Day 14: The gamut of ways to procrastinate

1/29 As I write this journal entry, I am indeed procrastinating. However, I’m hoping that by the time I finish writing this I will be able to focus more on writing my paper. Starting with colloquy this morning. We got drilled on Augustine in a sense. Everything we said had to be supported by a quote. Bummerness. I think we might have been getting a subtle paper writing hint.. It’s ok though, because Augustine was fascinating and well-written. It was an easy read and humble, yet powerful and moving.

After Augustine, I raced upstairs to get my computer, raced back down to check the internet, and subsequently discovered that the next paper topic had not been emailed. It didn’t get emailed for the whole second colloquy, or throughout our lunch eating time, or for another half hour after that. So our solution? Play games while it’s not considered procrastination. After a lively competitive game of Euker, the paper at last arrived. The topic…too broad.
“Explore Jewish and Christian identities and how they engaged the surrounding cultures in which they developed & into which they expanded.”
Next on the list, was pondering the topic. We mulled it over, but fairly unsuccessfully. We then tried looking at our combined collections of museum pictures…which turned into a photo shoot of ourselves. Next we tried discussing the topics, which was the most productive thus far—and turned into great conversations about the Bible, just not pertaining to our papers. Then we tried just silently working, which lead to music with Dan and David expressively attempting to conduct. Next we decided to go for a walk. Katie had the idea that we should take a Frisbee with us…bad plan. We got to the park, mind you the whole walk was to focus ourselves—and get David some of his 8,500 remaining steps for the day—and found the ground to be completely soggy. The solution, take off socks&shoes and throw around the Frisbee, even though Daniel and I protested. So we froze our feet, got mud all over ourselves and didn’t focus in the least, but it was an adventure.

After that mode of procrastination we gingerly hobbled back, barefoot!, across the cold London streets to the H’Bury Centre. When we were just down the street we realized that we couldn’t go inside the building because you can’t have bare feet ANYWHERE (even though we rinsed ours in puddles) in there and we weren’t going to put our semi-dirty shoes back on either. Also our keys were just inside the door at the office (we have to leave them when we go out). The solution? We hobbled around the back of the building and flagged down another Londonerd near a window to get him to open the back door for us (we’d also left our phones). We raced inside, trying not to draw attention from the staff, and begged Erin to get us key 29. We then booked it to our rooms, stopping only long enough to get a muddy photo, and then showered away the dirt. Meeting up again, we worked briefly till dinner, which was delicious.
Finally, we were determined to get stuff done (at least Katie and I were). Though when Daniel and David rejoined us, I took the opportunity during some of their random chatter to quickly upload my blog page downstairs. While I was down there, opportunity knocked...and as the procrastinator I am…I naturally answered loudly.

It turns out that Alyssa and Renee had gotten Ben, Evan, and Brad to volunteer for an experiment. They had straightened all their hair. I quickly stopped by to look at the final results, and in the process arrived at a brilliant idea concurrently with Renee. We decided that Daniel Spiotta’s hair would be the best subject for this experiment, being long and never brushed. I nonchalantly returned to my room, trying to suppress my grin and said nothing as I returned to my computer. Several minutes later a knock set me quietly giggling. Renee and Alyssa determinedly marched in and set out their proposition for Daniel, David loudly protesting all the while (until he got the evil eye from Renee). Looking to Katie and me for guidance, Daniel “surprisingly” determined that the result would be only temporary, and agreed to the treatment.

Renee and Alyssa raced out of the room shocked, and returned triumphant with straightener in hand. After much laughter, many pictures, and a lot of brushing and straightening of Daniel’s hair he looked really different. We made some tweaking suggestions, and then Daniel even agreed to let his beard be straightened. It was quite the sight. The best part was David and Daniel only recently realized that girls A. brush hair when it’s dry, and B. brush it many times a day. Next…the spotlight moved to David. Although his hair is much shorter, he got to experience the warm feeling next to his head and it actually made a difference, though subtle, in his appearance. He, however, had a problem hair. A goldilocks had to be wetted and bobby pinned down before it stayed straight. After David came me and they found out just how long my hair is currently, and got to critique how it looks when girls straighten hair haha. And finally, Katie’s hair went through the process.

We each have progressive pictures and final pictures with our two hairstylists. The final result was another group photo—kind of the opposite extreme from our muddiness only hours before—and a modeling parade at storytime in our TA’s room across the hall. Later after they finished several other heads of hair (they straightened like 10/15 people over the course of the evening) we got new visitors showing off their new hairstyles and coming to see ours.
Our room was quite the hub yesterday, and lots of people stopped by for various reasons. I like it, and it’s proof that everyone is dreading writing this paper, not just me. However, alas I have GOT to go write now.