I do mind-numbingly stupid things.
Last night I finally got to work on my informative speech, that was due this morning. Can we say, procrastinate much? It wasn’t all that bad, I already had the outline done, so I pretty much knew what I was going to say. Anyway, it was nearly 10pm and I decided to print out a hard copy of the outline for reference. That was when I discovered that my printer is a total pain in the ass. Even though what I was printing was using only black ink, it wouldn’t print anything because it was out of magenta ink. I certainly wasn’t going to go out and see if I could find an open store that sells printer ink, so the only thing I could do was hand write all of my speech notes! Argh! The only thing I can be thankful for is that I didn’t write up my notes on my computer yet. That would have really sucked. By the time I hand wrote all my notes and practiced my speech over and over, it was after 1am. Considering I had to be up by 7am, I went to bed.
The next morning I’m rushing around taking a shower, getting my purse packed with the things I needed for school, and packing up a food donation bag for Scouting for Food. Finally I get in the car, and it is kind of rainy and still a little dark out, so I turn on my headlights. When I get on the highway I notice that I have just enough time to get to the school. But I guess I was paying more attention to the traffic than the signs though, as I missed my exit. To top it off, I missed the first turnaround. I ended up driving quite a few miles out of the way before I could finally turn around and make my way back. My just enough time to get to school turned into my running very late. I parked as quickly as I could, rushed out of the van and hurried to the building. Somehow though I ended up going to the wrong building. I’m really not sure what is wrong with me at this point, because it isn’t like I haven’t been to this class a couple of times before. So I take the long way around through the building, but because I’m going a different way I ended up passing the classroom having to turn around and walk back.
So I walk in and sit down while the professor is speaking her opening notes, and just then she almost immediately starts taking requests to deliver their speech first. No one is raising their hand. I know I just walked in late and need to make a good impression, especially with the teacher staring at me, so I meekly raise my hand. sarcasm Woohoo to me for going first. /sarcasm
Maybe it was the fact that I was a bit winded from rushing around the school the long way, or maybe I really did not want to go first because lets be honest, I wasn’t prepared. Either way, I felt like I was going to throw up. So I’m quickly going over my note cards one last time, when suddenly I drop them all over the table. I scoop them up and it looks like they are mostly in order, so I take a deep breathe, hope I’ll be fine, and deliver my speech.
And. I. Bombed.
I got the opening fairly well, but the story that followed after the opening wasn’t as smooth flowing as I had rehearsed (the 3 or 4 times the night before). One good thing was my eye contact and gestures were great during the first part of the speech. Go me! However, somewhere near the end of the middle of my speech I couldn’t find the card I needed and ended up just pausing saying nothing. My mind just went blank. Finally I recovered, and things when ok till the very end when I had delivered my ending quote and then said my summary statement. Apparently when I dropped the note cards those two got mixed up. All I could do was hope the professor didn’t pick up on it. But when she communicated her notes to me and the rest of the class about my speech, she did. Damn.
The only relief of going first is that for the rest of the class I pretty much had nothing to do but listen to speeches. Well, there was the critique I had to do on one of the other student’s speeches, but that is never a big deal. So for basically two hours I’m sitting in the class, when all of a sudden it dawns on me that I forgot to turn off my headlights! Thoughts race through my head, do I wait out the 15 more minutes till the end of class? Do I go up to the teacher and explain that I forgot to turn off my headlights? I decide to go up to the teacher. My fear is that after them being on for over two hours I wouldn’t be able to start the car, and if so I would need probably need to ask members of the class to give me a jump. The teacher lets me go with the understanding that I have to come back before the beginning of the next speech, which gives me about 8 minutes or so. In my rush to leave the building I walk out the wrong door and end up in the complete opposite direction from where the parking lot is. Are you starting to notice a pattern here? But rather than do the smart thing and go back inside and walk out the right door, I cut across the lawn and try to run around the building. I’m pretty sure I ran like a crazy person passed my classroom. I can only imagine what the members of my class now think of their lunatic classmate! After a minute of running I realize that the buildings are all connected with each other and I would be running for a long time. I ended up going in the next door I saw, and then once in the building I went back through (and passed the classroom again!) and finally went back out the right door.
After all of this I found myself sitting inside my van, tired and breathing heavily from all that running. I immediately turned off the headlights and then prayed it would start. I stuck the key in and turned. Nothing. Crap. I took the key out. I decided to try one more time. I made sure that the air and everything was off, put the key in, and turned. It stalled for a second, and then started! Thank God! I let it run for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile I try to call Joe to let him know what happened and that I would drive around for awhile after class. Joe, unfortunately, broke his cell phone, and he wasn’t answering his work cell/blackberry. Oh well.
I walked back to the classroom, this time taking the short way, and was just in time for the last speech of the day. Afterwards I left, went back to the van. It started, and I ended up driving to McDonalds. I figured that I would let the car run while sitting in the drive-thru. I order a 20 piece nuggets for me and the kids to share, a big mac for Joe, and a large fry. The total comes to $10.15. While waiting I pull out a $20, a dime, and a nickel. I hand it to the cashier, she says thank you, and I start to pull up to the next window. Fortunately the cashier was honest, because she called out to me and in a very awkward angle handed me a $10. All I could do was smile, say thanks and a “I don’t know whats wrong with me today, I forgot I handed you a $20 and not a $10.” Then when I get my food at the next station they tell me that I need to pull into the parking lot for 10 minutes, because the nuggets aren’t ready yet. It was a bit annoying, but I guess it worked out ok considering I needed to let the van run anyway. After I got my nuggets I came home.
And I found out that Aidan had gotten into my glitter.
How much do you want to bet that if I hadn’t of procrastinated and gotten a good nights sleep that none of these things would have happened? Well, except for Aidan getting into the glitter. That was predestined ever since I got the glitter.
More posts like this:
- Is my spa day here yet? – May 18, 2008
- Writing a paper…or not. – May 9, 2008
- Final Grades are in! Well, almost. – December 19, 2007
- YMCA stresses me out. – July 25, 2008
- Rejoice! – December 15, 2007
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