Oh, boy what have I gotten myself into?? Here I was thinking 72 hours was too much for my students to have to put up with the weekend before Finals, so I shortened it to 48 hours thinking that would be just enough time. Nope. I barely made it through 24 hours and I'm their freakin' professor!
Anyhoo, the following is a blow-by-blow account of my first 24 hours of media deprivation:
9am - Woke up earlier than I would've liked but there were things to do and I didn't want to waste any time. Ate breakfast and did what my parents (and my parents' parents) do every morning before they start their day: read the newspaper. My routine isn't much different as I usually get on the computer and read local and national news online via CNN, Yahoo!, MYSA, etc., so having to read the actual print edition of the Express-News wasn't much of a change for me.
11:30am - After taking a shower, checking email, and getting all my school stuff in order, I headed off to my alma mater's library (OLLU) to get away from the house and the temptations it provides for media consumption. The drive to OLLU was quiet since the radio was off, which allowed me to hear all the "wonderful" noises my truck makes. I'll spare you the details so let's just say my truck does not purr like a kitten and I'm currently looking for a new car.
Once there, I went up to the top floor and settled in at one of those desk cubbies. The library was surprisingly dead; I expected it to be teeming with students since Finals are coming up next week for pretty much everyone in SA. Although I am not a student anymore, I still make sure to listen to my iPod while grading papers and creating lesson plans, so not being able to listen to music was probably the most difficult adjustment I had to make. But I wanted to test myself so I brought my iPod to see if I'd give in to temptation. Boy, was that a long, arduous battle!
I wanted a good window view from the top floor so I sat in a back corner, near a study room where a man (non-traditional student, I presume) was on his laptop while his two kids were entertaining themselves with children's books and these electronic kids toys. The first couple of hours were OK as my area was quiet and the kids in the study room were being as quiet as rambuctious kids can be in a library. I was getting a decent chunk of my grading done and I had no intention of using my iPod.
But hour #3 came and it's like those kids knew I was almost done because they just went nuts in that room. The dad totally lost control of them as they constantly talked loud and were going in and out of the study room. I kept looking back and the dad was trying to quiet them down, but it was obvious these kids walk all over pops. The whole time I kept thinking "I wouldn't even be able to hear all this commotion if I was listening to my iPod," and I gotta admit my hand was inching closer and closer to my bookbag where the iPod was stored. But I was hitting the home stretch of my grading (my goal was to grade my three graduating seniors' short scripts before 3pm) and I didn't want to give in, so I buckled down and finished. Seriously, who brings their kids to a library the weekend before Finals?
3:30pm - Ate some Whataburger at the house while reading the rest of the newspaper in complete silence. No wait, I think I can hear myself chewing....
4pm - Indulged in some leisure reading, as well as some academic reading.
5:30pm - Fell asleep while reading. Happens way more than I would like.
10pm - After waking up a few times due to my cellphone going off, which I mostly ignored, I finally got out of bed wide awake. I wasn't getting much sleep as of late so I figured I'd indulge in some extra sleep. With nothing to watch or listen to, I decided to read again.
12am - Went back to sleep, but not before spending a good chunk of that time trying to come up with a clever title for my first blog. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a mass media related acronym that would cleverly mock T.G.I.F.... Because we all know we didn't Thank God it was Friday yesterday!
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1 comment:
You have a lot of patience, I would've told the dad to control his kids very quickly.
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