Urk. I just committed an academic no-no. I’m innocently walking down the hall returning from the little girl’s room when I see one of the grad students standing in the hallway outside the large meeting room. He’s nicely dressed and rubbing his hands together nervously. Now, five minutes earlier, on my way *to* the restroom, I remember glancing inside the large meeting room and thinking it very odd that that student was apparently giving a talk to such a small (4 people) gathering.

Now I’m walking back and I’m almost about to cross his path when I realize what I was looking at. Either his advancement to candidacy talk or his dissertation defense. And just as I cross his path, his advisor steps out of the large meeting room and says the fateful words, “OK, you can come back in now.”

And I’m doing this inner *facepalm* thing. This is his big nerve-wracking moment, a moment that by all rights should be All About Him, and there I am stepping right between him and his advisor. Just trying to get back to my desk, you know, but… I couldn’t have waited five seconds?? Some moments are just sacred, you know.

At least I realized I was being utterly sacrilegious.