you consider me the young apprentice / caught between the scylla and charybdis / i will listen hard to your tuition / you will see it come to fruition — wrapped around your finger, the police

my fav prof ever... or, the mentor, or, an exercise in being a teacher's pet.

• i was in his class for corporate law (evie had him a few semesters before me "yessirrr that's him, if you can take a class with him you should" )
• registered last minute and went to talk to him about what i missed, the first thing i thought was wow, he's really professional and charismatic (and tall) (he says he's not an extrovert) (i don't buy it still)
• went to his office hours to talk about law school (twice) and thus the yap sessions began... "i think you're bright and a great conversationalist"
  • he apparently thought i didn't enjoy his lectures until then because of my "resting scowl"
• emailed him a lot (to be fair he did it first most of the time), mostly about art, philosophy, movies, and music, he's the only person i know who listens to everything from bach, to willie nelson, to slipknot.
  • i introduced him to deftones (despite the fact that they're closer to his era than mine) and he totally digs them. :-)))
• i asked him about the format of one of our exam questions and he said, "i'm not worried about that, especially with you"
• marking my assignment as soon as i handed it in, i went "is it bad?" he said "yeah..." without even looking at me, wrote a 0/10, then added a 1 before it. so smug
• walking past my desk to start lecture, looking over my shoulder at my art which started with "did you draw that???" and became the offhand "dope."
  • he grilled me about why i'm pursuing law and not art because he thinks it's a waste of my artistic talents and "law will always be there." it's a compliment but i need employment sir
• "i think you bond with people through humor. like you make fun of me" "you make it sound so mean, i make fun of myself too" "no, i enjoy it"
  • i do snark at him like with everyone i'm comfortable with, mostly for being older than me and kind of pretentious (of which i'm also guilty), "well, back then, it was hey, let me lend you my cd" "hey, let me lend you my stone tablet"
• talking to me across the room in the middle of class. please. my social anxiety
• "i think i can count on one hand the amount of times you put your hand up in class but i never doubted that you were always engaged... (smiling) you were, right?" "maybe not always..."
• i only ever went to his office hours with legitimate questions, but it would always end in... the aforementioned yap sessions.
• the post class yap session that started with me asking him for philosophy book recs (his undergrad major) and ended in him asking me "so, you're an artist, who do you like?" and us gushing about monet
• closing the door so everyone thought he was starting lecture but he walked over and sat next to me, everyone got silent and he was... talking to me about strauss. eventually he turned to everyone said "this isn't related to class, by the way." which made everyone start talking again, but shit i was so embarrassed it was difficult to focus on what he was saying after that...
• "i would put you in law school right now and i think you'd do fine" yeah, right
• said i'm the "smartest, most creative and rad student [he's] had in all his years of teaching"
• said my taste in music, art, and philosophy is refined and far above my age
• "i was thinking about you..." [the other day] [earlier today] (he loves to say this)
• he uses my name in a sentence a lot, even when we're the only people talking / texting "i can't stand it, ilya"
  • he once said, "do you realize you call me dude?" (i did not) (i stopped doing it unconsciously after this but now he calls me dude, and i still accidentally call him man )
• i casually commented i don't have much going for me aside from academics, which made him just laugh and say "that is such bullshit"
• i mentioned i was thinking about getting a motorcycle and he offered to take me on his when the weather is better "we still need to get you a helmet"
• had a sore throat the day after having lunch with him on campus, b said "maybe you got it from that strange man you were having lunch with" LMFAO
• gave him a bottle of chianti and a painting i did for him after finals which he allegedly shows off to people who come to his office (oh god). at the time he was super busy with marking, after i gave it to him and we chatted for a bit he was like "well, i'm gonna have to..." and i started standing up, "get back to work?" and he said, "no, i wanted to ask you about..." so i sat down again. pfft
  • his favourite wine is tokaji but they didn't have it at the liquor store i went to :(
• going to the bookstore and getting a stack each, then going to a cafe, i said i didn't want anything and he said "come on, let me get you something, london fog?" (how did he know.), ended up talking for like 2-3 hours
• i'm always running late for my next class after we meet for office hours / lunch / coffee
  • one time i came to class just as it started with a sandwich (he paid for) (uneaten cause i was too busy talking) and a book (he gave me) which just awkwardly sat untouched on my desk for the entire lecture
• talking about some ideas for my personal statement and he said, jokingly "or, you could always just talk about how you had this one professor..." "and he changed my life, blah blah blah" "just like that, keep the 'blah blah blah'"