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A friend of ours and mother to a boy our son plays with is working on her PHD in Political Science at Cornell. She told us a story today that any exhausted parent could relate to. Recently she had to complete a 72 hour exam to continue in her coursework. That’s right, 72 hours. The participants were encouraged to "forgo sleep as much as possible". We did ask why someone in PoliSci has to complete a test of endurance more fitting to medical school and it seems that it is some type of weird hazing.

Anyway, on with the story. Sometime after the 50 hour mark, she was driving back to her house from Cornell very late at night completely exhausted. Her mind started drifting and so did the car. She had that moment shared by all exhausted drivers where they grip the wheel and cry "Oh, Shit!"

She honestly knew she had been weaving badly so when she heard the faint sound of a siren behind her she guiltily began pulling over to the side of the road. Almost stopped, she glanced into her rear view mirror. Nothing was there, not a single car.

She drove on and there it was again. That same siren. She was convinced she was having audio hallucinations from a lack of sleep, pulled over then got out of the car but the road was silent. She walked to the rear of the car and heard the siren again. It was coming from the trunk. Inside she found her son’s fire engine that she had taken away from him for misbehaving days earlier.

She never mentioned which woods she threw it into.