June 8, 1999
My General Insanity

First of all I have to say that I love this comic strip! Anyone who knew me in high school chorus would know why. I sang that song "On My Own" from Les Miserables for a concert my senior year of high school. As always happened with me I started forgetting the words to the song during the last few rehearsals before I performed. I was a wreck. My worst fear was to make a complete fool out my myself in front of a bunch of people (again). I relate to this comic very well!

I haven’t had much time lately to write anything, but also not much has been happening in my little life. We have entered the last two weeks of my summer semester and I have work piling up left and right. I am just a little stressed out. Good news, however, because I got a B+ on my History of Science midterm exam! That was quite a relief. When Dr. Hatch was talking to us yesterday before he gave back our exam booklets he told us that our essays weren’t specific enough. That made me panic because I couldn’t remember my essay being very specific. Apparently it was pretty good, though. I read it again today and realized that my vocabulary isn’t very good when I am under pressure. I used the word “thing” a lot without being too worried about what it meant and my verb choice was about equal to that of a third grader. We only had thirty minutes to write down everything that we knew so I wasn’t caught up in word choice. Maybe I should be next time.

Also in class yesterday we had our first Idiot Quiz (IQ). If anyone has seen “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (or something like that) you will recognize the form of this little quiz.
1. What is your (last) name?
2. What is your favorite color?
3. What is your quest?
4. What is the flight speed of a sparrow?
The fifth question consisted of an essay – in fact the same essay we had to write for the midterm! Coincidence? Somehow I don’t think so. Anyway, I was at a loss about the “flight speed of a sparrow” question because I had never seen any Monty Python movie. (I watched my first one last night. For a complete review, read my extra entry under “Other Rantings and Ravings.”) I asked Dr. Hatch if I should know what he was talking about, but he just told me to make up something. That’s exactly what I did. It turns out that our answers weren’t important at all because the quiz was just checking to see who was in class and to see who wasn’t brain dead at the time. Except for the essay question, but I think I passed. We still have to write a five-page final paper that is due next Friday. I am glad it is an out-of-class assignment because I can make good use of my thesaurus! We are getting the essay topic this Friday so we only have a week to plan and write the paper. I know it can be done, but I am still nervous about making it a great essay.

Stuart and I have been playing a modified version of phone tag tonight. I called him sometime between 6 and 7 PM, but after a little while the parents of one of his roommates (Matt) called and we had to get off the phone. Around 8 PM Stu called me back and we talked for an even shorter period of time before another parent, Chris’s this time, called forcing us to hang up. At that point I decided to take a walk so I said that I would call him back later. After I got back from my walk it was about 9:30 PM and I called Stu’s apartment. This time one of his brothers interrupted our conversation! I got in the shower almost immediately after hanging up the phone and when I got out there was a message. Stu said that he was going to a birthday party for a friend and we would talk later. Not often do we get so many obstacles in the way of a phone conversation. The fates were not on our side tonight, apparently. Well, tomorrow is another day!

When I was walking tonight I passed the University of Florida bat house, like I do every time I walk my normal route by Lake Alice. This time, however, I went by the bat house at almost exactly 9 PM and the bats were making a mass exodus for the evening. I see people gathering to watch the event every night, but I don’t usually pass the bat house that late. It was really neat because a whole bunch of bats were flying away at the same time. I never understood why people went to watch before, but now I have seen it for myself. Too bad the university wants to build a dormitory on that land. They will have to relocate the bat house if that happens. I really enjoy walking by Lake Alice but if there is another dorm there it won’t be such a nice place.