What day is it?

You know, without being in school, I have a really really hard time knowing what day it is. Thursday? I think so. Heading back to Seattle tomorrow with Amanda. Sad to leave my family but excited to celebrate my first New Year's Eve EVER!!!! Gosh darn basketball. As for Christmas, it was wonderful. Great turkey. Smoked and deep fried. Awesome mashed potatoes. Jon Jon seemed to like his trucks. I didn't have any sparkling apple cider, so I am kind of sad. I still have time though. It always just reminds me of the holidays. Christmas morning was a little weird with only 3 kids and my parents being in Bo's room. Just not the same. Still great though. Got some clothes. Some money to Amazon (as to buy med school books......boring). Matt got me a really really nice necklace. Um....I know I had a lot more to say, but I can't remember. Whelp...I'll update soon, I swear. Oh wait, I remember. Matt, Amanda, and I get to go the The Battle In Seattle. Go Zags!!!!!

Hi

Yep, it's been a while. So here is a update of what I have been doing.

Pharm final on the 14th. Passed. Flew to Detroit at 5. Ran through airport. Made airplane to France. Ran through CDG. Pushing the French left and right. Apparently, if you run, you can get through that airport, including passport control and more security, in 15 minutes. Yay me! Okay, got to Italy at 240pm or so. Sat around. Discovered they lost my luggage. Crap. Whatever. It was nice not having my huge rolly bag going around Florence. To the apartment. Upstairs. Bub, Manda, Andrew, Wine...oh wait, I didn't have to capitalize that. Anyway. On we go.

We are in Italy as to surprise Bo for his 21st. It isn't til January, but I couldn't make it then, so we did it now. Turns out Bo is a snoop and too not trusting for his own good. He wasn't that surprised since he read an email at my parents house in the fall. Whatever. Onto a snack bar, then dinner where we met some more of Bo's friends, wine, wine, cheese, back to our apartment. Fun times. Bub and I manage to spill wine on the ONLY PAIR OF PANTS I HAD WITH ME!!!!!! So I have to squeeze into some of Amanda's. Trust me, I was still drop dead gorgeous. Out to a club. Dancing. Manda trying to get kidnapped by Italian men. Back to the apartment.

All in all, I spent about 60 hours in Florence. About 20 of them sleeping I think. We ate too much. Drank enough. Walked to the top of the Duomo. I will put pics up in time. My bag didn't get there until Monday at about 4pm. Back to the states on Tuesday. Flight from Paris straight to Seattle. Fun. Someone got sick on board, and they asked if anyone on board was a doctor. Glad I'm not or I would have had to help. Took a while to get through customs etc. I guess I look sketch. Matt and his brothers picked me up at the airport. To Amanda's to wait for her.

Manda and I both left Italy at about the same time. I got to Seattle 8 hours earlier than she though. Crazy. Matt and I meet KTO for food and drink. Then back to Manda's for Biggest Loser and Shot at Love. Don't tell me you aren't jealous. We then get a call early the next morning from my mom telling us to leave for Spokane since a storm is going to hit the pass later that day. So we leave. Just in the nick of time. After we got through, they started requiring chains. To Spokane!!!!

What have I done in the Spo you ask? Shopped, ate, slept, shopped, ate, showered, the PI, snow, ate. That's about it. Matt and I say I am Legend. I liked it enough. Matt said it was exactly like Omega Man, but I have never seen that, so it was new to me. Grandpa's Mass tonight. Then Pete's. Dessert. Stuff? Okay, I'm out, this was long.

Sorry

I know, I know, it's been a while. Really though, I am just lazy. Pharm final tomorrow; class isn't as easy as everyone made it out to be. Blah. I hate studying. This time tomorrow though, and it will almost be all over. Yay! In good news, I am almost almost done with the last Harry Potter. KTO will be happy to hear that. I blame Matt for my slow progress.

Last night was my night to cook. Gumbo and biscuits. MMMMMMMM it was sooooooo good. I didn't have a ton of time, so the chicken wasn't as tender. Plus, I used breasts not thighs, which makes a difference. We had a house meeting last night about recent issues. Meeting went without drama though. Problem is, next semester we will only have 10 people in the house...and that is when everyone will be in town. The 3rd and 4th years are always popping in and out of town. So now, I am cooking 4 times in less than 7 weeks. Blah. Plus, next semester is going to blow in terms of course load. Everybody hold on tight.

Today will involve: studying, finishing the food in my mini-fridge, cleaning, and more studying. Fun times.

Monday!!!

Last Monday of my first semester!!! Woooohoooo. Happy birthday to Bub. He is old.

We got our schedules for the first half of next semester. Brutal. Class from 8 to 3 or 4 each day. Ouch. Way better than lab though I will admit. I hear it really blows though. Going to use Christmas break to my full advantage.

Got a lot of shopping done since Anatomy finished. I also got my official grade for MCB I...I passed!!!! Okay, we all knew that after the final, but whatever. I wrote me Ethics paper this weekend as well. So I guess it wasn't wholly unproductive.

Brutal cold here right now. 7 layers of clothing. Joking....kinda. I am going to have to bring my totally ghetto winter coat back from the Spo when I return. Ick, don't want to think about it actually. Gross. Um, time to actually learn some pharm.

Grossssss

Just had my first experience with milk that has gone bad. Oh my gosh that was gross. Just pouring myself a bowl of Pops when.....blop....gross chunk of white stuff comes out. Consistency of some sort of paint. Ewwwwwww. Looked at the side....sell by 11/24. Gross. Gross.

Speaking of Pops, does anyone know why they are in that special packaging? More like foil than anything else. Weird.

Sitting at home on a lovely Friday night. There was an ugly sweater part, but I didn't really feel like getting hammered or being sober around hammered people (plus, it was $15), so I decided to stay home. Just cleaning the room. Relaxing. Watching True Life on MTV. Um.....not much else to say. I wish I had some gingersnaps. Those sound good. I have to put my comforter cover back on my comforter. Always an undertaking when doing it alone. I have to get the whole thing, which, yes, is fun, but is still hard to do. Not much on the agenda for tomorrow. Workout of course........come up with a gift for Bub. You sir are hard to shop for. I don't want to get you something boring like a book. And I think mom got everything else. Dang it!!!!

Done!

Firstly, obviously since I am writing this, I am okay. Neither I nor no one I know was at the mall yesterday. I've shopped there many times, but not yesterday thank goodness. Lets just say the rest of my Christmas shopping will be done on line. Amanda warned me though to not get the baby disease while online. Check.

On much happier news....I AM DONE WITH ANATOMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Passed the written. Did way better than I thought I was going to. At the end it was just all finally coming together for me and it felt great. Practical....whatever. I needed like a -7 on it to pass the class. I think I passed the practical, but definitely not my best one. Rest of the day involved being in bed, napping, etc etc. Onto pharmacology now, which I hear is a joke. Don't worry, I will study, but still...it isn't quite anatomy. Okay, time to start my day.

December!!!!! Still alive

Still alive. Still busy.

Passed MCB. Did better than my grade in the class. Yay!!!!

Passed Ethics (the final: just barely, the class: with plenty of room to spare)

I feel anatomy is coming together well in my head. On paper though, we will have to wait and see

Nothing new really. I still don't have a life. Sad.

No class tomorrow, which means: 16 hours of studying. Yay! :(

Almost time for a pharma-holiday (no that doesn't mean I am taking drugs; that is what Pharmacology is called around here, we will see)

Bed time

Diet Mountain Dew

No, I am not dead. Just in the midst of finals. Ahhhhhhh. I have found the best thing at keeping me awake. I've tried tea and other soda's (I refuse to drink coffee to get/stay awake), but diet mountain dew wins the prize. Trust me, I couldn't go to sleep last night. If next week you hear about a girl over dosing on soda...that would be me.

MCB final tomorrow. Practice practical tomorrow (I know nothing). Blah. 6 days from today and I will be done with all of this. Thank God. Had no class today, so I have spent about 9 hours studying so far. They practice tests have gotten better. Feeling okay. Haven't started studying any of the old stuff yet (final is cumulative - 70 new, 30 old). Need a good night of sleep. My tummy hurts from not eating very well.

Ran 3 miles this morning. I meant to only run 1-1.5. What happens is, I get on that treadmill saying "Just 1.5" but I get there and just have to keep going. It is like how I don't like working out for anything less than 1.5hours. Ahhhhhhhh. Okay, I'll let you know how it goes.

It was good

Sigh. Turkey day was marvelous. I don't want to be back here in Omaha. Not only do I have to leave my friends, family, and Matt, but I am coming back to the 2 hardest weeks of med school yet. I am no where near ready for this. Ugh. Lots to do. Very little time. Updates will be sparse and brief.

I, of course, didn't get as much studying done as I would like. Pigs in a blanket were glorious on Tuesday. On Wednesday I sat in on Matt's classes. It was weird hearing them call him Mr. Wood. We left at about 1230. Into the Spo at 530. M & D and sister...ribs...friends over later. PI much more crowded than it ever was this summer. Of course. Good talks. Thursday, meals on wheels, old people, good nap, lots of food, godson, Matt being adorable, attempting to watch Black Snake Moan, Becky tapping out early. Friday, not getting up at 530 to go shopping, giving my breakfast sammich to Matt, drive across the state, crack corn.

I finally got to meet Matt's friend Leilani, which was really nice. Mexican food was good. Some good conversation later on. Matt was adorable again. Had to get up at 5 am to make my 730am flight. Let me tell you, that was fun. Now I am home, trying to get as much of the 7th Harry Potter done before pure hell starts tomorrow. Watching the apple cup. Trying to unpack. Missing you all.

Denver Day!!!!

Today was totally one of those random hot days we would have in Denver. 73!!!! Yes, it is November 19th. Crazy.

Nothing much happened today. AM workout. Drove to the elementary school at 10. Didn't get to meet my ment-eeeeeee, but I learned more about what I am supposed to do. Basically, whatever the heck I want. She is ahead of her class, so they bring a mentor in once or twice a week (that's me) to take her out of class and challenge her a bit more. Should be good.

Did laundry, took a nap, learned some anatomy. Really, that was it for the day. This time tomorrow, I will be on a plane. Yay!!!! Matt and I are going to have pigs in a blanket with cheese in them for dinner. I've been craving them. Don't be too jealous.

I feel that the M2's have cheated. Creighton is doing a food drive right now. M1's are challenging M2's. Our barrel is totally full of the usual food drive stuff. Looking good. Then the M2's finally bring their stuff in. 2 25lbs bags of rice and about 20 1 gallon cans of various vegetables. What is a family going to do with that much veggies? How about that much rice? Okay, whatever, I guess it is all going to a good cause, but stuff like that would never fly with the prep food drive I feel like. Dinner time it sounds like. Maybe I'll update tomorrow. Maybe not.

Fun facts!!!

We are going to start off with some fun facts I am finally learning. Stop me if I've told you.
-The word scalp.....is an acronym!!!! Who knew???? Stands for Skin, Connective tissue, Aponeurosis, Loose connective tissue, and Periosteum
-Your tears aren't actually made in the corner of you eye near your nose. Those little holes we all call tear ducts actually drain your eye of the tears
-Your tears/extra lubrication of your eye drains into your nose....that's why your nose runs when you are crying...yes dad, you do cry, it isn't the pollen.

That was fun. I have already started studying for finals. I bombed the quiz on Friday and NOT because I didn't study. Trust me, I studied. It was just super hard. Booooooo.

Friday night involved dinner with Meghan's mom. We went to this Italian place downtown; it was good. We then went to the Homy Inn, where they have champagne on tap. Yes, you heard me right. Champagne on tap. Total dive bar. Still allows smoking. But come on....its champange. Thursday nights anyone? Amy, Amber, Betsy, and I then went to Marley Bone Tavern or something like that. Good night all in all.

Saturday...I don't think I did much. Wrote my pathology report. Went condo shopping with Betsy and Amber. It was fun. Saw some really nice ones. Saw some cheap ones. Good times. Went to mass. After church, I took my fondue pot over to Amy's where we did fondue and wine. Betsy made cheese fondue. I made chocolate. I ate way way way too much. We watched Dr. Quinn Medicine woman. It was grand.

Today I went grocery shopping for the house. We were quick. I then worked out for 2 hours, which was awesome. That is about it though. Found out Rachael will be home for Turkey Day!!! Yay!!!! If anyone is in Spo, we are going to get together on Wednesday night. It will be fun. Okay, study time.

Early day

I am already done for the day!!! It's only 1045!!!! Worked out and everything too. Woohoo. Lot of studying to do though, so this won't be long.

Yesterday was our last official dissecting lab!!!! We have 4 more labs, but 2 are demonstrations and the other are "review," which makes me think they are optional. I will be there since I don't know anything, but still. So excited. Last quiz is tomorrow. I don't know how it is going to go. I really have been doing stuff all night, but I still feel like I am getting no where. Blow.

I am pretty sure I am living in some guy's fantasy. After both my morning workouts this week, I have walked into a locker room full of catholic school girls showering and changing. Yes, into little plaid skirts. Sick. It is some high school team that has been using our pool. I really hope that doesn't continue much longer. They are loud and in my way.

We had our last MCB small group today. Yay!!! Small groups (randomly assigned) aren't the best thing for people like me. I just don't like saying stuff to people I don't know that well, especially if there is a good chance I am wrong. Ick. Hopefully I will get better at it. Can you believe November is half over!!!!!!! Crazy!

Whoop whoop

So it is Tuesday. Yay? We only have something like 2 more labs where we actually dissect. The rest are "demonstrations" and "reviews." AWESOME!!!!!! We do have to do our pathology report though, and it is due the week of our MCB cumulative final. Ick. I am in charge of the works cited, the title page, and the congestive heart failure section. Not too bad at all. Going to try to get it done by Sunday. We will see. We have a quiz on Friday, and I really am not sure where I stand with studying. Blah

We did our abdominal exam evaluation today. I got all 3's except for palpation of the liver, which made me a little mad since my partner got a 3. The thing is, he was showing her how to do it better. He just kinda let me struggle through it. Whatever. A classmate also sent us this spread sheet that you put in your numbers thus far in each class, and it tells you what you need to get on the final to pass the class (above 70%). If his calculations are correct and I do decent on the last quiz, I shouldn't have too much to worry about for finals. Yay.

What else is going on???? Dinner went great on Sunday. It was all gone by Monday afternoon. Even though it doesn't look good, do-ahead is just the best thing in the world. In other exciting news, I may be going to Vegas. Never been. Never really thought I would want to go, but my friends here are going right after school gets out in December. Meghan is leaving on Friday to join some San Diego friends, and Betsy, Amy, and I may fly out on Saturday and stay until Tuesday or so (flights are cheaper on those days). It really depends on A) cheap we can get tickets and B) how cheap we can get a hotel. Also, the great debate: fly OMA to Vegas and back to OMA or back to SEA or GEG. The thing is, I don't want to have my huge Christmas break luggage with me. Blah. My life is tough. I know. I really should be doing anatomy. Obviously I don't really want to.

I ran three miles today. Bad life choice. Oh, I totally forgot. I may finally have gotten a little mentor buddy through Omaha Public Schools. Yay. I am going to try to meet her on Tuesday. She is in second grade the coordinator said. Hopefully we can work it out. Yay! Okay, time to get my study on.

Lazy

Basically, I have been too lazy to update. Not much to report on. With school right now, we are experiencing the calm before the storm. Seriously though, I'm getting nervous.

It is my day to cook. I'm doing do-ahead. No, I didn't technically do it the night before, but that is fine. We will see how people like it. It isn't the easiest-on-the-eyes dish you could make, but it sure is delicious. And if no one likes it, more for me.

Yesterday was Meghan's bday. Whoop Whoop. That was 3 in 11 days or so for us. Mine is the next one.....and it is in March. We went out to Amber's for oh so good DQ cake. Then to a thai place. I ordered mine a 6 out of 10 (which would be 3 out of 5, which what I get at home), and everyone at the table thought I was nuts and was going to die. I didn't. It was spicy enough to need water but not that you wanted to puke. Problem with doing any sort of Asian food with not my family....they don't do it family style. I love family style. So much better that way. Everybody gets a little. Sad day. We then went to a piano bar. Man do I love piano bars. So much fun. Then back to Ambers for sleeping. I slept on the floor. My shoulders hurt now. Sad. Enough complaining.

I worked out for 2 hours yesterday, which felt totally awesome but took a large chunk of my day yesterday. That means I now have a lot to do today. Not like I have anything else to do. I am glad I have friends here, or else I would study all the time. No, not because I am a gunner, but because I would have nothing else to do. I find it hard to just sit and watch TV because I get bored and I can always see my books. That's one problem with living here. I am mostly confined to my room, so getting away from school work is hard. I do kinda want to relax for a little though. What is 1 hour going to do to my studying.....nothing.

Thursday

I swear I was going to have something really good to say. Guess not.

Got my oil changed today. They also checked everything (well, not everything, but stuff nonetheless). The car already sounds tons better. Really makes me worry less about my car exploding on me. I also bought some Sierra Mist cranberry splash. I really wanted the diet stuff, but they didn't have any diet at Bakers. Not even in the 2 liter. Sad day. So I had to get stuff with calories. For anyone who is hesitant about this drink, my opinion is that it tastes like a shirley temple. And everyone knows I love a good shirley temple. And if you didn't know, now you do.

We had two small groups today. Ethics and MCB. Blah. Made the day really easy though. I meant to get up and workout this morning, but I rolled over and the clock said 6:50. Oops. That just means I have to go tomorrow, which I didn't really want to do. Blah. My knee is bugging me too. Guess that means I can't run. Darn :D

Mom informed me that Amanda and I are going to do Meals on Wheels on Turkey Day. Totally fine by me. Matt is going to have to tag along since he is in town, and when I told him, he freaked a little thinking he would miss dinner. I had to call Mom just to calm him down. Silly boy. Was going to say another good thing...but forgot again. Gotta work on this memory thing.

That was interesting

Nothing much has happened. Passed my lab practical. Did better than I thought I would. Did just about the same as I did on the last practical. Hopefully that gives me some wiggle room on the final, because I think I am screwed for that. They have had a lot of fun flipping our schedule around, and I am not very happy about it. Blah. Worked out in the morning. That went much better than that 9 am crap. Getting my oil changed tomorrow. Whoop whoop.

Skipped 2/3 of my classes today. Don't worry, I did study during that time. It game me some nice time to just get stuff done. With the head and neck in anatomy, all the prof does is put up a slide and point stuff out. It is rarely amazing stuff. Just structures and veins and nerves. I can get more out of a book and my Netter. So I skipped. Stop trying to guilt me into going to class. It isn't going to work.

Went to CMDA tonight. We had a guest speaker. Nothing too inspiring. She brought prophetic ministers in as well and we had the opportunity afterwards to have them pray with us if we wanted. I thought "heck, I don't always gets this chance, might as well as eat a bug." So I did. It was interesting. Apparently (kind of knew this, but not like I told them), I am bold and come from a long line of bold women. Does bold mean bossy-cow-like? Maybe. Nevertheless, it was interesting. Off to do various not-studying things.

mad at anatomy

Didn't get up early to workout. Figured "heck, we have a 2 hour break in the middle of the day, I'll work out then." Worked super great since we had a 3 hour break instead. Now a rant. Dr. Yee forgot he was supposed to lecture and comes in 10minutes late saying he will just type up a summary. We get an email during lunch, however, that says it is rescheduled for Friday at 8 am (we weren't supposed to have lecture) and that we will have lab on Friday (we weren't supposed to). I am pretty annoyed at it all. It isn't like I am actually learning what we went over in lecture during lab. I do all my learning the week before the test. Jeeze. Now my Friday is mildly ruined.

We went to the hospital to learn the lung exam tonight. Wasn't too bad. We are evaluated on it tomorrow. I hope my doctor is as nice as he was last time. We have a 4 hour break tomorrow during the day, so again, I will workout then. After that, I don't know what I am going to do. I don't like driving home and wasting gas. Guess I'll just take stuff with me. Getting an oil change on Thursday. I was a big girl and actually called the place. Yay me! Anybody know how a manual car acts when the timing belt is starting to go bad? If you do, let me know. Thanks. Back to being on task.

Back to real life

Blah. Back to real life. Not actually a fan. Weekend was great. Awesome weather. I'll give you a brief run down.

Matt got in Friday afternoon. We did dinner with the girls since it was Amber's bday. We then went out for drinks afterwards at Upstream. I was driving, however, so I just had rootbeer. It was good. We then rented Mr. Brooks. I had never heard of it As you know, Matt and I don't always pick the best movies. This one, however, was good. Worth renting I do believe. Little violent though, so watch out. Saturday involved errands and nothing much. Of course there was food. I wanted to take him to Texas Roadhouse, and Betsy loves that place, so we double dated. She and her bf Jon joined us. The only one in Omaha is kind of far away, but it was worth it. I got ribs. MMMMMMMM. I am glad we called ahead for seating because the wait was ridiculous. He and I then went to American Gangster. Another violent movie for the two of us. It wasn't my type of move, but Matt wanted to see it, so I made this tiny sacrifice. Wasn't bad. Always weird to see Denzel Washington as not a good guy.

This morning Matt and I went to an AG (assemblies of God) church. We had never gone to this one, and it was better than the last one we tried. Sermon was really long, and for us Catholics who are used to 5 minutes tops, I was on the verge of needing a snack break. They had a guest preacher guy who tried to call Matt out. I will explain (kinda long, you don't have to read if you don't want to). At the end of these services, they invite people to come up who need some extra praying and then the preacher or his helper-bees pray individually with these people. Right before the main pastor begins his invite, the guest preacher says that before the service he felt that there were 3 people God was trying to heal physically. Yes, I know we are all rolling our eyes right now. He listed 3 people: man with back pain, woman with lupus type thing, and man with chest tightness/heart problems. Now Matt doesn't have the best of hearts, and don't worry, I am doing enough nagging to try and fix this problem. Just the night before I had had a talk with him about it after he had a little fluttering. Anyway when the guy first says man with chest pain, I don't think much of it because there are a lot of older people at the service. When no one raises their hand, I still don't think much. The preacher guy then, however, points to our section (not that many men in our area) saying he feels that the man is over there. No, no one was falling on knees being healed or talking in tongues. This is the first time I have seen this at one of these churches. Matt said he thought I was going to make him raise his hand. I didn't. I don't like people looking at me.

That was long, sorry. Rest of the day involved football and not much else. Blah. Didn't do well on the MDQ last Friday, and not because I didn't study. I just didn't study the right things. I passed the MCB part but failed the anatomy. Sad. I did have more room for slippage in anatomy though. Going to try to not do what I did after the last set of tests (aka - not study ever). Okay, I am done.

Oh gosh

Quiz tomorrow. Don't think it is going to go well. I have read all the MCB lectures, which is a step in the right direction. Just because I read them, however, doesn't mean I will remember a blessed. Moving onto anatomy. Probably shouldn't even be updating. Whatever.

Some small accomplishments for the day: got my AC out of my window all by my big self, got my trash can back (the room looks better already), went to church for All Saints. I was disappointed. We only got the first verse of the litany of the saints. Booooooo. No Perpetua and Felicity. They don't make it in until the third verse of so I think. I linked you to that article because Wiki said their date is March 6th in a lot of churches. After some sort of church meeting a long time ago they changed it to my birthday. Whatever. We all know that everyone wants my birthday.

Other news: mad at my car because it isn't getting good mileage. Going to get an oil change next week. I am tired but I have to stay up and study. Matt has to get up at 3 pacific time. That blows. He better not be grumpy. He will get a thunk if he is.

ALSO: mom isn't the best at keeping her children in the loop. Cousin Michelle had her third child Spencer James Green on the 30th. Delivered by C-section, but they are all fine. Congrats!!

2/3 done!!!

I am 2/3 of the way through this semester. How crazy is that. While time seems to crawl most of the time, when I look at it in terms of the big picture, it has moved rather quickly. Onto business

So I did a lot better on the written than I was expecting to. I was elated when I saw more score. Plus, we are getting at least one of my wrong ones back (miss keyed) and maybe even one or two more. If we get three back, I will be even more excited. The practical was the practical. We don't get those results back for a little bit, so no use in really talking much about it. I felt as if I passed. It wasn't as bad as previous classes talked it up. The thing is, every artery in the abdomen is really just named for where it is going. The hard part is finding where it is going. NOTE: possibly some graphicness ahead in reference to lab. We have started into head and neck. I quickly got over the whole seeing-the-face thing...mostly because we are now just down to the muscle. I don't like the hair part though, a little too real then. Tomorrow, on Halloween, we take the brain out. Ahhhhhhh. I hear it is going to take a long time. Tomorrow will be a practice in patience.

Today we did our CV evaluation with a partner. Our doc was cool and didn't make me and Liz actually do the exam on each other. He asked us questions and had us show him where to listen and stuff, but we didn't have to pretend to actually be doing an exam, which was nice. I took a nap this afternoon; it was too long.

Yesterday was Amy's birthday, so we had dinner at her house. Champagne and wine and lasagna and cake. It was good. Early night though. We all crashed by 10. I had to come home, however, and write note service for ethics. Boooooo. This week is a busy one. Quiz on Friday, which I hear covers 18 lectures. That is almost more than what was on the anatomy exam. Ick. Matt comes in town this weekend though...YAY!!! Back to studying then so that I don't have to do much when he is here.

At school

At school updating right now. Imagine that, Becky is at school on Saturday night....again. We have an anatomy exam on Monday, which means I am a bit loopy right now. We had our practice practical on Friday night. Didn't go great. Meh. I am just going to try and rock the written since it is worth more. Don't worry, I am not neglecting the pracitcal, but I am just blah about it right now.

Seeing as how I am studying, nothing much has happened to me since the last time I updated. School....driving....thats it. I am hungry right now. Don't even know why I updated right now. Guess I just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive.

Passed

MCB exam today. I passed!!! Did a lot better than I thought I would. Even after taking it and before checking my score, I thought I didn't do well. Then I checked, however, and was very surprised and happy. Wish I could relax tonight, but alas, anatomy exam on Monday. No rest for me.

Parents got back safely from their trip. yay! I am very jealous though. Went to the store today to get healthier snacks than I have around me. The house has "cookies" as a staple. Weird. I was going to buy some highly caffeinated, diet soda, but I decided that I am going to try to not rely on soda to keep me up while studying. We will see how long this lasts. I meant to buy a snow scraper also, but somehow got distracted and didn't buy one. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite me in the butt. Don't worry, I will get one eventually.

It's been a while

I know, I know. It's been a while. Lets see all that has happened. I did my interview of Tuesday. Don't think it went too poorly. I like my small group and all, but we aren't very good at constructive criticism. All we say are the good things. I would really like someone to say, "Work on this and this." I didn't talk in MCB small group. Imagine that. Can't remember what I did in the evenings. We have an MCB test on Tuesday. I haven't been studying too well for it. I blame that on the fact that we really didn't study at school that much. Grrrrrrr. The problem is, your brain can really only fit so much. This MCB test will have about half DNA stuff, half biochem. The problem is, every time I learn a DNA fact, I lose one from biochem. And vice versa. It's bad. It's real bad.

I cook on Thursday; I also have several other things to do on Thursday and all week.....not to mention studying for Anatomy exam. Holy crap. This is going to blow. Bring on the caffeine.

Onto Friday. So the big thing here is hay rack rides. Basically, a hay ride. I remember taking one in preschool maybe, but other than that, this was foreign to me. We get there (take the bus rented by the school, didn't have to worry about DD) just as they are getting ready to take off on the ride. Our bus took a while to get there. I get anxious when I am late. So there are 7 hay racks for all of us. Everyone just jumps on one. Every hay rack gets a keg of "adult beverage." The ride begins. It's an hour long. We do some moving keg stands. I drink some hay. I talk to Amanda on the phone. People are jumping off the ride since it is over. Becky jumps off. 30 min later, Becky, while eating chocolate, realizes she has lost her phone. Oh crap!!!! (Flash back to sophomore year of undergrad when I got my dig cam stolen). We look. We call. Nothing doing. I always prided myself on not losing my phone. Take that off the list. Bought a new phone last night (yes, I did call the place where we had the fun to see if they found one - no luck). I kinda like the phone a lot. It is blue. Cheapest one they had. Sorry Bo, we are no longer phone twins. Funny/ironic thing is....Matt had just mailed me my phone charger for my old phone. Dang. I will post pics of the hay ride later.

Other than the crazy busyness (13 hours at school today), life is good. A few relationships around me aren't doing so well, so I would like to take this moment to thank Matt for being such a good guy. The end.

Procrastinating to the max

I thought I would put up a few pics to show that I actually did see Matt. Really though, I just wanted to post some pics. Matt was really liking the black and white, so we went with it. The one on the left is taken 2 min post nap wake-up. I look pretty good considering the situation.









Got up and worked out this morning. Felt good to do it, but it didn't feel like a hard enough workout. I hate that feeling. I guess that is the only reason I miss basketball. Practice always kicked my butt. Betsy and Amy actually showed up to workout also. The place was empty because Creighton (everyone BUT the medical school) gets a week off for fall break. We get 1 day. Blow.

First two lectures were hard. Kept nodding off simply because I couldn't pay attention. Lab felt long. I am starting to worry because I am not having that PANIC feeling I had before the first set of tests. I just worry because it was that panic that got me studying 16 hours a day. No, that wasn't fun and I don't want to do that, but I passed last time. I am just a little worried. Going to take a practice test tomorrow though and reevaluate the situation. Enough procrastinating. Back to enzyme kinetics. mmmmmmmmm

Back again

Back in Omaha again. It got chilly here, which is kinda nice. Weekend was good. Not really much to say. Ate lunch with two of Matt's friends on Saturday at The Ram. My sandwich was delicious. We then saw Amanda that night. Back to Lacey. We rented 1408, which I give Matt props for allowing since he is such a big scaredy pants, and Knocked Up. 1408 wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn't awful like everything else we have rented. We saw Knocked Up together in the theater, so we already knew we liked that one. We watched it in short segments because this kid kept falling asleep on the sofa. Sunday involved church, some good hashbrown/cheese/gravy mess, awkward afternoon thing with Matt's dad's side of the family. Monday was lazy and lovely. Matt worked in the morning and came home at noon. I was supposed to be studying, but I cleaned instead. Oops. Ordered in Chinese last night with his mom. I fell asleep on the sofa. The usual.

My flight wasn't delayed 3 hours!!!!!! Only 20 minutes, which was just enough time to make me run to my second flight. Got there though. And the plane was a new plane. And guess what.......they don't even have the "no smoking" light. It just isn't built into these planes. They do, however, have the "Turn off electrical devices" light. I think the switch is kinda funny. I slept on both flight though, which was awesome. Second flight was delayed 10 minutes, however, which was just long enough to make me miss my 9 o'clock class. We are doing biochem stuff, so I kinda wanted to be there. Sigh. Exams coming up along with busy nights of stuff outside school. Don't be surprised if I don't update a lot. Okay, I should do something productive before class at 10.

MDQ 4

Don't you hate it when you print something online and it is one full page yet a second page prints with just the address at the top but you don't catch it fast enough to prevent the printing??? Well that just happened to me. Gosh darn it. But....I did just print off my ticket!!! Yay for Seattle!!!

Quiz tomorrow. Still don't feel well prepared, but I feel as if I am setting myself up for some good studying for the tests that are coming up. Doesn't it seem like I just took exams?? Well I did. Next ones are on the 23rd and 29th. Whoop whoop....I guess.

I kind of talked in MCB small group today. Thats a start right? Okay, sleep time.

10-10

That always fun. 10-10. Okay...I am just way too behind to be typing long things right now. Blah. Why did I do this to myself?? Idiot. Plust we have MCB small group tomorrow. I really hope I say something because I feel like my grade may be suffering. I'm just not a talker especially if I don't KNOW the right answer.

I am really loving MCB as of late. Wonder if that is only because I am HATING anatomy? It isn't that it is hard, I just haven't had a strong desire to learn it. Ugh. I have been a lot more patient in lab though. Maybe that is because I have actually been dissecting. Who knows.

Carey yesterday ate a 2lb burger. I wasn't there to watch. Thank goodness. Sounds gross. It was on a dare. I do tip my hat to her though. 2 days til I leave!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Becky Homemaker

You could say I was productive today, but none of it really had to do with school. I did laundry and cooked dinner. By the way, I am totally over this whole cooking for 12 people thing. It was fun at first, now it is just annoying. This was even a simple dish and the whole thing took me 2.5 hours. Ugh.

I sat through 4 whole lectures today; that is more than I did last week I think. I forgot to say that I did pass my ethics exam. I am apparently 93% ethical. Awesome. That is good enough for me. Lab was lab. We worked on the rear and the knee pit. Let me tell you.....not that exciting. I did actually help a lot today though, which at least made me feel better.

Not much else going on in my life. I am going to attempt lunges again tomorrow. Aiming for more that 7. Also, I was watching TLC last night, and apparently I am tall enough to join the tall people club. Women only have to be 5'10, men 6'2. Bo, lets do it. They have meetings and stuff. On a scary note, I had to kill a spider that was in my shower today at the gym. Ewwwww. It was red.....ewwwww.

Lazy Bum

It has been 5 months since I graduated; man a lot has happened.
It is 5 months until my birthday; y'all better get shoppin

So my whole procrastinating for 2 weeks thing has kinda caught up to me. Not that I am super behind, but this weekend involved a lot more work than it should have. And I'm not even done yet. One more lecture and then I am 3/4 caught up. Woohoo?

Last night, Betsy, Meghan, Maureen (Betsy's sister), and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the Mizzou/Nebraska game. Betsy went to Mizzou, so I had to cheer for them. Thank goodness Mizzou blew Nebraska away by a lot, or else I think we could have been killed. That took about 3.5 hours. Should have been studying. Today I was on grocery duty. I did the recipes. JD did the staples. That took 2.5 hours. Should have been studying. We can blame my failure to be totally caught up on all of that. Workout on Saturday was awesome though. My abs hurt. I love that. On another workout note, I am pretty sure my foot needs to be in a boot. It hurts to walk even with my insoles in. Am I going to do anything about it? Of course I will.....I'll stop running so much. Doctor? Nope. Parents leave to visit the boys. Boys suck. I go to Seattle on Friday though. Wooohooooo.

TCBY vs ETHICS

Really tough choice. I know. Lets just guess for a second what I chose......yep. It comes back to that food vs nap thing. I kid. Ethics midterm tomorrow......we will see. I am not too worried about it.

I did lunges today for the first time in quite a few months (at least I think it has been that long). Not only could I tell my legs are weaker, but I got tired after about 7. Yeah. Fat kid. But my rear can really feel it now. Good thing? Bad thing? School today involved not much. Free pizza lunch. We got to look at the eye with our tools today. That was way fun. I totally saw Betsy's optic nerve; I may also have made her blind. Meh. I then came home and napped. Tonight also involved Grey's at Meghan's and TCBY. I felt like I was in undergrad again. It was glorious. Also, yes, Mom and Dad I feel bad about this, but I will call and talk about it in person tomorrow: I passed my practical!!!! Whoop whoop. We got it back on Wednesday, and I did much better than I thought I was going to. In fact, I did better on the practical than I did on the written. Whoop whoop!!!!! Okay, bed.

Making this short

Nothing much happened, but I felt like I should write. I actually got up and worked out. I feel much better. Went to one lecture simply because Dr. Quinn was giving it. Got a hard time from my friends for not going to lecture when I know full well that I got more done outside than I would have going. Didn't talk in ethics small group again because our MD said everything I wanted to say. Blah. I don't think my participation grade is very high in that class. CMDA (Christian medical and dental a______) tonight, which always always makes me feel better about school and life. Ordered pens online, yes, cuz I am a dork. I can never find the colored ones in the size (.5) I like in the store. So I turned to ebay. They are cheaper there too. Joe and I are in charge of breakfast for MCB small group tomorrow, and I got the juice and milk. I was going to get donut holes too, but apparently Bakers doesn't have them. I am irate about it. Okay, bed time.

Motivation? Have you seen him?

Lets see if this works. oooooooo it did. I promised I would put up pics of me and my white coat once I uploaded them. Taddaaaaa! So I have one of me and dad and me and mom. I had no friends at the time to take a pic of all three of us. sad. I look a little tubby in the one of me and mom. Hmmmmm. Well there all y'all go. Not much to say about those.


I meant to get up at 530 and go workout. 530 rolls around, i turn on my light. And fall back asleep. Until 730. Oooops. I say nuts to the first class and stroll into school at 845. I guess I really needed that extra sleep. I do feel much better rested today.

On the school front, I have lost any sort of motivation I ever had. It is really annoying. I try hard to get back into things, but it hasn't worked yet. I think it is due to the lack of working out. I am going tomorrow morning no matter what, so I will let you know how the focus is tomorrow.

Cali Taco this afternoon with the girls. Then TCBY (all do to Betsy and her bad influence). Then school to fake study. Ugh. Okay, back to fake studying.

Gotta love delays

As you can tell from my updating tonight, I don't really want to get back into that whole school thing. I have a lot of little school stuff to do this week (playing a little catch up). We also have our ethics midterm on Friday. I don't think I need to worry as long as I read and study. I'm an ethical person, right? I think my liberal arts education will come in handy on this one.

**Sigh** I hate weekends cuz they have to end. Lets do the bad first. I was supposed to leave Seattle at 1am and get in to Omaha at about 8. I was going to miss my first class. Boohoo. I get to security in Seattle, check my gate, and find that my flight has been delayed until 3am. UGH!!!! The plane we were taking was delayed out of somewhere else. Jerks. I, for the the first time in my life, kept my composure when talking to the agents about my connection. No tears. Yay Becky! They also gave me $10 worth of meal vouchers for the Minneapolis airport. Yay! Get in there at about 8:10, just about the time I was supposed to be getting into Omaha. Blah. Get to Omaha at about 11:30. To school by 12:15. To lab by 1. Blah. Long day thus far. To the fun stuff.

It took Matt and I over 1.5 hours to get from SeaTac to his place. Mexican for dinner and some boardwalk walking. It is definitely fall there. We then rented a movie, and I proceeded to fall asleep on the sofa while Matt showered. He wasn't too happy about that one. I also slept like crap that night due to my cough. Annoying. Matt's mom made us a gift basket with goodies in it. Mmmmmmm. Goodies. Saturday I made bacon and eggs. I am bad at cooking bacon, I always overdo it. We then drove to Seattle for some walking. The rain held out on us for the most part. We did some good people watching too. After some great directions from Annie, we made our way to KTO's. We all watched the Huskies for a bit and then went to dinner in Ballard (KTO was dropping us at Matt's car, which we parked at Paolo's in Ballard).

We watched VACANCY that night. Awful. Don't watch it. Matt and I have awful luck at picking out movies. Next time we are just going with one we know is good. Sunday involved football and napping, which, of course, got me in a little trouble. We did get Papa Murphy's though. That is about it. No, we aren't exciting people, but that is okay with us. When I go up in 12 days (don't judge), we are going to actually go out with Paolo and maybe do something exciting. Of course I don't have pics. That isn't how I role. Okay, time to be ethical!!

And I say nuts to that

So we have a quiz tomorrow...and I say nuts to that. Basically I am going to be at school for 30 minutes to take the quiz and then go home to pack. Flight is at 1212. Woohoooo. Matt got the wine glasses I sent him as a apartment warming present. He didn't have any and he is almost 24. I thought it a shame. Cups are okay for wine in Cheney, but on the westside of the state, you really need at least one wine glass.

Today proved just as unfruitful as the rest this week. I didn't study as much as I could have. I did get to dress up, white coat and all, and go over to the hospital to work on blood pressures. Now, when I did it on myself, it was super clear and easy to hear. When I did it on Gina, I couldn't tell a blessed thing. I could hear it better on Amber, but it still wasn't as clear as it was on mine. Could it be these massive guns I have? Possibly. All signs point to yes.

I was going to workout this morning, but I got out of bed at 530 feeling like a big piece of poop. I slept the extra hour instead and stopped at the store on the way to school for some OJ and airborne cold stuff. Feeling a little better now. I also wore new shoes over to the hospital, which means I know have blisters, which is going to make Seattle oh so much fun. Okay, I should at least pretend to learn about signaling of the cell cycle. Probably won't post until Monday or Tuesday.

Back to school

I took yesterday off to recover in more than one day. It was super nice to do nothing all day. Yes, I felt a little guilty but not terribly. I have a quiz on Friday. I have some catching up to do. I am not worried about the quiz (if I answered all of them wrong, it would only drop my grade 1%), but I don't want to get behind and have to cram before the next exam.

My mouth seems to have gotten me in a little trouble. Apparently (I already knew this), I talk a lot of s*** about basketball when I have had a few drinks. So I may have sort of challenged a fellow M1 (male)...and now the whole class knows about it somehow. We will see how this all plays out.

I am falling out of love with Note Service and in love with my cell book. I don't know what it is. The book is 100x more clear most of the time, and takes just as long to read in my opinion. Again, we will see how this goes.

I cooked dinner last night. Blue cheese chicken, spinach salad with bacon, and biscuits. I got great reviews. They asked me if I was from the south because of the kick butt gumbo (last time) and the from-scratch biscuits. I said no. Really, biscuits are the only thing I know how to make well, so why buy the pre-made when mine are so much better? Ugh, back to my book.

I LIVE!

I PASSED!!! Well, at least the written part. We won't get the practical back for a little bit. During the written, I really felt like I was going to fail, but I guess my new found reasoning skills helped out. We then did Jimmy Johns for lunch. Then back to school. My half of the alphabet went second for the practical. The first half came into the locker room bitching and moaning about how hard it was. We all got worried. In my opinion, as well as Betsy's, Meghan's, and Amy's, it wasn't as hard as they made it seem. Yes, there were parts of the body that I had never seen, but only 3-4 of them. Meghan and I think they may have been acting. I will be doing nothing tonight but going out. Hopefully it will be fun. We have a quiz on Friday though, so tonight is my one night off.

I head up to Seattle on Friday. Yay! I get to see Matt. Yay! And he is finally in his own place, so I guess I have to stop making fun of him for living with his parents. Whatever. School is going well for him, but he is now SURE that middle school isn't for him. I guess that is a good thing to know. Okay, time to have some fun!!!!!

Sad : (

For anyone who reads this, actually knows what I am talking about, and hasn't heard, Missy passed away on Friday. Very sad. She was old though. But I will still miss her.

Really short update. At school. Studying. Pretty sure I should just move to school. I am never home when it is light out, which means I can never take my laundry up to my room because I am scared of our dark basement. For anyone thinking about going to med school, really don't let this deter you. This is an exam weekend, so of course I am going to be studying my butt off. Just find some good friends and study with them. Sadly, we consider our little study breaks, accompanied by ridiculous amounts of laughing at something not that funny, fun. This is all really hard, but I am still enjoying myself. I will update tomorrow.

Sigh

So these have been some trying days. Monday afternoon/evening I didn't do much. Cali Taco was good. I came home and did a little catch up studying. That was about it though. Yesterday, however, was one of those down days they talk about. And I mean real down. I had a pediatrics interest group meeting at 530 (it was good) and then met with my lab table at 7. My friends were going into the lab at the same time, and I was going to meet up with them when my table got done with our TA. Little did I know that working with the latter would give me a sense of "Well S***, I'm F*****." I really felt totally awful. There were 8 of us working with one TA, which means when she is quizzing us, someone knows everything. Not the same person all the time, but a structure never goes unnamed. For those of us who are slow on our feet (literally and figuratively), this was awful. I never had enough time to think of stuff. Plus, they were pointing out structures I had never heard of. So I go back to my friends about an hour later almost in tears. I then went home still in a panic and proceeded just to have a down, busy, late night.

I met with just my friends this time after lab today. MUCH better. Amber is the greatest life saver in the world. She has taken this before, TA'd it in undergrad, and is overall a genius. It was great. I learned much more. Awesome. Things are tons better today. Had some good talks and am feeling much better about school and about life. Except for the fact that I tried to cut my thumb off in lab. Oops. We replaced the blade on my knife. Oops. Don't worry; it is still on. Okay, enough of a break. Study time

Tadaa!

I passed! Yay! I finally broke the rut I had gotten into with the practice tests. Yay! And we may possibly get a few points back. No real time off though. Another test next Monday. And this one will be all day. Written in the morning. Practical in the afternoon. Oh joy. Cali Taco for happy hour this afternoon though. Then studying after that. Blah. The groups studying, however, worked great. So we kind of set up a schedule for this next week. Meh

Nothing else happening in my life. I spent 14 hours at school yesterday studying. I know you are all jealous of me. Um............thats it. Have a great day all.

29th!

Happy 29th anniversary to my parents!!!! Wooooooo! Does this mean I have to plan something next year. Lame

Yeah, slacking. Well, not really slacking. Just busy. Yesterday involved school. We got our Meyers-Briggs results back. I have never taken an official one. This was official. I am 'INFJ.' I know these things are kinda like horoscopes: you can always find something true about yourself in each description. Mine does say that I want to understand what motivates people and that I am insightful about others, which, lets all face it, I do like to analyze just about everyone. Sibling, friend, dog, stranger. I analyze. Linda Pappas (our sort of study organizer lady, hard to explain) also went over more than just the brief descriptions. My combo is relatively rare in the entire population. I was on the verge of being an E rather than an I. Many may say "what?!?! Becky is nowhere close to an extrovert," but that doesn't mean what we all take it to mean. She explained that extrovert/introvert is your source of energy. Introverts are able to go inside themselves to find the inspiration and motivation to get going; extroverts look towards others. No, they aren't dependent on others; they just get more pumped about things when talking to others about it. N basically means I look more at the big picture than the little details. F....something. J........order.

Last night involved a little Cali Taco, some Dr Pepper and RC, cookies bars and ice cream, and guitar hero and DDR. Wow did I feel like a dork. I totally meant to study, but I give into peer pressure so easily. Didn't get to bed until 1. Up at 7. To school by 745 so I could get a small group room. Betsy, Meghan, and Carey joined in on the fun. Didn't get as much done as I wanted. Worked out. Ran 3 miles, which is a lot easier to do when you are stressed and pissed. Shot some hoops, which always makes me feel better. I swear, I am a better shooter now than I ever was in college. And I know what you are saying: "You actually shot the ball in college? I don't remember that." Sorry, I prefer defense.

I went to church then home. I discovered the joy of books at home. I hadn't used books all year, but I was trying to nail down these 5 lectures. I had been over the notes about 20 times but was still missing a lot of practice questions. And then I opened a book and felt much better about it. So tomorrow will involve books and practice tests. Weeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Yeah, yeah, I know

Yes, I skipped a day. But I was a total mess last night. I had to prepare for MCB small group, which I did for 2 hours only to not say anything today. Everything goes way over my head in these groups. Most of these people worked in bio labs, so they know all this stuff, and I never have any clue. It makes me feel like I am not going to be a good doctor. Ack. This little freaking out/researching business put be behind a little, so even though we didn't start til 9 today, I still worked out at 6. I am all caught up now (in terms of MCB, lets not even think about anatomy) and feeling pretty good. You know what I think it is. Neither today nor Tuesday did I have anything in the afternoon. Yesterday, I was in anatomy lab until 4:30. I think that just put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. Things are good now though.

At 4:30 this afternoon, tables 9-12 (I am at 9) went to the radiology department at CUMC for a little CT fun. We had to dress up and wear our white coats. We (with the help of a radiology resident) looked at the CT of our cadaver as well as of a few healthy people. Let me just tell you this: computers are amazing. They totally have this thing that turns 2D into 3D. Yes, I know some of you smart people are saying, "oh that is easy, you just multiply...." I just say "neato." Radiology, however, is not something I am super interested in. A) super competitive B) little patient contact. Plus, I am sure that it has only recently become so "neato" because of computers. Before that, it was all films and such. Boring. I am now at home taking a little break.

I have been meaning to say some things on here (almost deep, but not really, nothing like Bo's super reflectiveness), but then I always forget. But I remember one, so here we go: I realize that I talk a whole lotta game when it comes to taking naps. In the morning when people are talking about going home and napping, I agree (because I actually feel like taking a nap). Then I get home, and no even thought of nap even happens. I have always been like this. I have taken 2, maybe 3 naps since moving down to Omaha. As I have theorized with many of you, I believe there are two types of people in this world: sleepers and eaters. You may ask "well how do I decide? I really like both." Put yourself into a normal day, your friends call you to say they are grabbing a snack somewhere (your choice), but you were considering taking a nap in a little bit. Which do you choose if you only have time for one? This isn't a day where you got 3 hours of sleep and ran 10 miles. This is a normal day. I myself choose food. I think Bub, Dad, and Bo are all with me on this one. On the other hand, Mom and Amanda are nappers. Amanda is going to try and fight this one, but we all know it is true. Rachael - napper, just because her tummy is too small to even fit food in it. Matt - lets all face it, he is an eater. Annie - redhead, they don't count
Guster - loves dad, will do what dad does

I didn't mean for my philosophical thinking to get that long. Oops. Back to studying.

Interview time

Keeping it brief because I really have to study. I have decided that anatomy may just have to suffer this week. It is going to get little to no attention until next Monday.

I did my first "patient" interview today. Holy crap I was nervous. I went second (out of the room for the 1st). I got through the physical pain part really easily (How did this happen? Describe the pain? What are you taking for it?) but I blanked after that. I couldn't seem to transition into medical/family/social history. With help from the class I got to talking about his anger issues, but I really wasn't prepared for that. Wow. Hopefully I will do better next time.

Nothing new. Worked out this morning. Taking tomorrow off. Mass of the Holy Spirit. I don't think any of my friends are going. I think they are all going to hell.

On the edge of fall

Yeah, I didn't update yesterday because a) I slacked off on Saturday in terms of studying and b) I was cooking for about a billion hours. I made gumbo yesterday. Pretty easy to make, but it took me forever to do. I am a slow chopper, so I couldn't turn the ruex up high because I didn't want to burn it or have it be done before I was done. My hands still smell like garlic. I didn't have as much chicken as I wanted, but it was still good. No, not as good as mom's, but still good. We had cornbread and salad as well. We have a lot of leftovers, but it is pretty much gone today, which means it was another success. Yay!

I am aiming high for this test just because I want to actually feel like I did well on something. I've never had the mindset of "just get a 70 and I will pass," so it is hard to switch that way now and be happy with myself.

We dissected the heart today. Cool. I actually feel as if I learned it pretty well. Liz and I left before the guys because they told us we could. That means they can't get mad at us.

Early morning workout today despite the fact that I am still totally sore from soccer on Saturday. Amy and Meghan showed up about 30 minutes after me. We will see if they have it in them to show up again tomorrow morning. They all think I am crazy for working out that early, but it is what fits in my life right now. Okay, study time.

Oh wait, the whole reason for that title. I feel as if fall is really wanting to be here. Yesterday was high 60s and overcast. Today was low 60s and rainy. All week is supposed to be mid 70s. Man am I excited to be out of that heat. I feel as if the fall here could actually be relatively pretty. I'll let y'all know.

I dunno

I don't like coming up with titles for these things. Annoying.

Last night was good. We ended up going out where all the med students were. Unlike Meghan, I sort of liked it because I could talk to everyone else. This may sound old-man ish, but I almost like that the bars close early because by 1:30 I am dead tired.

Got up later than I wanted to today and remembered that I had to walk to Amy's to get my car. Nice walk though. Great weather. The neighborhood seemed almost nice for a second. I drove to school to work out (was going to ride my bike but decided against that) only to find that the fitness center was closed until 3. WTF? So I decided to join some classmates and play soccer. We played for about 2 hours. I ran at the start but quickly moved to walking. It was fun. But now my foot (the bad one) is killing me. I also almost rolled my ankle about 5 times. Blah.

Low key rest of the night. I do need to get around to homework at some point. I also am going to mass and really need to do some laundry. This diet pepsi max is good. MMMMMMMM

Oh the heart

Another early update, I know, but I am going out later probably. Better to update now rather than never.

Passed the quiz.....barely. Well, actually, I think they are giving us 1 back because they marked it wrong on everyone when the 'right' answer was actually wrong. It was more detail oriented than I thought it was going to be. It also had some very very poorly worded questions. Jerks. We have an MCB test on the 17th, Anatomy test on the 24th (both written and practical) and an Ethics midterm on the 5th. **Sigh** We will see how much I update these next few weeks.

In lab today we cleaned off the heart and then removed it. It was pretty dang cool. Relatively light day though. That was all we did. There is a Greek festival tonight that we got free passes for entrance, so I think the 6 of us are going. We will see how it goes. Also, I hope y'all didn't forget that it is my half birthday. Woooohoooooo...22.5!!! I am actually the baby of the group. 2 of us took a year off between undergrad and med school. The rest were all born in November. I am the baby by far, which is new to me.

I am cooking dinner on Sunday. Gumbo maybe????? Corn bread?????? We will see.

Quiz 2 tomorrow

I know it is pretty early for an update, but I figured I should be studying tonight and not writing on this. There is a rumor that MDQ 2 is harder than MDQ 1. I also hear a theory though that that is because people do fine on the first because they over study and freak out, and after doing well, they figure they don't have to study as much. Wrong. We will all see how it plays out tomorrow. My groups is the second group. We go at 9. One of the lectures I am a little freaked by is the one on the ANS (I skipped it last Friday). People who went said it was scarier in person. So this afternoon, I pulled out an undergrad neuro book and read through that. I get the main ideas, but if he asks a little nit picky detail, then so be it. Having only question per lecture and not knowing if a professor prefers detail or main idea questions makes it hard to study all the right things all the time.

Today was an easy day. Anatomy lecture in the morning that actually made sense to me (maybe a first) followed by MCB small groups. Wow did I not prepare well enough for that. We were discussing cystic fibrosis. I read up on it, looked at the definitions they told us to, looked at some treatments. Still though, I was unprepared. I need to do a lot more reading for these. It was all interesting, but it was a lot we haven't learned yet about anatomy or biochemistry. I got thrown a two part question. I kind of did part 1 fast without detail and then answered part 2 to the best of my ability. One of the proctors stops me and has me go over part 1 more in more detail and then opens the second part to the class. They all answered the second part the same way I did though, yet I didn't really get much acknowledgment for my correct answer. I am not saying I need praise, but I do need the occasional pat on the head saying that I was close. ** Sigh **

We then got the results of our PEPS (don't ask what it stands for, I don't know). It sort of tells us what kind a studier we are. I only had 6 extremes out of 20. Apparently, I prefer noise, cool temps, I don't like structure or auditory learning, I do like visual learning and I need mobility. None of that surprised me except for the structure thing. I LOVE writing up schedules. I love organizing my time. (then again, that stresses me out way more). What it really means though is that I can do just fine if there are no defined objectives, due dates, or anything like that. Only 3% of us were like this. 75% preferred structure. I felt left out. That was it for the day though.

I am still fighting with the AC. Also, I am pretty sure Bub has fallen off the face of the earth. Also, Melissa and Christopher sent me their engagement announcement. They aren't getting married til August of 2009, but heck, I'll be there. Their picture is adorable too. In awesome news, Auntie Ann and Uncle John sent me cookies and a card. Thanks! And in case anyone was wondering, Matt's dad gets my full approval. Back to studying.

Still fighting

Good news: the AC is no longer leaking. Bad news: it seems to be filling with water even faster. And of course I can't just ignore the noise. That isn't like me at all.

Morning workout...woohoo? I at least got to do some anatomy flashcards during my cardio. I watched the Army ROTC people as well as the crew team do some conditioning. Man was I not jealous of them. I did it for 4 years, no way in heck would I want to join them now. I didn't go to ethics. Is that ethical? Yes. They are not paying me. I am paying them. You may think I am wasting money by not going to class, but I see it as I am choosing to pay more for the other things I do. Instead I studied during those 2 hours. I then read the WRONG ethics cases for our small groups. It was okay though, I still got in on the discussions. The cases weren't too intense, so no fighting occurred. 11 or so of us then had our scheduled lunch with some deans. Free food, I'm down. That was it though for the day. I am currently pouring over the blue boxes in Moore. Always fun.

I went to MERGE tonight. It is a Christian group type thing: community service and small group talk about various religious issues. For those of you who think I am weird for doing this, we are going to blame Matt. Okay, not blame, but he definitely had a lot (of good) to do with it. The meeting was good though, and I met some cool people from other programs (all professional students can come).

Also, speaking of Matt, he requested an entire section of this blog devoted to him. Until he starts giving me good things to write (such as super powers and saving old ladies), and I am going to have to focus on me.

Fighting with my AC

This is going to be brief. I have a quiz on Friday that I am having a slight freak out about. Ick.

We had our first IPE (interviewing something something) small group class today. I thought it was going to be kind of an intro and discussion of what was to come. Nope. Our actors were here today. I slightly freaked out. I had not mentally prepared myself for this. Thank goodness 6 others in my group volunteered so that I didn't have to go today. I will have to go next week. I will be prepared then. Still though, I will be super nervous.

I am fighting with my AC. It makes loud noises cuz the fan hits water. How did the water get in there you may ask. Well it first got in there during a storm. And now I have no clue how it is getting in there. There was no way for me to take any sort of cover off to drain the water, so I went to the kitchen and found a baster to stick in there. I fixed the noise problem.....but then it came back....with a vengeance (yes, i know I probably spelled that wrong). Not only has the water level risen to where it makes the sound again, but it somehow maintains that level and continues to drip copious amounts of water all at the same time. My garbage can is collecting the drippings. I wouldn't be surprised if it is full by morning. Hopefully the heat will go away soon and I can be done with it all together.

All alone again

I just took Matt to the airport. **Sigh** I'll see him again though, so again, no point in getting super sad. Heck, I'll actually be able to get stuff done. And may room may actually stay clean. He made a mess to say the least. Just a warning, this post will be long because it will be 4 days worth. A few quick notes before I go into the weekend: Thank God Bo survived his ordeal. Hopefully he will write about it, but we will see. I am sure he can tell the story better. Basically it involved a cracked windshield on his airplane, a landing in remote Wyoming, and a bus to Salt Lake City. Rumor has it though that he got home safely finally. Also, I would like it if Amanda would stop spreading rumors. When Matt says "8 months" he means that is when I am done with my first year and we won't be thousands of miles apart. That is all. Don't listen to Amanda anyone. Time to talk about the weekend

Friday Matt had his interview with Millard Public Schools. He said it was his best interview yet; his interviewer loved him. Must be the beard. Basically this was the first step. The administrative office likes to interview candidates and put together packets for them with their own review and LORs and such. Then when a position opens at a school, Matt lets the office know he is interested, and they forward on the packets of the best 3 or 4 candidates to the appropriate school. The school then interviews and hires. Millard gives bonuses for early notification of retirement (by December), so hopefully around January or so, he may have a job down here for the next school year. I think we had some sort of food after that. Then I had a stupid mandatory loan thing at school. Matt tagged along and we sat in the back. Only Carey and Betsy were there, so that is all he got to meet. We went to Target because we had time. Cali Taco has happy hour from 4-5, so we went for some tacos and margaritas. We also drove to a sketchy sketchy sketchy part of town to rent some movies. We also got pizza and a bottle of wine from a store with a heavily armed guard at the front door. On the way home, we saw more than a glimpse of a prostitute working a not very busy corner. I am pretty sure Matt no longer wants to move to Omaha.

Saturday - We went to school so that I could do some homework. I got some done. We then found out that Matt's phone bill is going to be even more ridiculous then mine. Whoops. Then again, not all my fault since he has friends other than myself. Whoops. I made the executive decision for him to switch to Verizon. It will be much better that way. We went to Noodles for lunch, to Target for a mini fridge, and to some other mall for some shopping. I think a guy got tackled by mall security in the parking lot. Again, I swear Omaha is safe. We did mass at Creighton where the homily was 3 minutes long because the priest forgot it was his weekend. Whoops. Dinner followed at the Dundee Dell. Not a very nice waitress, but the food was good.
We went on a walk around the neighborhood during which we saw thousands of sparrows swarming in the sky. Frightening. Home for a nap and then out to the Crescent Moon for the night.

Sunday - Church at one of Matt's places. Since he is going to be moving, he figures we better try a few places out so he can see which ones he likes. It was interesting. He swears they don't do Eucharist every week, but both times I have gone with him, they have. I think it is a sign that they are supposed to be doing it more. We tried hard to port his number over to Verizon, but they told us that they couldn't do it there and keep his area code. Which is weird, because I ported my Spokane number from Sprint to Verizon when I was in Denver. I think they just didn't want the hassel. Whatever. He said he will do it tomorrow afternoon. We had a good walk that afternoon, and then went to Balls of Fury Sunday night. My review: meh. It would have been better with Jack Black. See it on DVD, not in the theater.

Today - we did nothing.

Lessons learned: I blew my entire September budget already. Verizon in Omaha is a jerk. Don't listen to Amanda. Distance is going to be hard but totally do-able.

Time to actually do some HW!!!

YAYAY

So it turns out Matt got on a flight that wasn't full meaning that he is going to be here 3 hours early. Yay! That also means I get to stop doing homework. Yay!! I got enough done though today. I decided that I could get more done out of ethics class than in it, so I got to start my studying at 3 today rather than 5. Yay!!! Okay, I have to leave for the airport soon. Probably won't update til Monday, maybe Tuesday. Yay!

I touched a lung

I am making great time tonight with my studying. Only one more lecture to do for the day, which should only take about 30 minutes or so. Woohoo! As for the question of other Prep students here, there are about 1 ton. There are at least 6 people from Spokane in the M1 year alone. It is crazy.

I actually didn't mind anatomy lab today. Before lab, we got a lecture about central lines and chest tubes. Basically, she just scared me about ever trying either and all the things I can do wrong. Yikes! It was all interesting though. In lab, we got to remove the breast plate, which meant it was time to use the bone saw and cutters. I didn't use the saw. The sound reminded me of a dentist gone wrong. I mean really wrong. I am not going to saw anything too squeamish, but if you don't want to read anything mild even, look away now. After taking the breast plate off, we cut out the right lung. Man does that thing feel weird. Our woman was not a smoker, but our neighbors had a smoker. Those were some black lungs. Warning: smokers, your lungs are gross, stop it. It is also amazing how much fat is around the heart. No, it isn't just because our lady is larger, everyone has a bit of fat around it. Also, the liver is really hard. Who would have guessed that? It was everyone's too, not just the alcoholics. Crazy. The guys stayed to study, and I asked if I could leave. Best question ever, cuz then Liz and I scurried out of there. Awesome.

Do you know how hard wet erase markers are to find? Office Depot pretty much hides them under all the highlighters. Highlighters!?!?!? Who puts those there? I decided not to work out this morning. I got an hour extra sleep instead. I slept through my regular alarm and woke up to my phone alarm, which means I am really tired. Hence the no workout. Meh. I think I will survive. Free lunch tomorrow. Plus Matt gets here. Yay!

Another long day

Today was, well, awful. Lecture, histo lab (which I hate), lecture, free lunch (bright spot). I thought after lunch was going to be pretty easy. A lecture about interviewing and then some introduction to MCB small groups. First lecture was good. This type of stuff is what we are really all itching to do. First intro was only 20 minutes. I figured we would get out at least an hour earlier than expected. But then it began. OMG. He took 30 minutes to go over 7 slides, all of which he explained in his note packet that he gave us. He gave us a break about 2/3 the way through, and I decided to split. Thank goodness. I was falling asleep. I came home to some wonderful studying though. Woooohooo?

We get another free lunch on Thursday because Dr. Kavan is talking to us about how to build a strong application for residency. Isn't that during 4th year? Didn't I just get done applying to medical school? I tell ya people, it never ends.

Good early morning workout. I got hassled by Gregg (guy I played basketball with on Saturday) about leaving early last Saturday. So I guess that means it was okay that I was there? Yes.

Matt comes in on Thursday!!!!!!!!!

Monday

It really is crazy to think that this was only my 9th day of school. It seems like it has been about 5 weeks. Weird.

I decided I need to learn some patience, especially in anatomy lab. Either that, or I need to learn to say, "Hey, I learned all I am going to. We accomplished the goals of the lab. I am heading out." Yes, I know that may seem rude not to help clean up, but the guys in the group get really curious sometimes, which delays cleanup. Plus, my knees start to hurt. I'm getting too old for this.

No other news to report. I do like the morning workouts, but then again, I go to bed at about 1030, which again, is very old man-like. Meh. I am okay with that. I do like wearing my pants around my ribs.

Success!

First house dinner made by me was, from what I hear, a complete success. I was told previously that if Katie asks for the recipe, then it is good. Katie in fact did ask for the recipe even before she sat down. Almost everyone took seconds. My firsts were way too big, and now I want to throw up. Cooking for 12 is a little tricky; the timing issue really gets me. I overshot my estimated time of eating by about 30 minutes. Whoops. I made too many noodles also. I think I could have added more broccoli. The redeeming factor of it all, however, was the giant mounds of cheese I put all over it. Cheese makes all things better.

I have done very little but be domestic today. I cleaned the living room (my area to clean), did laundry, went grocery shopping, cleaned my room, and cooked. I am tired of doing that. I decided I might want a mini-fridge though so that I can keep some drinks or something up in my room. I have no clue where I would put said mini-fridge, but that is something to be worked out later.

I really need to learn all the muscles of the arm, forearm, and hand. It is amazing how many muscles we have running through there. Eeeek. Matt comes on Thursday! Yay! I am working out in the morning. Yay! Maybe riding my bike to school? We will see. Oh wait, can't do that if I want to bring extra clothes to change into after working out. Dang it. Hmmmmmmm. Tricksy.

I win!

So I passed the quiz. Yay! Of course there is always room for improvement, but I would be more than happy to get the score I just got on all my tests. We were given 36 min for 28 questions. I finished really really quickly. Meh. I then checked my scores right away because I figured that no matter how long I waited, it wouldn't change. While the second groups was testing, they posted the questions and correct answers. 2 of the ones I got wrong, I was pretty sure I was right about. So just now, I looked up some stuff and am pretty sure I was right. Mesenchyme does in fact mostly come from mesoderm. Some comes from ectoderm, but really, most comes from mesoderm. Then again......mesoderm comes from ectoderm. Whatever. Embryology is stupid anyway. I am not going to argue about it though. It was just one question. We have another quiz in 2 weeks. Yay?

Yesterday was Betsy's birthday, which meant awful amounts of eating. We went to M's Pub and then to the Dubliner Pub, which had live music. We then went to The Jay (hole in the wall bar near school), but I was wayyyyy tooooo tired, so I asked our DD to take me home after dropping them off. I know, I am a party pooper, but the 8 hours of sleep was glorious. I then made a set of silly mistakes. I biked to school, which felt great to do, the wind rushing through my helmet hair. I then worked out for an hour. Shot around for 20 minutes. Played pick-up with a whole bunch of guys, full court. And then finally biked home. Holy smokes. I was shaking when I got home. But it wasn't too hot, which was nice.

Unlike Bo, I am going to continue to update daily. No, I don't always say good, deep, insightful things, but I don't have time to call everyone in my life (plus Bub and Bo are going to be overseas). This is a better idea in my opinion.

MDQ #1 tomorrow

So......yeah. First quiz tomorrow. I hear not to worry about it, which I am kind of doing. I am not worried about the actual grade (in truth this one is only 2% of our grade). I am more worried to see how my study methods are working. I hate the idea of changing what I am doing, but I really think I can be more efficient. My methods are just taking too long. I'll keep y'all update.

Another thunderstorm just rolled in. These things really are amazing. Scary, but amazing. Today overall was a good day. Up at 530 to workout. Strange enough, I have been less tired when I get up that early and workout then when I get up at 640 and don't workout in the morning. Weird. Today was also good, because I only had one lecture and had free lunch. And most importantly of all...we got our doctor tools. All the things in there have big fancy names I can't pronounce, but they make me feel like I am almost real. Stethoscope. I can say that one. I would totally be playing with all of it if I didn't have to study. Stupid quiz.

Also, not like I go there anymore, but Regis seems to have changed up all their parking. We have a parking lot that is about 1.5 blocks from campus, but no one ever parks there because people don't like walking. They would rather spend 15 minutes looking for parking and then park 4 blocks away on the street rather than just park in the lot. So Regis caved. New parking restrictions in the neighborhood are going to make it even harder to park, so Regis bought, as they call it, a "limousine golf kart, like the type at Disney World." Apparently, to go to Regis, your legs have to painted on. Glad they didn't have that restriction when I applied.

Brachial Plexus what????

I guess I should actually look at what we are doing in anatomy lab before we do it, otherwise I go in having no clue what I am actually supposed to be learning. Today, we were doing the brachial plexus, which is this super complicated "braid" of nerves around your clavicle and shoulder. Who would have even known it is there. Basically, we were working in the armpit all day. It was nice because we could get both sides going at the same time, but it was bad because really only two people could work per side. That left the 5th person out. That, for most of today, was me. I don't know why. I guess they just all really really really wanted to do it. Basically though, I left knowing that I am going to have to come in later down the road to actually learn it. I am still not trying to stress about the quiz on Friday while everyone around me does. We will see how I feel about that idea tomorrow night.

Worked out this morning. It was still pretty dang crowded for 630am. Stupid undergrads. Go back to bed. Went to Panera for lunch today. Mmmmmmmmm.

In other news, I am pretty sure my phone bill is going to be over $120. I blame Matt for not being in the Verizon network. Jerk.

It was like an inland hurricane

So just like Sunday was my first bat experience, yesterday was my first tornado warning. I am sitting, minding my business, doing some hw. Storm finally roles in (had been trying to during dinner), and I can see it all through my window. This was super strong wind. Eric Peeples knocks on my door asking if my window is leaking because he has water dripping into his room. My window AC unit was in fact letting water in, so I fixed that problem. The wind is super loud, but I thought I could kind of hear something else out my window. Then Katie Enemark calls my phone and says that the tornado sirens just went off and that I should get downstairs. Don't worry, it only lasted about 15 minutes, but still. There were tons and tons of uprooted trees all around town. It was crazy. If you have never experienced a storm in Omaha, you better do it before you die. This was more intense than anything I have ever seen (other than rain in the rainforest of course).

Blah to studying. I had a minor Becky crisis and rearranged how I am going to approach all my studying. We will see how the transition goes from old to new methods. I also tried the Creighton fitness center (KFC) today. Let me tell you....blow! They have several basketball courts and a track, which are totally great. And a big pool. But their workout facility is about the same size as Regis' yet they have about 5 times as many students. It was super crowded this afternoon. Sad. So I think I am going to try going in the mornings before class. It opens at 6, so it should work perfectly. Okay, back to studying!

Bat 1, Becky 0

So I had my first bat experience in the house. I had been warned of this at the first meeting and was told to close windows at dusk. Well, someone forgot to shut the 3rd floor bathroom window. Becky goes in to brush her teeth at 1130pm, toothbrush in hand, smiling face. Becky turns on light and scoots in, hears scraping, figures it is the window. Becky turns around to see a bat flying around the room, remembers it is kinda late so she can't scream, and then high-tails it back to her room without even turning off the bathroom light. The hall light is motion sensor, so I figured the bat would eventually go out there; for that reason, I did not brush my teeth last night. I then made sure I wasn't the first one out of my room up here in the morning. Really though...super scary.

Anatomy lab was so so today. One of the professors, however, did about 1/3 of what we have to do on Wednesday for us. Yay!!! I also decided I can't be a surgeon because I got tired after standing for 2 hours. Pathetic, I know. Also, we had enchiladas last night for dinner, which I am a little upset about because that is what I was going to make. Guess not now. Sad

Here again

I am pretty sure I like studying in the interactive area. Well, in one of the small group rooms. I get to spread out. No one bugs me. And I can talk on my phone without getting looks. Today is going much better than yesterday. I hit a really hard section yesterday that just blew me away mentally. I had learned it before, but I was having trouble with the spatial part of it. I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day because of it. Suck. But today is much better. I worked through lateral folding and am moving on. We have our first MDQ (multi-disciplinary quiz) on Friday. I hear that I shouldn't worry about it, so I am trying not to. All tests/quizzes are on computer here, so the second you hit submit, they email you your results. I don't know if I like the idea of that.

Last night, Meghan, Amy, Betsy, Amber, Carey, and I went to Superbad. I volunteered to drive not knowing we were going about a million miles away. Whatever. We decided we need to buy a minivan because it is hard to fit all 6 of us in one car. Superbad was pretty dang funny. Yes, a lot of high school/boy/gross humor, but still a ton of things that made me laugh. And a lot of awkward scenes. Definitely not a movie you want to watch with anyone in your family though.

In even greater knews, I hear that no one won Powerball ----- it is now up to 245 million. I am going to buy this time for sure. Okay, back to studying

Also.....Happy BDAY DAD!!!! and happy half bday manda pants!!!!

fun fun

I really don't know how to impress upon all of you how much info is coming at me right now. We have almost covered my entire developmental biology course (with a tad bit less detail) in about 5 or 6 lectures. That isn't days. That is hours. It is now Saturday, and I am studying. I have never really ever studied on Saturday. This is new. I don't think I like it. I am at school right now. I like having enough room to spread out to study, but my desk at home doesn't really provide that. So here I am being a dork.

So for anyone who hasn't heard, yesterday was our first gross anatomy lab. I have only ever once even almost kinda seen a dead body. Yesterday, I was rolling one over. And cutting into it. I have only ever cut into a frog or something like that. I will spare you all the details, but lets just say I never want to eat again. Not because it was gross but because I never want to have that much fat on my body. Ick.

After lab, I had just about the hardest/worst ride home ever. I really wanted to drive by a mail box, but there were a lot of people in the way and cars. Failure. I left my jacket on top of the car and it blew off. At least I turned around the block and got that one. Close failure. I then spent 20 min looking for a grocery store that someone gave me bad directions to. Failure. Really, it was just annoying.

Amber, Amy, Betsy, and I went over to Meghan's for dinner. She lives just about 1 block away from me. I was in charge of salad. It was a good dinner with wine and lots of talking. I almost felt like an adult. And then we shot gunned some beers and I stopped feeling like an adult. We went to Old Market bars. The thing is, bars here close at 1. That is flippin early. We then headed back to Amy's (thanks to Betsy for driving) for about 3 hours of drunk singing and dancing. Her townhouse is really cool though. Okay, I really should get back to studying.

Totally nonstop

Today all lectures were real. Well, except for ethics, but who's counting? Oh my goodness. Really, this is just a train that is going to do nothing but speed up. My only down time was dinner, which was about 40 minutes. And right now. But I am starting again in 6 minutes, so this is going to be fast.

So apparently I am now a front row sitter. Judge as you may. I don't care. I am usually a middle to front type of person. But the first day of lecture (yesterday) the people I like to hang out with were in the front. So there I got stuck. It makes texting during class hard.

I had to take notes for Note Service today. I had to do it for ethics. I got a pretty lucky draw if you ask me. They say it should take between 4-6 hours (which means between 2-4 in reality). It took me 1.25 hours. Really, how much more can you add to something she just reads off of? All I did was paraphrase her words and add a few side comments she made that weren't in the slides. Easy cheesy.

Whelp, the train is starting again.

First Day!!!

A) don't worry, I took a pic for my first day of school....wait no, I didn't
B) keeping it brief, already have tons to do

So for those who don't know, med school isn't really one of those things you can just cram for like most of us did through undergrad. It isn't that the material is hard. It is that there is about 1 ton of it. Some say it is like trying to drink water from a fire hydrant. There is just no way to ever ever ever learn everything. I "learned" (I already knew it) in one hour what took us about a week or two in undergrad. Holy crap! Put your seat belts on people.

Today wasn't awful. Several introductions to courses, a handful of lectures, free lunch. We also met our cadavers. First time I have ever really seen a dead body. The face was still covered thank goodness. She already had a name, so don't ask me what we named her. Her name is Alice. First dissection is on Friday. Eeeeeeek! My housemate and lab mate Mark has taken anatomy a few times before, so hopefully he can be a lot of help.

Ok, back to studying. Here we go!!!!! (To be said in the voice of Peach from MarioKart)

It's almost here

Today, for the most part, blew. Last night we got an email about Note Service and if anyone who knows they want to be in it would be willing to volunteer to do the first week. Note Service is a student run thing where a student takes notes for a lecture (normally 4 lectures a day = 4 diff. students) and everyone gets a copy. You pay $40 for a semester, and, depending on how many people sign up, you take notes 2 times a semester. The notes are rather standardized (font, spacing, margins), and they have a system of strikes in place for poor note takers. I, of course, am signing up because that means if I want to miss a class, I can. Then I just have to read those, the lecture notes, and listen to the lecture online (Podcast baby). I, being the dork I am, counted to when I may possibly be taking notes. I am #42 in the class alphabetically, which is weird because that was my number in basketball. Anyway, that would possibly put me at that Friday when Matt will be here. Friday note takers turn them in Monday morning, but still, I didn't want to do them while he was here (they say you should put 5 hours into making a set). So I volunteered and said no to tomorrow (Feast of the Assumption, going to mass after last class). I was assigned to our second Ethics lecture. In my head, that should be pretty easy. It is ethics, what more can you add (they want us not to just type exactly what is said, we are supposed to add stuff) without getting into the realm of opinion??

I got up to go to a mandatory thing at 9. It lasted 15 min. Blow. I then ran and ellipticalled. That was good. Another mandatory thing at 2. Holy crap. Library stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love librarians. This one was bad though. She even blinked slowly. I am now sitting here reading ahead for tomorrows lectures. I know, I am a dork. I am not as worried about Molecular & Cellular Biology (MCB) as I am about anatomy. Ahhhhhh!

We had some sort of beef stew for dinner tonight. You know, when it is 105 out, I want nothing more than to come home and eat some good and hot beef stew. Wait....no.

Ugh...I hate loan people. So it seems like I am receiving more money than I asked to take out in loans. Don't ask me how that is possible. I was awarded a lot more than I applied through my lender to take out, yet somehow magically, my lender paid the full amount. I know, more money isn't bad...except when you are paying interest on that money. Jerks.

Yay for 95 and 0

Congrats to Gramma K. for turning 95!! Wooohoooo. She also finally has someone with whom she can share her birthday. My cousin Billy and his wife Katie welcomed their first child William some time today. My mom promised me pics. We will see.

In other news. Sunday was boring. I seriously sat around all day and fell in and out of nap. We had our first family dinner. It was good. I am getting a better idea of what to cook the first time. Okay, not really. Ahhhhhh!

Today, while officially called out first day of class, really only consisted of an hour of lame computer orientation. We also got gloves and blades for anatomy lab. I then went down to Old Market for lunch with Betsy, Kerri (don't know how to spell it), Meghan, Amber, and Amy. I think those are all the correct names. We went to Old Chicago. It was good. I think I will myself about one or two more weeks of this going out and eating often with people thing just so that I can make friends and meet new people. After that, I will cut back as to save money.

I finally got to work out. It had seriously been over 2 weeks. I could tell. Not that my body changed but that running was more difficult. For some reason, the Creighton fitness center (The KFC) won't let us med students use the gym until the undergrads show up on the 18th/22nd or something like that. Ugh. In the med student lounge, however, they have a separate room with 2 treadmills and 2 ellipticals. I went in a little after lunch and ran for about 30 min. I was pretty tired, so I know I need to do it again. Another family dinner tonight. Tacos/taco salad. Always a favorite out at camp. Right before the overnight. Maybe I will sleep outside......or not.

The day after

Firstly, here are the professional pics of the white coat ceremony. I am frame #s 137-139. Don't worry, Mom ordered some.

I didn't update last night because we had a "frat party" here. The only reason I call it that is because I am in fact living in a frat. Party started at 7 with some sand volleyball (we have a court on the side of the house). It was way too warm for me to play. I didn't want to get sweaty and then get sandy. We had kegs from Upstream. An M1 works there, so she got a deal for us. I sold cups from 10-1030 and would like to say that I sold at least 10. I am pretty good. I let some of my friends (I think that is what I would call them) keep their purses in my room because it was a good safe place. And it was really nice and cool up there, so I used any excuse to go up there.

The house was sooooooooo incredibly hot. The basement was fine until the party moved from outside to in. First time I saw the basement, I was pretty scared, but they cleaned it up. It looked really good. I was doing fine on the sobriety thing until......flip cup. It started as M1 vs M2, but they quickly wanted no more to do with us. Then it was M1 vs M1. At the peak, it was about 9 people per side. In the past, I always got better as I got drunker. Not last night. Wow, I was bad at the end. Then again, we were playing with a scotch ale. Dark. Bad for flip cup. That all ended at about 1150 or so. I told most people I was going to bed because I was starting to feel sick. After putting some basketball shorts on and a short trip to the bathroom, I felt much better and rejoined the party until 250. I then fell asleep with all sorts of crap on my bed and the light on. Good times.

Last thing about the party, Eric Davies (M2 in my house) killed a bat that had gotten in to the house. He did it with a tennis racket. Ick. Mom and Dad left yesterday. They got home safe. Other than that, I sat around all day. There isn't much food in the house yet, so I didn't eat much til Mark and I went to Jimmy John's for dinner. MMMMM.