Did you ever see a rabbit climb a tree?
That’s a line from some song or saying or something. I’m pretty sure the point of it is: no, rabbits don’t climb trees. Nor can grad students function after writing papers all week.
Here’s the bean man:
See how he looks kind of wide-eyed and crazy but he’s written a lot?
Yup.
One of my papers was due today at five. We have a big clock on campus that chimes the hour and then plays peices of a song every 15 minutes. It chimed the :45 when I was walking from my car and it chimed the end of the song and *dong* while I was *dong* seriously walking right *dong* down the hall towards *dong* my professor’s office *dong* just in the nick of time.
I hope that was five. I’m loopy and can no longer count.
I do have one paper writing adventure to share. As most of you know, I am a true night owl, so during final paper writing time, I generally pull “all-nighters” not because I’m behind on deadlines (necessarily), but because I now have no classes and the luxury of sleeping all day and working all night. However, since I can’t live this way all the time, I have a bit of trouble adjusting to the new schedule, and around 5 or 6 am, I can get pretty loopy.
At 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, I was leaving the library and when I got to my car I decided that, instead of going directly home, I should stop at the 24-hour CVS and buy a toothbrush because I had noticed that day that mine was getting icky.
So, I drive through this construction zone at the front of the school to get to the CVS and pull slooooowwwlly into a spot, since the construction work has left a huge pot hole in front of the store. I go inside and spend approximately ten minutes figuring out what toothbrush to buy, settling on a four-pack of CVS brand, because there is a little voice in the back of my sleepy brain saying “you’d better stock up on toothbrushes. something this ridiculous shouldn’t happen again.”
I take my toothbrushes to the counter, and I’m already holding two fives in my hand that I dug out of my bag. My bag is always a mess of credit cards and cash I just toss in there, so I try to find some payment method before I reach the counter. I hand over the toothbrushes and cash to pay the $5.46.
Then the guy at the counter asks me if I have 46 cents, presumably so he won’t have to break a dollar. I grumble, “Maybe,” annoyed that he’s making me go to the trouble and dig a handful of change out of the bottom of my bag. I start counting out the change and then I realize I’m at 75 cents and forgot to stop. I start over and give the guy the change, then stand there and wait for my four dollar bills. The guy stares at me and goes, “Um. Thank you.”
“Didn’t I give you a five?” I ask.
“No. You gave me a five and a one.”
The correct response at this point would have been “Oh! So sorry!”
Instead I said: “really?” with complete disdain.
For half of the drive home, I was CONVINCED this guy stole my four dollars. Then, it finally started to sink in. “No! You are just dumb tired and actually, you were quite rude to that nice man.”
Sorry nice CVS guy.
I hope you all can see the humor in this story. Now that I’ve written it up, I realize I just sound totally crazy. Remember that I had been awake for about twenty hours at that point. Wednesday was my transition day to the new schedule.
One more paper to go!
May 2nd, 2009 at 06:54
Okay… but if you gave the guy a five and a one, then wasn’t he being really picky by asking you for 46 cents when in reality he should have just given you 54 cents change?
See? I can’t let things go either.
And I should be revising my paper that I have to present today. So, I should go.
May 2nd, 2009 at 16:42
Well, clearly I did the math wrong in attempting to provide context for the story. It must have been 6.46. Oh, sleepy brain.