I am generally not fond of stress, especially when the stress is exam-related. In order to combat stress and other ickiness, my roommate and I have decorated the outside of our door with balloons inscribed (OK, so maybe magic markered is a more accurate term) with the names of our classes. Whenever we finish a final, we pop the corresponding balloon. I got to pop two today. I cannot begin to describe the natural high that comes with sticking a pin in this little plastic bag filled with air. It’s nothing short of exhilerating. It makes me feel woozy… although that could just be light-headedness from inflating so many balloons.
Ahhh…finals week.
I miss school. Well, I hated college when i was there (my own fault- I was such a twerp), but I did like the part where you get to learn things.
I miss finals week. I miss the part where I get to stand in the hallway during 23-quiet hours and take a break from studying and scream real loud for several minutes.
(I was a twerp back then, so I didn’t care that I bothered people)
Enjoy it while you can. Exams are a small pleasure as well. You will miss them someday. You don’t believe me, do you?
Yes, breaking balloons is strangely satisfying.
I’ll tell you a secret-
it’s a similar small pleasure:
There was a time in my teenager-hood where I would buy a lot of ceramic animals and crap. Total junk, mostly from yard sales and flea markets and the like.
Anyway, one would wonder why someone with a usually very tasteful decor ( ) was doing with all these tacky ceramic items.
Well, the purpose of these animals was stress-relief. When times got really bad and felt like I hurricane, I would fling these poor animals all over the room and smash them to bits. It made a loud noise and was very satisfying.
Unfortunately, this tended to upset the people I lived with at the time, despite my reassurance that it was solely a stress relief.
Never mind, i’m not making any sense…
Serendipity, that is such a great idea! I wish I’d done that. Then I could have popped that last balloon when I got home today. (“Take that, Crim Pro!”)
Turpentine, my best friend used to do the same thing, except she used empty candle jars. Breaking ceramics sounds more therapeutic than popping balloons, but I think I’ll have to stick with latter for a while, seeing as balloons are both cheaper and easier to clean up that tacky figurines.
ladybug, you don’t have to wait until next semester to make use of the balloons. I’ve discovered that they work for all types of upsetting things. For example, the package that I bought today contained a few, um, sort of phallic shaped balloons. Rather than putting these on display for the entire hall, my roommate and I taped them to the inside of our door and labelled them with phrases such as “General Angst,” “Unrequited Love,” and “Columbia Students.” When non-exam stress hits, pop!, instant relief!
Turpentine’s right about you, Scotti – you are supernaturally sweet. But, then again, Turp is like that, too, so she’s not really one to talk. Not that I’m complaining. I adore you guys! ::group hug!::
My easiest exam (German) was today, and tomorrow is my second hardest (biology). I went to a review session earlier this evening and somehow managed to finish the studying I needed to do by midnight. Woohoo! That means I get to snuggle into the comfort of my bed at a reasonalbe hour. What more could a girl ask for?
That’s effing brilliant. Good luck on the rest of your balloons, Serendipity, and for that matter, I hereby sprinkle magic virtual fairy dust on all the college Dopers, that y’all may roll up into your final exams, finish all of them in half an hour, and then slap your professors open-handed across the face as you turn them in, because you are insulted by such an easy exam.
::comes in, having finished Religions of the Near East exam::
::sees balloon labeled “Punha’s religion class”::
::takes out pencil and pops balloon::
And I’m not even going TALK about the people who left their cellphones on DURING the exam or the people who were TALKING on them . . . or the . . . human who managed to steal my duffelbag WITH review material for this exam the NIGHT BEFORE!
Although I only took one exam today (thanks for the magic virtual fairy dust, by the way, Lux – it definitely helped), I popped two balloons: one for biology and one for general angst because I missed a phone call from someone I wanted to talk to and am now back to playing phone tag. (No cellular phones for me, iampunha! ) Of course, when my sister called to ask me a mundane and pointless question, the ringing from the phone woke me from my nap. Blah.
That’s awful! ::hands punha a balloon labeled “Stupid Thieves”::
Punha proceeds to mangle the balloon until it looks like that bunny with the fucked-up ears from Watership Down.
I still managed to do well enough, even without knowing some key stuff about Islamic prophecy, Greek heredity, and Jewish mysticism. But FUCK . . . was that bag really all that important to whoever took it?
I wish you luck with my paddington doll, hacker volume (Diane hacker), copy of a work of james herriot, and my paper on the differences between jewish and christian concepts of the afterlife. Whatever the hell you wanted with those . . .
Who would have thought the elderly ex-Jesuit Chaucer prof had a sneaking interest in postmodern theory? I’m glad I didn’t bother to study any of the things I thought he would ask about, as I wasn’t even close…
Not sure a word of what I wrote made sense, but it’s all good. He’ll probably read what he wants to read, anyway.
I cannot begin to describe the natural high that comes with sticking a pin in this little plastic bag filled with air. It’s nothing short of exhilerating. It makes me feel woozy… although that could just be light-headedness from inflating so many balloons.
) was doing with all these tacky ceramic items.
) Of course, when my sister called to ask me a mundane and pointless question, the ringing from the phone woke me from my nap. Blah.
::hands punha a balloon labeled “Stupid Thieves”::