The best of intentions

Well I have to say I had the best of intentions, but sometimes things just don't work out the way you'd hope them to.

I left the studying for my most recent exam until the day prior to it. This was for two reasons really: 1) I hadn't done any studying yet and figured that short-term memory was the way to go and 2) I just didn't really want to read about such a boring topic when the midterm was sooo easy that I anticipated the final to be much the same: short and sweet.

As many of you know, Lenny purchased tickets to see the Stuart McLean Vinyl Cafe Christmas show as a surprise a while back. Unfortunately these tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable and this exam I really didn't want to study for was scheduled for the "same bat place" at the "same bat time." Now I love Stuart McLean; I've been listening to him for as long as I can remember, however, I also like the prospect of not having to repeat a course because I didn't show up to the final exam. So stress from the planned cramming was combined with the stress of writing the exam in 33 minutes so I could catch a cab to Centennial Hall and catch as much of the show as I could.

The best of intentions.

Unfortunately the cramming was down to the wire; I literally finished the last page of required reading material 5-10 minutes before the exam started. Then walking into the exam I have a fun awkward moment with an old church friend I haven't seen in probably five years; further stress. As I opened the exam booklet I discovered that there were 70 questions, significantly up from the 30 I anticipated. And as I got started, I discovered that this was not nearly as easy as the midterm; ambiguous questions galore. I completed the exam not feeling so confident and then proceeded to wait for a scheduled cab to arrive. Waiting for someone has become more stressful in recent years/months...patience is something practice does not make perfect for me. Anyhoo the cab arrives and due to the awesome road conditions, can only travel about 30-40 km/hr down to the hall.

Get to the hall and I hear applause. Unfortunately by the time I make it to the door for my seat to join Len, someone starts singing again and I have to wait. Wait = more stress. 5 minutes later, I get to enjoy bursting into the balcony with all the house lights down and crawl over 4 very confused people + Len (why didn't he sit on the other side!?!?) to find my seat. They had been sitting there for over an hour and the temperature was easily pushing 30, so I don't blame them for being a little grumpy.

Cue some cute-sauce moments with kids and babies on the stage and then, ta-da, intermission. Dam. Could have spent 15 more minutes reviewing my hasty 70 multiple choice answers. It's around this point that I realize I'm wearing four layers because I anticipated such a big hall to be cold. It's hot. Cue further angstiness.

So that pretty much brings me to now. Sure there was a solid hour and half left of the show, but it just didn't seem right, like I missed all the inside jokes. Kind of like when you turn the radio on half way through his stories. Sigh.

Well that's pretty much my story for the night. I wish I had a better way to help myself out of this funk other than sleep, but I think that's the best option I can come up with right now. My brain is filled with useless facts I'll never need to know again afterall. Hopefully the next Stuart McLean show visit goes better.