Oh, my life!
So I've spent the last several months doing NOTHING but study for the GRE. I have no life. I'm a hermit. I have been spending probably like 3 hours a day minimum working on this. And so, today, finally, is D-Day, the moment of truth: GRE day. I didn't tell ANYONE it was today. No one knew, not a soul. I didn't want anyone to ask me how it went if I did badly.
So I tuck myself in bed early last night and wake up all bright and chipper and so nervous I'm ready to puke, and head down to the testing site, making sure to give myself plenty of time to get there so that I can find the place and have it be a super not-stressful thing. And so there I am, standing in line at Prometric, and I get to the front of my line and they ask for my name and check me against their list and then ask me for my ID, and I reach for my wallet to hand over my idea... and my wallet isn't there. Wait, what? I've got a big backpack full of crap (I always do) and I dump it all over the ground in front of the little kiosk, "Hang, on, I'm sure it's here somewhere..." no. Not there. I retrace my steps. No. Nothing. I HAVE LEFT MY WALLET ON THE BUS. Who does this happen to? Is this real? This is like a bad dream that you have the night before the test. Only if I were dreaming, I would also be naked.
There I am, somewhere in like downtown Brooklyn; I don't even really know where I am, and in addition to not being able to take this test that I have been working super hard to be ready for (and paid $160 to take, and now can't take), I can't even get HOME: in my wallet was my Metrocard and all my money and my credit cards, obviously; so I have nothing. I'm maybe like six miles from home. I'm bawling on the elevator as I leave the building; some super nice lady asks me what's wrong and when I tearfully choked it out she immediately gave me five dollars so I could get home, which was way more than bus fare, which I *said*, and I tried to give her back two dollars but she told me to keep it. I wanted to kiss her. Who says NYers aren't nice?
I called the testing people, who tell me that they'll consider my special circumstances and let me take the test at a later date without another full payment if I send them a police report, so I head down to the precinct, where I file a lost-property claim. While standing in the precinct, they're grilling me about what cards I might have had in my wallet, when I suddenly remember that in addition to my own cards, I also happened to be carrying MY BOSS'S CREDIT CARD. Horror. I have to call my job and tell my boss that he probably wants to cancel his AMEX.
So I start walking the like six miles home (I do have the five dollars the nice lady gave me, but that's all I have, and I happen to know that at home I have no (in order of increasing importance) food, alcohol, or cigarettes and that although I can probably scrounge up enough maybe like three or four dollars in quarters, I won't be able to get money again till Monday without any form of debit/credit cards or ID. So I walk maybe two or three miles, and its so so hot out, and I am so thirsty, and I have no water, and don't want to use a dollar of my only five dollars in the world buying goddamn bottled water, when someone from the precinct calls and tells me that someone just came in and dropped off my wallet. Oh joy! O happy day! I turn around and walk back. Which was a little dumb; I should have asked if there was any money/metrocard in my wallet, but I was probably too dehydrated to think clearly, because naturally my money and metrocard were gone, and my cards are now cancelled so although now I do have my ID that's not actually something I need really badly at the mo; it's a lil late for needing that. I was supposed to have taken the test hours ago. So, now reunited with my insurance card and library card and etc, I re-start my walk. I did have the presence of mind to refill my water bottle at the precinct.
Delete entire day. I'm telling you.
So I tuck myself in bed early last night and wake up all bright and chipper and so nervous I'm ready to puke, and head down to the testing site, making sure to give myself plenty of time to get there so that I can find the place and have it be a super not-stressful thing. And so there I am, standing in line at Prometric, and I get to the front of my line and they ask for my name and check me against their list and then ask me for my ID, and I reach for my wallet to hand over my idea... and my wallet isn't there. Wait, what? I've got a big backpack full of crap (I always do) and I dump it all over the ground in front of the little kiosk, "Hang, on, I'm sure it's here somewhere..." no. Not there. I retrace my steps. No. Nothing. I HAVE LEFT MY WALLET ON THE BUS. Who does this happen to? Is this real? This is like a bad dream that you have the night before the test. Only if I were dreaming, I would also be naked.
There I am, somewhere in like downtown Brooklyn; I don't even really know where I am, and in addition to not being able to take this test that I have been working super hard to be ready for (and paid $160 to take, and now can't take), I can't even get HOME: in my wallet was my Metrocard and all my money and my credit cards, obviously; so I have nothing. I'm maybe like six miles from home. I'm bawling on the elevator as I leave the building; some super nice lady asks me what's wrong and when I tearfully choked it out she immediately gave me five dollars so I could get home, which was way more than bus fare, which I *said*, and I tried to give her back two dollars but she told me to keep it. I wanted to kiss her. Who says NYers aren't nice?
I called the testing people, who tell me that they'll consider my special circumstances and let me take the test at a later date without another full payment if I send them a police report, so I head down to the precinct, where I file a lost-property claim. While standing in the precinct, they're grilling me about what cards I might have had in my wallet, when I suddenly remember that in addition to my own cards, I also happened to be carrying MY BOSS'S CREDIT CARD. Horror. I have to call my job and tell my boss that he probably wants to cancel his AMEX.
So I start walking the like six miles home (I do have the five dollars the nice lady gave me, but that's all I have, and I happen to know that at home I have no (in order of increasing importance) food, alcohol, or cigarettes and that although I can probably scrounge up enough maybe like three or four dollars in quarters, I won't be able to get money again till Monday without any form of debit/credit cards or ID. So I walk maybe two or three miles, and its so so hot out, and I am so thirsty, and I have no water, and don't want to use a dollar of my only five dollars in the world buying goddamn bottled water, when someone from the precinct calls and tells me that someone just came in and dropped off my wallet. Oh joy! O happy day! I turn around and walk back. Which was a little dumb; I should have asked if there was any money/metrocard in my wallet, but I was probably too dehydrated to think clearly, because naturally my money and metrocard were gone, and my cards are now cancelled so although now I do have my ID that's not actually something I need really badly at the mo; it's a lil late for needing that. I was supposed to have taken the test hours ago. So, now reunited with my insurance card and library card and etc, I re-start my walk. I did have the presence of mind to refill my water bottle at the precinct.
Delete entire day. I'm telling you.