He who laughs last...

Dear Makoto,

Every year (well, almost every year since the 2009 calendar still hangs on my office wall) I buy a new calendar to help me keep track of the days and organize my life.  This year, I saw your calendar and thought, 'hey! I can kill two birds with one stone: support my favorite soccer player and keep track of my life'.  So I bought your calendar and eagerly anticipated its arrival.

Maybe I should have paid attention to the listed size of the calendar.  Maybe I should learn what cm actually means in terms of inches.  And maybe I should realize that not everyone actually uses a calendar to keep track of their lives but more as a front to have poster-sized pictures of someone they like on their wall.  

Love,

Me

Dear Subconscious,

You really outdid yourself this time.  Three weeks until the end of the semester and suddenly you're faced with the fact that there was that one class that you had signed up for but forgotten to attend class claiming that you would get the work done on your own time.  And now you're wracking your brain trying to figure out how to get a semester's worth of material into your brain in three weeks so you can pass the class.  

The story has been played before - pretty much every semester in fact.  However, this semester its different.  In your waking moments, you actually did have interest in taking Japanese.  You actually did have that problem at the beginning of the semester with applying for classes.  And you actually hold in your possession Japanese language books.  

So, there I am in the middle of my dream, living a nightmare.  I'm remembering that in the past three months, I've only learned a handful of Japanese phrases.  The teacher and the TA tell me that I will inevitably fail the class, unconcerned of course that receiving a failing grade gets me kicked out of my PhD program.  I discuss the matter with my Japanese-speaking friend who claims he had repeatedly told me that not attending class was a bad move.  

Meanwhile, the analytical part of my brain is trying to figure out if these experiences are memories of other dreams or of waking reality.  And I'm panicking because I can't figure out amidst the details of the dream if I will wake up and find that its not just a bad dream.  

Three weeks until the end of the semester.  And I do have to finish an independent study class.  

Fortunately it's radiative heat transfer.  Thanks for the almost heart attack anyway.  

Love,

Me