Stressed = Desserts backwards

I believe that I have mentioned my latest quest for furhter education. I'm taking classes toward a new master's degree, and made it through the first semester and am part-way through the second. The first semester was about general physiology, and was a lot of new vocabulary, but at least most of our physiological systems make some intuitive sense. This semester, we are working on Neuroscience and later, Neuropharmacology. Neuro.. having to do with the brain.

Our noodles are complicated little organs, and involve intricate little parts with crazy names. In addition, the way that it works deals with electrochemical forces and equations and junk like that. Needless to say, it's hard stuff. Our first test has rolled around, and we get to take it online, though there is a time limit, so you can't just sit around looking up the answers to every question as you go along. We have until Sunday to get it submitted, and it is stressin me out!! I am re-reading everything, so this takes up every evening. I have one more chapter of review and then I will take the flippin thing. One chaper is about 25 pages long, and it takes me about 1.5 hours to make it through that, taking notes as I go and pausing to scratch my head and re-read the sentences three or four times.

This is as unpleasant a task as I can stand. It makes me frantic, wondering if I'll get it and pass, or whether I will flunk this class. And not understanding it fully on the first read-through frazzles me. What do I do?! I want cookies and chocolate and buttered popcorn, that's what. See, normally, I would have a bunch of sweets and tasty treats right there, and this would bring enough pleasure to counteract the pain of the task and make it bearable. What do I do now??! I'm not gonna lie. I have eaten at least one cookie (vanilla sandwich cremes, Fareway brand - normally no temptation at all but I'm desperate) and Dove chocolate each night that I am working on this. Last night I was two steps from the buttery popcorn.

Exercise is supposed to be stress-relieving, but if I do that, I will not have time to get my reading done after the kids are in bed. Shoot. And it's not the immediate counteracting force that cookies afford. Last night I tried one of those flavored mix-ins for my bottled water. Sweet, without the calories. It helped me avoid the popcorn, but it was not the same satisfaction. Maybe I'll try chewing gum. Next week will be better.