Hell Week

Last week was my own personal hell week. Monday into Tuesday I was awake for 22 straight hours. Got home, slept 3ish, got up and ate with my parents, had the night off, and fell asleep on the couch while watching American Idol. Got up at 6am on Wednesday, read for a while when I realize that I wasn't going to be falling back asleep since I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30 the night before, and dragged my butt out of bed at 8. Washed all my bedding. When it was clean and dry, I had a great nap. Off to work. Thursday morning, got home, slept 3 hours, got up, went to a meeting at work, came home, set up a meeting for the next day to finish a project that was due on Saturday, flipped some laundry around, crawled back into bed and slept restlessly for the next 4 hours. Got up, ate, went to work. Came home, made a pot of coffee. Continued to furiously write on my paper that was due in 10 hours and only had 1 paragraph written. Finished writing all that I could without the interview and laid down for an hour. Get up. Go to interview. Come home and type furiously some more. Finish writing at 3:30. Lay down for an hour. Get up go to class. Spend the night in class going over our chapter outline and work on our projects. Get home, fall asleep by 11. Class all day Saturday. By the time we got out at 4:15, I was so over it all. I couldn't get home in time to go to church, so since Hell Week was officially over, I went to church with my grandma and took her out to dinner.

On Sunday, Mom and I celebrated. There was the Chocolate Lover's Benefit for the Underground Railroad of Saginaw. There was a chocolate fountain and we had picked up grandma on the way and I'd never seen her enjoy the chocolate so much. She loved the fountain and had chocolate all over her shirt and mouth. We got massages while there and dipped our hands in chocolate paraffin. It was the perfect way to celebrate.

The Last Lecture

I recently finished reading The Last Lecture which was recommended to me by my manager and my friend Kelly. This book was really inspirational to me because I was amazed at the dignity with which Randy faced his terminal illness. It took me a while to read this book but I was really enjoyed the honesty and the story of his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon and how he was even accepted as a doctoral student there. It's a book about determination and making the best out of the circumstances of life. It's a good read for those looking for inspiration.