An Epic Ballade of Texas

I am currently in preparations for what is known as Oral Examinations, sometimes referred to as Prelims. This is essentially the biggest and most stressful test that I have ever experienced or ever will experience. The exam for me is Friday the 13 th (of June), only five days before leaving for California . For this reason I have been doing an extraordinary amount of studying the last few weeks, and plan to continue to do so until the date of the exam. The exam has two major components. In the first (and largest) I have spent a great deal of time writing a mock grant proposal, which outlines a major research project and is designed to ask the NIH (National Institutes of Health) for tons of funding money. During the exam I will sit in a room in front of five professors, and they will ask me to defend the ideas that I have in the proposal, and answer numerous questions related to the biology and significance of the proposal. The second part is essentially a basic knowledge test, ...

So last night Amanda and I went to a park near my house, then walked to a local sports bar and grill to watch the Lakers play (as you may recall, I have no television). The place was kind of a dive (although it had a sweet TV), and it seems as though the chili-cheese tater tots did not agree with Amanda, because as soon as we got back to the park, she urgently had to use the restroom. Fortunately, the restrooms were still open. Unfortunately, Lawrence parks close at 11 p.m. , and we were there at about 11:05 p.m. As soon as I washed my hands and walked out of the restroom, a man hurried over to the door, fiddled with the handle, then ran back to his truck and sped off. It took me about 30 seconds to realize that he had just locked the restroom behind me, and another 5 seconds to realize that he had just locked the restroom in front of Amanda. That is, my girlfriend had just been locked in the public restroom at Centennial park, at 11:10 p.m. Well as you can imag...