Logic Boards, Cortisol, and Crab

*PHEW*

My goodness, where to start. How about Sunday night?

For my adolescence class we had a final presentation. Like everything this quarter, I had to do it at the last minute. But Sunday night Amy called me to let me know that she was going to Mishka's (the grad student hang out) to work on her presentation. I said I'd meet her there around 8 PM. So I packed up my stuff, bought a delicious raspberry French soda (Italian soda with cream -- who knew?) and opened up my MacBook Pro to finish finding articles to present. Well, the screen didn't turn on. I turned my computer on and off, tried plugging it in, didn't work. I wasn't freaking out at this point, but asked Amy if she would drive me to Target (that closes at 9) to buy a monitor. I have heard that sometimes the backlight or screen just stops working on laptops and people buy external monitors and go on with life. Well, Target was out of monitors so I splurged for a flat screen TV with a VGA input.

Amy sweetly comes up to my apartment to help me get it set up. Well... my screen doesn't appear on the TV. I play with settings, turn my computer on and off, connect and disconnect, no dice. So I figure it must be the TV. Amy had her MacBook Pro so I tried hers... and it connected right off the bat. She told me I could borrow her computer while she read her articles. I asked the good people of the MacRumor's forum what was up. A few people told me it might be an Nvidia graphic card bug, another person told me it was the logic board. Either way, my computer was doomed to be in the shop for at least 3 days.

At this point I started to panic. I had articles on my computer that I needed to print and needed Powerpoint for the presentation and, later this week, Stata. I knew my *computer* was working as I could hear it start up and turn off. Then my computer started to TALK to me. As I'd put my mouse on various icons, it would read to me what I was blindly pointing at. It was so strange... and that, additionally, freaked me out.

Amy was calm and booked an appointment for me at the Genius Bar in Sacramento for Monday afternoon and told me she would drive me. She also loaned me her computer for the night, until we had class Monday morning. I was able to re-find the articles and print them. Without her, I would have been f*cked.

So we had class on Monday (very interesting, one of many facts the law school professor who came to sit on our discussion shared was that the United States is the #1 exporter of sperm... awesome, haha), then Amy had an appointment downtown, so I went to my apartment and started reading and organizing the articles. Then we went to Sacramento and, yep, it was the logic board. They would be able to replace it by as early as Wednesday. So I parted with my computer, confident that I'd be able to work at the library.

We get back to Davis at about 3:30 or so. I run to Chipotle to get something to eat and I take about a half-hour to put myself back together. I walk to the library and... there's no Powerpoint on their computers. There is a small lab that does have it, but it is packed and there is a line. I call Stephanie to ask her for the code to the TA-office in hopes that those computers will have Powerpoint on them. No dice. Panic attack number 3 has arrived. I called my sister and told her that I was pretty sure that this was the universe's way of telling me that grad school was a bad idea. At this point (6:30 PM) there's no place to buy a Mac in town. My sister suggests I ask my neighbor, Sarah, if I can borrow hers to do the Powerpoint. And, amazingly, incredibly, Sarah loans me her computer to use until 8 AM on Tuesday. I meet up with Caitlin and we work on our presentation into the wee hours - 4 AM. I decide just to finish my notes instead of going to sleep, so I stay up until 5:30 AM. Sarah picks up her computer at 8 and I practice my presentation when I wake up at 10.

Just in case you thought maybe God or the stars or the universe wasn't playing a huge, not-funny joke on me... during my presentation (image-heavy, mind you) none of the pictures showed up. I just felt like giving up, throwing in the towel, laying my head on Adrienne's computer and sobbing. But I pushed through and just told everyone what the images were that should have shown up.

The presentation wasn't very good. Not having the images made me extremely nervous and I talked way too fast through my notes. But, and thank goodness, most peoples' presentations' images didn't show up. I was the second person to go, and about half or so of everyone who went after me had the same problem.

The presentation was over, Adrienne took us out for beer and pizza (or for us Celiacs, salad and water - haha). I went to my apartment and laid around checking my email on my iPod Touch. I had gotten an email from Brian saying that I got an 'A' in behavioral genetics. I was thrilled but couldn't really feel happy as the cortisol levels in my body were way too high. I felt a little sick at all the stress, good and BAD. I collapsed and slept for a very long time from 11 PM to about 12:30 on Wednesday.

Stephanie picked me up after her job training at about 6:30 to go get my Mac. She told me she was in the mood for seafood. As a child, I didn't like seafood and haven't tried it since I was little. As I have changed my mind on a few things lately (especially blue cheese), I told her I'd be up for trying it again. We went to Joe's Crab Shack on the Sacramento River and I tried some of her crab. It was very tasty! I am a reformed woman. I really liked the snow crab. But anything dipped in garlic and butter has to be good!

We picked up my Mac and since then everything, more or less, has been normal. I started working on my stats project on Thursday and it's a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I realized that I would have to pull an all-nighter to get it turned in before they closed the building on Friday to come home. I decided I just couldn't do another all-nighter/high-stress evening. So... *sigh*... I won't be coming home for spring break. I canceled my flight to give me extra time to work on the stats. I'm thinking of what I'm going to do this break after I'm done with my paper. I am thinking of going to Berkeley to check out the Crate and Barrel outlet and other shops. Stephanie is in town, so I may hang out with her. But for the most part I'm thinking about laying around in my apartment, catching up on pop culture, playing the Sims, and listening to music. A few bicycle rides are scheduled. I'm thinking about reading a non-academic book. But there will be plenty of sleep. Ahhh, I love sleep.

In less than two weeks, my younger sister will be here! I am so excited! I have booked a rental car and a hotel in San Francisco. There are a few places on our road trip that we want to check out but I am aiming for a chill weekend for her. She definitely needs some low-stress fun, like me!

Anywho, this was a long post. Next time I won't be so wordy... :-)

-Nat