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!!!