in the last 24 hours...

4:30 pm--arrived to my class, prepared for mid-term.

5:00 pm--professor finally starts talking about the test, saying he thinks it's easier than he meant it to be and asking if anyone has questions. We ask questions about the questions that he said last week would be the EXACT questions on the test "because the point is that I want you to learn, not just pass a test."

5:15 pm--he hands out the test. Not ONE question is from the review. Not one.

5:45 pm--I turn in my test and leave the classroom. PISSED. It's a credit/no credit class! We should be writing reflection papers, not taking crazy tests like we never take in grad school. AND we have to get 80% to get credit for the course. Out of 20 questions, I counted TEN that I COMPLETELY guessed. WTF.

5:50 pm--make furious phone call to Jesse, shrieking that I may end up finishing this quarter as ABD plus EDLPS 560 (the course). Sure, I write a 50 page General Exam but I can't pass a 20 question test...when I'm led to believe the questions will be completely different.

5:55 pm--I return to the scene of the crime and wait for Leah to come out (who is also in the class). She does, and the WTF conversation ensues. Then Girl We Also Studied With comes out. Same WTF conversation. Then Girl Who Takes the Class Way Too Seriously (recorded the review last week) came out, made WTF face, and started ranting. Such it went, so that by...

6:25 pm--people were still taking the test (that was supposed to have had a 45 minute time limit) and 20+ more people have come out of the room with the same Dazed & Confused expression.

10:00 pm--Leah comes home from her second class and informs me that the last few people said something to Prof about the craziness, so I am left to feel justice will win the day. But I have to wait until Monday to find out.

This morning...

8:20 am--Jesse drops Leah & me off at UW. I meet with Director of Student Services for another Advisor Handbook project meeting because I knew I'd already be on campus, before my Big Fat General Exam (BFGE). Sure, because I don't have anything else on my mind...let's have a meeting about the Advisor Handbook. I might not repeat that choice.

9:30 am--Leave meeting and go to room where BFGE will be held. Of course it's locked. I run around and find the Guy with All the Keys to unlock it. I place handouts at each committee member's seat and sit in my own seat.

9:35 am--Someone walks down the hall. I wonder if it's one of the committee members. It isn't.

9:37 am--Repeat above.

9:39 am--Repeat above.

9:45 am--First committee member arrives. Oddly enough, she routinely works in Senegal, West Africa, on her research...the very same Senegal I lived in before, so we chat.

9:55 am--Second committee member arrives. More chit chat.

10:00 am--Third committee member (my chair) arrives. Conversation ensues regarding students' usage of laptops in the classroom...apparently, they all know we're surfing Facebook instead of taking notes.

10:10 am--Still no fourth committee member. So I go hunt her down. She's in her office where she has mixed up the times, apologizes profusely and we scoot back down the hall.

10:15 am--We begin. I go through the handouts I have brought, paring the 50 page document I submitted down to 5 pages. Impressive.

10:30 am--The questions. Mostly about my study. Yes, but if you do this, how will you handle this? And what if this happens?

11:15 am--Chair asks me to leave for a few minutes while they talk about me. Comforting.

11:25 am--I am asked to return, told I have passed unanimously, and congratulated as an official Doctoral Candidate. My response? "Yay!" and "Thank you."

11:30 am--Class dismissed.