Morning

I have never been a morning person. After this morning, I am even less so. I knew that all my classes today were canceled (hurray!), so I planned to sleep in and have a leisurely morning today. My favorite way to wake up is without an alarm clock. I like to just wait until the light from the windows and the sleep I've had wake me up naturally. Today was going to be the first time in a long time I would be able to do that. I went to bed with the happy anticipation of a beautiful sleep and a late start in the morning.
Cut to 8:20. (Yes, this may be late to some of you. But it isn't for me.) My phone started ringing, but I thought it was my alarm and just ignored it. Then I heard shouting. "It's leaking! It's leaking! Stop showering! It's leaking!" Apparently our shower floor has a leak, and was leaking on the dining room table below.
This means:
1. My lovely morning was definitely shot.
2. I can't shower at my apartment until they fix our shower floor/dining room ceiling.
3. I hate mornings and my apartment.
I guess I should just be glad that nobody fell through the floor/ceiling onto the dining room table.

Guilty pleasure

Apparently there was an "electrical incident" in the Clyde, which is the engineering building on campus and incidentally the building all my classes are in. It led to a loss of power in the entire building. They can't fix it until tomorrow evening. This means I have a long weekend. Hurray!
I almost feel bad that I get so much joy out of this. Almost, but not quite.

Why I procrastinate

I received an email from my professor today. He was informing the class that the homework that was assigned on Friday and due tomorrow, is canceled due to an error. This is why I don't start my homework the day it was given.

Overheard

People are funny. They say funny things, especially when you take those things out of context, or don't have any context to put them in. Yesterday in between classes I overheard a few interesting snatches of conversation.
"I must owe you like 20 cents by now."
"Meh. Don't worry about it."
and
"Turtles are actually pretty good and illegal in some countries to eat."
and
"That orange looks like it has a tumor!"

Success

My sister Kristina and I don't have middle names. People always ask what our middle names are, and we tell them we don't have any. One day we were joking and said that we should try to convince people that we do have middle names and that they're bizarre. We decided that her middle name would be Octavia and mine was something equally random which I don't remember. We tested out our "hidden" names on our very gullible cousin Kyle, who believed anything (one time we convinced him that he had a middle name he didn't know about. Five minutes later we convinced him that our family had another brother who we kept in the basement.) He believed us, and it was good.
Fast forward to a few days ago. Kristina put a survey on facebook where people are supposed to answer questions about her. One was "Take a stab at my middle name." All her friends were saying she didn't have one. I said, "Octavia. You didn't tell your friends?" Our brothers, Josh and John, and our cousin Trevor were kind enough to back me up. I'm pretty sure some of her friends now have their doubts. Mission accomplished.

Random

Advantage of eating breakfast: I'm less hungry.
Advantages of not eating breakfast: Getting ready takes less time. I feel productive when I think about all the things I've accomplished "before breakfast."
Concentrating in class is hard. I think my attention span is about 20 minutes, and my classes are longer than that.
Everywhere I turn I see German. Maybe it's a sign.

Raise Your Hand if You Saw that Coming

New

It is a new year (just in case you didn't notice already). It also is a new semester, at least for those of us who are unlucky enough to have started school again. This means I am almost required to wax philosophical.

I have good intentions every semester. I start out taking copious notes, doing my homework in advance, and doing the reading for all of my classes. Unfortunately, as the semester progresses, I tend to let these habits slip. This is doubly unfortunate because right now all we're doing is reviewing and I probably don't need to make a special effort at this point.

Last October, I loaned a calculator to a stranger. I never got it back, and I had written it off as a loss and a lesson, as it taught me not to lend things to strangers. I got the calculator back yesterday. Maybe the loanee's new year's resolution was to stop being a kleptomaniac.

I ordered a textbook on Nov. 26. I haven't received it yet, and the seller's ebay profile says they are "on vacation." So much for those good habits I was talking about.

Phenomenon

The body's fight-or-flight response is an amazing thing, if you think about it. It is beautifully adapted to help the body cope with stressful, potentially dangerous situations. And it is of great practical value, even in modern life. I have found, for example, that when I am stressed or angry, I do really well at solitaire, Bejeweled, and other games.