Why I will never again do homework after taking NyQuil

Some of you may have seen on my Facebook status this week that I recently resolved never to take NyQuil again before working on music theory homework (which, for those of you who don't know, is very detail- and math-oriented). However, after the repercussions of my poor decision-making lasted for a couple of days, I decided to share my story with the world, in hopes of preventing some poor, sickly future soul of making the same mistake that I did.


THE SETTING

It was a Monday night. I was cold, and shivering, my skin felt rough, and I could not get through my homework. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that I had a fever, and nothing would do but to take some NyQuil, finish my homework, and go to sleep. In that order. (I was feverish, okay? I wasn't thinking straight.)

THE BACKGROUND

I have no tolerance for anything. I go crazy after a cup of wine. I'm not even going to talk about liquor. And I had not had NyQuil in a very, very long time. Sometimes I don't think I deserve the recognition of being a college student because of my inability to drink, and then I look at how magnificently I procrastinate on everything, how profoundly messy I am, and how malleable my sleep hours are, and I realize that I still belong.

THE EVENTS SET IN MOTION

I know I took the NyQuil because of how gross it tasted. Also, I found the pill wrapper on the sink the next morning, and one pill was missing. Yes, one. A half dose. If you didn't read what I wrote before, I have a very low tolerance. At some point, I fell asleep. And then, the next morning, I woke up.

THE RESULTS. PT. 1

I went to my classes as usual on Tuesday morning. I still felt a little strange. We watched a video in my first class. I said hi to people, and took notes. I didn't have any homework due for that class, which was a good thing. I asked good, insightful questions. I think. I left the class when it was over, and went to my next class, where we did have a significant amount of homework due-- this was music theory. We were asked to open our workbooks, and I turned to a page filled with neat markings and numbers. Most of them weren't on any particular line, but they were in the general vicinity of where they were supposed to be. We went through the answers, and I was pleased to find that most of them were correct! This continued for several pages in the workbook until we turned to the final section, in which we had to analyze a Stravinsky piece. When the professor called out this page number (and the title of the piece), my stomach plummeted. I had not done this page. The piece sounded completely unfamiliar, and I knew I had not done this assignment at all. Moreover, I could tell my professor was just about to call on me for the first question.

I turned to the page as fast as I could, to try and figure out the answer of the first problem before being called on.

To my surprise, the entire page was completed-- in my handwriting, too! I proudly read out the answer of the first question, which was completely and totally wrong. The numbers I read had absolutely no relation to the piece in question. As I scanned the assignment while the rest of the class and the professor moved on, I saw very little connection between the numbers I'd recorded and the numbers I was supposed to put down. At one point, I had written a sequence that looked something like this:

45894589

When the text asked me if I noted any patterns in the aforementioned sequence, I'd responded with:

The numbers 2, 3 are repeated often. 

When one question asked me to list the numerical value of all the notes in the piece, and to label them, I'd written

0, 3, 6, 9; a diminished seven chord

The correct answer was:

0, 2, 4, 6, 8, t, 0; a whole tone scale

(for those of you who know nothing about music, know that this is a mistake that can only have been caused by not reading the question in addition to not reading the notes in the piece while pulling numbers out of thin air)


After hesitantly turning in my homework, I then went to my independent study lesson, where I showed my professor several summaries I'd compiled for a bibliography on non-canonical early Christian texts. Except I hadn't recorded any of the sources, and had failed to reference them in my summaries. I would describe, at length, how this text covered a certain argument, and was backed by its author. Luckily, my professor seemed to find it more amusing than anything else, but I spent a good hour tracking down all the texts I might have looked at the previous night, and recorded in my "notes."



So, that was my experience with NyQuil and homework. A mistake that, while egregious, was in the past. Or so I thought.

THE RESULTS, PT. 2

The next day, I came home to check my email, feeling very much recovered from my fever. I opened my inbox, responded to some messages, and came across an email from my professor with an attachment containing a short-response piece I'd turned in a couple of nights ago. I opened up the document to view his comments and my grade, and found, instead, a single question from my professor: "Are you still working on this?"

I scrolled down to see what I'd written:

I suppose that I am still a little confused by the seemingly conflicting ideas that, on one hand


THE LESSON

At that point, I resolved never to take NyQuil again. Or, if I did, write a note beforehand for me to read about how I am NOT to do ANY schoolwork post-drugs. Or just double-check my work afterwards. Or be with a friend who can monitor my work. Or something. Anything. The important thing is that I have learned: I should never, ever, do anything ever after taking a half-dose of NyQuil.

In short, this is why I'm not a drinker.

That time of year

So it's that time of year again. What do I mean by "that time of year"?  Here are some pointers that may help articulate what I mean:

• When you slowly begin to understand that the magical "break" or the "free time" you've been waiting for all semester is probably not going to happen
• Note: for anybody reading this who doesn't go to Trinity, we are currently on the tail end of Fall Break, which consists of having one Friday off of class. I should also add that Friday is generally the day people have the fewest classes, if any.
• I also want to mention that I have been incredibly busy both days, with school things that I just didn't have time for during the week. 
• When you remember that you own a playstation and haven't played it for weeks
• When you realize that despite all the same beginning-of-semester resolutions, you are still the same student you were last year
• When you finally stop worrying about midterms, only to begin thinking about finals, and how much they can change your average
• When you pull the first all-nighter of the semester
• When you get sick and go to class anyway because you just can't miss that lesson
• When your ideal night of fun involves staying home with some fruit and a movie and getting eight hours of sleep, and the prospect of staying up past midnight is somewhat off-putting

In short, it has become that time of year where I am staying ahead of all the work I have to do by a hair. My excuse for writing blog posts when I have other things to do is that I have to keep writing for fun, as any writing I have to do for classes is strictly analytical, and English professors generally don't appreciate memes and videos of cats in my essays. Maybe it's a reflection of my writing skills that I sometimes think they would actually enhance what I have to say.....for example, which comes across more vividly to you readers?

It is that time of year where I am perpetually sleepy. 

Or:

Look at this kitten to understand how I am feeling:

The point is, my essays could really benefit from outside sources that aren't directly related to the subject matter. Wait. No. That's not my point. My point is that blog posts serve as my outlet for all that excess desire for fun that I need to get rid of. Also I've recently discovered how fun it is to post GIFs, in case you can't tell.

Although, I have to admit that I have recently been running out of blog post ideas. Maybe that is also a symptom of That Time of Year? Several times, I've resorted to googling blog post ideas, but I haven't found anything particularly interesting, or something that lasts more than one post (every site I find says that all your blog posts should have a continuous theme, but I haven't found a theme I really want to stick with yet). But I do want to force myself to keep writing outside of class.
(on that note, does anybody have any post ideas?)

This has been a rambling post, but I will attribute it to That Time of Year. To end, I will close with a piece from the 25th Anniversary Symphony of The Legend of Zelda. (In case the whole world doesn't already know, I'm going to interview the composer next weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I'm studying my Zelda music as preparation-- this is the best kind of homework.)

Symphonies and homeworks

After spending a lovely evening at the symphony last night, despite the MORONIC and EVIL woman who kept her phone on during the WHOLE symphony-- even though it went off during the adagio-- and PLAYED on it during the last part of the last movement-- who even DOES that?? Why would you pay the money for a ticket if you're just going to distract yourself and everyone else?? The best parts where when she put her head on her boyfriend's LAP-- he was sitting right next to her-- so that even if they LOOKED ridiculous, they were at least being QUIET....

*clears throat* Um. Where was I? Oh right. The symphony.

So anyway, I saw Beethoven's ninth, and it was wonderful. I've seen it a few other times before, several years ago, but I think it meant more this time. I could actually hear a struggle in the last movement between joy and despair, between the different keys and different themes from the earlier movements, and the brilliance that the choir brings at the end. It's really an amazing piece. I'm glad I went to hear it.

Now it's a day of homework. I have to read a boring book (The Coquette), an interesting book (Ovid's Metamorphoses), a textbook chapter (something about geology), and listen to some music (probably classical). Right now I'm typing up notes while the tv keeps me entertained. People say it's not good to watch tv while you're doing homework, which I mostly agree with, except when I'm doing mindless things like typing up notes. Here is my reasoning:
1. I don't like doing homework.
2. I like watching tv.

In any case, I seem to  be staying on top of things so far this semester, which is a good thing.


Picture of the day: