The only downside of the evening was that my group was having problems with our experiment. I was in the lab from 9am-11am that morning, but then I had plans the rest of the day. Three of my group members were there from 9am until 9:30pm (with a break for lunch and dinner). They texted me at about 3pm and asked if I could come in because they were having problems and it was taking longer than they expected. But we already had dinner reservations and I really didn't want to cancel on Daniel. He did this nice thing for me to help me relax and it would be so rude to cancel to go work on school stuff. So I told my group I just couldn't come in. They were very understanding and weren't upset at all- but I still felt guilty of course. So then at 4pm they reminded me that I had to have my powerpoint done by tomorrow morning. Of course I forgot. So I had exactly one hour until we were leaving for dinner to make my powerpoint and get dressed and ready to go. I was kind of freaking out and I didn't think I would get it all done, but I did. So we went to dinner, and during dinner my group members were texting me questions about things that I had done earlier that morning. And then during the ballet one of my group members called me to ask about my powerpoint presentation. I kept seeing that red blinking light on my blackberry and it was stressing me out because I knew it was my group member that called and left a message. So basically during the whole night I was reminded every hour that the rest of my group was working on this project while I was out on a date with Daniel. It kinda took some of the fun out. But I guess I deserved it.
So this morning we met at school and drove to Dr. Verl's house about 45 minutes out of the city. He lives in the foothills of the mountains basically. It's a beautiful neighborhood. It wasn't quite as awkward as I thought it would be, mostly because the entire class was there so we had each other to joke with. Dr. Verl was surprisingly nice and funny and hospitable. He cooked some pretty good food for us and helped us a lot with our presentation and troubleshooting our experiment. And it was great to spend some time with my classmates actually socializing and being friends instead of group members. I'm so lucky that our group all gets along really well. We actually like each other and we never argue about what to do. We all pull our weight and show up on time, prepared, and ready to work.
The one thing that's irritating to me is that Dr. Verl expects us to be in the lab every day up until our presentation on Thursday. He expects us to keep trying because so far the experiment isn't working. He doesn't care that I have two papers, two other presentations, and two finals for other classes. He actually told us that. He doesn't care that we have other classes. We have to work on this class. There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. I have to meet with 3 different groups, and trying to coordinate everybody's schedule is virtually impossible. So we're going into the lab again tomorrow to try to finish up as much as we can. There goes my weekend. I have a paper due on Monday so I absolutely have to find time to write that. I'm going to wake up early tomorrow and try to get it done before everything else. I'm so sad I don't get to sleep in this weekend.
I guess I have to have some horror story to tell my children someday about how hard college is. I have never experienced anything close to this. I have had class/work/group meetings from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed this entire week. And it will be the same for the next week too. I haven't had time to cook so we've been going out way too often. I haven't had time to clean so our house was a mess until today when Daniel cleaned it. He's the best. He did so much today while I was gone. I ripped two pairs of jeans in the last few weeks (long story), so I've just been wearing ripped jeans because I don't have a free hour to drive to the mall and buy a new pair. Jackson is so desperate for attention that he got a tennis ball, dropped it in my lap while I was working on my computer, and sat there staring at me for 30 minutes. I feel so bad, like I'm a bad parent. And Daniel and I have had almost no time together- except for last night of course. I've been close to throwing a fit and just giving up. But it hasn't happened yet. If I can get through this week fulfilling all my obligations and doing well on all my projects, I will be a better person for it. This is real character building. I can feel it physically changing me. Or maybe that's the cortisol coursing through my veins. Cortisol is the stress hormone for all you non-sciency people :-)
Well I guess I should stop wasting time and work on my paper/ presentation/ final exam studying. Any encouraging words and/or prayers are welcome! I'm going to need them.
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