AAA and some other (twisted) happenings

Today I endured the worst attack (yet) of AAA, which stands for Acute Applications Anxiety (yes, I believe I might have just invented the term, although this phenomenon tends to be a rather undefined endemic that sucks the marrow of postgrads to-be precisely around this time of the year). The primary symptoms include restlessness, extremes in appetite, spacing out, lack of desire for a social life, unhealthy levels of procrastination, body-aches, eye-aches, numbness, sleeplessness, and edginess.

The day started off with a slightly more than normal amount of procrastination. The agenda for today included making a long trip to pick up some documents that needed to be mailed, returning to town before the post office closed, gathering all my materials together, and having them express mailed. Remembering that the train leaves from the station at 1pm, I managed to scuttle out of my room with only half an hour to spare, which wasn't enough time to get to the station. When I reached the station, I remembered that the train runs on a special winter schedule so it would no longer come at that time. When I called my friend and found out where the next train comes,with five minutes to spare, I ran as fast as I could, despite the cruel wintry wind slashing my face. Panting, I managed to catch the train in time, ran a marathon again to get my documents and hopped on the next train back. By this time, it was already 4pm and the nearest post office closed at 4:30pm. This was certainly not enough time to gather all my documents. For one, I had a hard time printing documents, for if I noticed typos or mistakes in indentation, I had to print the documents over again. Not to mention, I had a hard time deciding what writing samples to send in the first place, so double the time was spent in editing papers, half of which would not get sent. After about two hours, as I was making a final checklist of gathered materials, I realized that the post office near-by closes in just half an hour. Overestimating my strength, I started walking for a mile, before my fatigue overpowered me and I succumed to the assistance of a kindly bus out of which I bounced off too fast, leaving me to walk yet more distance to get to the post office. The moment I surrendered those precious docuemnts, a sense of relief came with the aftermath.

Little did I know how things were to turn. When I reached home and just as I searched for my keys and pulled them out of my purse, I noticed that the key to my apartment was bent! Yes, a metallic key was bent in shape! Of all things to expect, who would fathom a bent key? It is one thing to lose a key and it is an entirely different matter if you have an otherwise strong-looking key that is mysteriously bent! Secretly, I think the energies resulting from the stress I underwent must have caused the key to react this way, but who knows? Anyways, just as I tried to slide the key into the keyhole of my apartment door, the key snapped! Broke into two pieces! So there I was locked out of my apartment for no fault of mine, for even though I have been locked out in the past, I could not be held responsible to not taking due precaution against a case of a bent key. I mean, who would even imagine such a thing happening, and today of all days, just when I hoped to relax a little?

My roommate later found me slumped in front of my apartment, like a stray cat, and it was only after she returned that I was able to finally get into my own room and try and destress after such an exhausting day.

Tomorrow I have to say farewell to my poor key (and its sad parts) and get new ones to replace them.

I do hope I don't have days like this very often.