Doomsday Aardvark

Random Rant for 9/23-24/2002: One of THOSE Days

Did you ever have one of those days that made you just want to drill a hole through your head? Just because it sounded like it would be more fun than what you are actually doing? Well, this has been one of those days.

Today started promptly at 9:30 AM when I managed to drag my carcass out of bed. I was up till 2 the night before, doing some reading. More on that topic later. Anyway, I basically just bounced around commitment to commitment all day. First I got my hair cut. That was the most exciting part of the day. Then I went to class. My first class was postponed till 6:30 in the evening, so I therefore got to go to my second class first. While I enjoy playing the guitar, I was still pretty tired, and so, didn't really feel like doing that.

After that, I did the usual bolt down a lunch routine before going off to study the fascinating world of Combinatorial Optimization. (Which is latin for "more pain than can reasonably be crammed into one afternoon" I believe). Again, nothing bad here, exactly, but still not exactly the most fun in the world either.

Next I went to work. It was about 2:30 by now (which for those counting is 5 hours into the day) and I was already feeling a bit stressed and tired. Fortunately, it was a quiet day. The trouble here is that I didn't realize at the time just how much longer the day was going to last.

You see, work leads straight into another class. In this case Software Engineering. (which is latin for "Oh, wait we found something even more painful!") Now, that may actually qualify as the low point of the day, or perhaps the next point. That class dragged on from 4:30 to 5:45. OK, now here comes the worste part of this. The professor (who for purposes of simple politeness shall remain nameless) assigned several more homework problems, which will be due next week. She also promised still more homework to be assigned next time, which would still be before tonight's batch is due, and would be due after them. La! I really hate having several outstanding assignments in the same class at the same time. I don't have a goat, but if I did, this would certainly get it.

Now to make clear the next point, I must tell you that I thought that my History class was meeting at 6:00 PM, not 6:30. So After SE I rushed home to drop off my books, and so forth, and discovered a message on my answering machine. It was from my land lord, saying that she needed to talk to me. Nope, no time for that! I had to go off to the movie. Now as I said, it turned out that I actually had an extra half-hour to burn here, but since I hadn't had dinner yet, I thought I'd go over to the near-by student union and grab a bite to eat. I got there and saw the line. Thinking better of getting real food, I decided that speed was of the essance. Therefore, my dinner consisted of a York peppermint patty. (Mmmm... York bar) I ate that in about twenty seconds, and returned to the theatre for my class.

Don't get me wrong. The movie was actually pretty good. It was Japanese, but subtitled, so we still got to hear the original language (which is always good), and it was well acted and directed. The only thing lacking for me was, of course a date. But we won't get into that right now. The film lasted for about an hour and a half, which isn't bad as movies go, but unfortunately, the prof for this class is one of those people that likes to hear himself talk, so we finally got out a little after 8:00 PM (that's 10 hours, 30 minutes of day so far, for those keeping score)

By this time I was determined to do something fun, just because I could. I mean, I was done, right?

WRONG!

No, no, couldn't stop at just 10 hours, could we, ohh, no. Now, somewhere in here I received (note that I can spell it) an email from the prof who had assigned the reading that kept me up till 2 the day before. She said not to worry about the reading, that we would be doing something else instead. Grumble, grumble.

OK, so at this point it's a bit after 8:00 PM. I was very hungry. York bars have even less staying power than Chinese food, so I was very hungry. No problem, I thought, I'll just fix a little

WRONG!

Oh. Right. I forgot. I was so busy doing homework that I neglected to buy food. So I went over to my parents house, where there is always food. Handy that.

So I got there, and started to eat. While I was doing this, my father decided to ask me a question about the computer. (Phoenix is running quite nicely, by the way) It was simple, but I puffed about it a bit. I was exasperated and hungry, and he was asking me questions that I thought seemed simple enough that he should be able to figure them out on his own. Anyway, I finished eating, and then helped out on the computer a bit. (Trying to install an office suite)

It was at this time that my mother informed me that my landlord had called. (You remember the message, right -- I'd just about forgotten) Apparently, they are re-financing the house where I'm living, and the appraiser is coming over tomorrow morning (or is that today now) to have a look. Now, as you've probably guessed, I'm not the world's best house keeper. In fact, I'm a bit of a slob. So that meant that I needed to start cleaning. It was now about 9:00 PM (OK 11 hours 30 min)

I still hadn't had any fun, and now I needed to clean. This, of course was going to take some time. I needed to pick the place up, and do dishes, and take out some slightly past full trash bags. (nothing smelly, mind you, just ugly) That took me till right around 1:00 AM, with about a 20 minute break wherein I went back to my parents and watched a bit of Willow. (the movie, not the tree) I just needed to get out for a bit.

Again, for those keeping score that would make a solid day of just about 16 hours, during which time I spent aproximately an hour (total, non-contiguous) doing things simply because I wanted to. The appraisers will be looking the place over between the hours of 9:00 AM and 12:00 noon tomorrow. Naturally enough, I will be either in class or at work for this entire time. (Work from 9 to 11:00, class from 11:30 to 12:45, and another class from 1:00 to 2:15, and then back to work at 3:00) But after 5:00 tomorrow, I will be free. I will be FREE. You hear that, world? I plan to have some FUN!! Of course, I would still have homework to do, and naturally enough, there's even a Golden Key meeting in the evening, which I may attend, so fun may have to wait till the next day, which would be almost identical to today, so I may actually have to put fun off all the way to the weekend, or perhaps even to fall break.

It is now just about 2:00 AM. I am waiting for the last of the dishes to dry, and then I will go off to bed. I started writing this at about 1:00 so there's the second hour of stuff just for me. Two seventeenths. Wonderful. I guess I'll put those dishes away, and go to bed.

This is the DoomsDayAardvark, signing off.