No idea how many times I almost screwed up the POV in this one. [journal]

     She watched the partiers below splashing about in the swimming pool, trying to swim sideways. The party wasn't really that loud, and she wasn't the... only... one... only... watching.
     She...blinked, opened her eyes, and saw the sunlight streaming in through her window. She groaned and feared the worst–well, maybe not the worse; the worst would be sleeping in past her classes–that it would be past 7:30 and she'd have to run to her 8:00 chem class.
     Her gaze travelled to her alarm clock, which was on her right instead of on her left in its usual place because she hoped that moving it would force her to wake up and find it before she could turn it off. That she had set the alarm for 6:00 didn't matter. In fact she'd only heard the sound of the alarm four times ever since she started using this clock.
     It was 7:39. She set her CD player to her favourite song and got up out of bed. She could hear her roommate Lea doing something in the kitchen downstairs. She stepped out of her room, looked over the railing: Lea was doing homework at the kitchen table.
     —You're up already? She didn't have class until 9:30.
     —Yep, came her cheerful reply.
     —Godfuckingdammit. I just woke up–again, she responded.
     —I've been up for a while.
     —But I have an 8 o'clock class. She shut herself in her room again and got changed.  Fortunately she had anticipated this problem, and had everything ready to go in her room: a clean set of clothes, jacket, books packed in backpack.  She grabbed her keys and wallet, had a passing thought of surprise at the fact that she hadn't been late for a morning class yet, splashed a handful of water on her face, then ran downstairs and snatched two granola bars from her cupboard.
     —This is why I bought granola bars yesterday.  I think my alarm's too quiet; when I go home for Thanksgiving I'll bring back one of my big but really loud alarm clocks.  Seems like her parents had been right again, having tried unsuccessfully to convince her to use one of those clocks from the very start.
     She arrived at chemistry with time to spare; there was a bit of a line-up at the door because Dr. Mar was distributing the quiz paper that they wrote on Tuesday, now graded.  She already knew her grade because she saw it online the night before.  Between watching a demonstration of sodium and potassium burning, taking sparse notes on review-type material, she considered her morning worth writing a narrative about and worked on that.
     In engineering mechanics class (which is physics, she told herself, despite it sounding like automobile repair), she noticed that the guy sitting at the end of the row in front of her was wearing the distinctive SWC "band geek" hoodie.  It was Adit, whom she didn't even know came here, let alone also doing engineering (engineering physics is what he's interested in), until Gary told her a couple of days ago.
     Stuff they do in this class never quite stays in her head.  It makes sense to her but only just.
     It was cold and windy outside, but she had to take the cold if she were to get the free hamburger to which the first-years were entitled today.

I win. I draw. I lose.

I win. There were only two candidates for the three positions for First Years' Engg Week team coordinator, so I won by default without having to wait for the elections, even though my name and Half-Thai Mike's name were on the ballot anyway. Niesen got to be VP Academics by default too. This is quite monumental to me as I've never taken on a leadership position before, but I know it's like an easy ticket to putting something that looks good on my resumé, and an experience that will help me have a fighting chance for other leadership roles in other parts of the ESS bureaucracy in the future.

I draw. I decided to volunteer to be a 'sober monitor' for the once-per-semester cart-kids-off-to-the-middle-of-nowhere drinking party, the Country Crusade. Basically what I get to do is undergo some training to learn about basic bartender responsibilities, like how to tell when someone is too drunk, what to do when someone passes out, etc., and then I get to watch over the idiots partiers while they get drunk and clean up after them (*sigh*). That means I don't have to buy the $10 ticket to get in and I get a free t-shirt and a volunteer appreciation lunch later. The trade-off is that I'm not allowed to drink, but I can drink unlimited soda pop for the night (but I have other devious plans...since I normally don't drink very much anyway, usually not even enough to feel tipsy, that's what the jar from the capers will be for...if I can work it out...mwahaha). I think that's worth it, because I gotta learn to face the frustration that I get when I see people partying to loud music and drink, and I have a feeling that in the future I will have to face that a lot, and maybe even without a choice. So that's what that dream about the party and the swimming pool was about (there was more to it before that, but I don't remember) - being a spectator, distancing myself from the participants...

As a general rule of thumb, I will not surrender my free will or control over my actions. This is probably one of the reasons why I do not possess the ability to understand the party phenomenon. Also, I will not perform any heretofore illegal action that, although it may bring others pleasure when they do it, will bring to me harm.

I lose. This week's ENGG 130 worksheet was easier (and I remembered to bring paper), but I still didn't finish because I spent a few minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't get the last part of the last question to work, and then when I asked my professor what was going on, he told me that I did the first part of it wrong, which meant I'd have to do the whole question again. Problem was, there was only 2 minutes left in the period. So I left the wrong numbers, but I hope they give me marks for using the correct process in all of the other parts of the question. And I did get the 80% that I expected to get on last week's worksheet. Estimated grade for this week: 70%

More bad news: Just got off the phone with my mom. She has high blood pressure :( I'm thinking it was probably inherited, since her parents had it and some of her brothers too. Or it just could be age.