What just happened

I went to sign up for a job through work study this morning. I started the job this afternoon. My mind is a little bit frazzled, and I scarcely understand how that nonsense all worked out, but regardless of the semantics, I am now a writing tutor. I won't bore you with everything else that I am doing in addition to this new job. My brain stopped working ever since I started college, and now it just gets zapped every once in awhile.

When I was waiting for the interview, a (I will add an adjective here, and you'll see why that's relevant in a moment) white girl came up to the table where I was sitting and asked if I was the tutor. I told her no, didn't mention not yet, but merely said that I was waiting for someone, too. Not too long after she left, someone else came up, and I anticipated--okay, assumed--that he was looking for a tutor, too.

"Are you here for me?" he asked.
"No, I'm waiting for someone," I said. "Are you looking for a tutor?"
"I am the tutor," he said, sitting down after grabbing his book bag, which had been already sitting on the table. "Looks can be deceiving. I am also a part-time bank robber, a pimp and a priest."
He'd hit all the stereotypes usually associated with his skin color. I stared at him, not even realizing that he, with a spoken articulation that most writers--no matter their skin color--simply don't have, had assumed that I thought he was looking for a tutor simply because he was black.
"You should write a memoir," I teased, blurting out the only thing I could think of to say.
He laughed, seeming to be completely at ease, and explained that he hadn't thought of writing a memoir, though he had written a book. He was having a difficult time publishing it, though. I was then called away to my interview.

It took me five hours to become a paid tutor, and one unthinking second to be considered a moron.