...and it happened once more

I need to take a nap rather badly because I only got about two hours of sleep last night. I know, Mom, that's not enough, but there were good reasons why I only got that much. I had a paper to write, first and foremost, on a book that I just got Saturday. The reason I got it then was because: (1) I looked in student stores for it at some point last week, and since they are remodeling, I couldn't find it. I know it wasn't there--I checked in the History 018 section and they didn't have it. I know they didn't. (2) I looked for it on the UNC Libraries website, and it was only on reserve. All copies were on reserve. So that meant that I would have had to go to the undergrad library every time I wanted to work on my paper. That would have been INCREDIBLY inconvenient. (3) Later that week I ordered it online from some place on Franklin Street. The next day they emailed me and said that it was not in stock. I could have ordered it, but it would have gotten here the day before the paper was due. Plus I'd have to go pick it up, and it's hard to get down to Franklin when I have other work to do. That's like a 45-minute trip, at least. (4) I looked online at the Borders bookstores website, and they didn't have it in stock either. If I'd wanted to order from there it would have taken at least two weeks to come in. Obviously that was not soon enough.

Kelley was wonderful enough to drive me up to Franklin so I could check for my book at Ram Book & Supply. Thankfully it was there. That was the day of the Clemson game, and we saw some really crazy stuff up on Franklin. First there was something weird with the traffic. Some guy ran a red light very slowly, holding up all traffic, when it was our turn to go. Kelley honked at him, and his female passenger gave us this funny look and pointed up at the light like, hello, it's our turn...but it wasn't. The red light wasn't even blinking so that it could have functioned like a stoplight. It was just a straight up normal red light. Then other people ran the light, too--from another direction. I have no idea what was going on. It was so weird.

Then when she was turning around so we could go the other way on Franklin, we saw these middle-aged people out in speedos and bikinis preaching about how they used to feel bad about their bodies, but now they've come to have a healthy appreciation of their wrinkles and rolls. That's nice, guys, but I'd personally appreciate it if you could be happy with your wrinkles and rolls while they are covered up. Yuck, I don't want to see that. Keep it to yourself. They are your deal, not mine. I'm not going to appreciate your body like you do no matter how long you stand on the corner, freezing yourselves to death and yelling about healthy body images. Go to a happy support group or something.

So anyway there are some of the reasons why I didn't get to bed on time last night. Another set of reasons is that Wednesday the eighth of February, 2006, had to be one of the very worst days for a sports fan to have to turn in a paper. Saturday: Clemson vs. Carolina, along with other good games (like Duke vs. FSU--and may I add that Duke only beat FSU by one point in overtime). Sunday: The freaking Super Bowl! And that takes a long time, too, with all the pregaming and extra-long halftime and awards ceremony and stuff. Monday: Nothing really that sportsy, I don't think, but Monday was a junk day for me anyway. It was super-busy and super-crazy. Tuesday: DUKE VS. CAROLINA. How the heck can they make a paper due at ten in the morning the day after the Duke game? That's just crazy. Wow. I don't know what they were thinking. Ha, maybe they were thinking that we're old enough and mature enough to be able to handle the responsibility of a paper with all this stuff going on, and that we would manage our time wisely, but come on--so many games, so little time (for writing papers, that is).

So I started working on writing my paper at midnight last night, after the game and after completing my French homework. I was only 82 pages into the 300-page book about the Viet Cong, but I had a good enough idea of it all to make educated guesses and back up my statements. I'm good at that, unfortunately. I think if I weren't good at it I'd get in these situations less often. I worked on my paper basically nonstop (with the aid of some caffeine that I'd drunk at midnight) until I finished at 6:15 am. I then got ready for bed and went to sleep. I woke up again at around 8:30, showered, got ready to leave, ate a 4-oz yogurt, and chugged a Red Bull just before I ran out the door. The Red Bull is still with me, too. That's why I can't take a nap yet. I don't think I'm sleepy enough.

Anyway, my psychology class was junk again today. Jennica was cracking me up because she was angry about the quiz that we'd taken in there on Monday. He'd put questions on there that weren't gone over in class and weren't well-covered in the book, and he didn't put questions about stuff that he'd covered thoroughly in class. She wasn't happy. Plus we had a professor change--we switched from the immature 60-year-old hippie who thinks masturbation and sex are funny to the boring-but-thinks-he's-slightly-funny older guy who always wears track suits and doesn't know how to use a microphone. None of us wanted to do work. That class seriously drains you. You can feel the life going e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e while seeping out of you. Really. It drains your soul, dude. I just about died laughing in the middle of class, though. I looked to my left, and Jennica was sleeping. Then I looked to my right, and Casey was sleeping. I looked past Casey, and I realized the guy across the aisle was sleeping, too. I thought, man, that's a lot of people sleeping all close together. Then I looked around at the whole class. Dead serious--there are three hundred people in that class, and I kid you not, about a third of them were sleeping. Really. That means a hundred people out of three hundred were sleeping during this guy's lecture! That's a really high proportion--I'd feel bad if I were the professor. Man, to put that many people to sleep in half an hour is a feat.

I'm going to try to go to sleep now. My pinky finger is cold.