(diaryland) August 31, 2004 - 2:32 p.m.

I have the worst purple rings under my eyes today. Even my boss noticed, and usually he doesn't even notice if I cut off several inches of my hair.

The reason I was so tired had something to do with a stupid exam I had this morning. We all had to play this song on the piano, which is usually fine, but the catch was we had to play an entire choir's worth of vocal lines all at the same time.

I'd not been able to sleep very well thinking about how crap at it I was going to be, and then I had to get up early to go to school to do that last minute frantic practicing that never helps.

First of all, I had to kick someone out of my practice room. That's never the best way to start a day. It sets up bad vibes. I always like to have a good old chat with whoever I am kicking out of the practice room, though. I think it gives it some sort of humanity. So I did that. Then, when I settled down to practice, all nice and calm, this person across the hallway began screaming into the tiny end of a saxophone. Saxophonists love to do that. They love to scream into the tiny ends of their saxophones at eight o'clock in the morning across the hall from me. They love it.

I couldn't concentrate. I kept rubbing my eyes and wailing, "OH MY GOD SHUT UP PLEASE." The noise was reverberating through my skull.

Then, when that was over (after about half an hour), some idiots out in the hall broke out into some ridiculous acapella doo-wop tune, complete with snapping fingers, for NO APPARENT REASON.

WHO THE FUCK DOES DOO-WOP EN MASSE AT 8:30 IN THE MORNING? It was the worst thing ever.

So, anyway, it turned out that I passed the stupid choral exam, no thanks to anybody.