Rockstar Status

So yesterday I had a paper and presentation due. Guess when I started it? Sunday at 10pm. I know I know...probably not the most appropriate time to even starting my research for it. But as I mentioned earlier (I think), I feel like I'm in a time warp. I feel like I go to bed one night, and wake up days later, with nothing accomplished. I blame it on the shorter, winter days, but I can't blame them for much longer (thank goodness for that).

So back to Sunday night. It was the end of spring break, and as I did nothing productive over break (except train, eat, and sleep), there I sat with my laptop on the couch. Currently, my computer desk is covered by random things: mail (openend and unopened), empty gel packets, numerous HR monitors, water bottles (empty, and half full), etc. Not the best conditions for writing a paper. So I took my laptop to the living room. Then I realized I couldn't steal the neighbor's internet connection, so I was finally forced to set up our wireless, which I've been putting off for weeks because I thought it would be a hassle (Believe me, with the first two routers it was). So I guess the 3rd router was a charm...30 minutes later, we had wireless!

So now, it's nearly 11pm. I still had a paragraph I wasn't even sure I could use because I took it from a paper I had written last year (yes, on a related topic). I was finally ready to get something done. I was reading through books, looking up papers, and between Junior wanting me to throw his ball and emailing my sister about how I didn't want to write the paper (only to get responses back from her, doing the same thing I was), my roommate came home who I hadn't seen in days. We proceed to chat for about 20 minutes, until I realized it was approaching midnight. Cool. The last time I was up this late, I was either babysitting (so falling asleep at that) or attempting to revisit my college days of partying (but again, resisting the urge to fall asleep at the bar).

With everyone in the house in bed except me (probably the first time this has happened), I began actually writing something. Approximately 45 minutes pass and I had several hundred words on paper. Yes! However, this only equaled about a page and a half. And our minimum word limit was 4,000. I wasn't even sure I was writing coherent sentences because it was 1:15am. I do not function well after 10pm, and not at all after midnight. I called it quits, emailed sis to tell her I gave up for the night, and headed to bed.

I made sure to still get 7 hours of sleep. There was no sense in waking up extra early, just to sleep through the whole day and STILL not get the paper done. I came straight to work, coffee in hand, ready to work. I didn't even read my daily blogs. I checked email and got straight to work. I proceeded to write, complain, drink coffee, write, use the restroom, check email, complain, etc. for six straight hours. I was actually exhausted from SITTING. My eyes were strained, my fingers cramping up, and my butt was slightly numb. Similar to a 50+ mile ride...I would have taken the ride over the paper writing.

Finally, at 4pm, I finished. I didn't read it to see if it made sense, but dammit I had 3900-ish words and 14-ish pages. Yeah, not 4,000 but who's counting? I had exactly one hour until class and my roommate informed me she wouldn't be able to let Junior out for me, like we had planned. So I rushed home, literally was home for about 8.4 minutes, and jumped right back in the car. I made it to class 5 minutes late (the stairs slowed me down..my legs were still tired from last week). Another girl in the class was presenting before me, so I would have time to read over my paper before presenting (Note: our prof doesn't teach with powerpoint, I think he's the only one left in the universe, so I didn't feel it necessary to prepare a powerpoint presentation...aka I ran out of time). Well, said girl in class was late...later than I was. So, the prof said "Robyn, you're up!"

Robyn --> WHA?!?!?

Ok, no problem. I just got up and essentially read from my paper, like I was reading them in bulleted notes format, and added my thoughts and comments afterwards. All in all I spoke for an hour and 15 minutes (we were supposed to talk from :45-1:00...oops) and one of my classmates said he couldn't tell I was reading from my paper.

Afterwards, I found out I had until next week to turn the paper in. Great, I went thru all of that for NOTHING. I could have just stood up and presented, and written the paper later. But I'm glad its done. So now, I'll actually read it before I turn it in.

Lesson Learned: Start assignment much earlier than the day before it is due.
Thing Realized: I'm a rockstar.

Also, I'm giving a nutrition talk specific to triathletes tonight at Whole Foods! I'm pretty excited. Also, I started making up the presentation about 2 hours ago.....Maybe I didn't learn my lesson.