’m sorry for any repeats.

Ugh. So, I like my class, but it has a BAD VIBE. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s mainly certain people. This one woman is just stressful to be around. More about her later.

Today, someone barged in. Actually, it was someone I know from years ago. She missed the first two weeks of class, and she showed up late, claiming that the instructor gave her bad directions. The instructor doesn’t typically give directions, so that was confusing, but anyway, she barged in, interrupted, and immediately griped at the instructor, and it was weird and anxiety-inducing. But then. THEN. 

I ended up sharing a table with the main source of the Bad Vibe. She is new, and she signed up for the class with a friend. She’s a woman around 30 years old and her friend is a middle-aged man. He might be her boyfriend, I really don’t know. For reasons that are beyond me, she began berating him through the class. He clearly has some kind of chronic illness on top of other issues and she was griping at him for saying he doesn’t feel well or he’s tired. She said that he seemed bored in class and he was only there because of her and she didn’t want to take a class with him. It was strange because he was actually working, and she was leaning over and insulting him. She was cussing up a storm and telling him that he was a liar and disgusting and she was sick of him and she just went on and on. Apparently, he said something that she found offensive and she kept demanding that he repeat it. He said he didn’t want to talk about this IN CLASS and she wouldn’t drop it. She would get quiet when the instructor or the assistant were nearby because she’s clever. I was trying to figure out when to intervene and finally someone told her to back off him and focus on art. She did, but only for a minute. It went on and on! Then someone told the instructor, who only heard a bit of it, and the instructor thought the guy was instigating it. It’s possible that he said or did something awful outside of class, but this woman was being WEIRD and treating him horribly in the middle of class. THEN. THEN! He got up and left. The assistant then went after him and somehow got him to come back and he just sat in a different part of the room. But THEN he burst into tears and started crying about his wife who died from covid last year. He just broke down sobbing and said they’d been married 30 years.

Crying in art class is not that unusual, but this was intense.

Anyway, sure, let’s all rejoin society. It’ll be great.

[bedbugbiting]

I have no idea if I'm the asshole or not. Ugh. There is a woman I've mentioned before as the volatile person in my art class. She has this chaotic energy that I find unsettling, but she also has self-described "anger issues" and she gets verbally abusive with absolutely no provocation. She has never said anything to me, but I've seen this happen and it is disturbing. She is very new to Art Group and she is always with this guy (I don't know the nature of their relationship). He's the guy who cried in class about his wife dying of covid. I was at this fundraiser and there was a small handful of long-time dedicated students there. But then those two showed up. It was strange because they're both new and...they don't have a good track record in terms of their behavior. There was one other student there who knew them, and she and I were immediately disturbed that these two were at a fundraiser where we try to impress potential donors. But THEN the two of them immediately hit the bar. It was an open bar, but there is a strict code of conduct and students aren't allowed to consume alcohol at events, regardless of what the event is. They were each getting two drinks at a time and drinking really fast.

So...the other woman who knew them actually went to talk to an employee (I encouraged this). She told the employee who told us TWICE that we weren't allowed to drink. The employee went off to check on the situation, but then she came back and said that it was fine because they weren't volunteering. But we couldn't figure out why they were there. They weren't volunteers. Their art wasn't on display. They weren't speaking. It cost $125 to register. The employee essentially said that if they paid to get in, they can drink what they want. They're on state assistance and live on under $200 a month and food stamps, so I find it difficult to believe that they're shelling out $250 just to drink at an open bar. However, even if they did, I still think they should have abstained for the evening. Maybe I'm a dick. I was volunteering, so it would have been inappropriate to drink, but there were many students there who weren't volunteering, and they weren't allowed to drink. I mainly have a problem with students being expected to follow a rule unless they pay. There are people who are former students and they may transition to a teaching assistant or mentor role. They are no longer allowed to take classes at that point, but they also have a different set of conduct rules. I just think that if you're a student at an event you should adhere to the rules for students. But also, I can't imagine that they paid. Surely someone paid for them. But why them? Every other student there had been in the program at least a couple of years and these two have only been there one term and they immediately caused problems.

This isn't a normal art school.

The students are struggling with mental illness or addiction or some other thing and I feel it could be triggering to see your peers double-fisting cocktails at an open bar.

Anyway, Angry Girl and her friend make me extremely uncomfortable, so the fast drinking set off all of my alarm bells.

I don't think anything bad happened, but I didn't see them after we sat down to eat.