Where's the pause button?

While everyone else is studying for step, I'm going to take advantage of the next few days before the craziness ensues. My plans for today and the next few:

Today
*make vet appointments for Meery Bob and Penelope - spaying and shots, respectively
*do some form of exercise besides running
*contact a plumber to repair our garbage disposal
*laundry x 4
*dishes
*make haircut appointment
*make a STEP study schedule
*dinner with my "M2 buddy" - should I call her my M4 buddy now?
*recover from the ridiculous sunburn I got at the pool yesterday

Friday
*start studying!
*9 mile run with A - probably going to lie on the couch and die afterwards

Saturday
*study
*some form of exercise - maybe; perhaps just stretching
*attend cousin's wedding

So that's how things are shaping up for now. Right now is one of those times when it would be nice to still live at home. I hate how distracted I can become by laundry, dishes, menu planning, etc... It would be nice to have all that covered for the next month.

On an exciting note - yesterday was fabulous! All except for that little Pharm board we took in the morning. It was AWFUL. Sometimes I would look at the page and not know if I got a single question on it correct. Oh well. Maybe I scraped by. After that I went to the pool and caught up with my friend A. (just realized I've got lots of friends that have A names) We might have forgotten to put on enough sunscreen and we might have had a few cold beverages. Anyway, it was great. I haven't laid out in the sun since the honeymoon. After that I met K for some very healthy and delicious food at KFC. Yeah... To be fair though, they do have a really good buffet full of veggies. I only had 2 fried things on my plate. I had a tennis match at 7:30. Our captain made it aware to us that if we won this match, we are guaranteed a spot at the State championships. Wahoo!!! Well, we won! I won my match, and my sister won hers. The girl I played was the most challenging opponent I've played all year. The score was 6-4, 6-4. (If you don't know what that means, it means I won 12 and she won 8). I wish we had video though, we were both making crazy shots that neither one of us could believe. Once the girls on the court beside us got distracted from their game watching us! Insane. I was so exhausted afterwards I just came home, laid in bed, and watched Mad Men for about 3 hours. What could be better?

Off to do all the chores on my list - hope everyone's "weekend" is fabuous :)

Tennis = Best Study Break Ever

So glad I got to play tennis tonight. I had to play doubles, which was weird. I ALWAYS play singles. I've played doubles once in the last year, and it was with my sister, so that doesn't even count to me. The reason I don't like it is because you have to worry about upsetting your partner every time you miss a point. With singles, you just play your game. Whatever though, it was fun and as an added bonus - we won! Wahoo!

My Conversation with Doreen

So, I play tennis on a league. I'm one of the youngest players. Most of the women are in their late 20s, 30s, or 40s. They're all generally nurses, realtors, bankers, or stay-at-home moms. Last night I played Doreen, a very nice 40ish loan officer. This is how our conversation went:

Doreen, between games: So, what do you do when you're not playing tennis?

Me: Well, I'm in medical school, so I mostly just study.

Doreen: Oh, where do you go to school?

Me: In Jackson, here at UMC. (I'm AMAZED how often people ask me this. There is only ONE medical school in our entire state. The nearest one is hundreds of miles away in a neighboring state. Is guess this isn't common knowledge? Should've told her I went to school in the Caribbean but flew in for my weekly tennis match.)

Doreen: Wow, so what kind of doctor do you want to be?

Me: I'm not really sure yet.

Doreen: But a medical doctor, right?

Me: Uh, yeah.


Oh well, I guess it's better than the last lady who asked what I did. I told her I was in med school and she said - "Oh, so you're going to be a teacher?" What?!?! I wish I had a dollar for every time I said "No, I'm going to be a REAL doctor."

(Please don't take this as a mean/negative/I'm better than you post. I just think it's pretty funny the range of reactions you can get when people find out what you do - especially if you're a girl.)

Hmmm...

To go to class, or not go to class? That is the question... 2 days left. I've got to go to school anyway tomorrow to set up my family med rotation. Woot! So I'm guessing I'll go to class tomorrow since I'm already there. I'm not making any guarantees for Friday though.

Here's what today was like:
7:30A - drag out of bed after 5 hrs of sleep
8:30A - leave house
9:30A - delivered brownies and chocolate chip pecan bars to the genetics and pharm departments. Maybe good karma will get me good grades - or at least passing grades? It's always worked before :)
10:00A - Path lecture on surgical path, I think. He kind of rambled
11:00A - last Path lecture ever - only 20 minutes long; it was all about autopsy but not interesting. Strange, because I was looking forward to it all year and thought it would be.
12:00P - was going to go to Family Med Interest Group lunch and get free pizza but I was still stuffed from huge breakfast so I went home.
1:00P - muddled through some Biostats
2:00P - still muddling through Biostats (am probably going to fail cumulative pharm test because I'm spending hours muddling through Biostats)
3:00P - watched the NOVA documentary Doctors' Diaries on PBS.com. Harvard Medical school is scarily similar to UMC. The cramped halls, lockers, confusion, neurotic students, crackheads in the ED. It all looked familiar.
4:00P - napped (hey, I only got 5 hrs last night, no judgement!)
5:00P - napped/left for FMIG meeting
6:00P - FMIG meeting
7:30P - tennis match at Parham Bridges; I won!!! 6-2, 6-1. Woot!
9:00P - back home and back to muddling through Biostats.

Just another day. I'm really going to miss the ability to nap in the afternoon and make my own schedule next year. I doubt I'll miss much else though.

Is It Bad if...

I hope it keeps raining so our tennis match for tonight gets canceled? My arms HURT!

Deja Vu

Well I got to see the garage door man again today. Awesome. The one thing I can say about this guy is that he always shows up 30 minutes earlier than he's scheduled, calls 15 minutes ahead of time to give you a warning, and doesn't leave until he gets the job done. He's not terribly expensive either. It's nice to find a non-scary non-price gouging service man. So if your garage door ever breaks, just let me know and I'll get you his number.

Still no luck on the Woodrow front. We're planning on maybe/probably getting a puppy/dog Friday when Kris gets back from his little trip. He's leaving town today to go see a UFC fight in Nashville with his bestie. I don't think he's that interested in the fight, but is interested in a fun trip. I can't blame him. He won't be back until Thursday. What will I do with 3 days in the house all to myself? Hopefully I'll get some work done!!!

I felt the major pangs of guilt for not studying every hour of every day yesterday when sitting behind one of my classmates. During the lecture she pulled out her First Aid (the STEP book) to take notes in it. Not only did it have nifty little tabs all up and down the sides but as she flipped through it I saw highlighting in several different colors and tons of her own notes in the margins - on nearly every page. That book is about 500-600 pages long. how many pages have I glanced at? Not sure, probably around 30. Yikes. There's now less than 60 days before the test. It's time to get on the ball. The only problem is we have another week and a half of class left and I really don't want to just completely bomb this last round of tests in order to study for STEP. Not to mention I can't really afford to bomb these tests. Whatever though. I guess I just need to get organized and I'm hoping to make some progress on that front over the next week. It's looking a little doubtful though since before midnight tomorrow night I must accomplish all of the following:

* finish 4 transcriptions
* attend the PIG roast (this is a charity event for Blair E. Batson at Old Venice :))
* play in a tennis match (and hopefully win)

Thursday night I also have a transcription due and another tennis match. Maybe it will rain and one of them will get moved/cancelled.

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot - either on Thursday or Friday I have to complete my first witnessed (by my preceptor) history and physical. It's a little nerve wracking since we've done lots of pieces of a physical exam but hardly a whole thing. I am really comfortable looking in ears now and can almost always find the ear drum - except when there's so much wax it just completely blocks everything. That happens about 1/2 the time. It's pretty gross.

Must get back to class now, but thought I'd rant for a second. I'm sorry my posts are always so sporadic, but for those who know me well you know that's just how my brain works. I don't know any other way!

Score!

So far things have been going my way today. I decided to skip class since we only had 2 and i don't think 100 minutes of lecture is worth traveling 40 minutes for roundtrip. It's just an efficiency thing.

I slept until 11:00 (but I didn't really go to sleep until 4:00) What a nice sleep schedule I'm on. I was kind of stressed all day because I was supposed to play in a tennis match tonight for the league I'm on. The actual match would be fun, but I just felt guilty for not studying when there's still SO MUCH to do before next week!!! Fast forward to 10 minutes ago when I changed into my tennis gear and then got a text that said I didn't have to play tonight. Wahoo! I just earned 2 more hours of... study time. Oh right, not that exciting.

The night still holds a Wal-Mart trip, finishing a transcription, and hours and hours of studying. My attention span needs to lengthen ASAP. Good luck studying everyone!