Pitch Black [9.28.08]

Today's happening came about because of pure procrastination. Both my friend and I needed to complete big assignments for tomorrow, so we headed over to the computer lab, where we stayed until the wee hours of the night. We sat in silence as the wheels in our brains were turning as loud and as fast as they could. It was one of those moments where we both knew what we needed to get done. We were no longer people - we were machines. Hours later, we returned from machine to human; we took a collective sigh as our souls re-inhabited our bodies. It was the final stretch: I simultaneously pushed the familiar key combination CONTROL and P to send my assignment to the printer. My friend did the same and logically hoped for the same results. However, immediately after she sent her paper to the printer, her computer's screen went black. Panic set in: "No...no...no..no..no-no-no! What just happened?!" I asked if her paper at least printed; she walked toward the printer, peeked inside, and attempted to lure it out: "Her-ro? Hey paper - are you in there?" Of course, there was no answer. While her computer was re-booting, she expressed frustration through every profanity under the sun. This was followed by a hefty complaint about the correlation of our high tuition and the expectation of reliable hardware. I told her to find the silver lining - perhaps her paper was saved before the crash. She dramatically forced me to take over and look for it in her student file. But alas, there was no trace of it. As unreliable as technology was, my friend made up for it by being a reliable wreck. After several throaty giggles, I simply persuaded her to do the only thing that she could do - start over. Of course, the remainder of our stay consisted of my thorough search of Facebook and her mumbled self-talk.