I Miss Rusty the Narcoleptic Dog

We had lectures from 10 to 5 today. Well, we had an hour long break for lunch around noon, but still, it was no joke. Half of the class didn't show up for the second half.

It was all about developmental neurology today. Nervous system development lecture was pretty interesting with an awesome visiting professor - she's of Indian descent and her gorgeous sari plus her humorous kickass personality made her a top fav. A student asked her at the end how she managed to balance her work with her family and she just replied, "Spell man for me. Now woman. Double u oh man, right? Oh yeah, we can totally handle double the work of a man."

Then we had a pain mechanisms and management lecture that was just ... painful. Not that the lecturer wasn't cool and funny. He was a great guy, but the lecture just went on and on and we ended up going over time by half an hour. The professor even had to excuse himself halfway in his lecture to ask where the bathroom was. He hurried off with a "I'll be back soon!" before returning to finish up. By the time 5:30 rolled around, we were slouched low in our seats and I was scribbling on my fourth crossword a friend had saved from yesterday's newspaper since the two newest ones had occupied me earlier in the morning.

I miss earlier lectures like the ones on hypothalamus. Narcolepsy, ooh.

The professor had showed us a clip about Rusty the Narcoleptic Dog and it's awful, we know, but the whole class just fell apart when he played it.



"Here frolics Rusty," the professor narrated. "Playing happily in the grass. And off he goes! He runs and runs and runs - and then boom."

Poor Rusty!

But we couldn't help it. We laughed.

And begged the professor to play it again.

He refused. "Last year when I played it, the class begged me to replay it too. Again! Again! No more. No replaying."

Rusty's adorable and while not all cases of narcolepsy are so abrupt and dramatic, poor Rusty's a prime case of the chronic sleep disorder in animals.

During the lecture, I wondered if I might have narcolepsy. Especially during long classes sometimes. Like today. Then I remembered that I also have insomnia at night. Hmmm, tricky.