Somehow, someway, I was destined to mess up seriously at some point in my college career, and I just narrowly adverted such a dillema today.

Last night I didn't go out because I had to stay in and study for my Physics final, and study i did - though barely. I wasn't worried because I could get anywhere between 50 and 95 percent on the final and still come out with a B in the class, so what's the point in trying that hard? Exactly. So, somewhere around 3, after studying and getting myself all ready to go home on Saturday, I went downstairs to get some water and to hit the hay. At this time I ran into a friend, who jokingly said "You'd better make sure it's not at 9, don't want to sleep through it - ha ha." So I went back upstairs and looked up my exam time. I had the time right, just not the DAY. My exam was supposed to be on FRIDAY at 2pm, not SATURDAY.

The first thing I did was e-mail my professor immediately explaining my situation - it was one of those "could you help me out, but if you can't i understand cause i'm the one that messed up here and i have to pay for my ineptitude" e-mails. then i calculated my grade taking into acount not getting any credit for the final -- it was a C-, which sucks, but is still passing. Finally, I set my alarm for 8:30 in case the professor had a 9am exam and I might get a chance to take my exam during that exam period.

Well, starting at 8:30 I set my alarm to go off every half hour so that I could get up and check for messages. This process continued until 2pm, at which point I gave up hope and shut off the alarm for good. Then my cell phone rings. I answer it and its my father - annoying as ever - asking me how my exam went. Uh - it didn't. After explaining the situation to him, I hung up the phone and debated whether I wanted to do laundry before I went home or shower first. As I sat debating, the phone in my room rang - it was my professor saying that if I could make it to his house and get the final done before he had to leave at 4pm I could take the test - of course, I said, and I threw on some clothes and trecked to his place (it was just off campus, a bit of a walk, but not far enough to drive).

Thank god for understanding professors - that's all I can say, really.

Other than that, this exam week really wasn't as hard as I originally thought it was going to be: I had had two ten-page papers to turn in last Thursday (2nd) and I got both of those back (International Cinema: A, Film Theory and Criticism: A-) and was pleased with the results. I had my Film Theory and Criticism final on Thursday and while the prof. decided to pick the hard questions from the study guide, I had had a feeling that she would and had prepared accordingly. Then I had a take-home that I needed to have finished by Friday at 3, it was done on time. Lastly, I had a final paper in my Chinese Cinema class to turn in by Saturday: that wasn't the best paper that I've ever written, but I've only been pulling a A-/B+ in that class all semester and I'd be fine with that grade as a final grade anyway.

That means that on Monday morning I get to start the treck home - 14-15 hours in a car with nobody but myself. It sounds aweful, but it's not that bad. You just have to have lots of music to listen to and it's doable. That and lots of caffeine. I'll have to get to bed early tomorrow though, maybe around 10. Ick, I feel like an old lady. I do get to take a pit-stop in Champaign (around hour 10-11) to have dinner with my friend Merry, who spent last summer down in Winston selling books for some reason. That'll be nice, though there is no chance for a happy ending, which is disappointing.

Home will be fun, since it will be a lot of drinking with my High School buddies - who are all two-three years younger than me. Yes, I'm a loser. It happens. But at least I'll have one of the school's digital cameras with me: at the very least I'll get to make some amateur porn (ha, I wish). And I might head down to Nashville for New Years to be with the Phi Nus, if I can afford to put that many miles on the car, which is unlikely, but still a possibility.

We rented Mario Party 6 and played it tonight - it was fun, though I think I'd rather get one of the older ones for less and play it as a drinking game. Mmmm Mario Drinking Party.