What's it gonna be today? I'm gearing up to go to work at the testing center in a bit. I was off yesterday and tutored. On Tuesday, we dealt with a couple of characters.
One was a woman who had "to pee so bad!" during her test. My coworker told her that we have no way to stop her test once it begins. She'd be allowed to take breaks, but the test will keep running. Her test (law enforcement) included videos and subsequent relevant questions.
Maybe giving her the "sure you don't want to use the restroom before you begin?" planted a subliminal need to pee. We could see her stand up and dance in place mid-test. I went to her and offered to let her use our shortcut to and from the facilities. She happily took me up on it.
Around the same time, we had another in the same room as need-to-pee lady who had trouble staying awake. Twice we noticed him with his head on his desk, and upon checking on him, found him snoozing away. Assistant Boss and I took turns waking him up. Granted, he was taking an insurance license exam. *YAWN*.
We pondered the cause. Had he been burning the midnight oil? Did he take a couple of bong hits prior to the test to calm his nerves, and it worked all too well? Then I wondered if he had narcolepsy.
Years ago, I worked with a narcoleptic, Ross. I remember walking by a conference room with another coworker and noticing Ross looking deeply engaged in some documents in his lap.
"Heh, Ross looks like he's sleeping", I quipped.
My coworker nonchalantly replied, "Yep, he probably is".
That's how I learned Ross had narcolepsy and that it was pretty well-known among people who regularly attended meetings with him. Ross was a nice guy and accomplished engineer. At the time, he'd recently married for the first time at the ripe age of late 40s. I learned his wife was giving him sh*t about his narcolepsy - not thrilled about him randomly dozing off while they were socializing.
I suppose there are treatments and strategies available for managing narcolepsy, and I would guess that taking an insurance license exam on a summer afternoon isn't one of them.
5 comments:
Wow to the peeing woman. I think I'd have gone prior or she has weak kidneys? LOL
My stepdaughter was married for a short time and her father-in-law had narcolepsy. At the wedding rehearsal, they wheeled him out in a wheelchair and I didn't get why because the night before when I met him he didn't need a wheelchair. Later I was told it was due to the fact that he has narcolepsy and they have found excitement makes it worse (or stress) so being at the altar he may fall over. So they put him in a chair and sure enough he went to sleep during the ceremony. How odd that must be, to just fall asleep. I have the opposite of narcolepsy. I never can get to sleep. :-)
Peggy, narcolepsy's got to be difficult to live with, as with your stepdaughter's FIL, at his son's wedding, no less. After I found out about Ross, I wondered how he is driving a car. Stress makes it worse? Hmmm...
We had one other guy in the same testing room as pee woman and sleepy man. He probably wondered what sort of place he got into.
Nerves make me want to pee so before any test I used to cut off the water and make sure I went to the bathroom right before! Poor Ross with the narcolepsy.
Jeanette, I suppose it's good to be well hydrated for a test, within reason.
Now I am trying to remember whether I actually knew someone whose teenage son had narcolepsy. I am fairly sure I did but can't remember who and that makes me doubt my sanity. Maybe I dreamed it.
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