the lazy student's guide to surviving finals.

finals week.

the week where nothing is normal, all college norms are temporarily suspended, and no one gets quite enough sleep.

(we had a giddy laugh about this at 2 am the other night...)

i decided there are three key rules in surviving finals week.

1. NEVER study with friends

2. forget any semblance of normality

3. c's get degrees!

if you can remember these three rules, then no worries, finals week will be a breeze!

1. NEVER study with friends

my roommate (sara) and i usually go to bed around midnight, as we both have absurdly early morning classes. same with our neighbors, marina and jessie. generally speaking, we are not exactly night owls. this week... has been a little different. we've been hosting late night focus groups. and by focus groups, i mean the exact opposite. studying with friends is only a good idea if you have no expectations of attaining decent grades (if that is the case, get out of here. go ahead and scroll down to point number three, because you're not welcome here) or if you have an iron will and the attention span of a rock (they have good attention spans, right?).

our study groups immediately dissolve into chaos. maybe it's just the four of us, but studying together takes us down a road to unproductive-ville. in which we are granted permanent citizenship. mostly we end up talking about boys, school, boys, summer plans, high school, boys and food. and there's a lot of facebooking involved. moral of the story: studying is acceptable only in the following conditions: solo, twosies or a group ruled by a dictator/oldest child. if none of those applies to your study group, ABANDON SHIP- you're just going to drown in unrelated conversations and haphazard tomfoolery.

i guess this is another method...

2. forget any semblance of normality.

things get crazy during finals. people lose inhibitions, stop caring about classes and behave differently than usual. due to all our late night "study" sessions, we've become a bit nocturnal. yesterday, i left to study at nine. sara was sleeping. i came back for my wallet at eleven. sara was sleeping. i took a final at 2:30 and came back to the dorm around four. sara was still sleeping. now i don't think she spent the whole seven hours asleep, but that's not the point. later, while i was out, sara went to talk to jessie and marina and found them fast asleep in their rooms. she decided we should try this new thing: study during the day, sleep at night.

welcome to weirdville, where things are weird:

• there's a girl in our hall who is good people*. she's kind, caring and genuine. but violate finals week study hours by talking too loud in the hall and things get real. fast.
• technically, the hall lights are supposed to go off at midnight. and usually, our r.a. turns them off at like eleven. this week, they've definitely been on until three or four every night.
• on my way to a final in the JFSB, i definitely noted the presence of a sleeping student on about every other bench in the main hall.

3. c's get degrees!

let's be real here- this close to a break, can you honestly forget that once it's all over and done with, you get to leave campus and forget about school? i know i've been so anxious to finish, i've come to the desperate conclusion that grades don't even matter anymore! how bad can it get, right? well that might be taking things a bit far. but the point is, c's DO get degrees. expensive degrees, as c's don't get scholarships, but degrees nonetheless. this isn't high school- as long as you're paying tuition, no one cares about grades. this motto has been keeping me sane all week. well that, and the fact that i've been taking regular "study breaks" to watch lord of the rings. i do love me some study breaks.

the moral of the story: don't freak out. it'll be over before you know it, and you can go back to playing super mario in class and sleeping through american heritage. just remember that there is a cloud to every silver lining. in this case, a break from school and a chance to empty our brains for next semester! hooray! i have yet to hear of finals week casualties, so i assume everything is ok. it is only wednesday, there are still two more testing days so i wish everyone the best luck in finals! good luck, i love you all and don't smerf up your tests.

-katie

hang in there buddy- almost done!
i know, this doesn't really fit in anywhere, but it was too darn cute to delete

*yes, i meant good people. folks, it's a phrase. and a real one that i didn't make up.

The Dumb Man's Guide to Dinner Dates

There's a youtube video that's been getting a lot of attention lately. It attempts to answer the question, "Can Men and Women Be Just Friends?" Ultimately, the students at USU came to a negative conclusion. To this I say, really? Guys, is it really that hard to just be friends? I would have supported men, defended the position that they are not just flirtatious beasts out on the prowl, looking for some innocent prey to attack, but lately I've seen strong evidence suggesting USU was right.

Exhibit A: There was a guy who was one of my good friends. I liked hanging out with him, and eventually I even started to have a little bit of a crush on him.

Then he went crazy.

He called me 8 times within the course of one hour. 8 times! And all he wanted to do was ask me if I wanted to have dinner with him. So, to all the men out there, here's the break down. To ask a girl to dinner, calling 1 or 2 times is sufficient. She'll see that you called and that you wanted to make plans. Even 3 times is acceptable if there's not much time before you need a reply. However, anything more than 3 tells the girl, "Help! Answer the phone! I'm dying, call an ambulance!!" Knowing this, imagine what I thought when I saw that I had 8 missed calls! Needless to say, I answered call number 9 (I didn't have to wait long, either), expecting a catastrophe. Upon finding out that dinner plans were the only thing crushing his skull, all I could think about was how much I wanted to smack him in the (insert body part of choice here).

In closing: Men, be careful when being persistent. A little goes a long way. Always remember that the twin brother of persistence is creepy, and no girl ever wants to meet him.

Happy hunting!
-Sara

howdy, pardners!

life is tough. we all need a break sometimes, to vent or think things through or (in my case) to ramble. hence, the blog. being the first to post is a daunting challenge, but i never back down from a challenge!*

mostly, i just want to have the bragging rights of being the first one to post a blog. so why am i here? well it seemed like a good idea at the time. i'm not the type who is good with words or has an innate humor that makes for a lifetime of blog-able stories, but i am the type to start projects right and left with every intention of developing life long talents and abilities (so far, i have three unfinished scarves, two other blogs i never post on and one dog back home who is selectively trained). probably, this will lead to another dead end buuuut... we'll see!

with that in mind, welcome to our blog and smerf out!

-katie

*ok that's a big ole lie. i back down from stuff all the time, but it's generally for relatively acceptable reasons (i.e. when spiders or hard work or any kind of physical exercise enters the picture)