Andy Left Alone in the Evenings

The first night I attended my LSAT prep course would be the longest I had left Andy alone in quite a while. He was accustomed to me being around all the time and expected it. Taking this course would be “Step 1” towards getting into law school. The course spanned 6 weeks and ended just days before I was to take the real thing. Maybe it was hubris leading me to believe that a month’s worth of preparation would be sufficient. After all, that was the amount of time I needed for the GRE 14 years earlier and I did well on that. For those who don’t know what “hubris” means, it’s a “negative” word, i.e., not one used to flatter. The cold fist of the LSAT would hit me in the face which will be left for another entry to elaborate.


On the first night of the prep course, we took a full-fledged timed LSAT test, but without the writing segment. Counting the introductions and administrative actions and my drive-time, I had left Andy alone for 4-5 hours. He was waiting in the hall for me. I hadn’t seen him this excited in a long time. He grabbed a toy and shook his tail so hard that it made the rest of his body “wag.” He breathed hard and started snorting because he could breathe only through his nose. My Baby Boy had been all alone in the universe, a singularity. I was happy to see him happy.

The joy Andy brought me softened the blow of a not-so-great night. I bombed on the practice exam, finding out 3 days later. Even worse, after 3 hours of intense focusing on reading, my strained eyes could not re-focus when I looked up. I also had a headache. I was going to need reading glasses.