A bad decision

Tonight I did probably one of the stupidest, and certainly one of the more dangerous things I've done in a long time. I drove home. Lately I've been extremely busy with school and I have probably gotten maybe 8 hours of sleep in the past 48 hours. Last night I was up until about 1am working on a paper that was due today. Then I got up at 5am so I could get to school early enough to practice the presentation. Needless to say I was exhausted today. And we had a reception from 5-7pm so I knew it was going to be a long day.

The reception ended around 7:15 and I wasn't feeling too bad. But I should have known better. I live about an hour and 15 minutes away from school and that drive can get very monotonous, especially after dark. About 30 minutes into the drive I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't find anything on the radio worth listening too and none of my CD's sounded interesting either. At that point I should have called someone so I could carry on a conversation, pulled over to take a nap, I don't know, but I should have done something. But I'm a guy, and I don't like to ask for help; I like to think I can do it all on my own. But tonight that was just a dumb idea. I probably fell asleep at least 5 times while doing 80mph down the Interstate then 3 or 4 more times driving 60mph on the road that takes me into Aiken. Luckily it was only for a second or two and I woke up each time before I got too far off the side of the road.

I guess the moral of the story is that pride can be a dangerous thing. I should have never attempted that ride home, at least not without a plan in case I got tired. But instead of admitting that I needed help and couldn't do it on my own I put my life at risk and anyone else that might have been around me had I gone off the road. I have three months of school left before I go to Morocco and 2 1/2 hours in my car every day. The saddest part is that I can't promise I won't do this again but hopefully the next time I am this tired I will remember this night and make a better decision.

Another day in the life....

First of all, as a precursor to this story, understand that grad school is probably the most time consuming thing I have done to date. I am busier now than I was as a company commander in the Army. I don't know if it's just because I've been out of school for awhile or what but I have to work very hard to stay on top of my schoolwork and not get behind. Essentially I have no life right now outside of school, I come home from school and study until it's time for bed. But luckily there are a few people at school that keep me on track and help me to understand things (they know who they are I think....lol).

So anyway, tonight Tina and I got into a little argument because I am not going to Sara's soccer game this Sunday in Atlanta (I have two group project meetings on Sunday and an exam on Tuesday) and because I spend every night studying. School is definitely taking its toll on our family life and can be hard to deal with at times but as always, we will survive :) Apparently Sara and Morgan heard us arguing and naturally didn't like it but for some reason Sara was more upset than we were. I think she wanted to get out of the house so she asked (told) us to take her to the football game. But it was already 9pm and supposed to rain so we told her no.

So what ensued was a "conversation" we had after we told her she couldn't go to the game. She didn't want me filming her while she was mad so she was trying to get my phone from me. Sorry for the blurriness but I was trying to hold my phone at arms length so she couldn't get it. She eventually cheered up....but life is rough when you're 15.