Breakdown of a Friday Night

On Friday night, I buckled down to finish (see: start) a paper. Collegiate conversations sometimes go down the path of "Who is working on less sleep right now?" and that's not fun. Instead, I will share with my readers because many of you are finished with this stage of life. 

Friday my last class finishes at 2:00 something so after class I showered and met a few friends at the coffee shop. I love showering in the middle of the day. It makes me feel like I'm on vacation. When I am not on vacation I usually shower right before bed, so when I do shower in the middle of the day, it's like I get 2 days in 24 hours. 

I was rather unproductive at the coffee shop. I had one measly paragraph completed. I know I will write bigger papers than this one, but here are the baseline requirements: APA stlye, 7-8 pages, 14+ scholarly references, 250 points (this class has 1,000 total points) and basically we are explaining what addiction is. Ugh this prof. I am ready to have a semester without him. He can be really vague about what he wants. There's plenty of other things I don't like about him, but this post is about the paper.

So about 5:00 pm I get back to my room and suddenly I am hit with the reality of how much work I have to do and how tired I am. 50 points of the paper is going to the Writing Center and spending a 30 minute session with one of the students who works there, going through the paper with them. I picked the last open appointment- 3:30 on Saturday afternoon. It's not required to bring the whole paper to the appointment but it was a good goal.

I took a nap from like 6:00-8:00 to prepare myself. 

I dove in. Part of what took so long when I was writing was finding proper sources that I could actually use to support my argument. At about 11:00, 2/3 roommates were in bed and one was coming back from volunteering in Indy. I left the room to buy some energy drinks. I was never a fan before, but sometimes coffee upsets my stomach and the tea I like is decaf. Plus, I believe it will keep me awake so it usually does.

I got back to the room and 1 previously asleep roommate, 1 girl from our hall, and 1 boy are in the living room chatting. I knew I wasn't going to be able to work while they were just on the other side of the door chatting and having fun. I decided I could take some time and be social since I hadn't done that in a while. Part of the reason I got up to buy energy drink was because I hit a wall in my writing. 

We chatted until 12:00, which is when open house ends. Girl from the hall had to walk the boy back down to the lobby and sign him out. Yes, our open house rules are strict. There's a big section in our student handbook dedicated to it. 

The 3rd roommate came back just a little after 12:00 and told me about her volunteer work that night and the commitment she had made the next morning at the Boys and Girls Club. She's great that way. 

With 3/3 roommates in bed and 1 energy drink in my system, I got back to work. The energy drink didn't actually do a great job of keeping me awake. Darn it. I had to take a nap from 2:00-3:00am. I made it count by playing this album and this video.

At 3:00am, my computer alerted me it was going to enter sleep mode to preserve the battery and that tiny noise it made jolted me awake. My alarm was going to go off in the next 5 minutes, but frantically scrambling for the power cord as to not lose any progress I may have left unsaved made me very alert. 

At 4:00, I took a break to brush my teeth and have a mini dance party. 

I also took a break to wash a bowl at some point. 

I watched the sun rise. That was really nice. I can't remember the last time I saw the sun rise. 

The roommate I actually share a room with (I live in a suite, so the other 2 are in another bedroom) came out of our room at 9:00am and stared at me. She declared "you didn't come to bed last night!" and I informed her that I was aware. She also helped me come to the realization that if I went to bed, I would be really messed up and that would not help in the long run. So I stayed awake. 

I think I printed at like 10:00am. I relaxed until my writing center appointment at 3:30 and it went really well. The guy who helped me actually knew APA instead of looking it up on the Internet just as I had done for myself. 

I called my grandpa to wish him a happy birthday (73 years!) and chatted with my grandparents. I can't wait to see them at Christmas! I had dinner with Jess and her family. I'm staying with them for a few days after finals so it was nice to reconnect before I totally impose on their lives.

I got in bed early and watched a movie. I wasn't super cranky.

Over all, not the best way to write a paper but at least I didn't do it Sunday night! 

Tonight will involve editing, retyping, and reprinting. Then at 10:00am tomorrow morning I can get this weight off of my shoulders. I can get this weight off of my shoulders and move onto my other big papers due this week :)