Oh man, it’s finals time. I had a paper due on Wednesday and another on Friday, and as soon as I turned them in, I was finished with the class forever—what a great feeling! I’ve gotta say, I really like knockin’ these classes down, one at a time. It’s like checking things off a to-do list, another favorite activity of mine. I’m the kind of person who gets disappointed if I realize that something I just did wasn’t actually on my list, so I write it in just for the satisfaction of crossing it off. I know, it’s dumb, but my sisters both do it, too, so I don’t think I’m alone on this one.
Now that the papers are done, I just have one in-class exam left. I’m really trying to buckle down and study for it, but somehow learning the dance moves to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” video seems equally important to me right now. My mission would go a lot faster if they would show more than two nanoseconds of the dance at a time. I like to trick myself into thinking that I’m practicing my analytical abilities when I recognize that most of the dance is a modified version of The Thriller, The Twist, The Charleston (yes, seriously), and a short sequence from the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders’ routine (again, seriously), but really, I’m not even fooling myself on that one. Analytical, schmanylitical. It is much like when I was an undergrad and got tired of studying for my French final—I would put on a movie and turn on the French subtitles in the muted hope that my brain would absorb some of it, but in reality I knew watching The Matrix in French did not count as an academic experience.
My husband is not helping with the dance distraction. Every time I lean away from my laptop and rest the back of my head on the sofa and declare hiatus from paper-writing, he turns on the song. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, it is quite helpful, because after a few rounds with The Lady I’m always ready to go back to the paper. I know all of this sounds crazy, but you know what? I got an A in both my French classes in college. Maybe this Lady Gaga approach to corporate law isn’t such a bad idea after all.
- Erin
