Garden Sweet Pea - the Smell of Contentedness

Who doesn't enjoy a nice yankee candle every now and then? I've got one burning right now, called Garden Sweet Pea, and it's spring-y and sweet. I'm relaxing tonight because I passed my PMP exam (Project Management Professional, for those of you not in "the biz") earlier today and feel super-relieved! It's a professional certification offered by PMI, the Project Management Institute. I studied for about the past 8 weeks and I gotta say, I'm glad I did because the exam wasn't a cake-walk. I will say that I'd rather take a standardized PMP exam than a Finance final exam or any of my undergraduate exams
(especially a ChE 210 Thermo exam - I shudder just reminescing back to the midterm, where my professor wrote "Assume Comet = Carnot Engine...? Nice try, -40"), but there were a substantial number of topics that were challenging in preparation for the PMP. I'd advise others who plan to take the test to relax because it's not rocket science, but know that it does require preparation.

Everything went smoothly during the exam, UNTIL I CROSSED MY LEGS. 2 hours into the exam, I shifted my weight and crossed my legs and the computer monitor screen went blank. In the process of crossing my legs, I must have clipped the monitor input wire and pulled it out. 2 hours in, I was about 2/3 of the way thru the exam. I looked up, saw the blank screen and my heart did start to race - not necessarily because I thought my 120 answers out of 200 had vanished for good, but because I kept thinking of the seconds ticking away as I fumbled to replace the cable, while tying to raise my hand to summon a monitor. I kept a decent pace on the exam, but did find that it was taking me longer than when I'd practiced at home, so I was time-conscious. A monitor did came over by the time I'd plugged the cord back in, so she just confirmed the exam was proceeding as normal (thanks?!?!) and I continued along. Those exam monitors must have some sort of "corrections" background because they are completely directive and order test-takers around continuously ("stand here", "wait here", "do not put anything there") - and I can see why they behave that way - they need to keep the setting very controlled so the test environment is suitable for exam-takers. But if you're looking for a comforting comment such as "don't worry, your computer is fine", you can forget it.

This exam experience is way better than when I took my GMATs - I remember then that when I sat down to take my exam, the girl next to me started crying because apparently she wasn't doing well and wanted to withdraw from the exam. Now that was a bit un-nerving. Happily, there were no crying test-takers this time.

So back to the candle. I'd bought this a couple weeks ago and was waiting to burn it - I didn't want to light it the week I was taking my exam because if I didn't pass, I was afraid I would have some sort of sensory association with the smell of the candle and failure - I envisioned encountering the scent outside years from now, walking thru a park or a garden perhaps, and immediately starting to choke, feeling my stomach knot up, or having my throat close for some "phantom reason". So I wanted until now! And I am happily enjoying this lovely, floral scent as my evening continues. I am excited to go back to knitting and cooking (and planning for the house) in my free time now. Yay!