Whew!

A crazy-long day ended a crazy-long week. My history final was at 8:30 this morning. I went to bed at about a quarter 'til 5, then got up at 7:30, showered, went to Wawa, picked up a nasty-ass breakfast sandwich (there was something WRONG with that bacon, I tell you!), and headed over to the history building. The exam itself wasn't too bad -- my bullshitting skills came in quite handy, and the last-minute cramming actually paid off. I may not have aced it, but I definitely think I did okay. CandyGirl and I finished at about the same time (okay, I finished a little before she did, but I strategically waited until she was done before I packed up and headed out), so we walked together to the University Center and chatted, which was nice. I'm still bummed that she doesn't swing my way, but things are far less awkward between us these days, and I could actually see us becoming friends, so the situation hasn't been a total loss. She really is a cool chick.

So from there I stopped by the biology building, made a few more edits on my final grant proposal, and FINALLY turned the sucker in... what a liberating feeling!

Then I came home and went directly back to bed for several hours (it was marvelous!).

I spent my evening hanging out with Susan, watching our school's football game on TV, drinking some beers, watching Buffy DVDs, making mac and cheese, knitting, making fun of people, buying cheap wine (Arbor Mist! $3.50 a bottle!), pretzels, toilet paper, and tuna at Wal-Mart at ten minutes 'til midnight -- the usual. The tuna was for the stray kitty that frequents her back porch. Everything else was for us :) .

So all in all, despite my early academic exertions, today was pretty sweet.

Late last night, after having spent several hours studying in the library, I jotted a brief diatribe about finals. I thought I'd share:

If I have learned nothing else from finals it's that there is solidarity in suffering. As I sit in the library agonizing over my history notes, I exchange occaisional glances of commiseration with my fellow academic slaves. I exchanged sympathetic words with a total stranger when we discovered that the vending machine was totally picked over and all that remained were some "hot" Cheetos (sporting an unnatural orangey-red color) and a few of those nasty cookies with the little dot of "fruit" in the center.

Then, of course, there are the assholes who missed the solidarity boat. These are the people who allow their cell phones to ring "Big Pimpin'" at earsplitting volume in the most populated section of the library during peak study time. These are the people who monopolize the few precious public access computers chatting on AIM. Then there are the "my stress is worse than your stress" assholes. These are by far the worst kind. They lurk everywhere and appear when you least expect them. They may even be some of your closest friends.

Example:
Me - "Oh man, I have a final tomorrow I am SO not ready for."
Asshole - "That's nothing! I have two finals tomorrow. And one is for a class I didn't even know I was signed up for. And my lifesized reproduction of the Sistine Chapel is due in three hours, but I haven't started it yet, because I have to finish the genetic analysis on my long-haired, mohawked, inbred jumbo Hungarian mountain goats that I bred specially for my biology project. I totally had to ask for an extension on that one - it was originally due last Monday!"
Me - ::walks away::

And there you have it, folks: interpersonal interaction during finals, in a nutshell. Welcome to my world.