–>In case you were wondering–I just finished all that Aural Rehab reading (+hunt-n-peck outline) I had accidentally neglected. I am super-tired, because I thought it best to start at 3:30 AM before work. The 166 pages I had to do took 5.5 hours, which was done in 3 sessions. I’m reformed and paying utmost attention from here on out!
So to resume my story of my first Hearing & Hearing Disorders Exam:
Other than preparation, a restful night’s sleep is the most important thing for an exam. Though my weekend was a little unstructured, I went to bed at 7:45 PM Sunday in order to get back on track and wake up at 4 AM Monday to study before work. Good intentions. . . No, not that–I was in fact able to fall asleep and stay asleep (getting up in the 4’s is helpful in that respect). I slept until 10 PM-ish.
Then, there was a noise (maybe), a door being closed (I was still between sleep & alert). What aroused me was the bathroom light on, and bathroom door wide open. Cool was just sitting there, acting all weird. When I tried to find out what was going on, Cool wasn’t answering questions, but she looked a little frenetic. Here’s my best attempt at a conversational recap:
Me: Why do you need the light on?
Cool: Sorry
Me: Can’t you at least close the door–you know I have my first exam tomorrow. . . What are you doing, anyway?
Cool: Nothing. Go back to sleep.
Me: Why is the bedroom door closed–were the cats being naughty?
Cool: Silence
Me: Were the cats into something?
Cool: mumble
Me: Are they OK now, did they make some sort of noise like du-du-du-du
Cool: *body-shutters when I make the noise*
Cool: *running across room in hysterical tears hugging me* You heard it too? I thought it was in my head.
Me: *realizing this behavior in a little impractical & excessive* Did you take your meds?
Cool: *ignoring my question* It was changing my dreams!
Me: I was half asleep–What was it?
Cool: *scared, eyes wide, trembling* I thought I was hallucinating–it’s out there!
Me: *confused, & growing worried, looking at the closed door* What? What’s going on?!
Cool: *crying, hysterical, in a panic* Don’t go out there!
Me: *summoning up my courage to face whatever is on the other side of the door*
Cool: No–don’t!
So I open the door expecting an intruder to have climbed the tree outside and be doing crazy things in our living 
room. In the dark, I first heard a loud roaring noise. Then I saw that Goose was sitting there calmly looking at me. So it couldn’t be anything too terrible. Next, I saw Choco-Luv was sitting in front of the slider, calmly watching the crazy weather. It took me a moment to see that the wind was blowing exceptionally hard outside (like a literal 60 mph) and the sliding glass door was open a crack. I strode across the room and closed it–seeing a brown haze obscuring visibility of the street and river outside. Was it hailing? Snowing? It looked. . . Brown. It was dust.
Cool initially thought the alarms were sinister and getting her. Side-note~That’s sad and stressful to me/us, but if you don’t laugh you cry, right? These moods and medications are something we’ll have to deal with for life, so might as well see the humor. ~She thought she was having 
some sort of manic audio-hallucination and going insane. . . We found out our new carbon monoxide detector has a non-beeping warning alarm that is set off by too much dust or humidity or something–the weather conditions outside apparently.
Anyway, Cool is resuming her double anxiety pill that she had halved, and my sleep was. . . Let’s just say disrupted before my big exam.
Next up–exam bad, bad, bad morning, then the exam itself.
Related articles
- Midterms: 5 Habits You Should BREAK (lifeasayorkulion.wordpress.com)
Kit10Phish Explains it all __has moved! https://tinyurl.com/bdad9vdm 
Sorry for freaking out.
I’m sorry you were so scared–it was sad.