Just One More Minute...
I intended to write several additions for JiH this past week, but as you can clearly see, that didn't happen.
After Spring Break, I had a particularly difficult week ahead of me in my classes, and I knew this. My usual assignments, as well as several new ones were due. Knowing this, the last goal for Spring Break was clear:
A good night's sleep to be ready for the grueling week ahead.
I just knew I would go to bed at 12, just after I got through this one chapter in Final Fantasy XIII. Square's latest opus, which I bought the week BEFORE Spring Break and saved until I had free time for it, unfortunately got off to a rather slow start, and it wasn't until Friday that I finally got far enough in it for the game to grow especially interesting to me.
Saturday's always a "busy" night (busy meaning I'm sleep until I have to go out, and by the time I get back there's only a few hours before I need to sleep again), and I spent most of Sunday working at my other goals for the week (yes, a list of stuff to do ON Spring Break), so it was not until 11PM I picked up my PS3 controller to begin playing.
Checking the strategy guide, I noticed the next Chapter (Five) was rather short, so I decided, "I'll give up an hour, and maybe I can make it through!"
I forgot about Final Fantasy's tendency for exceptionally long cutscenes, the fact that I rolled a 2 for Concentration for myself and can't stay focused on just one thing longer than 20 minutes at a time (I screwed around for at least an hour on random internet crap), and that I'd meant to get up early and do a favor for my mother so I'd set my clock to wake me up an hour earlier the next day.
Essentially, I make it to bed at 3....and I'm stirred from my rest at seven sharp. Shockingly, I get out of bed almost immediately...but fall over in the bathroom trying to get ready. I have somewhat under two hours to get completely ready for school, but somehow this turns into 45 minutes after I pass out. Twice.
My ride appears at 8:40 or so, and I'm still working on the favor for my mother. Given that it isn't nice to piss off your ride by making them wait, I decide the favor can be done when I'm done for the day, and head out. Its rough going, but I pull off my 9-1 schedule, and theoretically I should be able to get home and sleep for a few hours before studying for my Psychology test.
...Except my ride does not materialize until after 4, and I'm dragged along on a side-trip to run an errand. This takes another hour, so I don't see my house until 5:30PM. Well, I've got studying to do, so I forego a nap and try to make some headway on my notes and write the Composition paper that's due Wednesday.
...But I attempt to do this from my laptop, which means I can lie down while I'm doing it, and...yep. I pass out. Not for a couple of hours, but from 7PM until 2:30. When I awake, I realize I've gotten nowhere NEAR the amount of work done I was aiming for, and so I set to work on my notes.
I work for about two hours and wrap up one-third of what I need and part of the second third (three chapters per test). By the time I finish that, and attempt to find the words for my paper for another hour (I fail), its 5AM and I KNOW the couple hours sleep I'd get would just leave me sluggish. So I just choose to stay up, which isn't that helpful either. Psychology class runs from 9:30-10:45, and we're covering the last part of Chapter 11. Now, clearly here I should have the time I need to get home and sleep, right?
Wrong again. I have a math test next Monday (this past Monday), so my math teacher has hastily added a bit of homework and a quiz that's due Wednesday. Well my Wednesdays are rather busy and I certainly just don't have the time to go to the Math Lab and waste an hour. (The math quizzes can only be taken in my school's Math Computer Lab.) So rather than risk missing both the quiz and the homework, I'd already decided to take it Tuesday.
But as mentioned, I am exhausted. My eyes are closing in the middle of the work. Between Homework and the Quiz, I have 45 problems to solve on material I just learned. I passed out at least twice for a full minute. Maybe more, I was half-unconscious. All-in-all, I work at those problems from 10:30-1:50, from homework until my quiz is finished. 67, which is my lowest grade this year.
I leave the Math Lab tired and irritated, and I have to wait until after 4 for my ride home. I make it home and spend a couple hours researching my subject and attempting to discover sources. After finding the best ones I can, I set to work writing my paper. Drained but determined, I stay up, refusing to sleep again and leave myself no time to write my last paper. Normally, I can wrap five paragraphs up inside ninety minutes, but for some reason, I have writer's block. By now I have usually figured out a good subject, the opening lines, and most importantly the gist of what I'll be saying in every paragraph, etc...but not this time. This time I merely have the two sentences I typed in my phone and saved in its Notepad program. I eke out what I can, and its 1AM when I get to bed. (I decide to work on my notes Wednesday.)
Still adjusting to actually having slept, I'm sluggish getting out of bed, but attend class with little incident.
...Of course, its around this time I recall that I have a reading assignment due. 16 pages. Wonderful. I forego that to work on my notes for my test tomorrow while waiting on my ride. I get home in time to study, but I get OCD about my notes (I haven't written steadily in so long that I'm obsessive even after three months about writing everything perfectly) at this point and my writing's at a snail's pace. Then I decide in the middle of that to switch to notecards.
Yeah, I'm two-thirds through my notes and NOW I decide to switch formats. Brilliant. I get some notecards done and then pass out for the night at about 2AM.
Five hours later (in my head I think, "I should really change my alarm clock back...why on Earth am I getting up at 7AM?"), I'm up and working on notecards again. There's nowhere NEAR enough time for me to get all my notes done, but, no sense in bitching about it. Its my fault for getting all OCD about it and I refuse to cut myself slack for my BS. I study what I have plus the Chapter Reviews and head to class. I'm munching on a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit (favorite breakfast) when I get to class to take the test.
I'm not nearly confident enough in my ability to pass it, but (with a lot of prayer and faith) I manage to nab a 88. Not the best grade I could get, but considering at best I felt I knew about 20% of the last chapter...I took it and ran.
...Straight to the freaking Math Lab again. I've had more sleep this time, but a new problem presents itself this time. I have a thirty question quiz to take...in about 60 minutes. I get three tries, but usually only need two to net a perfect score. With my last quiz grade crap, a perfect score would help me to make up for this one, so I set to work. Of course, with sixty minutes and thirty problems, not much time is left for problem checking, especially when graph drawing is involved.
I REALLY want to get cracking and out of there as I really have yet another assignment due Friday...but my first score is a 82. I missed six problems. People who give up the chance to improve their grades because they don't "feel like doing it over" shouldn't be in college, so I take it again.
88. I'm REALLY pissed at this point, and debating whether its worth an hour of my time to retake a quiz, but go with it. This time I take down no notes (corrected the first two anyway), and basically only do scratch work for the problems which require it, and finish with 7 minutes to spare. 90. An A at college, and I can't retake it anyway.
But by now I've pissed away three hours, so I just decide to say screw it and go to the Student Union to relax. So I think. I'm there four minutes and I get an IM from a classmate.
"Hey, where are you?"
"Uhhh...the Union."
"Can you come get my paper and do a peer review for me?"
"(Inwardly: FUCK.) Yeah, sure. Where are you?"
"I'm in Cresswell."
"*is new to the school and thinks that's some kind of sandwich* Uhhh...where's that?"
"Its right by Allen Hall."
"(This time outloud: FUCK!) Uhm...okay. I'll be there in a few minutes."
So with a 20lb. backpack on and holding a large umbrella, I set on my way to Allen. Mind you, for those who've never been to MSU, Allen Hall's at least a fifteen minute walk uphill the entire way. Add in another 5 minutes to figure out and walk to where Cresswell is, and its a 40 minute walk with a 20lb. backpack on because I've no place to put it and no one I can trust to watch it.
It was 2:15 or so when I made it to the Union. Its 3:00 when I find my way back after attaining yet another refill of my Hi-C, courtesy of Chick-Fil-A. (I'd sing their theme song if they had one, but they don't. You're missing out on free advertising, man!)
So by this time, I realize I should probably get on that reading assignment. I make it through about five pages when I realize...my ride's rather late today. A quick phone call gets me berated for asking about it, and I spend another hour waiting before it arrives.
Its 5:30 now. As it so happens, once a month, on a Thursday, I get together with one of my oldest friends (back when we used to have chest hair dandruff) and some of his friends to do some board games and/or card games. Contrary to what you might think, I'm actually a very social person and won't actually turn down the opportunity to...be around people unless its absolutely necessary. I firmly believe I've got plenty of strength to do that, get home and finish my last assignments for the week, so I head home and relax for less than an hour before they call me.
Its somewhere around 7 when I realize this is the first thing I've done for myself other than sleep all week. I have an excellent time, and we hit up a fast food place for dinner before heading home to get started on schoolwork again. I manage to get a shower in, change clothes, and its around 11:30 or so.
Now, here I realize a great idea would have been to listen to my inner self. All I needed to do was do the work at my desktop. Just, do the work at my desktop. But that's too easy. Too simple. Instead, I go, "I know! I'll work in my nice, comfy bed on my laptop!"
CRASH.
I wake up at 8AM (I've changed my alarm back! Brilliant move.) and realize I've got two Peer Reviews to do for my classmates' Composition papers. Which means two papers to read, proofread, and comment on. Oh, and I also need to figure out my scanner. I only have one Peer Review worksheet (which my fellow classmate so graciously signed on the "Writer" line for me...) and I need two.
Hurriedly, I dress myself while reading the first paper and making mild corrections, scribbling down something I really hope makes sense before I get the daily "Are you up? Time for school!!!!" call from my mother. My ride's coming at 8:40, and I have...well, twenty more minutes.
I get about half of it done when I make it to the car. My "friendly chauffeur" offers the suggestion that, perhaps, I should work on the papers on the way to school. I do, but there's still more scribbling to be done and I'm not WHOLLY sure I've proofread either paper right.
I get to school about six minutes before class and decide to grab a chicken biscuit before going. By the time its ready, I look at my clock, and a sudden realization hits me: I'm in college, and this teacher does not CARE if I'm late. Its 8:58 and there's no chance of me getting there at 9 anyway.
I stop, and notice an empty chair that I hop into. I finish my breakfast, carefully read over both papers and finish the neccessary Peer Reviews before heading to class. I arrive at about 9:15.
What does my teacher tell me? "Huh. I believe this is the first time you've ever been late."
I say, "Yep," sit down, and she continues teaching without incident. (Have to remember I'm in college now.) She spends the next 35 minutes telling us how shitty our First Drafts are and I'm thinking, "Crap, this is the worst one I've done so far. She's DEFINITELY talking to me."
But no. The First Drafts are handed back with minor corrections. For a moment I believe college is done kicking my ass for the week....when I remember I have an hour to read the last nine pages of my reading assignment for the final class.
For whatever reason, I've become somewhat OCD in reading as well. Despite possessing a comprehension level that consistently tests at 90+%, I find myself re-reading the same things again and again, slowing my speed and each page takes forever.
Fortunately, two of the pages happened to be a nice, easily read poem, and the rest rushed by fast enough. I was two minutes late to my final class, but I was informed, able to participate in the discussion, and (I'm guessing) aced the quiz. After a few hours waiting in the Union, then grabbing dinner and making it home, it finally hit me:
All this was because I wanted to get a few extra minutes in on Final Fantasy.
After Spring Break, I had a particularly difficult week ahead of me in my classes, and I knew this. My usual assignments, as well as several new ones were due. Knowing this, the last goal for Spring Break was clear:
A good night's sleep to be ready for the grueling week ahead.
I just knew I would go to bed at 12, just after I got through this one chapter in Final Fantasy XIII. Square's latest opus, which I bought the week BEFORE Spring Break and saved until I had free time for it, unfortunately got off to a rather slow start, and it wasn't until Friday that I finally got far enough in it for the game to grow especially interesting to me.
Saturday's always a "busy" night (busy meaning I'm sleep until I have to go out, and by the time I get back there's only a few hours before I need to sleep again), and I spent most of Sunday working at my other goals for the week (yes, a list of stuff to do ON Spring Break), so it was not until 11PM I picked up my PS3 controller to begin playing.
Checking the strategy guide, I noticed the next Chapter (Five) was rather short, so I decided, "I'll give up an hour, and maybe I can make it through!"
I forgot about Final Fantasy's tendency for exceptionally long cutscenes, the fact that I rolled a 2 for Concentration for myself and can't stay focused on just one thing longer than 20 minutes at a time (I screwed around for at least an hour on random internet crap), and that I'd meant to get up early and do a favor for my mother so I'd set my clock to wake me up an hour earlier the next day.
Essentially, I make it to bed at 3....and I'm stirred from my rest at seven sharp. Shockingly, I get out of bed almost immediately...but fall over in the bathroom trying to get ready. I have somewhat under two hours to get completely ready for school, but somehow this turns into 45 minutes after I pass out. Twice.
My ride appears at 8:40 or so, and I'm still working on the favor for my mother. Given that it isn't nice to piss off your ride by making them wait, I decide the favor can be done when I'm done for the day, and head out. Its rough going, but I pull off my 9-1 schedule, and theoretically I should be able to get home and sleep for a few hours before studying for my Psychology test.
...Except my ride does not materialize until after 4, and I'm dragged along on a side-trip to run an errand. This takes another hour, so I don't see my house until 5:30PM. Well, I've got studying to do, so I forego a nap and try to make some headway on my notes and write the Composition paper that's due Wednesday.
...But I attempt to do this from my laptop, which means I can lie down while I'm doing it, and...yep. I pass out. Not for a couple of hours, but from 7PM until 2:30. When I awake, I realize I've gotten nowhere NEAR the amount of work done I was aiming for, and so I set to work on my notes.
I work for about two hours and wrap up one-third of what I need and part of the second third (three chapters per test). By the time I finish that, and attempt to find the words for my paper for another hour (I fail), its 5AM and I KNOW the couple hours sleep I'd get would just leave me sluggish. So I just choose to stay up, which isn't that helpful either. Psychology class runs from 9:30-10:45, and we're covering the last part of Chapter 11. Now, clearly here I should have the time I need to get home and sleep, right?
Wrong again. I have a math test next Monday (this past Monday), so my math teacher has hastily added a bit of homework and a quiz that's due Wednesday. Well my Wednesdays are rather busy and I certainly just don't have the time to go to the Math Lab and waste an hour. (The math quizzes can only be taken in my school's Math Computer Lab.) So rather than risk missing both the quiz and the homework, I'd already decided to take it Tuesday.
But as mentioned, I am exhausted. My eyes are closing in the middle of the work. Between Homework and the Quiz, I have 45 problems to solve on material I just learned. I passed out at least twice for a full minute. Maybe more, I was half-unconscious. All-in-all, I work at those problems from 10:30-1:50, from homework until my quiz is finished. 67, which is my lowest grade this year.
I leave the Math Lab tired and irritated, and I have to wait until after 4 for my ride home. I make it home and spend a couple hours researching my subject and attempting to discover sources. After finding the best ones I can, I set to work writing my paper. Drained but determined, I stay up, refusing to sleep again and leave myself no time to write my last paper. Normally, I can wrap five paragraphs up inside ninety minutes, but for some reason, I have writer's block. By now I have usually figured out a good subject, the opening lines, and most importantly the gist of what I'll be saying in every paragraph, etc...but not this time. This time I merely have the two sentences I typed in my phone and saved in its Notepad program. I eke out what I can, and its 1AM when I get to bed. (I decide to work on my notes Wednesday.)
Still adjusting to actually having slept, I'm sluggish getting out of bed, but attend class with little incident.
...Of course, its around this time I recall that I have a reading assignment due. 16 pages. Wonderful. I forego that to work on my notes for my test tomorrow while waiting on my ride. I get home in time to study, but I get OCD about my notes (I haven't written steadily in so long that I'm obsessive even after three months about writing everything perfectly) at this point and my writing's at a snail's pace. Then I decide in the middle of that to switch to notecards.
Yeah, I'm two-thirds through my notes and NOW I decide to switch formats. Brilliant. I get some notecards done and then pass out for the night at about 2AM.
Five hours later (in my head I think, "I should really change my alarm clock back...why on Earth am I getting up at 7AM?"), I'm up and working on notecards again. There's nowhere NEAR enough time for me to get all my notes done, but, no sense in bitching about it. Its my fault for getting all OCD about it and I refuse to cut myself slack for my BS. I study what I have plus the Chapter Reviews and head to class. I'm munching on a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit (favorite breakfast) when I get to class to take the test.
I'm not nearly confident enough in my ability to pass it, but (with a lot of prayer and faith) I manage to nab a 88. Not the best grade I could get, but considering at best I felt I knew about 20% of the last chapter...I took it and ran.
...Straight to the freaking Math Lab again. I've had more sleep this time, but a new problem presents itself this time. I have a thirty question quiz to take...in about 60 minutes. I get three tries, but usually only need two to net a perfect score. With my last quiz grade crap, a perfect score would help me to make up for this one, so I set to work. Of course, with sixty minutes and thirty problems, not much time is left for problem checking, especially when graph drawing is involved.
I REALLY want to get cracking and out of there as I really have yet another assignment due Friday...but my first score is a 82. I missed six problems. People who give up the chance to improve their grades because they don't "feel like doing it over" shouldn't be in college, so I take it again.
88. I'm REALLY pissed at this point, and debating whether its worth an hour of my time to retake a quiz, but go with it. This time I take down no notes (corrected the first two anyway), and basically only do scratch work for the problems which require it, and finish with 7 minutes to spare. 90. An A at college, and I can't retake it anyway.
But by now I've pissed away three hours, so I just decide to say screw it and go to the Student Union to relax. So I think. I'm there four minutes and I get an IM from a classmate.
"Hey, where are you?"
"Uhhh...the Union."
"Can you come get my paper and do a peer review for me?"
"(Inwardly: FUCK.) Yeah, sure. Where are you?"
"I'm in Cresswell."
"*is new to the school and thinks that's some kind of sandwich* Uhhh...where's that?"
"Its right by Allen Hall."
"(This time outloud: FUCK!) Uhm...okay. I'll be there in a few minutes."
So with a 20lb. backpack on and holding a large umbrella, I set on my way to Allen. Mind you, for those who've never been to MSU, Allen Hall's at least a fifteen minute walk uphill the entire way. Add in another 5 minutes to figure out and walk to where Cresswell is, and its a 40 minute walk with a 20lb. backpack on because I've no place to put it and no one I can trust to watch it.
It was 2:15 or so when I made it to the Union. Its 3:00 when I find my way back after attaining yet another refill of my Hi-C, courtesy of Chick-Fil-A. (I'd sing their theme song if they had one, but they don't. You're missing out on free advertising, man!)
So by this time, I realize I should probably get on that reading assignment. I make it through about five pages when I realize...my ride's rather late today. A quick phone call gets me berated for asking about it, and I spend another hour waiting before it arrives.
Its 5:30 now. As it so happens, once a month, on a Thursday, I get together with one of my oldest friends (back when we used to have chest hair dandruff) and some of his friends to do some board games and/or card games. Contrary to what you might think, I'm actually a very social person and won't actually turn down the opportunity to...be around people unless its absolutely necessary. I firmly believe I've got plenty of strength to do that, get home and finish my last assignments for the week, so I head home and relax for less than an hour before they call me.
Its somewhere around 7 when I realize this is the first thing I've done for myself other than sleep all week. I have an excellent time, and we hit up a fast food place for dinner before heading home to get started on schoolwork again. I manage to get a shower in, change clothes, and its around 11:30 or so.
Now, here I realize a great idea would have been to listen to my inner self. All I needed to do was do the work at my desktop. Just, do the work at my desktop. But that's too easy. Too simple. Instead, I go, "I know! I'll work in my nice, comfy bed on my laptop!"
CRASH.
I wake up at 8AM (I've changed my alarm back! Brilliant move.) and realize I've got two Peer Reviews to do for my classmates' Composition papers. Which means two papers to read, proofread, and comment on. Oh, and I also need to figure out my scanner. I only have one Peer Review worksheet (which my fellow classmate so graciously signed on the "Writer" line for me...) and I need two.
Hurriedly, I dress myself while reading the first paper and making mild corrections, scribbling down something I really hope makes sense before I get the daily "Are you up? Time for school!!!!" call from my mother. My ride's coming at 8:40, and I have...well, twenty more minutes.
I get about half of it done when I make it to the car. My "friendly chauffeur" offers the suggestion that, perhaps, I should work on the papers on the way to school. I do, but there's still more scribbling to be done and I'm not WHOLLY sure I've proofread either paper right.
I get to school about six minutes before class and decide to grab a chicken biscuit before going. By the time its ready, I look at my clock, and a sudden realization hits me: I'm in college, and this teacher does not CARE if I'm late. Its 8:58 and there's no chance of me getting there at 9 anyway.
I stop, and notice an empty chair that I hop into. I finish my breakfast, carefully read over both papers and finish the neccessary Peer Reviews before heading to class. I arrive at about 9:15.
What does my teacher tell me? "Huh. I believe this is the first time you've ever been late."
I say, "Yep," sit down, and she continues teaching without incident. (Have to remember I'm in college now.) She spends the next 35 minutes telling us how shitty our First Drafts are and I'm thinking, "Crap, this is the worst one I've done so far. She's DEFINITELY talking to me."
But no. The First Drafts are handed back with minor corrections. For a moment I believe college is done kicking my ass for the week....when I remember I have an hour to read the last nine pages of my reading assignment for the final class.
For whatever reason, I've become somewhat OCD in reading as well. Despite possessing a comprehension level that consistently tests at 90+%, I find myself re-reading the same things again and again, slowing my speed and each page takes forever.
Fortunately, two of the pages happened to be a nice, easily read poem, and the rest rushed by fast enough. I was two minutes late to my final class, but I was informed, able to participate in the discussion, and (I'm guessing) aced the quiz. After a few hours waiting in the Union, then grabbing dinner and making it home, it finally hit me:
All this was because I wanted to get a few extra minutes in on Final Fantasy.
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