5 more weeks til the end of classes and 3 more months til rotations start. I'm very, very pleased with this :)

The hospital rotation lottery began today and I'm still in midst of ranking my choices...eek. Let's see where I end up.

Reason 158,935 why I love Long Beach:

I saw a shirtless surfer dude riding his bicycle today down 7th street...hauling a kayak on two wheels behind him with a rope

Classic.

Have you ever felt like you are going along and life is fabulous, and then all of a sudden a dark storm cloud decides to take permanent residence over your head? That's how I've felt for the last 3 months. Everything is just going wrong and I've honestly never felt so miserable in my entire life. Medical school really does beat the humanity out of you...

Well, this week started out crappy (my first speeding ticket - I hate this place) and I think that the black cloud will finally go away once I take my Neuroscience final on Monday. I'm kind of excited for my med school formal next Friday, cause that means the year is winding down and in about 6 weeks I will be a second year. One year closer to graduation! I think I may have found a girl to sublet my place in June and July when I'm at UCSD doing research. That's a bright spot as well. Now I just need to find a place to stay in SD and a new apartment here.

Also I've been having a little email squabble with a classmate about a stupid group project we're doing together. It annoys me that people will not participate the whole time in a group project, and then when you try to help them out with getting their participation hours in, they bitch you out for not doing things fast enough. It's like, I'm going out of my way to help you, and you're going to hassle me?

So I like to look at the posts made in the "A day in the life" community here on live journal. If I did one of those, it would consist of me watching lectures online all day. How exciting would that be, huh?? All I do is sit in front of this stupid laptop and try not to be distracted by the internet. We've had nonstop midterms and finals for the last month, and I haven't had a single day off. I've got an osteopathic manipulation practical tomorrow (midterm) and a blood and lymph final on Tuesday. Blood and lymph is a two week course,and we got all the material that's going to be on this final in three days last week...twenty-two hours of lecture in 3 days. UGH. I'm so burnt out I have only a very weak desire or inclination to study...

And, to top it all off, we have 4 hours of osteopathic manipulation lectures after our final on Tuesday. And then Neuro starts on Wednesday, which is supposedly the hardest class we have this year, and it's like 10 units or something, so if you fail there's a good possibility that the school will make you repeat the ENTIRE YEAR. Not that I think I'm going to fail, but still. Lots of pressure...

The only sweet spot in my life right now is a flippin' inanimate object, my new Volvo. I mean, I heart it big time, but still... I haven't had a real conversation with a friend in a month. I mean, my car doesn't talk back, you know?? Nobody calls me anymore, they must think I'm dead (and no, this isn't meant to be a guilt trip to my RL friends, ok??). I'm sick of living in this cave separated from the world. I truly have become a robot. And it sucks.

This was an extremely whiny post. WOW.

There's nothing so fun as sitting home alone on a Sunday night, looking at pathology photos of physical and chemical injuries for my final on Tuesday.

And to think, I could've been in a nice, calm Psychology PhD program right now.

Has anyone watched Cashmere Mafia on ABC? It's my new TV show and I LOVE IT. Totally a Sex and the City ripoff, but still so good.

How much do you love this song? I haven't heard it in a loooong time. Found this courtesy of cute overload...

Life is exceptionally good right now.

...I hate the fact that I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Ok, so two interesting things I saw today as I drove to my parent's house:

1. A guy driving a truck that was transporting a truck bed in it's own truck bed.

2. The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.

I live across the street from a park attached to the local elementary school. A couple of times a week, all the soccer moms and dads park their SUVs on our block and bring out all the kids for practice. As I'm sitting in my room studying this saturday morning, every so often I can hear their cries and cheers as the games progress, and it makes me smile. It's the little things...

On a more cheerful note than yesterday's entry, tomorrow we get our first standardized patient encounter. I'm super excited. We're going to be working on our communication skills. This is what we're supposed to accomplish:

- Introduce yourself
- Set the tone
- Build rapport
- Elicit Chief complaint
- Ask patient what else you can help them with
- Summarize agenda
- Prioritize and negotiate agenda
- Let patient tell their story


I'll let you know how it goes :)

I picked up a dead body today and then cracked the vertebrae open with a chisel and hammer.

i heart me some tonie. i felt so much better after talking to you, and taking a nice, long walk. stress relief! yay

Once school ended last December, I was so happy to be done with school. I got settled in the work routine, and I started to panic a bit when I thought about going back to school in August. Regardless of what happened with my acceptances/waitlist status, I felt like I didn't have enough time off, that I wanted more "me" time. Today was the first time I felt like just walking out of work and never coming back. I'm just sick of it. It's a great job, my coworkers are great, I get a great discount on cool shoes and I'm able to goof off quite a bit. But it's just not for me. It's such a cliche, but I find office work to be soul-sucking. I just can't stand it. Most of the time I want to run around screaming "They're SHOES!! Calm the F*** down!!1! Nobody's going to die if they don't get their shipment!". Today I'm starting to feel ready to go back. I'm starting to feel ready to step up to the challenge, to stand toe to toe with my demons and take med school on. Now, I know I'm going to read this six months from now and laugh at myself and my naivete, but I feel like I'm getting ready to put my game face back on and kick med school in the ass.

This is the path I've chosen, this is the path that has chosen me.

I'm finally starting to feel ready to take it.

I can't wait for Vegas, ladies.

I also can't believe I'm starting med school in TWO months!!! Scary.

I need to start updating this thing more regularly again...

This is a really cool meme...

...and we were eliminated by U of Tennessee. Well, it was neat while it lasted.

:(

Cal State Long Beach Men's Basketball is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995! WOOT. I'm so glad I got to see it in person. SO EXCITED!