The Calm Before the Storm

So I went to McDonalds to get a small vanilla milkshake this afternoon, and left with a small vanilla milkshake...

and a Big Mac meal.

Thus begins finals week.

I spent over 8 hours this past weekend making flashcards for my Bio Lab practical. No joke. Over 8 hours cutting out color pictures and making flashcards. I'm thinking about selling them to the next crop of unsuspecting biology students.

Other than ingesting about 5000 calories per day for the last five days, I'm holding up pretty well. Though everything seems slightly surreal.

For example, let's talk about the friendly, chatty old man in the McDonald's drive through. (drive thru?) My friend Jill mentioned once how McDonald's Diet Coke seems to have actual coke in it - it's so good. Once you learn a little tidbit like that, and then find out that it's true, it's impossible to unlearn such information. So, in order to cut down on my Starbucks-a-day habit, I started in on McDonalds Diet Coke. Bigger, cheaper, not as healthy....what's not to love?

As a bonus, there's a chatty old guy with a slight New York accent who runs the drive through in the mornings. He always comments on the weather, or about how he just had the weekend off... harmless stuff like that. On the first day I wore my glasses, he commented that I looked much different with my hair down. Funny stuff like that. I had this image of him in my head as a grandfatherly type guy who probably buys his grandchildren candy on his way home from work. Mind you - I have nothing to substantiate this idea except for random discussions about the weather when I hand over my $2.00 for my large Diet Coke in the mornings.

Today he mentioned that he's had not one, but TWO weekends off in a row. I congratulate him and say that seems like the perfect relaxing set up. His face darkened for a second before he responded, "Yeah, well, until I ran into a cop."

At this point, Emily is inching away from the window in a desperate attempt to cling to the "grandfatherly" image she had in her mind. At the same time, her insane curiosity makes her open her mouth and ask, "What happened?"

Internet, let me give you a tip. When a "grandfatherly" type begins a story with, "I must have gotten confused driving home because of my medication. There's now way I would be drunk after two drinks," you should just leave. Leave or your perception of said "grandfatherly" type will never be the same.

I just kept a polite smile on my face as I inched away from the window. I didn't want to find out if that "ran into" was figurative or literal. Surreal. He seemed so....cute....so...grandfatherly. Sigh.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to get acquainted with some flashcards. Who knows? If they're nice, I might let them buy me a drink. More than likely, I'll have to see how well they help me on the test tonight before I start thinking about any sort of long term commitment.