the quarterly update
Wow, I really need to start updating more frequently.
The last month and a half have been crazy.
First of all, there was the post office crisis. For some strange reason, the post office decided to ignore the “please hold my mail while I’m on vacation” notice that I filled out and handed to the clerk before Christmas break. Instead, they decided that since I wasn’t picking up my mail, they would decorate it with little yellow stickers that say, “Moved. Left no forwarding address. Return to sender” and send it all back. Wasn’t that nice of them? It was lots of fun calling all the billing companies and trying to explain this to them. I’m still not getting around half of my mail, so if you’ve sent me something and got it back, don’t worry, I really DO still live here.
I managed to somehow turn 24 (how’d I get so old???) in January. Of course, it snowed like mad on my birthday (because that’s what it always does on my birthday… it did get me lots of days off in elementary-high school though). I got some nice flowers from my parents and a bunch of random fun things from T, Stace and Steph.
PBL managed to kick my ass for the last test. It was all almost all neuroanatomy. Amanda+Neuroanatomy=bad. For some reason, I can NOT memorize where things go (like, the retinal cells converge to form the optic nerve, which partially crosses in the optic chaism, and extends posteriorly to the lateral geniculate nucleus as optic radiations… fascinating, I know.) Anyhow, I managed to pass the test.
Speaking of the test, I have this little theory that I’ve seriously pissed off the medical school test gods. I manage to have a mini-crisis before every test. For this test, my apartment flooded. Again. Around 5 AM on the Sunday morning before the test, I was awoken by a “SQUOOSH!” and I rolled over to find water pouring out my wall in a nice stream. Then, there was a loud “SPLAT!” as a big chunk of plaster fell from my ceiling and water started gushing down onto my bed (which I was still in, staring confusedly at the water pouring out of my wall). Then, there was much rushed rearranging of furniture, a mad dash for bowls and pans to hold some of the water and a furious call to my landlord.. In the meantime, I flipped on the light switch in my bathroom and noticed that both light fixtures were filling rapidly with water, and water was pouring out of the bathroom side of the bathroom/bedroom wall. My landlord didn’t show up until noon to shut off the hot water. By then, the flood had managed to claim the only two rooms not affected by the original September flood. Fabulouso! So, it was the day before a big ass nasty neuroanatomy test, and my bedroom and bed were not inhabitable, and because the hot water was shut off, I wouldn’t be able to shower in my apartment for at least another 48 hours. I was beyond stressed out. Thankfully, Steph let me come borrow her shower Sunday night, and my spare bedroom with the twin bed were spared. Unfortunately, wet carpets are NOT good. Even after the carpet was professionally cleaned, my room still smells like it’s inhabited by someone who hasn’t showered for over a week. I’m still sleeping in the twin bed, and bruising the hell out of myself because the bed is next to the wall and I’m a sleep-flailer (future boyfriends, beware). Anyhow, I’ve attempted to deodorize my room with every freshening method I could come up with (febreeze, carpet deodorizer, candles and plug-ins), and maybe by tomorrow, it will be again be inhabitable.
I got assigned a new OMM partner. Hottie Josh from the Navy. Steph and I call him Adonis (but only behind his back). He’s gorgeous, and a really cool guy… and married… did I mention he gorgeous?, OMM has become awkward as hell now… because for the first time, I actually know my OMM partner. Usually it’s just some random person from my class that I’ve never really met/probably won’t see again, but this time, it’s Josh. I spent all summer at Navy camp with him, and there’s a really good chance we’ll be doing our residencies in the same place. Now, we have to touch each other’s ischial tuberosities (those are your butt bones for those of you who don’t know), pubic symphisises (think pubic bone… nice eh?), and we actually have to adjust each other’s pants/shorts so that we see the PSIS (those two dimples in your back above your butt), so we regularly get to see what the brand and color of underwear the other person is wearing… and it’s really weird. Touching complete strangers is fine; touching close friends is fine (but only when you’re practicing for OMM practicals… I promise my friends and I don’t go around feeling each other up), but touching someone I know, who isn’t a close friend is really awkward. It’s done on a completely professional basis, but it just doesn’t feel right…
On a completely crazy change of subject, I’ve been having a really rough time the last few weeks. A good friend has been diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer at 24 years old. Stage IV is the worst diagnosis you can get, and the 5 year survival rate is approximately 13%. There’s a little better than a 1 in 10 chance that I’ll still have my friend in 5 years. This scares the hell out of me. Breast cancer does NOT happen to 24 year olds. She did everything right in terms of BSE’s every month, reporting that she had found a mass, etc., yet somewhere along the line, a mistake was made and everything has gone terribly wrong. I know she’ll fight like crazy, but with the odds being what they are, I’m terrified that I’m going to lose a friend and I’m very upset that this has happened. I’ve finally had a good cry about it, and I’m starting to accept that it has happened and the best thing to do is try to be there for her, but I don’t think the "something bad is going to happen" feeling in the pit of my stomach will ever go away.
Another crazy change of subject: I have lecture ADD. I CAN NOT pay attention in lecture. After 5 minutes of someone reading off their powerpoint slides in a monotone voice, I lose focus. I start counting random things (for instance, red was today’s color. There were 23 people in front of me in red tops. Black was a close second with 20 people wearing this color. Exactly 9 people that I could see (out of a class of over 200) were paying attention to the lecture. AIM seemed to be the most popular distracter. This is all very relevant doctorish material. Honest.), then I just end up tuning the lecturer out and studying for my next test. I don’t understand why lectures are mandatory. The powerpoints are available on the web. It’s not like there’s any new information added to them. All the lecturers do is read the slides word for word. I learn better on my own anyway. Geez.
I’m absolutely shattered (thank you, obscenely loud upstairs neighbors who were at it until 4 AM), so I’m going to go find my earplugs and crawl into bed. Hopefully I can get more than 2 hours of sleep tonight. I PROMISE I will try to get some real emails and letters out soon. :)
The last month and a half have been crazy.
First of all, there was the post office crisis. For some strange reason, the post office decided to ignore the “please hold my mail while I’m on vacation” notice that I filled out and handed to the clerk before Christmas break. Instead, they decided that since I wasn’t picking up my mail, they would decorate it with little yellow stickers that say, “Moved. Left no forwarding address. Return to sender” and send it all back. Wasn’t that nice of them? It was lots of fun calling all the billing companies and trying to explain this to them. I’m still not getting around half of my mail, so if you’ve sent me something and got it back, don’t worry, I really DO still live here.
I managed to somehow turn 24 (how’d I get so old???) in January. Of course, it snowed like mad on my birthday (because that’s what it always does on my birthday… it did get me lots of days off in elementary-high school though). I got some nice flowers from my parents and a bunch of random fun things from T, Stace and Steph.
PBL managed to kick my ass for the last test. It was all almost all neuroanatomy. Amanda+Neuroanatomy=bad. For some reason, I can NOT memorize where things go (like, the retinal cells converge to form the optic nerve, which partially crosses in the optic chaism, and extends posteriorly to the lateral geniculate nucleus as optic radiations… fascinating, I know.) Anyhow, I managed to pass the test.
Speaking of the test, I have this little theory that I’ve seriously pissed off the medical school test gods. I manage to have a mini-crisis before every test. For this test, my apartment flooded. Again. Around 5 AM on the Sunday morning before the test, I was awoken by a “SQUOOSH!” and I rolled over to find water pouring out my wall in a nice stream. Then, there was a loud “SPLAT!” as a big chunk of plaster fell from my ceiling and water started gushing down onto my bed (which I was still in, staring confusedly at the water pouring out of my wall). Then, there was much rushed rearranging of furniture, a mad dash for bowls and pans to hold some of the water and a furious call to my landlord.. In the meantime, I flipped on the light switch in my bathroom and noticed that both light fixtures were filling rapidly with water, and water was pouring out of the bathroom side of the bathroom/bedroom wall. My landlord didn’t show up until noon to shut off the hot water. By then, the flood had managed to claim the only two rooms not affected by the original September flood. Fabulouso! So, it was the day before a big ass nasty neuroanatomy test, and my bedroom and bed were not inhabitable, and because the hot water was shut off, I wouldn’t be able to shower in my apartment for at least another 48 hours. I was beyond stressed out. Thankfully, Steph let me come borrow her shower Sunday night, and my spare bedroom with the twin bed were spared. Unfortunately, wet carpets are NOT good. Even after the carpet was professionally cleaned, my room still smells like it’s inhabited by someone who hasn’t showered for over a week. I’m still sleeping in the twin bed, and bruising the hell out of myself because the bed is next to the wall and I’m a sleep-flailer (future boyfriends, beware). Anyhow, I’ve attempted to deodorize my room with every freshening method I could come up with (febreeze, carpet deodorizer, candles and plug-ins), and maybe by tomorrow, it will be again be inhabitable.
I got assigned a new OMM partner. Hottie Josh from the Navy. Steph and I call him Adonis (but only behind his back). He’s gorgeous, and a really cool guy… and married… did I mention he gorgeous?, OMM has become awkward as hell now… because for the first time, I actually know my OMM partner. Usually it’s just some random person from my class that I’ve never really met/probably won’t see again, but this time, it’s Josh. I spent all summer at Navy camp with him, and there’s a really good chance we’ll be doing our residencies in the same place. Now, we have to touch each other’s ischial tuberosities (those are your butt bones for those of you who don’t know), pubic symphisises (think pubic bone… nice eh?), and we actually have to adjust each other’s pants/shorts so that we see the PSIS (those two dimples in your back above your butt), so we regularly get to see what the brand and color of underwear the other person is wearing… and it’s really weird. Touching complete strangers is fine; touching close friends is fine (but only when you’re practicing for OMM practicals… I promise my friends and I don’t go around feeling each other up), but touching someone I know, who isn’t a close friend is really awkward. It’s done on a completely professional basis, but it just doesn’t feel right…
On a completely crazy change of subject, I’ve been having a really rough time the last few weeks. A good friend has been diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer at 24 years old. Stage IV is the worst diagnosis you can get, and the 5 year survival rate is approximately 13%. There’s a little better than a 1 in 10 chance that I’ll still have my friend in 5 years. This scares the hell out of me. Breast cancer does NOT happen to 24 year olds. She did everything right in terms of BSE’s every month, reporting that she had found a mass, etc., yet somewhere along the line, a mistake was made and everything has gone terribly wrong. I know she’ll fight like crazy, but with the odds being what they are, I’m terrified that I’m going to lose a friend and I’m very upset that this has happened. I’ve finally had a good cry about it, and I’m starting to accept that it has happened and the best thing to do is try to be there for her, but I don’t think the "something bad is going to happen" feeling in the pit of my stomach will ever go away.
Another crazy change of subject: I have lecture ADD. I CAN NOT pay attention in lecture. After 5 minutes of someone reading off their powerpoint slides in a monotone voice, I lose focus. I start counting random things (for instance, red was today’s color. There were 23 people in front of me in red tops. Black was a close second with 20 people wearing this color. Exactly 9 people that I could see (out of a class of over 200) were paying attention to the lecture. AIM seemed to be the most popular distracter. This is all very relevant doctorish material. Honest.), then I just end up tuning the lecturer out and studying for my next test. I don’t understand why lectures are mandatory. The powerpoints are available on the web. It’s not like there’s any new information added to them. All the lecturers do is read the slides word for word. I learn better on my own anyway. Geez.
I’m absolutely shattered (thank you, obscenely loud upstairs neighbors who were at it until 4 AM), so I’m going to go find my earplugs and crawl into bed. Hopefully I can get more than 2 hours of sleep tonight. I PROMISE I will try to get some real emails and letters out soon. :)