The little things...

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that get us through a hard day. Like having a roommate who knows you’re stressed out and offers to grab you lunch at McDonald’s to save you time. Or an RC who will stop on the stairs to pray for your homework.

Or a friend who doesn’t mind leading worship for you, even though he’s on the worship team for service every week. How about a mom who won’t give you a hard time, even though it’s the fourth time you’ve called to whine?

It’s the things you never notice, like professors who pray for you when you’re suffering some anxiety, or who are especially accommodating when you—in your scattered state—have forgotten to turn in an assignment.

Right now I’m past the point of exhaustion. I’ve ceased to function. My fingers are willing to type faster, but my brain refuses to move that quickly. I felt guilty tonight, sitting in the computer lab of the business building, listening to my professor explain how to create an html page.

He and the professor I’ve had for the last six weeks are tag-team teaching this class. This is our first week with this particular professor, and I already know I like him. He’s like a nicer, less awkward, better-looking version of Mr. Bean.

Maybe that’s not as much of a compliment as I meant for it to be. My first impression of him is that he’s friendly and comfortable. He seems to have a fairly good sense of humor, especially when it comes to losing at Scrabble on Facebook.

I think I also feel like I can connect with him on some level; we’re both bona fide nerds—each in our own way. He’s a great mix of computer geek, history buff, and savvy (I mean not technologically-challenged) professor. I think he’s even pretty interesting, too.

Unfortunately, I was so exhausted tonight that I could barely keep my eyes open. I was awake enough to catch the basic things we need to know to work with Dreamweaver. But it was a raging battle of the eyelids.

Part of the problem is that I stayed up late last night preparing for an oral presentation and hammering out a précis for my British mystery class. Then I had to wake up early to run to my 8:30 Point magazine meeting, which lasted almost three hours.

Then I walked over to Sutherland courtyard to meet with Chelsea, where we put the finishing touches on our presentation. I made my way back to the journalism office at 1:15. My professor was a little behind schedule, so we didn’t end up meeting until almost 2. Needless to say, I didn’t make it back to my apartment until almost 3.

Ariel had lunch waiting for me at the apartment. I quickly devoured my nuggets and fries (fast food is just comforting sometimes) before getting to work, making phone calls and trying to get my last two interviews. I still have a lot of work to do, but tomorrow’s draft is only the first. I do have time to make more contacts and refine my article.

I continued to transcribe my interview notes until it was time to head to my 6 pm class. I struggled to maintain consciousness through that class, then headed back to the apartment to eat dinner (instant curry is a wonderful thing) and sit down at my computer.

Since then, I’ve had to send out a bunch of emails for the magazine—we’re really cracking down on our writers now because their final drafts are due. And I still have the rest of the interview to transcribe, handouts to print, the précis to polish and print, and the article to write. It’s going to be a long night.