My Crazy Friday

So, today was a pretty crazy day. Here's a (not-so-)brief synopsis:

• 01:31 - Finish drafting and mapping Singing Valentines delivery schedule
• 02:42 - Finish final (printed) version of Valentines delivery schedule
• 03:06 - Bed
• 07:05 - Alarm
• 07:15 - Check for last-minute messages
• 07:42 - Morning correspondence
  
• 08:03 - Shower and morning hygiene
• 08:41 - Send schedules remotely to campus printer
• 08:44 - Briefly look over Music Theory homework in preparation for quiz
  
• 08:54 - Gather belongings with intent of being on campus early to study and eat
  
• 09:00 - Leave apartment
• 09:02 - Arrive at bus stop
• 09:09 - First bus passes me and two others (too full)
• 09:23 - Second bus passes me and five others (completely empty, but was a training bus)
• 09:27 - Third bus passes me and seven others (not headed to Oakland)
• 09:29 - Fourth bus passes me and eight others (too full)...
• 09:30 - Bus right behind it (thankfully) has room for all of us, but no more
  
• 09:39 - Arrive on campus
• 09:42 - Frantically cram in some last-minute quiz studying in what little time is left
• 09:59 - Sit for quiz
• 10:02 - Quiz begins
• 10:24 - My phone rings... probably urgent, but can't answer
  
• 10:40 - I finish the quiz
• 10:41 - See call was from John Goldsmith, Heinz Chapel Choir director
• 10:42 - Go knock on his door since it's right down the hall; no answer
• 10:44 - Listen to voicemail; he emailed some additional last-minute orders that were in his mailbox; also, he's going home (pretty early, I might add)
• 10:49 - Head to computer lab to pick up schedule printouts
• 10:51 - See that only one of the three copies actually printed, despite the fact that I was debited the sheets for all three from my print quota
• 10:53 - Use my laptop to print the other two copies
• 10:58 - Second of the other two copies actually prints and makes it to the "output" table
• 10:59 - Frantically and apologetically call Patrick, making sure everyone's already there and ready to begin
  
• 11:02 - Arrive at William Pitt Union
• 11:16 - Sing two telephone Valentines
• 11:35 - Head to a few local businesses for "Random Acts" of Valentines
• 11:51 - Leave group for class
  
• 11:57 - Send a series of advisory text messages to the second-in-commands
• 12:02 - First class (ChE 0602) begins
• 12:18 - Mind wanders briefly to "when the heck am I going to eat?"
  
• 12:40 - Class seems like it's about to end; it doesn't
• 12:49 - Class ends
• 12:50 - Ask friend if she might be able to deliver a lunch to me later in the day if I pay her back; she's not able
• 12:51 - Take long elevator ride down to Einstein Bros. Bagels to see how the line is and if they have salads
• 12:54 - Line is long, no salads; take same long elevator ride right back up
• 13:01 - Second class (ChE 0613) begins
• 13:33 - Class comes to its ten-minute break early; professor says we'll be done early; I rejoice
• 13:45 - Class resumes
• 14:23 - Class ends
• 14:27 - Arrive at Quiznos Subs; order sub
• 14:30 - Receive and eat sub
• 14:40 - Depart Quiznos Subs
• 14:45 - Arrive at William Pitt Union, discuss the past three hours' of Valentines with second-in-command
• 15:00 - Take over Singing Valentines again
  
• 15:22 - Deliver seven Valentines across campus in 40 minutes... one undelivered due to bad campus address
• 16:08 - Head to new address given at old address; recipient's office is actually elsewhere
  
• 16:31 - A few more phone Valentines
  
• 16:56 - Finally deliver previously undelivered Valentine
• 17:23 - A slew of phone Valentines... basically sing the same 90-second song repeatedly for a couple hours; people come and go, but I stay
  
• 19:36 - A number of complimentary phone Valentines undeliverable because the numbers were disconnected (very curious)
• 19:59 - Deliver final Valentine; dismiss and thank singers profusely
  
• 20:05 - Arrive at Benedum Hall
• 20:09 - Arrive at my locker, retrieve trumpet and pep band clothes
• 20:14 - Walk up hill
• 20:20 - Arrive at Petersen Events Center
• 20:23 - Change clothes, gather belongings
  
• 20:29 - Enter arena just in time to play
• 20:51 - Phone battery dies
• 21:02 - Tip-off, Pitt v. West Virginia
• 21:21 - Eat some chips I had from lunch while watching the game to try to stave my hunger
  
• 21:34 - Start to get a bit thirsty from chips and repeated use of voice
  
• 21:51 - Halftime
• 22:07 - Plan to eat a late dinner at Arby's after the game since they close at 24:00
  
• 22:57 - People start leaving, Pitt down 66-59 with one minute left
• 23:04 - Regulation ends tied 68-68
• 23:17 - Portions of voice may have been lost
  
• 23:26 - First overtime ends tied 78-78; forgo the option of dinner
  
• 23:44 - Second overtime ends tied 88-88
• 23:55 - Portions of sanity may have been lost
• 24:02 - Game ends, Pitt wins 98-95 in 3OT
• 24:11 - Spend about two full minutes at the drinking fountain quenching aforementioned thirst
  
• 24:14 - Leave Petersen Events Center
• 24:23 - Arrive at Benedum Hall
• 24:25 - Change clothes; return trumpet and pep band clothes to locker
• 24:31 - Walk to bus stop
• 24:42 - Board bus to Shadyside
• 24:53 - Arrive in Shadyside
• 24:55 - Arrive home
• 25:00 - Bathroom; settle down; ears start ringing
• 25:14 - Start writing this post
• 25:45 - Click "Publish Post"
• 25:47 - Bed
  

That said, today was really fun. But I'm also glad that my days aren't like this every day.

And with that, good night. I've got reports to write in the morning.

Snowcation

Before I start, I should note that the friends I mentioned a few weeks back, as well as their newborn child, are doing very well. However, there will inevitably be some challenges over the coming weeks and months, so please keep them your thoughts. If you want to stay updated on their progress, you can head over to their CarePages blog here (free registration required).

* * *

Yes, I'm stealing a post title from a friend. No, I am not ashamed. ;)

Anyway, as you have probably surmised from said stolen title (which is really the best possible title for something like this), the main reason I'm writing this post is because the University of Pittsburgh canceled classes on Monday 8, Tuesday 9, and Wednesday 10 February. The reason? All the snow, of course!

That's my friend Marie at right, standing in the freshly fallen snow that came down on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February in front of a car parked in front of our apartment. I was standing in the middle of the street to take the photo, which was largely fine, as nobody was really driving at the time (and if they were, they were painfully slow, giving ample time to get out of the way).

The official total for the weekend storm at Pittsburgh International Airport was 21.1 in (53.6 cm), and from how things looked, that sounds about right. Obviously, if I had a yardstick, I'd have checked myself. But short of taping my rulers together, I have no way of measuring anything higher than a foot on my own. And that would be a terrible waste of tape, not to mention the inaccuracies involved. So I have to trust the authorities on the matter.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we got another 7.9 in (20.1 cm) from a separate storm as the city scrambled to keep up, and we're still getting a few flakes even now. Fortunately, they've been better at keeping up lately (although still far from perfect, according to many complaints).

Anyway, I've actually got classes today. That is, of course, unless the people planning to push snow into the roads to prevent that do something drastic in the next few minutes. But somehow, that seems unlikely.

Sunday was awesome... I had lunch with my friends, then we did some work, then we walked to campus, went to a massive snowball fight, did a bit more homework, had a late dinner, found out classes were canceled, drew a massive Bunny in the snow, and then just hung out. We didn't even watch the Super Bowl at all. (Although I'm personally glad the Saints won.)

Monday and Tuesday, as each day was canceled, I found all sorts of things to do to occupy my time. Some were fairly important and others were rather frivolous, but the point is that I kept switching from one to the other thing and no real progress was made on anything. But Wednesday, I decided to just pick something I would enjoy and see it through to a reasonable end.

It should be noted here that most of the projects I enjoy don't really have an "end", so this just meant staying "focused" to some degree or another regardless of what "other things" I could be doing. Basically, I was ignoring all "opportunity costs", to get back in the mode of the macroeconomics lecture I'll be attending in a couple hours' time.

Anyway, as fun as it was not knowing what was coming next and having copious amounts of time to do anything, there is something to be said for routine. I'm glad that we're done stagnating for now and I'm excited to move forward. Even if that means the next 36 hours are a crazed kind of busy as a result!