Novocaine for the Freshman Soul

I don't know about anybody older than me, but I grew up in a world where there has always been a Visine for that. Aspirin, Tylenol, Vicodin, Novocaine, and Krokodil (that new, hardcore, russian Morphine that somebody mentioned?) are always there to comfort you when you're hurting. Nicotine for the smokers, heroin for the really daring, and 800 milligrams of ibuprofen for the college freshman who chipped and possibly cracked his front tooth today. Is it enough? I'll let you know tomorrow, when I know whether or not my tooth is falling apart.

Classes. Classes upon homework upon classes upon making friends upon homework upon studying upon late nights upon classes. I shouldn't even be writing this right now, because a film analysis is calling my name from the boot-camped-side of my computer.

Side note- Microsoft Word 2010 is quite possibly one of the most beautiful programs I have ever used.

Back on topic- a chipped tooth is just one more thing to worry about, and it takes the back burner to a lot of things, for example my psychology lecture, which I fell asleep in, even though I already had a nice nap in my astronomy lecture, which was weird in itself because I slept right through my alarm and english class, because my body decided that 8 hours wasn't good enough today.

This brings me to the number one most valid question in my life today: WHAT THE F?

In a previous post, I mentioned that sleep was difficult. Last night and today? Apparently freaking not! Apparently, my body thinks that it's okay to send me on my way to failing my english class for attendance reasons, and now I have to pay extra attention to two of my other textbooks, which I don't have time to do this week if I have to get a freaking tooth fixed on top of everything.

The dining hall had Irish food today. Shepard's pie, some weird tasting stew, dumplings... I stabbed the fork into one of my dumplings, put it in my mouth, and bit down on the dumpling to drag it off of the fork, which was, apparently, sticking out of the dumpling. The chip in my tooth is extremely small, and the crack is barely noticeable, but I can feel it. I'm not talking about feeling it with my finger, either. I mean I can feel that core "broken" feeling in my gums. Technically, I've broken a bone, and, lucky me, I broke one of the ones that doesn't repair itself.

Sure, I could get Visine for my allergies, or some ibuprofen for my pain now, and novocaine later this week, but what I really need is medicine that will calm. me. down. I thought breakdowns were bad in high school? Ha. Not only are they worse, there's nowhere to go to be alone during them.

Overwhelmed might be an understatement.

The War on Well-Restedness

Having exhausted all other forms of procrastination, here I am, sitting in the library, mountain dew in hand (well, next to hand), blogging. You go, JJ! Four point those classes!

Actually, getting good grades hasn't been the issue. Making friends hasn't been a major issue (I think I just hold the title of "friend" higher than most people do). Getting phone numbers wasn't an issue (but my phone reseting itself and deleting all of them was). No, the real "hardest part" of college is sleeping.

Let's hit the basics: For the first 12 or 13 years of my life, I slept in an extra-long twin-sized bed every night, so it's not like a twin-sized bed is something that's new to me. For the past five years, though, I've been treated to the pleasure of sleeping in either a full or queen-sized bed every night, which is something that I've gotten accustomed to. I'm not used to not being able to roll over to the "other side" of the bed, which is especially an issue when the new "other side" of the bed is a 7 foot drop. Let me tell you, those "Oh hey, there's not any bed there" moments are NOT fun. The beds they give us barely offer any guard against falling off the side. I mean, clearly I haven't fallen to my death yet, but it's really only a matter of time.

Also, Bursley Hall, bless its nonexistent-but-sure-to-be-damned soul, isn't air conditioned. So it's hot at night. Especially on the seventh floor. Especially at the top of the room. Which is where my bed is. So what's the solution? Let's put our fans up on our beds! It actually works pretty well, unless the vibrations keep you awake, which only happens like a third of the time. Oh, or unless it's one of those annoying times when the fan falls off of the bed and makes a sound like a gun firing at close range and you jolt up like the people in the movies who just woke up from a nightmare, but this is actually terrifying because it's in the real world and it sounds like there's a gun in your room.

Nope, just the fan again.

Aside from that, when impromptu war noises aren't waking you up in the middle of the night, the world decides that you've been sleeping too well and sends a garbage truck to fix that. Every day, between 6 and 8 in the morning, a garbage truck drives by our window to dump the dumpsters a few floors below us. Guess how loud it is!

GUNSHOTS. EXPLOSIONS. OH MY GOSH CURL UP UNDER THE DESK IT'S NUCLEAR WAR OUT THERE I'M GONNA DIE OH MY GOSH

It's loud. It has the power to jolt me awake into another one of those terrified frenzies of WHAT THE F IS GOING ON!? before realizing that nothing "the f" is going on.

That's not even talking about the sounds from the hall itself. People running down it. random gunshot bangs from other rooms. The guy who sings in the bathroom at 2 in the morning (what the f?). These things keep me awake! It's not like I'm trying to go to bed before midnight or anything, I wouldn't expect the world to be quiet then. All I'm asking is for some peace a quiet at 1 in the morning so that I can painlessly drift asleep while my roommate watches prison break or plays counterstrike with headphones on in an effort to help create a quiet environment.

Oh yeah, that's the other mildly annoying thing. My roommate sleeps through just about everything. So it's really just me having difficulty sleeping, not anybody else that I know of.

Oh, and when I do finally get to sleep, which usually happens eventually, I have the weirdest dreams. Random war breaking out has been especially reoccurring...