As those of you who follow me on twitter may have realized (due to my frequent tweets hashtaged #MBUdiaries), Friday night and all of Saturday I spent working at Merit Badge University, which is an opportunity for thousands of boy scouts to descend upon the university (rather like a plague) and earn a few merit badges.
It was rewarding but exhausting, and rather like an experiment for me, since I'd never been awake more than 24 hours before. Friday night was MBU overnight, which started at 7pm and which was APO's opportunity to staple things, sort things, and do whatever else needed to be done before the boy scouts arrived. (We were able to rent space in the business school, so it was also an opportunity to make fools out of ourselves in front of business majors who apparently do homework on Friday night. What?!) Nobody slept more than an hour or two.
We were done with all major work by about 1am, which was apparently quite unusual for an MBU overnight. At 5am, we were put to work again, moving everything from the business school across the street to the UTC, the building where all the classes would be taught and where our volunteer headquarters would exist. We met the sunrise (we couldn't WATCH the sunrise like I hoped because it was cloudy) in the throes of caffeine withdrawal and exhaustion.
The boy scouts were supposed to arrive at 7am, but many showed up at 6:30, because apparently boy scouts can keep time and do things like show up early. Volunteers were fed donuts and coffee and sent to their rooms around 8. At this point, I had little concept of time but I was happy to go to my classroom armed with both a soda AND a cup of coffee. Double the caffeine! Weeee!
Now, a few weeks ago I 'tricked' Mom into agreeing to teach a class called Personal Management (money and time management) for MBU. I don't know how I would have done without Mom, who allowed me to sulk at the lectern with my computer and not speak much. Somewhere in the middle of the first class, I lost my grasp on the concept of "time", except that every once and a while I would glance at the clock and calculate how long I'd been awake and how long it was until I'd go to sleep. When at some point during the day Mom asked me how I was feeling, I'm pretty sure I told her that I was doing well, but running on caffeine, adrenaline, and poor choices at that point. There's a point where you stop feeling any more tired, and you're almost tricked into believing that you aren't tired at all.
So by the time I got to sleep, I'd been awake for 34 hours. Not doing THAT again anytime soon! I got home and slept from 6pm until 9am, and at that point I decided it might be a good idea to get up and shower.
MBU was a huge success, and Mom said she'd be willing to teach again next year... so even though I 'tricked' her, she hasn't yet disowned me or cut me off. Yet, anyway. ;)
Well, despite the fact I gave APO 23 hours of my time this weekend, I'm off to the Sunday meeting and then off to study. I think I'm ALMOST ready to become a functioning human being again, given a little more caffeine.
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