On being a lab rat. . .

Today, it has been pouring in Provo, a heavy, consistent, completely depressing downpour. It's so gloomy that it's driving me to alliteration. At any rate, it reminds me of a good summer thunderstorm in Minnesota, except for the fact that there's no real thunder or lightening, just rain. There's also no threat of a tornado, nor is the sky lit up in the cool green, purple, or orange shades that you only get after a really good storm. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm soaking wet that reminds me of home. After having to walk across campus, I feel like one of Tolman's lab rats. For those of you who don't know, Tolman was a psychologist who did a lot of work with cognitive maps (how things are represented in the brain). One of his techniques was to put rats in a small tank of water and have them swim around until they found the resting platform positioned somewhere in the middle of the tank. Now you can really tell that I've been studying too long, but at least I only have about two weeks left of spring term. Then, it's off to the Midwest, hopefully for a real thunderstorm, a real vacation, and the possibility of not comparing myself to a rodent in my blog.