Insanity

Transcript of my conversation with the library attendant last night:


Me: Is the all-night study space open in the Regenstein yet?
Library Attendant: No! But I wish it were! All of our libraries should be open 24-hours a day.

Me: I know! I feel like I live here already, why not start sleeping here, and save the commuting time? (That's a weird thing to say since I live across the street.)
Library Attendant: Well, there's an all-night study space in Crearer Library. You can head there.

It was 1:00 AM, not particularly late by UC standards for studying. My plan wasn't to stay up all night, but to get up really early, prior to the 8:00 AM library opening, and really get to work on my last two final exams. This plan is clearly delusional. Every morning my alarm goes off at 5:45, 6:00, or if I'm feeling generous, 6:30. But I promptly turn it off and sleep until 7 or 8. This happens daily, but yet I incorrectly continue to think I'll jump right up and start working at 6:00 am, every single day.

Last week, a group of school children visited the SMART Museum, and their leader, a young teacher probably around my age, was practicing some of the most intense classroom management I've seen in ages. They weren't particularly badly behaved, but this woman was screaming at them for almost every infraction. At one point she turned the chattered group and hissed: "You are wasting valuable LEARNING time. I am ashamed of you." The kids were terrified, so was I, but now, I can't get her voice out of my mind. Whenever I'm not in my cell in the library, I hear that teacher... .You are wasting valuable learning time.... like it's my job or something.