I AM STILL ALIVE (Barely)

Posted on May 4, 2013

An explanation for all of you who have been frantically visiting this website for the last… however long it’s been since April 17th.

The week following April 17th Might have literally been one of the hardest weeks of college I’ve endured so far, and half of the crap I’ve been doing doesn’t even affect my grades. I finished two scores for two theses (including Dormir, which those of you who know about this project should be anxious to get your hands on), photographed my first Greek event for Chapman (most terrifying quote of the year, from one of the Alpha Kappa Psi members: “Oh! We were wondering who would become the new Nathan!”. This either means 1) I’m about to become obscenely rich as a student, or 2) I am erasing my phone number and traveling to the Swiss Alps to evade a veritable freight train of Greek photography events). I have somewhere in the vicinity of 200 photos to edit for that alone, as well as somewhere around 50 just for the photo of the day as well.

Then I wrote a 12 page research paper on Minoan Linear A, a 5,500 year old, completely dead, and almost completely undeciphered ancient proto-Greek language. I had to make an entirely new font just to be able to write characters (A on that paper, by the way).

Wednesday night, I got 2 hours of sleep. Thursday night, I did not sleep. I showed up to class, dropped my finished paper into the professor’s hands, went back home, dragged myself into bed, and died for 12 hours.

A miraculously stress-free weekend quickly culminated in waking up Monday morning with a 103F degree fever, which I forced myself to deal with at school for a day, as there were dress rehearsals (not a good idea to miss) for a concert on Thursday. No classes on Tuesday; I slept for 22 hours. Absent from all classes on Wednesday: slept for 18 hours. Standing up (and actually remaining upright) is a legitimate obstacle; I am fearful of showers because the hot water in combination with standing for longer than 60 seconds at a time makes me extremely dizzy, and I have to climb out of the bathtub and lie down on the bathroom floor to ensure I don’t faint.

Four days and no classes later, my fever has abated to 100.0F.  I’ve slept more this week than in the two weeks before it combined. I am fluctuating at the moment; Motrin is a magical, glorious drug that keeps it down to around 98.6, but as soon as I stop taking it for more than four hours, it lurches angrily back above 100 and I once again find myself unconscious with the sheets pulled up to my nose.

To make a long story short: I feel miserable and I haven’t been updating the website because of a combination of miserable-feeling and a decidedly rapey schedule. I have nearly 30 minutes of music to upload (yay!) and a hoard of photos. Today is the first day where I’ve been lucid enough to stand and pour myself a glass of orange juice (although stairs still present a significant challenge). As soon as I get the remainder of my school obligations out of the way, I’ll be putting my effort into the site for a good long while. Until then, bear with me.

-Scott