Holy Snowy

We've all been busy. Plus, I'm around almost everyone who reads this anyway. School real quick....passed respiratory. I did the best I have ever done on a final simply by slowing down and being okay with leaving later in the exam. I guess I'll have to do that from now on.

Christmas was awesome. I'll update more about the fun stuff later. On to business.

Old Man Winter is ripping the Northwest a new one. Seriously. We have had over 50 inches of snow fall in just a little over a week. Crazy. Thank goodness we live on a cul de sac or our driveway would have been plowed it. The massive amount of snow hasn't kept us from doing things (we live on an arterial), but plenty of people have been snowed it. A lot of our family couldn't/didn't want to try to make it over for Grandpa's Mass on the 23rd. We'll see if Amanda ever gets home. I think Racheal's flight was cancelled this morning (not sure about that). The boys are out putting snow not in the driveway. This is hard though becuase the snow blower has run out of room to throw the snow. It just can't get over the mounds anymore. This is ridiculous. We are supposed to get more today. I am also supposed to get my new phone and a haircut today. We'll see if either happens. I'll update more about the Christmas at a later time. Good luck to all of you stuck in the snow.

Whoop

We had our last classes of respiratory today. Yay! I have histo lab and small group tomorrow (blow), but that is it until the final on Friday. Now I just need to actually sit and study. That won't be too hard with the weather the way it is. Today was a nice -5 on my way to school. That was without windchill. -30 with it. Wow. May have to wear a hat tomorrow. We are supposed to get a little bit of snow. We will see if that turns up.

Friday night a whole bunch of us got together at Renee's for an almost-adult Christmas party. I made chocolate covered pretzels. Everyone else made fancy finger food. I'm all about the simplicity. It was a lot of fun. Saturday the weather was awesome (50 or so), so after I got my wits about me from the night before, we went out walking. We went to the outdoor mall; we walked on a big trial near the apartment. It was a great day overall. Then Sunday hit. And it got cold. 50 degree swing in less than 16 hours. Awesome. We had our secret santa exchange / brunch after I arrived after church. That was fun too. Yay for new PJs!!!!!!

Matt leaves on Thursday, so I have been trying to plan food so that we nicely run out Thursday night. 2 weeks ins't a long time, but it is long enough to not want to open the bag you have sitting in you fridge.

MOVIES!!!
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
I had never heard of this one, but I am very happy that I put it on the list. It was another one of those dark humor ones. Like an action-comedy (heck, there's a romantic comedy section, why can't this exist) but not in a "that wasn't really funny, why are you laughing?" type of way nor in a "cheesey bad lines" type of way. It was well written with a lot of good dialogue. There was enough forward movement to keep me from getting bored, which is hard to do in a movie that is both action and comedy (in my opinion). This is not a movie if you don't like swearing. 7.7/10

Fred Claus
No, not Vince Vaughn's best work, but it was definetly more of a family movie. It almost brought a little tear to my eye. Parts of it seemed to get a little long (it has 1h50m), but overall I didn't get too bored with it. Matt had a hard time suspending his imagination for this one. They also actually made it seem like santa can make toys that mattell makes. On a sidenote, that is exactly how I came to realize that santa couldn't exist - all the movies showed him making wooden toys. I never got wooden toys. Then I thought...maybe he bought them all. Then I realized that that would cost a lot of money. Back to the movie, if you have kids and want a Christmas movie, 6.5/10 (w/ Muppet's Christmas Carol being 10/10).

December

The cold weather has REALLY finally hit. We have yet to actually get snow thank goodness. I only have to make it 1 more week.

Respiratory is harder than I thought it was going to be. Hence the lack of updates. Maybe it is just me comparing it to psych, but I am definitely struggling. I talked to an M3 though who said that respiratory was harder her and most of her friends as well.

Not much as been going on. On Saturday night we went to Indian food w/ Amy. It was a little overpriced for the meat to rice ratio. They service wasn't very good, but I expected that. Most family run places, in my opinion, don't have the best service. Heck, even Linnie's at home has not so good service, but I love the food. Food was okay. I prefer Thai over Indian any day. Amy then came over and watched Anchorman w/ us. She had never seen it, and during the whole movie, she kept saying, "Oh, that's why people say that." It is a pretty quoted movie.

Had my last clinic for a semester today. Nothing too exciting there. Fewer drug seekers today; more "problem" (read annoying) patients. A little girl gave my legs a hug, which is always cute. Only 2 more days of classes!!!!! I'm out.

It's hard

It is hard to get back in the swing of things (as you can tell from the lack of posts) after about 3 weeks of vacation. Okay, yes, I had class, but it was easy. Now on to respiratory. I'll talk about that in a minute.

Turkey Day was......country. The plus about holidays w/ other people's families: you don't eat as much. Or at least I don't. Because none of it tastes as good as your mom's. Sigh. So...yeah. We were right about here. Middle of nowhere. I'm glad we drove in the light. Tons of dead deer on the side of the road. We get there...deer head boiling in the backyard. People shooting clay pigeons w/ shotguns. Like I said, country. This wasn't like going to someone's cabin about 15 minutes of the main road. This was miles/an hour off the interstate. I'm grateful that I had people to be with, but it was definitely interesting.

We then drove to KC to drop Betsy and Jon off as well as to look around. It was cool. But we got bored and drove home on Friday afternoon. All in all it was a very relaxing weekend.

Class is rough. I don't know if I have a carrier in the lung fields. It seems like you judge everything according to how much if any sputum they cough up. And my x-rays that all look the same to me. Then you take a biopsy and let the lab decide. No, I have no real evidence of what their job is like, but from the sound of lectures, that is my best guess. It is a short class: only 12 days of classes. We have 8 left. Quiz on this coming Monday. We'll see

Today was the first REALLY cold day. I mean break out the heavy winter coat and not just the hoody + fleece I've been pulling. Walking back from the gym a sweaty mess? Not fun. But I refuse to drive 4 blocks to work out.

Movies we've watched lately
Good Will Hunting: I had never actually seen this. I liked it a lot. Even though it wasn't action packed, the dialogue was awesome. I sometimes have a hard time getting behind any character that Minnie Driver plays, but her sort of small role was manageable for me. I'm not sure if Matt Damon can do anything but a Boston accent (yes, I know he is from there). Ben Affleck once again proved himself to be better off screen than on. He was okay in this, but for the most part he should just write. Robin Williams is harry. 8/10

Amazon Jungle: Matt's choice. Soft core bad porn (if I had to guess that is). This was awful. I lost 72minutes of my life. And 1000 brain cells. -100000000/10

Amelie: I like the name b/c it was a character in a book I read senior year of high school. Also, I had heard great things. It was very artsy. And in French. I think a lot of humor is lost in translation (not trying to copy that movie title there) b/c this movie had lines that were somewhat humorous but didn't come across just right. I'd take it or leave it. 5/10

Did I write about House of Sand and Fog? If I did, stop reading. Let me tell you: this was a depressing movie. And I watched it by myself. I don't remember much about it other than it was depressing. I prefer Jennifer Connelly saying "You have no power over me" to David Bowie in spandex 6/10

Break Time

Monday we had our Behavioral Med final. It was easy. The questions were pretty much "I know this" or "You made all of those words up." This makes for a quick test. The kid I sit next to for tests is notorious for being the first one done all the time. 80 question final...25 minutes. I'm done w/ in the first ten people usually, but it still took me about 50 minutes. I've learned not to let his speed freak me out.

During this course, I worked on a gift for Matt's wall. Here it is (above). I know it is hard to see, but I'll describe it. Basically, I chose about 41 pics that remind us of home/friends (or us of course). I then hung them through jewelry wire and used crimp beads to keep them in place. Looking at this (and when thinking of the project), you may think "That doesn't look too hard." But it was. Much more so than I was expecting. My hand hurt for a few days from crimping so many beads. Not all the pics are striaght, because that was super hard to do. I am very happy with how it turned out though, and I am pretty sure Matt likes it.

Break started yesterday for us after a very pointless interviewing small group. Talk about a waste of time. Today should have been very relaxing, but it wasn't. I spent 3.5 hours and plenty of money trying to get my car fixed. Background: when I got my oil changed 2 weeks ago they told me I needed my tires rotated. Never having had it done in 3.5 years, I figure they are right. I go with it. Since then, my steering whell has been shaking and the car has been pulling hard to the right. Now, the people who did it said that it wasn't their fault and to go get it checked out. So I called them jerk faces and got it checked out elsewhere. These news guys re-rotated my tires and fixed my alignment. In only 3.5 short hours. Trust me, you can only walk around K-mart for so long before you look sketch. Alas, today was a frustrating day. Matt and I leave in the morning for Betsy's family's farm down in Missouri. I wish you all a happy Turkey day. I appreciate every single one of you who reads this.

18 months

Totally going to be cheesy here, but.......Matt and I have been together for 1.5 years! And we have yet to kill each other. Awesome!

Psych class is....going. It is really hard to motivate myself to study, but we have a quiz on Wednesday. Unlike the very similar class to this last year, this one is less touchy feely and much more DSM-IV related. Ick. My thing is, in real life practice, I am going to be referring to the book when trying to diagnose someone. I won't just "know it," so I feel as if they shouldn't quiz us on exact criteria. It should me more about hallmark signs and issue w/ treatment (in my opinion). Is that me being lazy? Sort of. Is that me being realistic? Very.

In other news...there have been way too many celebrations and birthdays lately. Becky is over budget, and it is only the 17th. We went to The Funny Bone this weekend w/ a whole bunch of people. It was fun. It would have been much more fun had happy hour at Kona Grill started at 9pm and not 10. That part sucked. Because I am cheap, I didn't get food, so we had to stop at McDonalds on our way home. And they forgot our fries. Jerks.

Movie!!!!! August Rush
Matt likes to put up a fuss when we get a chick flick, yet I don't say a peep when we get such great films as Natasha (I am not even going to lower myself to review that one...it was pretty much soft core porn). Anyway, I watched this one alone even though Matt was here. Pretty cute. I heard that that kid actually learned to play the guitar for the movie. Of course their were a few flaws from the start, but I can manage to ignore those. For 11, I definitely thought the kid should have had a little more common sense in him. To my surprise, Robin Williams was in this movie. I feel that a lot of people either like/love him or hate him. I think this movie shows that he can play more than just the comic guy. I thought he did a good job. If you are a guy, this gets a 4/10. If you are a girl, I'd say 7.1/10

I LIVE!

I've used this title before. Wonder when? Anyway.....CARDIO IS OVER!!!!! I passed! Yay! This weekend was a little rough. I hit 6pm on Sunday evening and just quit. I was way tired of studying. Way tired. So I stopped. Obviously I had enough info to pass. Matt got in at 1130pm, which means I didn't get to bed until about 1am. Good choice before a final. Wait.......

We started our first of 2 psych courses this year. Last year during the M2 year, they had this class spread out throughout both semesters. They decided to block them this year, which I am very grateful for. I am much more likely to attend more of the classes (not today obviously) with it this way. Tuesday was pretty intro. Yesterday we covered a lot of personality disorders at which point I said "I don't want kids, I'm going to screw them up." It's pretty true I feel like. We went through all these environments that "breed" adults w/ disorders. Some of them - too much love. Most of them - not enough love. Some of them - too much independence. Some of them - too little independence. It's a fine line people. A fine line. I don't know how I turned out this way. It really has just left me wondering.

In other news, I mulled some cider yesterday. Mmmmmmmm. Smells/tastes like the holidays!

Oh hi, it's me

No yelling. No throwing anything. Some of us are busy people. I can see (limited) freedom on the horizon. I have 4 more days of hell. The cardio final is Monday. Ahhhhh. The last quiz went pretty well. Hopefully I can muster a few more days of hard core studying. We had no class today and limited class tomorrow so that we can study. That makes me more nervous than anything else. In good news, Matt is going to Seattle this weekend. It isn't that he pesters me and keeps me from studying (he is really good at not doing that); rather, I feel bad for neglecting him, which distracts me. I am taking him to the airport tonight. Hopefully he'll have fun (that is pretty much a give in actually).

I haven't done a ton since I was last here. This past weekend (and through yesterday) was super crazy weather. By crazy, I mean in the 70s! Of course, I was studying all last weekend, but Monday and Tuesday were enjoyable. I don't have time for long movie reviews, but I'll do brief ones

Suicide Kings: Matt's choice, actually good. Some dark humor in there. They kind of got you w/ the ending. Thought you had figured it out, but then BAM! something else. I'll give it a 7/10

The Strangers: watched it on Halloween, Matt is funny to watch scary movies with. It isn't a gore movie, which is good thing. The part that made it scary was the fact that it was 'based on a true story'....I looked that up though. In the true story, no one dies. Really? Not so scary after that. It was desent though. 6.5/10

Vanilla Sky: so many people don't like this movie, I'm not sure why. Yes, it is really long...too long. But the concept behind the movie was pretty original. Matt kept getting frustrated at Tom Cruise's reactions, but I feel like a lot of really vain people would act that way. I had seen this one before, Matt hadn't. If you have a lot of time on your hands and haven't seen it, go ahead and watch it. I don't like Cameron Diaz, no matter what. 6.1/10

Pursuit of Happyness: yes, I spelled that right. It was cute. Matt thought it was it was going to be a chick flick simply b/c Will Smith was in it. False, totally not a chick flick. I had heard that it was depressing, even in the end, but only the middle parts were depressing. The end was very hopeful. This one was also based on a true story. I say....7.5/10

Off to study

Not sure

I'm not really sure if I am sorry about being lazy or not. I'm not like Bo who isn't super busy yet still doesn't update. I'm pretty dang busy. In fact, Matt and I haven't gotten through very many movies on our Netflix lately.

We had our first Cardio quiz last Tuesday. I had heard that 60% of the class failed the first quiz last year, so that didn't really motivate me to study too much. Lucky for me, I did pass. A few of my mistakes were "I read the question too quickly" type of mistakes. Those are always frustrating. The class average was a 73, which is the lowest I have seen for a quiz. We had Monday off as our "fall break," so the weak was nice a short.

I had an OSCE on Thursday. They don't tell you right there if you pass, but I am pretty sure I did. I almost forgot to take her BP, but I figure that is because I never do that at clinic. We had 1 patient simply to interview for 15 min and one to do a focused interview and physical as well as a SOAP note. My SOAP note wasn't awesome I am sure, but it was my first one. Always like to leave a little room for improvement.

Matt and I had a handful of people over on Friday night for a "Death of the Bugs Party." Matt doesn't like bugs and likes to celebrate their death. He also wanted a turkey, and I refused to cook one just for the 2 of us. Pretty much we had Thanksgiving in October. We did the turkey, and everyone else brought side dishes: mashed potatoes, stuffing, cornbread, dessert, salad, etc. It was delicious. It was also the 1st time I cooked a turkey, but it turned out great. Yay me! We have tons of leftovers, so that is what we are eating tonight.

Matt then got sick. Not just too much to drink sick but actually sick. Trust me, he isn't a little bag of sunshine when he is like this. Hasn't been too bad though. Lets me get stuff done. On a brighter note, we finally got some great photos up on our walls. Yay!

Movies
The Mist
Reviews of this said it was horrible. Now, I'm not going to say it was awesome, but it wasn't awful. It was your typical creature horror movie. It was a little predictable in the beginning, but most horror movies are that way. You can tell who is going to die. You can tell who is making a stupid mistake. That sort of thing. The end took me a little by surprise. If you don't want to get hints about the ending, you may want to skip to the next review. As a litte FYI, I would never ever ever shoot myself or kill someone else even if asked unless I know 100% for sure that death is inevitable. I don't mean stuck in the desert or on a raft in the ocean. I mean I am floating out in space and I can't even see any planets or moons. It would have to be that bad people. Not just my car runs out of gas even though we haven't seen the creatures in over 12h. Really people? Really? Anyway, it was decent entertainment. I'll give it a 5.75/10

No Country for Old Men
If you like this movie, please stop reading now and don't call me your friend. Okay, we can still be friends, but I won't respect your choice in movies (as if you respected mine to begin with). I did not like this movie. How did it win best picture or whatever? The premise was stupid. I am pretty sure no one would think about taking a jug of water to a man he saw only 1/3 alive in a hot desert 8 hours ago. Duh he is going to be dead. No, I can't suspend reality for just this one second. Also, I just felt that there was a lot of killing going on for no real reason. We never understood the motivation of that dude. I didn't even know his name. Tommy Lee never really wrapped it all together like he was supposed to at the end. The bad dude wouldn't get very far w/ an open fracture like that. I think he had a messed up childhood. I wasn't clear on a lot of the relationships throughout the film. I just thought it wasn't as great as people made it out to be. If you have it sitting around and there are no small children or inteligent people around, go ahead and watch it. Otherwise, save your 2 hours. 2.5/10. Oh, also, it didn't have enough dialogue for me.

Me

Sorry, no movie review today. I've been pretty busy lately. Grrrrrr. Cardio, while interesting, is a lot of information. I am having a hard time stuffing all the physiology, pathology, and clinical aspects into my head. This weekend is going to be busy w/ studying for the quiz for sure. Frustratioiin sets in.....now.

Ever since I went to Regis, I probably have at least one person every 3 or 4 months or so tell me that I look like someone/remind them of someone. Everyone thinks they know me from somewhere. Now, do I really look that nondescript? Personally, I've never seen anyone (other than my cousin) who looks like me. I don't get annoyed at the comments; I just find it funny

Please stop me if I have talked about this before, but I really think this needs to be addressed. Omaha has a red-light-running problem. I think it has for a long time and is afraid to admit it. Let me give you some numbers because I know all of you are asking "what is a 'problem' to you?" I pass through probably about 25 lights or so on my way to school (okay, I really have no clue, but it is over 20). On the average drive, I would say I get stopped at about 15 (Omaha also has issues with light timing, but that is for another blog.) In stopping at 15 lights total, I probably see about 10 people run a red light in total. This isn't just questionable running. This is "it is green my direction and you are still in the intersection" running. I have seen 5 people run a single light. No, not 5 in an entire cycle. 5 in 1 light turning red. The other problem is that drivers just expect it and tolerate it. No honking. No cursing (except from Matt and myself of course). I have almost been hit (as a pedestrian) several times already. It is ridiculous. The thing is, it is easy to get caught up in. I know you are sitting there saying "I wouldn't get caught up in it," but you would be surprised. As I approach a light, I find myself saying "I can still make it" rather that "I can still stop." This crazy attitude is contagious and dangerous. My solution: red light cameras. Now, I have never been a fan of these just because. I am finally advocating them here. I know there may be rules against them, but at least threaten to put them in. I know it takes a lot of money up front, but I am pretty sure they would pay for themselves. Time for some math:

I expect to see 1 red light run if I sit at a light for over 1 minute. (Keep in mind this applies to small and large/busy intersections. Omaha-ians don't make exceptions). If that is just my short time there, I would venture a guess to say that at least 30 red lights are run a day on big intersections and 20 on smaller ones. We'll make this simple and just talk about 1 light. Okay, so 1 light, 1 day = 30 runs. What, is it a $50 ticket? I have no clue. Let's assume it is that much. That is $1500 for ONE INTERSECTION for ONE DAY. For a week? $10,500!!! 'nough said.

Mid October

It is crazy to think that it is already mid-October. Basketball practice starts on Wednesday. I have found myself missing basketball a lot more this year. Not sure why, but I have. I swear for us the 15th always fell on a weekend day, so practice would start at 730. Blow/kind of miss that.

Bub is doing a better job updating his blog, so I am not carrying all the burden of family updates. yay! Bo still sucks.

Cardio is in full swing. So far it hasn't been too bad. We will see though. The stuff in the 1st week was pretty basic, but they may quiz really hard on it. I hate that. Also, this course is...interesting when it comes to my classmates. This is technically our 4th block (neuro, ID, hem/once, cardio), but this is the first class in which people often enter med school wanting to be. Did that make sense? A handful of people, when they go into medicine, want to be cardiologist whereas a desire to be a neurologists, infectious disease-ists, or hem/onc person sort of develops later on. This being said, you can tell the people who want to be cardiologists. Never before, no matter how interesting the professor, have people answered questions in class. Now all of a sudden, people are talking. The same people too. And people are coming to class who usually don't. And are answering questions. It's weird. And funny.

Nothing much else going on here. The weather is trying to cool down except for yesterday. Matt wanted to do something fall-ish yesterday, but the 80 degree weather really didn't make anything seem very fall-ish.

MOVIE REVIEW!!!!!! War
I'm not the biggest fan of mixed martial arts movies. Maybe that explains why I kept falling asleep during it. That didn't make Matt very happy. It was okay though. A lot of action....I'm not an action movie fan. The plot was decent w/ some twists and turns that make it really hard to follow when drifting in and out of consiousness. The ending left me confused. It was almost like they were setting it up for a sequal. Who knows. If someone brought it over and wanted to watch it and you like this type of movie, I guess you could watch it - 5/10

Done!

With Heme/Onc that is. The final was today!! Didn't do quite as hot as I wanted to, but that is okay. Let's just say I'm not going into this field. As a little side note, my jaw dropped when I found out that there are some leukemias that we don't treat. We just "observe." That just seems weird to me. What if the patient really really wants treatment? I just find it strange. We start Cardio tomorrow. It is our longest course at 5 weeks. I hope/think I am going to find this more intersting, so I think that will make it easier to study...maybe. I just had a hard time getting excited about blood. Maybe that is just me.

Speaking of blood...what is up with HBO lately. I feel that they have really gone down hill lately. Firstly, they rarely show movies anymore I feel like. They still show a lot of sex shows, which really isn't that out of the norm. They have been showing tons of this vampire crap though. Why are vampires so hot lately? Then they'll have specials on making the show, and they interview these people who I am pretty sure really believe in and follow vampire mythology. They say things completely seriously such as "Some vampires sleep in coffins, but not all of them do." Completely straight faced. These aren't vampire historians. These are people who "know and love" vampires. Wow HBO. Wow

Highlight of my week last week was breakfast for dinner on Thursday. Is it sad that that is the best part of me week? Kind of. Matt and I went to a "Young Adults" group thing for St Leo's on Friday night. It is interesting to see the differences between a Catholic small group (we met at a Mexican restuarant and were told about happy hour specials right away) and the non-Catholic one. Both have their positives and negatives though.

Movie review!!!!!!!!! Twelve Monkeys
I had never heard of this one. Therefore, it was Matt's choice. Has Brad Pitt in it. And Bruce Willis. This is kind of another apocaliptic film. Bruce Willis is a convict in 2035 and has to travel back in time to try and ID a virus that wipes out 4 billion people in 1996. Of course as with most time travel films, it had some flaws. Brad Pitt did a good job of playing a crazy person. With the whole time travel thing though, it really gets you thinking about destiny. That is about as deep as I am going to get. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't a quality film. I'll give it a 3/10. If you find it sitting on your doorstep and have a free afternoon, go ahead and watch it.

Heat Rash

You know how I said I thought I was allergic to Gain? Well, that rash came back...twice. This last time, it was awful. I went to the dermatologist because it was so bad. Turns out it wasn't contact dermatitis, it was/is heat rash. He asks me "have you been sweating a lot lately?" And for any of those of you who know me or who have seen me play basketball, you know the answer is "when is Becky not sweaty?" Well, sweaty Becky stuck in a humid place got heat rash. They gave me a shot in my butt and a tub of steroid cream. Just waiting for the 'roid rage to kick in.

Not much has gone on. Matt and I went to Swing Thai w/ Betsy and Jon on Friday night. It is nowhere as near as good as Lennie's. I miss Lennie's. I need to get around to making Gang Garee Gai soon. That will require finding an Asain market. Hmmmmm. Anyway, after dinner we went to Betsy's to watch the debates. That was really just to ammuse the boys. They like politics. We then headed to Oktoberfest...which was packed. There is no cover thank goodness because it was crazy busy. Too busy (and expensive) to get a beer. Sad face. We were there for a short time. I am going to go ahead and say that Denver's was way better.

I watched a movie last week that isn't even worth the effort of a review. I apologize, but at least that says something about the quality. Death Proof. Awful. Don't do it. You will regret it. This may have replaced Nothing as the worst movie of all time. Has Kurt Russell ever been in a good movie? Question for the ages.

M1s have their first anatomy exam tomorrow. I don't envy them. We have a quiz on Tuesday. Better get my butt in gear. Adios.

1 done

We had our first Heme/Onc quiz today. I did way better than I thought I was going to do. I did way better than I felt I was going to while taking it. So many of them I just answered and didn't mark because I knew thinking about it more wasn't going to help. Onto the rest of the week.

I am lazy about updating. My apologies. It really isn't that I am busy; I think it is more that I don't do that much and feel bad boring all of you. I forgot to mention in my last post that we learned to draw blood. They showed us a video and then said "have at it." No hands on instruction, just the video. We partnered up and began. I have never drawn blood and neither had my partner. I decided to draw first because I didn't want to get psyched out. After feeling for the vein about 7 times and making her arm fall asleep, I got the needle out and did it. Success on the first try! Yay me. When I reached for the cotton at the end, I moved the needle a little and she bled a tiny bit. It didn't hurt her though, so it was okay. What I learned: you don't have to push that needle in very far, those tubes are pretty hard to push on and pull off...that is about it. I then had clinic on Thursday. We saw a wide variety of patients including some thrush (something we just learned about), some possible anemia (something we are currently learning about), and...some other stuff. Then it happened. A patient needed some blood drawn, and the nurse grabbed the kit to go in. Dr. Paknikar then asked me if I had learned to draw blood yet. I could have lied and said no, but I told her that we just learned. She told me that as long as I felt comfortable and as long as the patient was okay with it, I could draw the blood. I went in w/ the nurse, asked the patient, she said yes, and then I started getting nervous. I could see her veins easily though. I told her I was nervous; I didn't tell her that it was my first time though. It all went fine though. Yay me! I definitely like how much hands on experience I am getting there.

Now....2 movies!!!!!

Funny Games
Matt's poor poor choice. This is a remake of some German film. It shouldn't have been remade. It is sort of one of those thriller "torture" movies...but super slow...and with barely any blood. The main villan talks to the camera randomly, and you aren't sure if he is supposed to be doing that. Apparently 10 year old boys can't jump over fences. I bet if he had siblings and wasn't an only child, he would have been able to escape. He was bad at hiding too. I blame a lot on people being only children. I think it is fair though. Back to the movie. It looked like we were going to get a little justice in the movie, but then the dude hit the rewind button. Really? Really? Oh my goodness. This was 2 hours of my life I can't get back. I give this a 1.2/10. 'nough said.

Donnie Darko
I've tried to watch this movie several times before, but I've fallen asleep every time (imagine that). Well I stayed up. I really like this. It was unique. Other movies have done similar things, but not in such a weird, off the wall way. I think they developed the characters really well (that is my attempt at sounding almost smart). I was a little confused as to what the end/last chapter of the book meant. If anyone has an opinion, please leave a comment. I would recommend this movie. Don't be on drugs though during it. I say...8.1/10.

Heme/Onc

I survived ID!!!!! Yay!!!!! Final was yesterday. It went just fine. I'll be interested to see what the class average was. The quiz average was pretty low, but I think that is because the style of question is much different from last year. They are much more about applying your knowledge and not just route memorization. With one quiz under our belts, I'm sure the average for the final will be quite higher. We'll find out though

Today was the first day of hematology/oncology. Last year it was 4 weeks. We cram the same number of lectures into 3 weeks this year. Oh fun. Also, they planned this really "well." I go from thinking I have some sort of virus that is going to wipe me out to thinking that I have cancer. Thanks guys. Really, thanks. The first day was rough. I haven't heard a lot of these words before, so I need to get the basics down before I can actually know what they are talking about. Annoying. We are starting to get into areas now, however, where I feel no one in the class has a strong background. More even playing field I feel like.

Even though I studied all weekend, I managed to watch 2 movies.....

Gone Baby Gone
I liked this one. It wasn't as action packed as I thought it was going to be, but I still enjoyed it. The girlfriend was a bit annoying and rarely added anything good to the conversation, but that was the only character I didn't like. They totally got you thinking that you figured the "twist" out...and then the real twist comes. It was good. I wasn't expecting that at all. It really got you asking whether or not it was okay to bend rules in certain cases, but then you have to do that whole philosophical "if everyone bent the rules" thing. Whatever. I hate philosophy. I give it a 7.8/10. I would have liked a little more action.

Michael Clayton
Matt had seen this one, but he wanted me to see it too. This one starts you out 4 days later and then goes back 4 days to show you how we got there. I kept forgetting all that and would get really confused. As with the previous movie, I would have like a little more action. A bit slow at times for me. I thought the plot though was very original and confusing enough to keep you watching. Thank goodness Matt was there, or I would have had to watch it twice. I was pretty confused for a while. I'm going to go ahead and give this one a 7.5/10. To tell you the truth, I have no clue how consistent I am with those numbers. I'm just kind of making it up each time.

Test

I have a final on Monday, but I haven't updated all week. I figured I would do it now to waste a little time. I made meatloaf on Monday. That was the first time I had ever made it. I personally think that meatloaf gets a bad name. I love meatloaf. Always have. Then again, we've never actually put it in a loaf pan. We just kind of pile it onto a pan. Not much more attractive, but every little bit helps. We then of course got to have wonderful meatloaf sandwiches. Mmmmmmmmm. Other than that, the week has been uneventful. It rained a ton last evening. Since then, it has been rainy and grey. At least that keeps me indoors studying. Or typing to you lovely folks. We had out last ID small group today. We took it upon ourselves to make it only an hour. Who wants to be in small group on a Friday afternoon? Not me. On my way home, the entire Benson neighborhood seemed to be shut down by cops. I couldn't find anything on the news about it though. I think it is a giant conspiracy. Okay, study time

Monday

Okay, so....wellness. We had a mandatory wellness lecture at 8am this morning. Does that make sense to anyone? Why not just let us sleep the extra hour? Whatever.

The biggest thing to happen since my last update was that I went to clinic for the first time. Every other week for one afternoon, every M2 goes to longitudinal clinic. Many people are at Creighton Med Center. Many are at the VA. The rest of us are just at clinics and private practices around town. I went for the first time last Thursday. I am at a small private practice right on Dodge. Now, when I say small, I mean small: 2 exam rooms, one doc, one nurse. While I may not get to see as many "cool" things as those in the hospitals get to see, I will definitely get a lot more hands on experience. At the hospital, you are the single most bottom man on the totem pole that is made of 20 people. I am on the bottom of a 3 man totem pole. On the first day I show up before the doctor. When she comes in she gets some formalities out of the way and then says..."how bout you go in and see what is going on. Come back out in 5 and tell me about it." Becky's jaw drops. I have only ever talked to the standardized actor patients. Holy crap. I go in and do "my" thing. Really, I was just making it up. Forgot most stuff. Whatever. Told the doc I thought it was contact dermatitis, she went in and confirmed (as far as I could tell) and wrote up a Rx. Woooooo me! The rest of the afternoon went like that. I felt as if I already learned a ton of stuff about actually doing medicine and not just learning names of things. I am excited for the next time!

I pretty much just tried to catch up on all my lectures over the weekend. That quiz last week put be about 10 lectures behind. Needless to say, this weekend was a bit of a drag. Matt and I did go to an "Art Walk" type thing. Holy crap those people are charging a lot for a photograph. Really? You just hit print. I get paying money for paintings, sculptures, original pieces of art, but if the guy can go into his studio and make something exactly the same for the next customer, then I don't want to pay tons for it. Sorry, maybe that is just me. We did not find anything needless to say.

The movie review I am most ashamed of: Doomsday
Let's just say that if I were related to the guy that wrote/directed this, I would disown him and change my name. If you couldn't tell, this was Matt's choice. It had major flaws in logic right from the beginning; we should have turned it off then. It was about a virus that wiped out Scotland. England put up a wall. People got pissed. 30 years later the virus shows up in England. You get the point. It had bits of Road Warrior and some roman and medieval times thrown in there. That was 2 hours of my life I will never ever get back. Not a single part of the movie made sense at all. Other than the fact that they were speaking English. I can't say much more. This gets a 1.5/10. I reserve the 1/10 (I don't give 0's) for the movie Nothing, which Bo made me watch last summer. That thing sucked.

Quiz 1

The weekend was wonderful. I got in to Spokane late on Friday. All 6 of us then went to Denny's of course. The usual. It was great to have us all in the same place even if it was only for 36 hours or so. Saturday involved working out and the anniversary "get together." Mom refused to call it a party. Don't ask me why. We took (hopefully) the pic for the family Christmas card as well. We had mass at the chapel where M&D got married. There were 30+ people there. That was more than were present at the real event 30 years ago. Weird. The singing group from Sacred Heart did the music, which was beautiful. My dad cried, mom didn't shed a tear, Uncle Steve put us on the spot. Jerk face. We then went up to the Manito Country Club for dinner. Drinks and appetizers first of course. You always know dinner will be good when Dad is in charge of telling others what to make. For dinner we all got huge steaks done just perfectly. Oh my goodness. I haven't eaten that much red meat in a long time. No one at my end of the table (other than Uncle John) even came close to finishing theirs. I got to chat with my cousin Austine for a little bit. She and her boyfriend are both 4th year med students at Loyola. It was great just to hear that one day things will be much better. And more fun.

Sunday involved...working out. And of course tons of food. The baby Busches weren't at the party, but all 6 of them were Letterboxing on the South Hill on Sunday. They were having trouble finding the one in Cliff Park, so Mom, Bo, Bub, Manda, and I went over to help them. Low and behold, Bo (and Nick and Emmy and I) managed to find it. Really though, we pretty much grew up in that park. If we couldn't find it, I don't know who could have. We said goodbye to Bo Sunday afternoon. Back to Regis for him. Good choice Bo. Transferring to GU is lame. Then we went to Pig Out. I managed to pretty much eat a funnel cake all by myself. Then I went in to a food coma. No good. We watched amazing shows on squid that night. Colossal squid are scarier than Giant squid. Just trust me on this one. Sad faced, I returned to Omaha on Monday afternoon.

I got in at about 8. I then should have studied. Instead, Matt and I watched a movie. Review to follow. Yesterday involved hectic studying. Tons of bugs. Tons of drugs. All of them crossing in my head. Today was the quiz. My section went at 8. It is hard to say whether or not I like going first. I like sleeping in, but at the same time I hate sitting around while people get out of the quiz and talk about it. In the end, it went just fine. Passed. They post the answers tomorrow. We'll see how mad I am at myself then.

The Lord of War
Okay, if I were someone who got a little more politcally riled up, this movie definitely would have gotten me talking a lot. I had never heard of it, but Matt had. Basically, Nicholas Cage becomes an arms dealer. The story is a little weak in actually explaining that part, but maybe that was the point - there is no way to explain how some one gets involved in something like that. It says it is "based on true events," but that is pretty vague. There was some lots of violence (tons of it only alluded to) and some blood; not too bad on the whole there. Part of you wants him to get caught; part of you doesn't...in the beginning. Then by the end, you want him to get caught. I can't tell you what happens though. It was pretty entertaining altogether. It will rile you up if you want it too as well. Overall, I would recommend it, so I will give it a 7.25/10.

I'm lazy

I know I haven't been great at updating. Sorry. This past weekend was Betsy's Bday. We went out for Greek food, had awesome cake, and then went out to a piano bar. You know what? I'm still not a fan of Greek food. Give me meet, humus, and a pita, I'm fine. Put weird veggies and sauces on it? I'm not fine. Sorry if I am unadventurous.

This week has just kind of flown by. We have a quiz next Wednesday (our only ID quiz), and it counts for a bit. We've learned about 50 bugs and 30 drugs. I feel like I know zero of them. I'm just hoping my recall button on the inside of my brain is working come next week. I know you are all saying, "Dude, that is almost a week away." The thing is, I'm going home for the weekend to celebrate my parents' 30th wedding anniversary. Let me tell you, as much as I say I will study well at home...I doubt that is going to happen. I like my family too much to study around them. I'm sure I can squeeze a little in.

On top of that, I have to do note service for a lecture next Wednesday (yes, after the quiz), and then go to clinic on Thursday. All in all, next week is going to be a Diet Mt Dew week (don't worry, I bought some at Baker's today). What else has happened........um.......not much. BUT, we do have 2 movie reviews!!!!


Dan in Real Life
I thought this was going to be a lot funnier. And less like a romantic comedy. But alas, it was a romantic comedy. That is fine and all, just not what I was expecting. It of course had those super awkward moments where you wanted to scream. Matt didn't get why his daughters were so angry all the time. I explained to him that that is what teenage girls are really like to their parents. He doesn't have sisters. He has no clue about these things. I guess I give it a 6/10. If asked specifically about it, and you had no other options, I would suggest it. There you go.

The Cell yes, the one w/ J Lo from 2000
This, of course, was Matt's choice. He has something for J Lo. Don't ask me why. This movie got me asking myself, "would this be better if I were taking drugs?" The jury is still out on that one. There is definitely a lot of symbolism (I think) in that movie. It would be really awesome if you could actually go inside someone else's brain, but let's face it, I don't think that is anything possible in the near future. I thought J Lo did a fine job. Sometimes though, she overacts her "tired" scenes. I never feel like she is actually exhausted. Faker. Vince Vaughn is weird to see in a serious role, but he did it well. As I've said with other movies, I like closure for the most part. This one didn't give me the best closure. It wasn't too long (1h47m), because trust me, it could have been really drawn out. They just kind of jumped right into the action, which was a good thing. Okay, I gotta go study or something. Oh......6.43/10

First week done

Happy late bday to my dad on the 19th. And President Clinton. Whoop.

So I have finished the first week. It was nice because we only had 3 classes every day. I did have lab from 3-5 on Tues and Thurs, which blew, but other than that it hasn't been bad. This stuff is much more interesting than last year, so it doesn't seem as bad. I still have extra time on my hands, which I hear will slowly disappear in our other courses. The problem is, Infectious Diseases makes me more of a germ freak. There are so many flipping bugs on our skin and in our mouth and every where. I am surprised we don't get sick more often. Then again, taking Host Defense last year, I know all the cool tools our body has to fight. Well...I used to know those tools.

Last night we had our first Vital Signs Mentoring Program event. This is a new thing at Creighton. It is a way of hooking up younger students with older students as well as faculty mentors. You are in the groups with your M1 buddy, several other M2/M1 buddies, a few M3/M4 peer mentors and a few faculty members. Our faculty is actually the interim dean, which is pretty cool. The even last night was very misplaced (really???? Friday night???), but it went well. I think it is a great idea. I never once met my buddy last year. That was a bad thing. I hope my buddy as well as the other M1s can feel comfortable asking the M2s anything. We will see how it goes.

My first weekend will involve some light studying as well celebrating Betsy's birthday. We are going for Greek. I've never really had Greek.

MOVE REVIEW!!!!! Lars and the Real Girl
This was my pick. If you are looking for action packed movies or super laugh out loud movies, this isn't the movie for you. It is a little slow at first and makes you question your life choices. But it gets better. The entire time, you aren't sure if all this is really happening or what. It will always make me remember what a delusion is, that's for sure. Fixed false belief. The entire time, I was waiting for something bad to happen. I kind of like that feeling, or else the movie could get quite boring. In the end, it was really cute. I would give it a 7.5/10. The humor is subtle but well placed. Sometimes you feel bad laughing, but it's okay. It is just a movie. If you are looking for a cute movie I would definitely recommend it.

First Day!!!

The House family tradition of taking a picture on the first day of school. Aren't I cute? I don't have much to say. Handling 3 hours of class was tough. I can do 3 hours of a movie. I can do 3 hours of food. 3 hours of really paying attention is hard. I'll build myself up again though. Then again, we only have 4 at most a day...not the 7 we had sometimes during 1st year. Not much going on. I made spaghetti carbonara for dinner tonight. I haven't made that in forever. It was pretty good. I doubled the sausage of course. Matt and I went to the Super Target where they are remodeling. They had a sign saying 50% off refrigerated items because they are taking it out on the 24th until Oct 11th or something. Anyway, it was crazy back there, but....not everything was 50% off back there and they didn't do a good job of labeling it. Good thing we had only tried to buy one thing and not a cart full like I saw others do. Yesterday involved Costco. I am addicted to their hot dogs. Mmmmmmmmmm.

End of the Summer

It is officially time to play Dar Williams' "End of the Summer." Sigh. Tomorrow is our first day. We start at 8 w/ M2 orientation then right into Infectious Diseases (ID) from 9 to noon. I will greatly enjoy only having one class at a time. It was like that during Neuro, which made things so much better and easier and more enjoyable. I'm expecting much the same.

This weekend was pretty chill. I went to the M1/M2 buddy picnic on Friday night. Didn't ever meet my buddy. Went to Upstream for the social event. Drank free beer. I know this year is going to be hard, but I am so glad I am not an M1 again. All that awkward meeting and nervousness. I already know that class is going to kick my butt. I have come to accept it. They still look so excited and eager. Poor souls.

So, for those of you who don't have Netflix you may not know that they have been having issues lately w/ shipping. Thus the lack of movie reviews. But.......I'm back

Kill Bill: Vol 2
So.....this one was much different from the first. I thought they were made back to back? The style still followed the "chapter" thing, but the whole style as well as the action and dialog were very different. This one seemed to be making fun of other styles of movies (or at least that is what I thought they were doing): martial arts, westerns, etc. I can't really tell you which one I enjoyed more. The first one had a lot more action, but the second seemed to have some sustenance. I felt the end was kind of fitting but still lacking a little bit. Then again, it made you feel almost warm inside, which is more than you can say for other Tarantino films. Last point: Uma Thurman is sometimes attractive in that movie and sometimes really freaky and ugly looking. Well, 80% of the time it is the latter. I just thought I should point that out.

Change

They changed my blogger dashboard. That threw me way off.

Happy bday yesterday to Grandma K. and little Will Kuder. Grandma turned 96. He turned 1.

I haven't been up to much lately. I went and helped on Wednesday with the M1 organization fair. Worked the Merge/CMDA table. We had a few curious people, which is all you can really ask for. It is weird to think that I was in that exact same nervous/excited position one year ago. That year went so incredibly fast. Crazy. Matt, Amber, JC, Betsy, and I went to Texas Roadhouse last night for dinner because we had a free appetizer. Combine that with the rolls, peanuts, and salad, and I really didn't have to eat me dinner. In all honesty, I brought over 3/4 of it home. Yay for lunch for tomorrow.

Today, I went in and shadowed Dr. McGonigal of the Creighton Anesthesiology department. I got to follow him around to a lot of different ORs. I got to see a lot of procedures, which was cool. I definitely have a much better picture of what they do now.......I think that is a good thing.

Tomorrow will be...lazy. Last Friday of my life. Okay, not of my life, but last Friday without school. Sigh.

Tide and Bounce

I am pretty sure both of these brands are out to get me. Almost 4 years ago, I broke out in an awful rash because I used dryer sheets other than Bounce. These past 2 weeks, I developed a rash after using Gain instead of Tide. They've trapped me. It looks like I must use these brands or suffer the consequences, and trust me, these consequences BLOW.

Haven't been up to much at all. Working out. Buying random stuff/books to get ready for school. You know what? I've had this blog for a year. Go me! Are more people than just my family reading it? Doubtful. But I don't care. (But I do appreciate if you aren't family and you do read.......so keep doing it.)

Anyone else watch that men's 4x100 free relay???!?!?!?!? We got it live here. Holy crap that was amazing. I love the Olympics. I really do. Friday night, Matt, Megan, JC, and I went over to Amy's to watch the opening ceremonies. They were pretty awesome. We also watched THE ENTIRE PARADE OF NATIONS. Man that thing is long and boring. Orientation starts for the M1s on Wednesday. Cute. It is hard to think that I was just there a year ago. I still know nothing.

Agian...2 MOVIE REVIEWS!!!! (Should be 3 but I fell asleep for 1)

Sin City
I thought it was OK. Not amazing or anything. There was a lot of violence. And the story didn't make complete sense to me until Matt explained it. I definitely would watch it again to see if I could pick up on some other things. Kara, Megan, JC, and Amber came over for that one. Sorry for the short review.

Pulp Fiction
Fell asleep

Kill Bill: Vol 1
I had seen parts of this but never the whole thing. I liked it. The violence didn't bug me that much because it was so over the top fake. Really...cutting a dude totally in half? Um, I think not. We bumped the 2nd one to the top of our list. Parts of the movie were ridiculous, which made me laugh, but then I kind of felt like I shouldn't be laughing when so much violence was going on. Whatever. That's it.

Monday

I forgot to wish my Aunt Marguerite and Uncle Steve both a happy birthday on Friday. So...happy bday!!!!!!

The weekend involved very little. Matt and I met up with Amber and JC for dinner on Saturday night. We went to a Mexican place called Fernando's. The food was good, but the service totally sucked. She said they were down a server, but only coming to take our order and remove out plates/give us the bill is really awful. Matt and I tried out a new Catholic church on Saturday. I liked this one better than the last simply because it had fewer screaming babies and we could understand the priest. The weather has been brutal here this weekend as well. It has gotten up to the mid-90s, but with humidity it has felt like 105+. Thanks God for the AC.

We got our small group and clinic assignments today. Exciting! I don't think anyone from my previous group is in my new group. Weird. I will be going to clinic on every other Thursday. Cool. I got a bunch of school stuff at Office Depot today while Matt went to work. Other than that, pretty boring day. But guess what you guys get......DOUBLE MOVIE REVIEW!!!!!!

King of New York
This was Matt's choice.......and the last time I let him choose. He claimed this was supposed to be Christopher Walken's best film. I can't argue that. I never find him to really be an actor...more of just a creepy dude playing an awkward character. I do think he is talented, but I always feel like he just kind of walked on set randomly. Back to the movie at hand. I give it a 2/10. I wouldn't recommend it, not even to an enemy. No one really talked until about 15 minutes in. The plot seemed to go nowhere. They tried to carry this idea of a bad guy doing bad things to really bad people (kind of like Taxi Driver), but they didn't really go full speed with it. The fake violence was awful. It made me laugh more than anything else. They had random scenes that seemed to add very little. It reminded me of a literature essay that someone wrote in one long sitting. Rather than build a frame w/ the first writing and then add to it with time, this person sat down and thought way too much about how to be artsy, wrote it out, and then had no one proof read it. Boo. Add it to the list of bad rental choice Matt and I (mostly Matt though) have made.

Training Day
So, I have always heard this was a great movie, so I went ahead and put it on the list. Denzel Washington lives up to...himself. I think he is a great actor. Even though he often plays that good ol' boy doing the good stuff for the people, he has the ability to be the tough guy and pull it off really well (ie, you find yourself wanting to beat him up). I would give this a 7.3/10. Maybe up to a 7.5. I think everything pulled together really well in the end. Ethan Hawke was a just a good guy in that movie. He showed that it pays to be nice. One thing though, if Denzel is a narc in the movie, why is he always flashing his badge everywhere? I understand that LA is big w/ more than one drug dealer, but I also feel that word can get around. Narcs don't work well when their ID is revealed, or maybe that is just what I thought.

Friday

Today really felt like a Saturday to me. Maybe it was because Matt was hungover most of the day. Hmmmmmmm. Last night, Matt, Amber, JC, and I, went to an Omaha Royals game. It was thirsty Thursday meaning $1 beers and sodas. That was fun. What was more fun is that I didn't drive. Woooooo. Since the Royals got more than 10 hits we also got free bowling! I got 2 free bowling things because the guy passing them out was joking around with Matt. Yeah for having a slightly embarrassing boyfriend! We then spent the rest of the day trying to get Matt back to 100%. I think we just got there about an hour ago.

In terms of cooking, we made pulled pork this week (tues?). Trust me, that stuff has gone a long way. We have made about 9 sandwiches and still have some left over. I even made humbows with the meat. No Mom, they weren't quite as good as yours, but for a first try, they didn't turn out too bad. The dough didn't rise very much, which disappointed me. Also, I don't have a rolling pin, so the dough was a little thick (so gooey once steamed). While I like that, that isn't the way they are supposed to be. Worth the effort in the future though.

MOVIE REVIEW Batman Begins
I want to see the new Batman movie, but I thought I should see this one first. I hear it isn't necessary, but I thought I should still do it. I give it an 8.4 out of 10. It was nice knowing that the new movie also has Batman as well as Gotham City in it making this one a little less tense for me. I knew he and the city had to survive. Otherwise, I would have been worried the whole time. It was weird seeing Liam Neeson as a bad guy. Even though it was made in 2005 (?) I thought the graphics/special effects where a little lacking. While Christian Bale was fairly attractive, I didn't find myself really wanting to hang out with him. His weakness was compassion or something like that, but personally he didn't ooze compassion. He just had some. I'm not a big fan of Katie Holmes, but she wasn't really a distraction. Overall, I really liked it and am now super excited to go see the new one.

Wednesday

My mom called me today to tell me that I have to sign this paper for my car's emission testing I need. It is verify that I am out of state or something. I have to get it notarized as well. This got me (and kinda Matt) thinking, what does it take to become a notary public? I mean, they really are just a person licensed by the state (?) to pretty much be a witness on official documents...right? So do you have to take honesty tests or something? Lots of background checks? Write a morality/ethics paper? Just kind of curious. Anyone know?

Matt and I adventured out on the bus system of Omaha today. That was...interesting. It is about a D+ compared to Seattle's buses. The bus stop signs aren't really marked very well at all. You just kind of have to know where your bus runs. Also, if you pull the cord, the bus just kind of stops. It doesn't wait for a marked bus stop or anything, it just stops. The one we took runs just past school, so it will work when I want to take it. They don't really have any sort of bus pass either. You can buy a 10 punch card, but it is the same price as 10 tickets. I think (w/ lots of input from Matt) that they really could improve their ridership if they did a few small things. Maybe make your bus stop signs actually readable? Have uniform buses so they don't look quite as sketchy? I dunno, that's just me.

MOVIE REVIEW!!!!!!!! A History of Violence
This was Matt's choice. He's seen it before but he wanted me to see it. Upon deep consideration, I give it a 5 out of 10 (10 being awesome). I wouldn't outright recommend it, but I wouldn't advise anyone against getting it (unless they don't like violent movies). That being said, it is a violent movie (hence the name). I like the actress who plays the mom mostly because she was in Coyote Ugly and ER. Back to the movie....the plot as well as the writing left a lot to be desired. I won't condemn the acting because I don't think it was as bad as a friend said. I feel that the sort of "side stories" left you wanting more. They left a lot of questions unanswered in terms of the side notes as well as the movie as a whole. Some movies can pull off the whole "no closure" thing. This one really couldn't. But as Matt said, did we actually want the movie to go on longer? I'm not painting a good picture, am I? Well, it really wasn't that bad. The pluses: entertained me, good for an afternoon with nothing to do, everyone likes a little organized crime. The minuses: violent, relatively shallow, no closure. There you go.

My Life

I really do hate thinking of titles. What have I been up to? Still not much. I need to organize my desk. This means I need more storage for stuff. With a computer, printer, and speakers on your desk, you kind of run out of room. I am getting my oil changed on Monday. I am also going to do my annual PPD screening on Monday. I'm trying to figure out the bus system of Omaha. Their website totally sucks. No offense bus people, it just isn't really very helpful.

Matt and I have signed up for Netflix, so I am going to take it upon myself to review the movies we rent. Last night (on HBO, not rented) we watched Blood Diamond. It was violent but not over the top violent. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio did a really good job. He's come a long way from Growing Pains. I liked the story of the movie except for the little romance going on. I could have done without that. Don't worry, I won't ruin the ending for you. I liked it but thought it a slight bit unrealistic. Even if parts of the situation in these parts of Africa were exaggerated (which I don't think they really were), it definitely opened my eyes to just one of the many struggles many Africans must endure just to make it to adulthood. Done. I know that wasn't eloquent, but that isn't what I was going for. Adios.

Keeping it brief

Keeping it brief here. I got our wireless internet working! Yay me! We had to buy a new router though because the one we had kind of pooped out on us. Or at least I think I got ours working. It is sort of freaking out right now. Hopefully this one lasts. Of course we went w/ a cheaper router. Moving is expensive. Have to buy all sorts of little crap that really adds up. Also, had some car problems. Brakes + rust = trouble. That was a fun little adventure. In the end, we got everything moved. I do miss Spokane though. Omaha is humid. I hate that. Sigh....back to stuff.

2 Whoops in 2 Days

We'll do the less exciting of the 2 whoops first. For the past 5 summers, I have worn the same polo shirt every Friday. It looked good that first summer. It was eager to be there. Slowly but surely, the color faded. It became less and less excited to be there, even if it was a Friday. Today was my last day working at PAML. Ever. I know I said that last summer as well, but I mean it this time. I will have maybe 3 weeks off (w/ no studying) next summer; I am not going to spend it working at PAML. Every year I have worked fewer and fewer weeks. The first summer I think I worked something like 14 weeks. The next summer about 12. Then 10. Last summer it was about 10 as well. This week...maybe 8. Whatever. I am very grateful for the job though. While it bored me to death, it paid me well and gave me something to do other than workout...and eat. Also, it made the next WHOOP possible.

On Monday, Dr. Anne Oakley called me (the anesthesiologist I met w/ a few weeks ago). She said that she looked in to me coming in to the OR w/ her. At our first meeting, she thought my being a med student was a sure in. Well she was wrong she told me. That holds no weight with these people. She did, however, mention to them that I work(ed) at PAML. Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Because I had a job in the "medical field" (if you count sitting at a desk medical), it made me eligible/legal to go into the OR. Thank goodness I accidentally left it on that first time we met or she may have never known I worked there. She said she would call me the evening before the surgery to let me know. On Tuesday she called letting me know that Thursday was the big day. Heart surgery. Be there at 620 (which wasn't as early as I thought it was going to be). I was there early of course. Wearing my PAML badge as requested. We walk around the oh so confusing Sacred Heart Medical Center. To the doctor's locker room as for to put on scrubs. Yeah me! We go to do the pre-op with the patient. She was a nervous wreck, but I don't blame her. People often make fun of anesthesiologists for not doing much at all, but from previous experience as well as from watching Dr. Oakley, it is easy to see that this is in no way true. You have to have great bed-side manner. You have to get the patient to trust you in less than 10 minutes. Dr. Oakley was great at it in my opinion. I got to watch her do some amazing things and some really awesome procedures. I didn't scrub in, but I got to be in the OR the whole time right next to her. And now for the cool part...the surgery.

This was an open heart surgery (so warning, this may be a *tiny* bit graphic). I have never seen a live person cut into, only a cadaver. I wasn't sure if I would get dizzy/light headed at all or not. I didn't. They were doing a coronary bypass as well as a mitral valve replacement. The cracking of the chest wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I got to see the lungs moving. I got to see the heart beating. I got to see them stop the heart. Oh my goodness. That was amazing. They just all stood there waiting for it to stop (when the time came of course). Watching that heart beat in the first place was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen. They did the coronary bypass (the surgery PA harvested the vein from the leg earlier) and then began the valve replacement. Because of the condition of her heart, however, the surgeon couldn't replace the it. He had to do an Alfieri stitch, something he had never done before. After it was all over, they successfully started the heart again, but I had to leave before she was sown up all together. Needless to say, this was a truly great experience. It kind of really makes me excited to start back up in the fall (slash a few weeks). It also reminds me that I have forgotten just about everything from first year. Boom chick...I'm out.

No fancy camera

I attempted to take some pics last night of the fire works. I don't have a fancy camera, so they aren't super awesome. Also, I was much more interested in not watching them through my camera. The one posted is pretty much my best one. On Tuesday I think it was, I asked mom what we were doing for the 4th. We never do anything. We decide we should go somewhere to watch the fireworks. We think ANTHONY'S, but we doubt they would still have anything open. To our luck, they still had a reservation at 930. When we got there last night, they had one outdoor table, and we took in. In a pure moment of "coincidence," Jeff, Auntie Marguerite, and Uncle Mike just happened to stumble by. It was fun. Food was good. View of the fireworks was totally awesome.

In talking about fireworks, they have never really been a huge part of my life. As a kid, we could buy the more novelty ones w/ tanks and parachute men. Maybe we could buy other stuff, but we never did. Then quite a few years back they limited where you could do them and how high they could go. Then they outlawed them in Spokane county. (that is a very rough timeline). I know a lot of counties are like this. The thing is, all these limits kind of hurt the quality of the downtown show. I swear you used to be able to see them from our roof overlooking the cliff. Now you are lucky if you can even see them from the bridge in front of our house. These things last night went only about 100-200 feet in the air before exploding. Personally, I think that is more of a fire danger than them going higher. Bo says it is because if the canaster falls over, it won't shoot into a building or something. How often does that happen anyway? Whatevs. This was my last 4th in Spokane for a while. Next year will be start of 3rd year, so I'll be in Omaha. Kind of sad face/excited face to think about.

In other news, Rachael comes in today!!!!!!!!! Going to extremes tomorrow w/o Amanda. Sad face.

I'm back

Yeah for hiatus!!!! The Beach, of course, was awesome. Weather was 89% grand and 11% not so grand. Berries were awesome. Fires were awesome. No sand castle was built, but I blame the bad tide times. Matt, Bo, and I left on Friday after breakfast. Matt wasn't talking very nicely about his car, and guess what........it broke down. Heading east going down the Vantage hill before crossing the river. Freaking out a little, I try to calm Matt down enough until we coast to the exit at the bottom of the hill. In the end, we had to use the E-brake, which was kind of scary. Bo was a few miles ahead of us, so he turned around. Thanks Bo. We had Matt's car towed to Ellensburg because Vantage doesn't have a mechanic. I now know why no one lives in Vantage...there is no shade. At all. It was soooooooo hot there. We got home 2 hours later than we hoped but still alive

Hoopfest was great. Our court was on the wrong side of the river, which sucked. It was hot. It was crowded. It was basketball saturation. We got 3rd in our bracket, which is frustrating because 1st and 2nd get shirts. Grrrrrrrrr. I also got a really really really hard knee in the quad. Man does that still hurt.

I only have a week and a half of work left. YAY!!!!!!! Other than that, not much going on.

DA BEACH!

Tomorrow, at the wee hour of 6am, we are heading to the beach. Yes, it is that time of year again. The last weak of June. Time for the Houses and the Busches to head over to the great Port Susan and Camano Island. No, it isn't glamorous or warm looking by any means, but it is The Beach. My mom's family has been going since 1953. Or something like that. When we were young, we would fit 10 or so cousins on the floor in the "living room" if that is what you want to call it. Now, even though there are fewer of us up there at a time, it means just as much to all of us. I always forget the island is actually quite large. Our beach is the first beach on the island, so we rarely ever make it very far in.

I return on Friday for the oh so great even of HOOPFEST!!!!! Me, KTO, and Mary are on a team again. Of course, we are hoping Corrina will play for us, but it isn't looking good. Forecast says mid 80s. That is way better than the usual mid 90s.

In terms of work, we had to call 911 twice this week. Yeah safety!

Bubble Bath

On Monday, Annie and Jeff came over for burgers. The main reason they came is because Annie wanted to take pics of us watching TV outside during dinner for a spot on a KHQ add about the switch to HD or whatever. She got some good pics I think. My mom then had the brilliant idea of filling up the bath and having them take a shot from behind of me sitting watching the TV near the bathtub. Of course, Annie goes along. Below are the aftermath pictures with my camera (not the good camera that got the shot for the ad).Those bubbles were seriously 2.5 ft higher than the sides of the tub. The second picture is me laughing hysterically. It was so much fun. I felt like a little kid. Don't worry, I had a swimsuit on :D

I got up at 420 again this morning to work the health screening at work. It is okay for one day; any more than that and I think I would want to kill someone.

I am cooking for the fam tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. I can't really tell you what else I've done since my last update. Oh! Fathers' Day. It was good. We had it out at the Busch's. Let me tell you, dad's day definitely beat mom's day in terms of the weather. We also saw Stephanie and Jon for the first time since their engagement. Congrats to them! They picked a date for next summer while they were there seeing as how they could actually talk face to face with Uncle Steve. We got my dad a bbq light, a fancy pants bug zapper, and remote meat thermometer...all things he will actually use. Okay, since I got off work at 1 today I am going to run some errands before I need a nap.

The HULK

I went and saw The Hulk last night with Annie, her bf Jeff, and their friends Chris and Michelle. Originally we were going to see The Happening, but after reading some bad reviews, we decided otherwise. I am usually not a fan of this type of movie. I could probably count all the comic movies I've seen on one hand...The Hulk, maybe an X-Men. That's it. This was entertaining though. I have one major issue with it however. I'm not ruining anything, but whenever his pulse gets above 200 is when he transforms into the Hulk. I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I have ever gotten my heart rate that high. Even mid run, it is maybe 160 or so. Mom says when they do stress tests, they aim to get the heart to 160. 200....I don't believe you. And no, I will not suspend my beliefs for the movie.

I've notice this for a while, and stop me if I've already said this. But........I always forget that my life is not being podcasted. All of our lectures at school are on podcast. Plus, we get note service. All this adds up to the fact that I have a hard time paying attention. If I miss something, say, in a homily, I think to myself, "Oh, don't worry, I'll pick it up on the podcast." Wait...no. It's annoying. I am thinking of hiring someone to record my life. I am currently taking applications.

Spell it right

I get really frustrated when people write HIPPA rather than the correct HIPAA. I know the first one looks better, but the second one is correct. Just keep that in mind people.

I swam on Tuesday for the first time in over a year. It was good. I was in the pool for 45 minutes. No, that doesn't translate to 45 minutes of actual swimming, but I was still in there for a long time.

I have to work at 5 am tomorrow. I get paid more though, and I am done by 1. Weeeeeeeeee

Wow, I am writing short little things. A lot has happened, but I can't remember it at all. I got the last two of my top in-lays put in today. My teeth don't hurt too bad, and they look pretty cool. After being on a phone call spree yesterday (I hate calling people on the phone), I called Dr. Anne Oakley. She is my orthopedic surgeon's wife. She is also an anesthesiologist, a specialty in which I am rather interested. After talking, we set up to meet today. I went up to her house and just talked with her for a while about all of it. Some things she said: anesthesiologists are impatient people. They like to see their results right away and not wait 4 months to see if a medication is working. They are also dexterous. I would say that I am somewhat. You never really know that though until you really start trying to do things. She also said, sort of jokingly, that her favorite part of her job is that she can wear workout clothes to work. Only one person in her practice dresses up when coming in. Trust me, I love wearing basketball shorts. She sold it for me. :D

It's cold

While the Midwest is having severe weather and the east coast is on fire, Washington is......cold. I really shouldn't have to wear a coat in June. Oh trust you me, I had to wear that thing. Spokane has been very west side-y and the west side has been itself. I was in Lacey this past weekend visiting Matt. The flowers were beautiful, but other than that, the nature sucked. As far as the quality time, that was diminished as well. On both Sat and Sun, Matt had to do school things (4 hours each). I followed along. Many people thought I flew up just for those events. They obviously think I like them more than I do. It was good though. In true Matt and Becky form, we rented another questionable movie. It was called At Your Front Door or something like that. It said it was supposed to be the scariest movie you've ever seen. Or something. So of course we think zombies. Not to ruin the movie for you.....but there are no zombies. We also watched Black Hawk Down. I had never seen it. I didn't fall asleep. Go me!

I was working with applications today at work writing the "No Thank You" letters to people who interviewed but aren't being hired. I think it is a sure sign that you won't get a job when you spell it wrong. Don't apply to "Recieving" when you want to work in "Receiving." Remember people...i before e EXCEPT after C!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Kobiaz Rex

My next door neighbor Koby got married yesterday. I've known him for almost 20 years. Other than my family, that is the longest I have ever known anyone. It rained in the morning, but by the time the service rolled around at 330, it had stopped. There were a ton of bridesmaids. I'll post pics sometime. It was a lot of fun in general. The pastor gave Koby a hard time for waiting so long to get married. He's 23. That isn't long. Yes, they were "dating" for something like 9 years but still. 23 isn't old.

Not much has gone on in my life since the last I posted. Work is work. They keep trusting me to do more and more things. We had Zips for dinner tonight. It was the 1st time I've been there since coming home.

We went to Maggie's for dinner on Saturday. Jeff is the new executive chef there. We got to watch him work. We are going to go back in a few weeks when he actually makes some changes to the menu. Also, he is going to have chocolate chip pancakes on the brunch menu!!!! Or he'll make them for me when I ask...either way.

Da River

2 nights ago (?) we went to dinner at Anthony's overlooking the falls. It was georgous. The pic below is long exposure. I know, the background is a little blurry, but I tried.

Today involved 3.5 hours at my dad's office. Let me tell you...that was fun. I almost swallowed a gold in-lay (I think that is how you spell it). I then coughed it up. Go me!!!

I've been working in HR for the past few day. Again, thrilling. Other than that, not much has gone on. Bo and I played tennis on Tuesday because the weather was nice enough. Yesterday, I convinced Mom to come work out with me. She is so cute.

Koby, my next door neighbor of 20 years or so is getting married on Sunday at the Bozarth. Tonight is his bachelor party. They, including Bo, are all in his backyard being rowdy right now. I hear they are going to state-line and then shooting. Or something like that. Guns sound dangerous when you are drunk. Maybe that is just me. Also, Elkfest/Artfest is this weekend. I am hoping and praying that they have the same slurpee-esque mojito's that they had last year. It won't be as warm this year, but they will taste just as good.

Long weekend

Long weekend. Sorry for the lack of update. Matt was in town, and he doesn't really like just sitting around. He got on stand-by on an earlier flight on Thursday, which meant I got to leave work even earlier. That was nice. We got paid on Thursday. They didn't pay me enough. I am upset about it. Kinda. This weekend involved a lot of food (more to come tonight) and some mediocre weather. It always seemed on the verge of raining, which sucked.

On Friday, Matt and I went to go see the Spokane Falls. Holy crap. They were are a record high. The river peaked on Friday at 1pm, so they are on their way down. Still. Huge. So powerful. I am always in awe of water. I blame that on the fact that both of my astrological planets (everyone has 2) are Neptune, the water planet. Now I don't really believe in astrology that much, but I do find it weird that I could spend all day in a lake and not mind at all. Go Neptune!!!!!

Saturday morning, Mom, Matt, and I went to Riverside State Park to hike around. Thanks to our great skills, we managed to get Mom across the bridge. We hiked around for about an hour and then went to Franks Diner. It was a good day. Saturday night was...weird. At about 1am or so, Matt and I are watching Sleepless In Seattle and cuddling when we hear loud noises outside. We look out the window and see some shirtless kid throwing rocks at passing cars. He hit our house with one. Turkey. At that point, we called the cops and woke M&D up. Dad, trying to live out his dream of becoming a cop, changes and is out the door into his car in about 1min. He and Matt drive like mad men. They find the kid at the same time the cops did. All in all, it was a pretty adrenaline-full night. Roomba then scared the poop out of us when we were all trying to fall asleep. Jerk.

Yesterday was pretty lazy. The power went out here for a while. We were worried. For our beer. This morning, we met up with Matt's cousin training to become a priest. We ate a little breakfast and then went to see the rectory by Lourdes where he is living for the summer. After failing at trying to get in the door, someone answers it. Low and behold, it was the Bishop. I looked like a scrub. Hope I don't go to hell for that one. He was eating Cheerios.

Chicken littles

I don't know if it was only my family who ever ate these, but does anyone remember the small chicken sandwiches KFC used to carry? I think they were called chicken littles? Well, I swear that they are bringing it back under the new name of "KFC snacker." It's a conspiracy I think.

My dad still sucks for working on my teeth. They (by which I mean my sore jaw) keeps waking me up in the middle of the night. The temps I have in are much better now though, so at least I can eat in public.

The Spokane river is super high right now with all the melt off and rain. It is crazy. I am going to make Matt do the gondolas with me this weekend. Or maybe we will go to Riverside State Park and go on the bridge...if it is open.

In other, much more exciting news, my mom wrote in to Doug Clark, a columnist for the Spokesman, about meat. No, it wasn't random; he asked for submissions about expressing your love of meat. Of course my family took him up on the offer. Anyway, 2nd place was a $20 gift certificate to the Rosauer's meat department. And guess what...the Janniiiieeee poo won. Yeah meat!

Matt comes in tomorrow as to defend his masters! Yeah Matt! (finally :D)

Full circle

I feel as if my working at PAML has finally come full circle. They have me working in the same space that I worked in for a brief time when I first started. How fitting with my last summer there and all.

I forgot to mention how mean my dad is being right now. Okay, not on purpose, but still. For years, I have had needed a few things done on my teeth. This being my last summer home and all, he figures......let's just do them all now. Oh joy. So right now, I can't really chew anything with my molars because of the temps I have in. I must chew everything with my front teeth. Eating in public isn't really an option.

Didn't get much done this past weekend except watching the entire previous season of So You Think You Can Dance. The new season starts on Thursday. Be there. My mom and I are going to make Matt watch of course. He loves that show; I swear. Okay, I'm out.

Bad news bears

It happened. What I swore I would never do. I watched House. I did it last week with my parents thinking it was simply a fluke. It would never happen again. But there was a marathon on last night. I was disgusted with myself when I actually started telling them to turn it back to House. Pathetic. I don't know how this happened. I blame my parents.

In other news, I had a dream last night where someone was stealing the Subaru from outside the Spokane Kuder's house while the family was inside. Me, with my mad skills, ran outside and chased down the car. I helped that they hadn't been able to turn onto Bernard because of that mythical Spokane traffic. Whatever, I can run fast.

Not much else is new. We are thinking of doing Going to Extremes on the weekend of 4th of July. Amanda?!?!?! We need some sort of response from you. There is nothing on TV right now except for church. I went last night. Thanks.

Back to work

Yeah, it's been a while. I know.

Got home just fine. Our plane in Denver had problems, so we had to yoink some other plane. At one point in time when I was sitting in the terminal, I heard a crack of thunder and looked up from my book to find that it was raining/hailing on one side of the terminal and totally sunny on the other. Oh Denver, your weather is so crazy.

Mother's Day was good. My mom loves the roomba. He is a good buy. Guster doesn't so much love him, but that is okay. They don't have to be best friends. The weather sucked on Sunday though, so we had to eat in side. Add the 3 kids running around, and it was really loud. We had to take the kids over to the park where we managed to get one lost and hurt another. Go us!!

I started work today. I am on my lunch at home right now. I forgot just how much I dislike working. I have been going through employee files looking for some stuff. I don't even really know what. Some of the files have forms for cell phones in them that are really old. It is pretty funny to look at them (they are dated from the mid 90s). They have one labeled "smallest phone in the world," and it is pretty dang big...and costs $450. They also have plans that cost $7 and you get 30 minutes. Oh how things are different. Okay, need to go relax before going back to work.

1/4

This kid is officially 1/4 of an MD!!!!!! Whoop whoop. HDMed final today. The whole time I was taking it I kept thinking "Holy crap, I'm going to be that 1 person to fail HDMed." Nope. Passed just fine. Then I worked out, went to the Cali Taco, and then came home for some packing. I think I got it all into the 2 bags. It is really sad sitting in my room now. Everything is out except for my bed, my puter, and the furniture that came with the room. It reminds me of moving in, which was kind of sad and happy, kind of like it is right now. I am so excited to be going home here shortly, but I am also a little bit sad. I really couldn't tell you why. Trust me, it isn't because I have fallen in love with Omaha. I guess it is the sense of comfort that my room has brought me along with all the long long long hours I have spent at this very desk.

We made homemade pizza at Betsy's for dinner. I walked. She does only live 7 blocks away. Why drive? It was good. I am now sitting all alone in this very empty room. My flight is at 10. I have to get up early though to move the last of my stuff. Maybe I should go to bed? I hope Bo and Amanda take me to Taco Time for lunch? Yes, I do.

Done!

Sorry for the lack of updating. Final went just fine on Monday. I am officially done with neuro!!!! Yay!!!!! We had a Cinco de Mayo celebration at Meghan's. I bought a cake and ice cream bars. They were good. Omaha didn't really celebrate with us, but we did meet up with a lot of our classmates at a place in Dundee. It was fun.

Tuesday involved some mandatory stuff and a workout. It also was my last time cooking!!!!! I made smothered chicken and biscuits. Sooooooo good. We then got tricked by the social chairs. They said it was $10 at the door and then free wells and domestics til close. Wrong. We only got 3 free drinks. That was enough for me though.

Today involved trying to make it to school without dying. I also just got back from my last volunteering session. We did a few of those "learn to draw" things with basic shapes etc. Then we played a game I played that one time I took an art class 15 years ago. You squiggle a line on the paper and then have to make something out of the squiggle. She really liked that. I don't feel like typing anymore. I feel like napping.

Can't believe it is May

Today was the first day where it really started to smell like spring to me. At school, the trees are starting to blossom, and I walked under them for the first time. It is a very happy smell to me.

I don't even have a clue what I've been up to. Thursday was our IPE final. Went just fine. I worked out afterwards. I think I tried to get to bed early so that I could fight this cold and feel good on Friday for the Shelf. The cold is still around a little bit, but I was pretty well rested.

I meant to study for a good 4 hours before the Shelf since we didn't have it until 1. That didn't really work as planned. I think I got about 2 in before ADD-ing it. As for the test itself: it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My score (get it later this week) will let me know if I was right in thinking so, but the hard part was the length. 125 questions is a lot. Our final tomorrow is 113. Blow.

Friday night we went to Jazz downtown. It is a Louisiana kitchen. It was okay. Music was a little loud to carry a conversation without yelling. Saturday involved waking up late on accident. Good way to start the day. I then decided to ride my bike to school to workout. About a block from my house, I decided my back tire needed more air. I go to fill it up and realize that my back valve is different than my front, and the pump doesn't work with the back valve. After a little research, I learned that my back valve is a presta valve. Most pumps work for Schrader valves. A little more research teaches me that all I need is an adapter. Bam. I google bike shops and find one about a mile up the road from me. Later in the afternoon I drive over, buy it for $1.34, and am on my way. I am a problem solver, what can I say.

The rest of the day involved Chipotle with Meghan for lunch and TCBY with the girls later that night. Some studying was done in between. I rode my bike to school today. 10 minutes there, 15 on the way back (longer uphill). Not bad. May do it tomorrow. Who knows. I take the final at 1030. It is supposed to be 78 and sunny. We are having a celebration at Meg's. I hope I can where shorts and maybe a tank top. Whoop!!

Sick

I've been sick since last Thursday, probably the sickest I have been in a long time. It is just a cold but a bad one. Yesterday at about 245 in the afternoon, I think I hit rock bottom with it (knock on wood). I didn't want to move. It totally sucked. Couldn't sleep because of the headache. Couldn't move to get the headache medicine. It sucked. I am feeling better but still not good. I am super stuffed up and my nose tickles all the time. If there is one thing I hate more than too much jelly, it is constant tickley nose. Grrrrrrrrrr.

This cold has kept me from studying for the Shelf like I should. I really don't know what to expect. Our final is on Monday, and even the unit director said to just study for the final because you'll hit most of the stuff for the Shelf that way too. The thing is, the final is weighted with the stuff after the midterm being worth more. I can't bring myself to study it though, because it all seems so fresh in my head. I can't even think of what I missed on the quizzes. This isn't looking good for studying.

Tomorrow is Ascension Thursday. It is a holy day of obligation for all of you who play by those rules. I don't know if I've ever actually gone. Hmmmmmmmm **bad Catholic** I am going tomorrow though. We don't have any class. Just a final......in interviewing. We have had 2 lectures all semester, yet the test is 32 questions long. Don't ask me what type of stuff is going to be asked. I am going to go with "gut feeling." We'll see how far that will get me.

Okay, I need more sleep if I am going to beat this cold.