This Won't Be Terrible Exciting, But It Should Kill A Couple Minutes of Your Otherwise Jobless Day (Lisa, Ryan...I'm Looking at You)

Sooooooo.

Exam Day! Such a wretched/blessed feeling. How is it possible to loathe and love the same thing so much at one time? I think the loathing part is clear. Who likes exams? Especially law school* exams. But, I also love exam day. My long national** nightmare finally ends. Four months of frustration, reading, procrastination, studying, procrastination, not reading when I should be, attending class, skipping class, and feeling miserable for skipping class all comes to an end in three*** short hours.

I think but am not sure that today is the first time in my law school career that I managed to sleep the night before my exam. Usually, in a manic state, I am up for at least 24 hours before the exam. Of course, I know it's not helpful. Nor healthy. By the time I get to the exam, everything is a blur and I am ready to tear my eyes out.

Today, though. Oh, today. Today would be different! With some helpful encouragement from a certain boo, I got a good night's rest. I took some NyQuil**** and fell soundly asleep at 1am.

Sweet dreams were had all around.

I wake up at 6am sharp. Shower immediately. For breakfast, I had some yogurt and granola, and boy was it delicious. Finally, after much procrastination, I decide to download the exam taking software I need. 

Why put it off to today? No idea. But, to take the exam, you have to use this program called ExamSoft. Basically, it's a word processor that keeps you from accessing ANYTHING on your computer besides the exam program while you are taking your exam. You start it, begin the exam, it reboots your computer, and when it reboots it boots directly into the ExamSoft program and your exam begins. 

The trick for me being...you can't use Mac OS with ExamSoft for whatever reason. But you CAN get a real copy of windows installed and use that. So at Thanksgiving, the brother who didn't bail on his family that he's known for almost 29 years****** installed Windows on my new Mac. 

I boot to Windows, plug in the ethernet cord... and there is no internet. No internet means I can't a) Download the ExamSoft program; b) Download my exam; c) Turn in my exam.

I have no idea how to fix this. It's 7am and my exam is in a few hours. OH EFFING HELL.

I jump up and head to campus. I get there around 7:15, but the Internet Help Desk is not open till 9. So I head to the library and get online to seek Pat's guidance. He says I just need my Mac OS boot disk to load some drivers. Well...I don't HAVE the freaking Mac OS boot disk with me because I had no idea I might need it.

I am flippin pissed. It's now like 8:30 and I decide to head back over to the Internet Help Desk to see if just maybe they opened early. So I walk back across campus...

Lights are on! Yay! 

Door is locked! Booo. 

But the guy comes walking out and says, "Oh sure, no problem" when I explain my sitch to him. 

And then I pull out my Mac. "Oh...this is the new one. I don't think I have all the right drivers on this Disc because it's for the old one."

My head starts spinning. My knee******* did not love the walk here this morning and it surely won't like a walk back home and back to campus even more. He decided to give it a shot... and whaddayaknow... the damn thing works. Phew. I download the program, download the exams, run the test...and everything seems to be working.

Crisis averted!

The moral of this story is simple. No matter how much sleep I get before an exam, something is bound to almost go horribly wrong for me.

The most important question out of all of this, though is:

Tommy, why are you writing this blog when you have an exam in less than four hours instead of studying for Constitutional Law? You are still unclear on the nuances of Procedural Due Process. You still don't understand when and how to apply the O'Brien Test********. 

Touche, my dear self. Touche.

*I am most certainly sticking my nose up in the air as I type this sentence

**Ok, personal. I just like the phrase Long, national nightmare. Don't you?

***God, help me get out in 2.

****Yes, I AM sick, but damn...that stuff is straight from God's lips to mine own.

*****Can I just say...that Trader Joe's French Village or whatever yogurt is the BEST!!!!!! It's got a sharp bite that I oh so love.

******Sean, I don't think you read this, but I'm kidding. Kind of.

*******Stupid god damn knee.

********Isn't it ironic, don't ya think?