I spent about five hours today sitting on my butt at the library, studying for a linear algebra test and a networking test, both of which are this week. Somehow, even though I exerted minimal physical effort for those hours, I am sore and tired. If only I burned calories as quickly from getting uncomfortable in a library as I do on a bike machine…

Studying makes me nervous because, as I go over a subject more, I realize how much detail there actually is and I panic about forgetting most of it. I may learn the material better because I studied it, but it also greatly increases my stress because I realize, holy crap, I don’t remember half this stuff. At that point, I just have to take a deep breath and check my email for a few minutes to calm down. (This is a signal for all you readers to send me lolcats! Chop chop!)

Todd and I had dinner together tonight at one of the university restaurants, and boy, have they got a racket going. I paid $7 for a burger, yogurt, and a drink–I could’ve had a sandwich at some sit-down place for that! Todd had similar luck. If you don’t have a meal plan at UK, trying to eat on campus is a waste of money. When Todd was still hungry after his meal, I suggested the nearby Starbucks, joking that it would probably be cheaper to eat there than at the university. Now that’s just sad that Starbucks would be cheaper than anywhere else (except perhaps a smaller, local, and even more indie coffee shop?).

We ended up finding vending machines in the library, and omigosh, we felt like the future was here. Not only were there the usual cokes, candies, and chips in the machines, but there was also a machine with sausage-biscuit combos, Rally’s cheeseburgers, Hot Pockets, and Tony Roma’s BBQ rib patties. Ridiculous! We were way dubious about how trustworthy a BBQ sandwich procured from a vending machine would be, but I pressured Todd to get the rib patty; his curiosity about how it would be helped to convince him. Upon tasting it, he considered for a moment and then said it was actually pretty good. I had him compare it to the campus meal earlier: while it wasn’t as good, it was certainly a better buy for the money. I’d take a $1.50 sandwich over a $7 sandwich-combo any day.