Study Lockdown (or how I work on improving my procrastination skills)

10 sleeps...

Not until anything exciting happens, no, it's ten sleeps until my Herbal Medicine Materia Medica exam.  So like all good full time workers doing uni part time, I have put myself into what I like to call 'Study Lockdown.'  It's a time for meticulously planned study sessions, with the aim to maximise time and minimise freak outs.

Well, that's the aim, and a well written aim is halfway there, right?

I was studying now, until I read the words 'renal catarrh.' Catarrh is phlegm, it is usually expelled from the lungs via the mouth.  I don't want to know what renal catarrh is.

I mean that.  No renal catarrh discussions please.

Ah study lockdown, how do I do it?

• Study at every opportunity; the tram ride to work, my lunch break and if it's quiet, study at work too;
• Leave work right on 5 no matter what the boys have or haven't done that day;
• Ignore the state of my house and hope for no visitors who will judge the state of my bathroom (thankfully I don't have friends as fussy as I am);
• Eat microwaveable foods that do not require washing up, all dishes go into the dishwasher or the recycling bin (I don't lose weight though, I think it's the high salt content in Lean Cuisine that does it);
• No alcohol (before 9pm, I'm still human);
• Avoid social gatherings, and fail;
• Drink copious amounts of herbal teas to warm the cockles;
• No television but the radio is allowed, dancing in my finest trackies is encouraged;
• Reacquaint myself with my nicotine addiction often;
• Treat every beep from my phone with the utmost importance, except for phone calls, unless I want to speak to you, if it's important you'll call back;
• Suddenly decide to rearrange my wardrobe, bookshelves, cupboards, fridge or take up knitting again;
• Become addicted to a TV show recommended that I should be waiting until after the exam to watch (Damn you Battlestar Galactica);
• Write a blog post about life in a study lockdown.

This isn't the greatest plan, all I'm doing is reading and writing and hoping that the information finds a cosy little spot in my brain to reside and hopefully present itself at the right moment.  The right moment being during the exam, not at 3am the day after.  Waking up and screaming, "Mitrial Valve" is not a comfort to me or anyone else.

This is not an ideal situation, if I actually managed my time consistently throughout the 15 week term I wouldn't need to do this.  I would be coasting my way to the finish line.  I've started relationships that ended due to the lockdown but hey if you can't handle the fact that I have an addiction to studying and getting good grades and I don't want to see you for two weeks then it's not meant to be...

I'm going back to the books.  This is a poor post, apologies.  I'm frantic, and possibly still hungover from the weekend.

I do have one more thing to add.  It's my pre-exam mantra, "If I don't know it now, I'm never going to know it so it doesn't matter."

Being observant is not always a good thing.

Potatoes.

Think about them.  How many glorious forms can a potato take on?

• Potato salad
• Roasted
• Mashed with or without gravy
• Scallops
• Potato cakes
• Rosti
• Baked potatoes with all the toppings you desire!
• Hot chips
• Smiths chips
• Chip butties
• Fried salty goodness
• Potatoes with cheese
• Mum's home-made potato chips
• Wedges damnit!

This list is not exhaustive, I just can't think of any more but here's a link to Google;

The many things you can do with potatoes

I don't cook potatoes, I have a fear of cooking potatoes or at least something in me that puts me off bringing potatoes into my house.  I've always omitted potatoes from my Aloo Gobi recipe and my Aloo Gobi tastes great without them.

I buy my potato variants ready-to-eat, with salt, usually to cure a hangover.  So this isn't about me not eating potatoes or disliking potatoes.  Surely you must be missing a chromosome if you don't like at least one type of potato dish/side/snack. 

Potatoes are great except for the low nutritional value and high starch content.

I have a point, and eventually I'll get to it.

Right about now...

Being observant is not always a good thing because it leads to little discoveries about oneself that eventually becomes a pattern and culminates in a realisation that I have to call it quits with Mr Potato Head.

I'm ok with that, this guy is not a very attractive man.  

Unless he's wearing this...

I love it.

OK, getting back to the point.  I've noticed lately that when I've eaten potatoes, in soup, in delicious salty fried forms, mashed and roasted (this is over the past week alone) that I become affected in an uncomfortable and unattractive way.  

Kermit moves into my throat and suddenly everyone asks if I have a cold, mucous rises and has a party from oesophagus to nasopharynx, or worse, the bloating blockages that last too long for my liking.

This cannot be!  A potato intolerance, that's preposterous!  I've never heard of anything more ridiculous in the sea of food intolerances that are engulfing Western society.  

Apparently it can be, according to the GP and I have to lay off the potatoes for the next month, then I need to try them again and see what happens.

This is utter bullshit.

Not what I just wrote.  Potato intolerance is bullshit.

I can't stand heart shaped crap anyway.

I might tell you about that one day, when I figure out why I can't stand heart shaped crap.

So you see, being observant is not always a good thing.  Ignorance is bliss, uncomfortable bliss but bliss nonetheless.

If I wasn't so observant I'd probably still be eating meat and drinking milk and married to that guy.  Hmm, thankfully I do notice shit.