Monday, October 11, 2010

What's Free Time?...

I enjoy Thursdays. Before classes even started, I told myself that Thursdays will involve no homework and nothing school related starting at 12:15 Thursday afternoon and ending at 12:01 Friday morning. Thursdays give me a chance to relax, and give my mind somewhat of a break before I'm forced to start on homework. It's like a mental health day. Good for the brain. This past weekend was an exception.
    Needing to get some homework completed for Thursday's class, and working from 7-3 Wednesday, I decided that I would take a power nap Wednesday night. We're talking 15-20 minutes. Just to give me that little extra push to do homework, I would feel like a brand new person. Eh. I had better ideas. Two hours later, I awoke with a sore throat. (Strep Throat had reached the family the weekend before) I wasn't sure where I had gotten it, I'd had stayed away from the originator of the disease, and honestly I didn't have time for being sick. Excellent. Mom's off frolicking along the shore of Lake Michigan, I'm coming down with black lung, and Dad's doing the best he can to help me cure this horrible disease.  I tried to suck it up and just deal with it but failed miserably. Good thing I've got Dr. Mom on speed dial.  "What are your symptoms?" "My throat hurts, my nose is starting to run and I just don't feel well." As the call came to an end, I was given strict instructions to push fluids. "I want you to drink a crystal light now, eat a popsicle, drink another crystal light, be in bed before 11, and take one of your 18 Gatorades to school tomorrow." My kidney's have never hurt more than Wednesday night. It was touch and go there for a while but Thursday I just should have stayed in bed. 
    After taking almost 40 minutes to get to school, I arrived at my first class to hear that my teacher was sick, but still came to school anyway, and the rest of my class was coughing up their lungs. On the schedule for class? Discuss last nights reading and talk about the upcoming midterm on Tuesday. Okay, we'll talk for 15-20 minutes on the reading and spend the rest of the time on the midterm. Class started at 9:30 and got out at 10:45. Why don't you ask me how long we spent talking about the midterm? 120 seconds. Thats right. The LAST TWO MINUTES OF CLASS. Oh and while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and tell us that we have two paper's due by midnight Sunday and a midterm. No biggie. It's not like I have another class to tend to. Along with a pounding head, I was off to somehow concentrate and take notes on a guest speaker speaking about the medical aspect of journalism in my next class. Class ended and thought I was home free. "Don't forget the first draft of your paper is due Tuesday." Three papers in which two are due by midnight Sunday, finding time to interview a fellow classmate for another paper currently in progress, figuring out how to tackle a midterm in which you have no idea what is going to be covered, and a weekend full of work? I should be able to fit time to stop and breathe. If I was lucky, maybe I'd even be able to catch some shut eye. 
     I do some of my best thinking in the car. I had devised a plan while driving home from school that I would knock out one paper Thursday afternoon. Three hours and two pages later, one paper down, two to go. Completing a paper felt wonderful. I was on a roll, and decided to knock out my second paper. Correction: Write two or three sentences and then take a break to watch Grey's and then go back to writing. But oh wait, after Grey's, Snooks is on. And then after Snooks, it's already 11:00 and by then, my mind is shot in the homework department. I'll do it when I get home from work tomorrow night. Famous last words. After crossing the Michigan/Indiana border four extra times and driving an extra five hours, Dr. Mom had arrived home.  If I was going to be worthless Friday night, I had to make a deal with myself. "Okay Sara. You can have one extra non homework night, but you have to get up early tomorrow and work on it before work." I was so proud of myself. I had woken up at 9:00 on a Saturday morning when I didn't have to be at work till noon. That gave me almost two and half hours to get another paper knocked out. I'm starting to see a trend here. "Oh I have to show you the funniest YouTube video..." Just one Sara. Just one. "Oh but this one is funny too." Next thing you knew 11:30 had arrived and off to work I went.
     Saturday night had been determined that no matter how long it took me, I would finish this paper. Working 12-7 and being super busy, I gave myself 20 minutes to nap. That nap seemed to do the trick because at 3:00 Sunday morning, I had: completed the paper, watched all of Saturday Night Live, watched a re-run of an old Grey's, re-watched the Britney episode of gLee, checked PostSecret, and wrote "Shenanigans" (see below) Two papers down. One to go. The nap was extra helpful. At 7:00 Sunday morning, I saw the sunrise. Yes. You read that right. I was going on 22 hours of no sleep.  Needing to work on that one final paper, I set my alarm for 10:00. But first I have to go catch up on the gossip I missed while I was catching up on my shut eye.  Procrastinators Unite.... Tomorrow.

-Sara- 

1 comment:

  1. I absolutely loved this post!!! I swear each one get better an better....and the part about you and the black lung made me laugh out loud :) I hope you are feeling better! I'm sending you all my extra energy to help you get everything finished! xxxx

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