Bright, Shiny Faces

It's been a good day so far. It's 10:51 am. I've been up since 7am. I actually slept until the alarm went off even though I spent the hours between 4 and 6am doing multiple choice questions in bed. It's the best thing to put one to sleep, right? Can't read something interesting, might get too excited. The point being that I was asleep in the morning when my alarm went off.

The Bar Exam looms ahead. It is like going to war. Requires a lot of preparation and equipment and packing and deliberation. I've been focusing on strategy. Not just in the way I take the exam, but how I get there, the supplies I bring, my routine in the morning. I need to pack my lunch that contains minimum carbs, protein, fiber/veg, sugar/fruit, and soda. What am I going to do about tea in the morning? Gulp it all in one go and run to the bathroom a million times? I drink water like a fish. I drink so much of it I should have drowned in my sleep. No water permitted in the testing room. One must get up and go to a different part of the testing center for water. Sometimes, I imagine a boxing scene where the fighter is getting the pep talk, water squirt in the mouth, water squirt on the head, cold water all over his head to wake him up, wipe the blood from his eyes.

Stranger things are permitted in the exam: TENS units, paper clips, rulers (??), casts (prior to this permission, was the cast to come off in order to take the exam?), wallets, diabetic equipment. They fail to mention whether we could have a bag to carry all of this in. Or if we have to bring it in piece by piece? Unpack it from the bag and then discard the bag? Why do we need rulers? Should I bring it all just in case I need it all? Even things I don't need?

Yesterday whilst taking a multiple choice exam, the question used a very lofty word. It described the land as a "copse of trees." COPSE. How cultured, eloquent, refined, expressive, creative! I thought I was reading a Charlotte Bronte book for a split second. These little things make me smile.

I really really hope I get through this exam. I really really hope my wrists hold up and it doesn't hurt too bad the next day. I really really hope no trucks overturn on the highway and spill 100,000 cans of cream of mushroom soup on the asphalt.