Poor Rick...

Not only is he having wisdom teeth removed tomorrow, but he's also been working on a "group" paper for his class, and just realized one of his group partners plagiarized nearly the entire section of the paper she wrote. He showed it to me earlier, and I seriously couldn't believe anyone could be that stupid -- I mean, the idea of NOT plagiarizing is something that is drilled into your head the second you step onto a college campus. I think there's an entire class freshman year entitled "How to NOT Plagiarize." And the language in this paper wasn't that gray-in-between-sort-of-paraphrased-but-kind-of-different-I-should-probably-still-site-it kind of language. It was WORD FOR WORD from a publication, without so much as a fleeting mention of said publication. And since everyone writing for the "group" paper is getting a collective group grade, if Rick hadn't noticed the plagiarized sections (and, subsequently, rewritten them), there's a good chance they would've received an F. (Personally, I don't think it's fair to grade everyone in the group exactly the same -- you should be graded on whichever section of the paper is YOUR work.)

Seriously, I'm kind of amazed that anyone had the, uh -- chutzpah? Unmitigated gall? Audacity? -- to obviously copy someone else's work and assume no one would notice. Especially in a college class full of "adults." (Or, you know, MORE adult than the adults in most college classes...)

Anyway, like I said, Rick is having his wisdom teeth removed tomorrow morning. And, of course, as is wont to happen in situations like this, people have been eager to offer their assurances in the form of their own wisdom-teeth-removal horror stories. I don't know WHY people always feel it's necessary to tell you about all the terrible things they went through in the particular situation that YOU, yourself, are about to go through. It's like going to a baby shower and hearing all the "I was in labor for fifteen days!!" stories...

And actually, in MY experience, having my wisdom teeth removed wasn't anywhere NEAR as bad as I thought it would be (of course, all I had to go by was the horror stories...). Other than the first few hours after I got home (when the anesthesia was wearing off and I felt nauseous and light-headed), it wasn't bad at all. After the first day, I didn't even need the prescription painkillers anymore -- advil and tylenol worked just fine.

The worst part of the whole thing was having to eat mushy food for a couple weeks -- a person can only eat so much pudding and applesauce and ice cream and macaroni and cheese before getting tired of it all. I can still remember the day I was finally able to eat solid food again, and Rick and I went to Denny's. I ordered a veggie omelet with hash browns and a biscuit, hoping the waitress wasn't looking at the huge bruise on my left cheek and wondering if she should contact family services. When the food came, I ate EVERY single bite. And I never eat that much food. But I was starving... for some reason, mushy, liquidy food -- even high calorie food like ice cream -- doesn't feel like "real" food. It never seems to fill up your stomach like solid food...

I should probably head to bed, even though I'm taking Rick to the oral surgeon in the morning so I can "sleep in" tomorrow (until about 6 or 6:15... :)). But hey, look -- two posts in one week!! I am on a roll...