Never Sleep In

Dear Diary,

For the first time in a while, I was going to sleep in this morning.  Big mistake!  I thought it might be nice to ease back into things.  However, the residence hall where I live decided that 8:15 am would be an ideal time for a fire drill (read: 'arson alarm' since they planned it).

But I have my weekly meeting with Professor Burke at 9 am.  What's a graduate student to do?! (Hint: advisor > arson alarm)

It seems like something out of the ordinary happens to me approximately every five days (plus or minus four) around here.  So, I was prepared.  I put in some of my enormous purple ear plugs and set off on the five minute walk to work.  A conversation with one of the staff herding people to a registration table went something like this:

"Head to the registration!" he said waving.
"Good morning!" I said.
Pointing, he says, "go over there!"
"Yes, it's a beautiful day!"
He looks exasperated and mutters something. I point to my ear plugs, put on my confused expressions, and then wander into work.  He'll never know what was going through my head!

In truth, the fire alarms periodically go off in my complex anyway--be it from an undergraduate overcooking something, an undergraduate smoking, an undergraduate pulling the fire alarm, an undergraduate being an undergraduate, a graduate student getting extra sleep/relaxing/getting work done, etc.  So, I'm truly desensitized to it by now.  Some nights I wonder if I can get to sleep if someone doesn't set off their alarm.  It's like counting sheep at this point.

It's a good thing I didn't go swimming this morning or else I wouldn't have been able to get back into my room and change.  I'm going to go and brush my teeth in the bathroom and purchase a croissant for breakfast.  C'est la vie!