The Payoff

You know how when you actually put a lot into something, you tend to get a lot back out of it? Yeah, that actually happened to me!

I had previously written about all of the things I have to do in the near-to-immediate future, one of which was a ten page research paper for Marriage Institution. This paper had involved two separate Paper-Writing Parties, which took place at Starbucks with two other girls from my class. And they were very successful! Two of us finished our papers, the third very nearly finished, and we all turned aforementioned papers in on Monday so that our professor could read them and give us feedback.

We got our papers back on Wednesday. I was expecting something more or less along the lines of, "You really missed the point, didn't you? This is horrible." Instead, I got this:

Victory!

You can imagine the way in which my head swelled with pride and my heart puttered with relief. It was a great feeling, knowing that I only had a few things to change. And change them I did. The other two girls and I made plans to hold a Paper Writing Party Finale the following day (Thursday; in other words, today) at one in the afternoon. To top it off, from 2-5pm, Starbucks was doing a 'Buy One, Share One' promo for their holiday drinks—Peppermint Mocha, HELLO—so we knew we'd have sufficient...motivation.

Thursday—today—rolled around, and unfortunately one of us couldn't make it. But the remaining two of us met up at one as planned.

We were a little too early for the holiday promo drink thing, so we staked out our spots in two of the comfy chairs in the corner and, since I couldn't resist, I got an Undertow, which is basically espresso, cream, and I get mine with vanilla. It's delish, and it comes in one of those adorable Short cups.

The view from my chair!

We started working on our papers, with some breaks for chatter, and two came around pretty fast. We got our first round of coffee for the day. Since it was buy one, get one, we each bought one—first she bought one, and I got the free one. Then a few hours later, I bought one and she got the free one.

Interjection—the second time around, I tried a gingerbread latte for the first time. AMAZING.

So we were undoubtedly adequately pumped full of caffeine.

And can I just say, we were at Starbucks working on our papers (the chatter didn't take up too much of our time, honest!) for six hours!? And can I also point out that that's twice as long as we stayed on the previous two days we'd had our Paper Writing Parties? In other words, we basically spent as much time editing our papers as we did initially writing them. That doesn't make sense, does it?

Still, it was worth it. My friend left a little before me, but I was only there maybe fifteen minutes longer. I was determined to leave and be completely finished.

I was successful!

The finished product.

Grand total I have spent...about fifteen hours on this paper. Not including the two hours I spent watching one of the movies I used as an example so that I could get the specific quotes. But including the time I spent pulling quotes from the books and articles I used.

All in all, not too shabby. And now, I am officially done with my paper. Which means I don't have to worry about it at all this weekend. Oh, it's going to be blissful.

Oh wait. That's right, I still have to finish my Campaigns & Elections paper...

Tucker would like me to wrap this post up and declare it officially, "bedtime."

I'd also like to mention that I wrote this whole post while listening to one particular song on repeat—It came on while I was in Starbucks, and I loved it. Which prompted me to download it and subsequently listen to it over and over again. 

"It Was a Very Good Year"—a song that Sinatra made famous; performed by Willie Nelson and Ray Charles. It's excellent. Just...thought I'd throw that out there. As a fervent lover of music.