I showed up for my first Systems Engineering midterm with a pencil but no scratch paper or calculator and got the highest score in the class. Also went into a Russian History exam with no blue book and crammed my whole essay comparing and contrasting Lenin and Stalin (I still remember the question because when I read it I laughed out loud that he was asking such a broad question - people turned around and looked at me) onto the white space of the one sheet of paper that the question was on. Got a B++ on that one. Prof Davis couldn't bring himself to give me an A after I made him read my tiny scribbles trying to fit everything in. But I had done all the reading.

Sue and Juliana, I'm so sorry about the cats. Pets shouldn't go so soon, it's just wrong.

I haven't had an exam since 1997, but yeah, I still get test anxiety dreams.

Went out for a great dinner with a friend last night, and we killed a bottle of wine, which made this morning's run particularly slow and painful. Then I went shopping for a party top with my niece (she talked me into my first real pair of skinny jeans), took a nap, and then visited Dad, fixed his kindle, and set up his tiny Christmas tree.

Dinner was some over-salted kale chips, and a small apple. I've been eating too much rich food already this holiday season.

Now I need to vacuum and email the dog-sitter and watch some television, I think.

I wonder if the anxiety dreams of more rural cultures revolve around losing livestock that you were supposed to be watching.

That makes perfect sense to me, Connie.

Also: forgetting to feed your sourdough starter; forgetting to milk the goats; forgetting to plant things at the right time of year; neglecting to put out a dish of food for the brownies/spirits/little gods; worrying about whether the salmon will run this year; and so forth.

My anxiety dreams are all financial. Which, could be sadly prescient as opposed to just anxious.

or they involve neverending or suddenly ending staircases.

I completely sliced my finger on a cardboard box. That was at 1:00. It's still vaguely bleeding if squozed.

t, did you guys have to bring your own blue books? How did that work?

I dread the "I totally forgot that I signed up for classes, never went, and now I am going to fail" dreams. Mine usually have the added bonus of not being able to find the registrars office or figure out the procedure to withdraw.

did you guys have to bring your own blue books? How did that work?

Yup, we bought 'em at the bookstore as needed. The syllabus for each class would say if we needed them. Is that not usual?

never bought them.