The Question That Shall Divide Us

So after a lot of harangued her, our supervisor for this project told us how much work was left and what day should we be expected to get fired.  As of now, we will be let off some time around Friday afternoon.

Two dilemmas abound, however.  Of the six problems we have left, we have gotten through two of the three "long" ones, the ones we had to actually think through.  What are left is one "long" and three "short" ones, basically fill-in-the-blanks that we can run through so fast that, starting today, all of us are developing carpal tunnel syndrome.  Seriously, my wrist can't take it, and I have taken frequent breaks to rest my increasingly twitchy arm.

The other dilemma: While we probably will get done Friday, barring a flood of new papers, the 4th of July is on Thursday.  After she made this announcement, I sometimes noticed a cacophony of fast clicks of the mouse as we were steaming through those fill-in-the-blank answers.  And maybe it's me, but I don't remember hearing those clicks and clacks before, and if I ever did, it had never been as fast as it sounded today.

This leads me to fear that there is an unspoken war going on in the room, between those desperate few who don't mind earning a paycheck (I am in this group) and those who would rather not go back to work Friday and instead want to enjoy a long weekend -- which, because Wednesday would then be the end of the project, would turn into a permanent weekend (unless we are signed up for the very last project of the season, which begins Monday and will probably last only a week, in which case my bitching here is, for the most part, moot).  I'm not dogging it; I'm working as fast as I can because I don't want to look bad compared to the others, but all this fast clicking is really hurting my tendons.  But I don't understand why people don't want to make money.  It's just one fucking day after a day off, probably the only middle-of-the-week day off a lot of people have this entire year.  But I'm afraid we're going to work so fast that Wednesday will be our last day.  And for what?  So we can sleep in Friday?  Not me, pal, I'll be hounded awake by my folks.  I'd rather wake up in the morning to go work than just because my parents want me to be awake.

There is a schism in the room, and I think I am on the losing side.