Must...fight...the...stress...snacking.

I'm feeling more stress about this exam than the one last year, because, based on the prep questions in the exam manual, it's eleventy times more tricky trivia/stuff you will never really need to think of again, and if you ever do, you can look it up. And I'm even running into words I've never actually encountered in 20 years around real estate and real estate related corporate stuff. It's like reading a Georgette Heyer novel and having to infer the meanings of the archaic words tossed about.

Yea, verily, I was taken aback by a question asking me to pick the proper definition of "plottage" - the answers all had something to do with assembling parcels of land for development, which in my world we called an assemblage parcel - a large project put together out of the assembled pieces bought from different owners. It turns out that "plottage," despite sounding like something one of Heyer's witty heroines would use to describe an evil aunt's social climbing, is a real word relating to the value of the assembled parcels, albeit one I never heard uttered by an actual corporate professional while working on projects like that in real life. But now I know what it means and will not miss that question, should they throw it out there. I did have to marvel/freak out that I've been through two licensing classes in the last year and four in my life, had a couple of real estate law classes in college and worked in development for a lot of years, and somehow had never encountered that word before that review question today. The stuff they hang our licenses on is SO valuable in real life. Shoot me.

So, as you can guess, I am stressed. And it's having unusual side effects, as in I'm suddenly craving foods I rarely eat at other times. Last night I became obsessed with the thought of a hot fudge sundae at bedtime. I didn't actually eat one, because it was bedtime and I don't have ice cream, let alone hot fudge sauce, in the house. And, of course, the last time I indulged in ice cream I spent half the next morning needing to be in close proximity to a bathroom, so it would not be a great idea. But I also want tortilla chips and bean dip, a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies, two pizzas and a pound of fudge. I didn't buy any of those things today.

On to happier and distracting things: I had some quality Miss D time this morning, so though it did cut two hours out of an otherwise delightful day of wading through hundreds of test prep questions and freaking myself out, she couldn't have been dropped off at a better time. My son-in-law had an errand to run, and while it's his day off from work, it was his day on as primary caregiver. So D and I spent two enjoyable hours together, and while we were playing on my bed (she adores my ceiling fan and talks to it very animatedly), she rolled over! I sent her mom a text to ask if she's been doing this, and she said no, this was her first - she kicks and tries, but can't quite get it when on her play mat. I think the bed deserves most of the credit. I have a memory foam mattress topper and it's been chilly so the bed has had the soft blanket for the last couple of nights. I think the combination of the two gave her the boost. She was quite surprised about it, and of course landed with her arms stuck under her and lifted her head and looked around startled and proud of herself, then realized her arms were stuck and whimpered for rescue. I freed her arms and left her on her belly, where her legs scrabbled in a preview of crawling. Then she got the yawns and napped for a whole 40 minutes, which for her is a long nap. Turning over is exhausting!

Her daddy came to get her and it was back to the hundreds of practice test questions. I quit at 4 this afternoon but will resume bright and early tomorrow. I'm hating this.