My Fair Pony, A Story to Sleep To

This semester I am taking Book Arts, it is a secretive class, rarely heard of, and held only in the early morning twice a week. This is a class I often find myself canceling plans with my dear old friend sleep for. The projects for this class are surprise, making books. Two books for each session of the class. That doesn't sound too overwhelming, but considering that the complexity of each book has dramatically increased each time, and then the other coursework from my multitude of classes and there is an intense pileup of homework several times a week. These nights where all the possible assignments to ever emerge from various instructors consciousnesses converge on my modest evening, I find myself working way into the wee hours of the morning. This is deeply disconcerting considering the early nature of the secretive book arts class. Nearly every eve of book arts, I find myself finally finishing my books only hours or often less, before the class is scheduled to start.

Last night, for the second time this semester I found myself in a very similar situation. I was working on a book due in class that same morning, and as the night progressed and I came closer and closer to the completion of my book, the sun also came closer and closer to rising. Then the sun would rise and the birds would chirp. The sky would grow lighter and lighter until I would look over at the clock on the microwave which would without fail say 1:27. What?! Stupid roommate not cancelling the time off when finished using the microwave! After accomplishing what a four year old could, excuse me, I mean after clearing the time from the microwave so that the clock would appear, I would discover that I had approximately a half an hour before my class was to begin.

I recently read that people that suffer from insomnia, sleep deprevation, or just good old fashioned all-nighters are more likely to suffer heart attacks, and inevitable death. This is fairly common knowledge, at least that staying up late is bad for your health, especially when followed by geting up early. Not to mention the added stress from all the assignments and the complexity of the projects. I can hardly imagine the advice a trained health professional would give me. Probably something about avoiding plague riddled rodents and washing my hands after using the restroom.

Back to the real story at hand. Upon realizing that I had stayed up the entire evening working on my project, and still not yet completed it with class looming on the 30-minute horizon, what did I do you ask? I skipped class that's what. Why bother going to not turn in an assignment I was supposed to have finished, then to sit and view the completed assignments of my more responsible peers, and to top off the experience throw in a lecture from a fine arts professor with an axe to grind and nothing left to lose!?

There is no real moral to this story, as there often isn't in real life. Actually there is a moral, Sleeping in is worth fighting for.