Great Big Mess

I'm procrastinating finishing my research paper. It's due in 7 hours and 45 minutes, and it needs another page and a half of material. I'll probably just write more about Schrödinger and maybe add something about Einstein. I don't know why I work best under pressure. If I could always work as well as I do when I'm rushing, I bet I could do some really amazing work. I'm not sure if it's end-of-semester apathy, senioritis, winter blues, or just general stress, but I don't care anymore. I wish more people would go to juggling practice so it would be fun again. I think I'd care more about life in general if I had a reason to smile and laugh every few days.

My roommate had a party on Saturday night. Six people downstairs getting totally hammered, screaming and yelling until five in the morning. At one point, I went downstairs to refill my water bottle, and four of them were lying on top of each other on the couch. I couldn't believe the amount of alcohol they had consumed or how many different kinds there were. I don't envy them the hangover they must have had.

What really irks me, though, is the huge mess there was when I went downstairs for breakfast the next morning. The kitchen sink was piled so high with dishes that I could hardly fill up a glass of water. And the pile of dishes had crept out of the sink, and more were strewn across the counter and the stove. Seriously, I don't mind that I've done all the dishes almost every day (sometimes twice a day) all semester, but come on!

So since there wasn't room to cook anything, I started to clean up when my roommate Sarah came in. She told me not to do Amanda's dishes, but to make Amanda do them since a) it's her mess, and b) Amanda's done with her finals and has plenty of time and nothing to do. Then Sarah told me not to do her dishes either because she would do them just as soon as she got back from the library. Then she left before I could point out that if I didn't do the dishes, I couldn't cook or eat, and I was hungry.

Obedience outweighed duty, so I left the mess and got breakfast/lunch at the Wood Center on Sunday. And Monday morning, I needed to take my car out to warm it up anyway, so I got up early and went to Safeway for donuts (which were really really good). Now it's Tuesday, and not only has the mess in the kitchen not been cleaned up, but it's grown. I seem to be the only one bothered by it. I wonder if one of them will clean up because they've run out of dishes or if I'll just buckle down and clean it myself first.

Speaking of messes in the kitchen, by the way.... The other day, I was trying to remember if I had any food that wasn't pasta or sandwiches when I remembered I had some okra in the freezer that I had never finished. And I thought, "Hm, I bet that would taste really good fried," so I put some oil in a pan on the stove and started heating it up. Well, after a minute, I realized it might have been a better idea to use a pot. But I figured oh well, I could put a lid on it so it doesn't spit too terribly badly and just make sure not to try and cram too much into the pan. Then I got out the okra, which I realized I should have done before I put the oil on the stove. Again, oh well. I opened the bag and noticed it was freezer burned pretty badly. Also, it was almost more ice than okra. Oh snap, I thought, this is going to spit a lot when I put it in the pan.

Can you say "understatement?" I stood back a little way so I could make a quick getaway when the oil started to spit. Stretched out my arm as far as it would go, dropped in four little pieces of chopped okra, and it exploded! And it kept exploding for about five solid minutes! It was really awesome!

People brag about setting things on fire in the kitchen, but I top them. This is the second time in three months that I've accidentally made something explode without even using the microwave.

Anyway, the okra had turned black already, so as soon as I could get close enough to pick it up without worrying about getting oil in my face (I can take it on my arms fine), I just took the whole mess--still exploding--and threw it out the back door into the snow. So much for having okra. Now where did I put my Ramen?