So I'm looking at this packet of silica gel that came in the shoes I just bought (you know, to keep them fresh), and it says, "do not eat," (as all silica gel packets do) and I'm thinking to myself, "would anyone capable of reading this actually eat it?" Well, I for one feel lucky that I now won't make that mistake.
I bought a lot of stuff yesterday. i only really kept track of the money I spent in the first store, and the rest is kind of a blur. I only go shopping maybe twice a year for clothes, so I feel it's justifiable, but I'm pretty sure I went overboard. Not enough to regret it, as they're all things I need, but enough that towards the end of the endeavor I felt that grumpy feeling I get when I spend too much time in any store. I really do hate shopping, and the mall, but some things are necessary. I mostly did my own shopping too, even though I had my personal shoppers there. They're the main reason I don't feel the grumpy feeling sooner any more. That was a somewhat awkwardly phrased statement. I finally bought a p coat, something I've wanted since working at Disney. It got surprisingly cold there in the winter--especially at night--and they had these massive black p coats that were the warmest things ever. I so would have stolen it if it wasn't checked out by bar code under my name. The Fantasyland coat I wore my one night working at the pretzel wagon was also very warm, but definitely looked fantasy-ee enough that it wasn't steal-worthy. Anyway, back to the present of yesterday (I realize how redundant that sounds)...
Later that night I went to William James' house and played Guitar Hero for my very first time. We didn't stay long because I'm pretty sure all involved in the shopping felt a little nautious after Victoria Secret. Too many smells in one place for too long of a time. But it was nice to see old friends from high school. I actually still hang out with a lot of my friends from high school, only I don't really consider them as high school friends any longer, on account of us hanging out so much since high school ended 5 years ago. What's weird is running into people from high school that I don't see on a frequent basis. I liked the people then, but that doesn't mean I want to mindlessly chit chat with them. I hate that. If there's something I legitimately want to find out about someone I haven't seen in a while, or vice versa, that's cool, but if it's just about appearing nice and friendly and making conversation where it normally wouldn't be...I have no patience for that. I was never good at it and I hate being forced into it. But that didn't happen, so there you go. I was pretty okay at Guitar Hero, so I can see why people get adicted, but I was no scion by any measure, and I'm pretty sure it gave me carpal tunnel. By the way, speaking of my medical maladies...for anyone who's interested, I do not have leukemia. Kind of dissapointing. I expected my blood smear to show at least something interesting. All I found out is that I have pencil cells in there which means I'm anemic. I pretty much knew that. But it was cool to look around at all my nicely developed red and white blood cells and be proud of myself for that. A little worried that I've had cold like symptems for months and yet I have no extra white blood cells, thus implying my immune system may be crap, but proud nonetheless. The human body really is quite amazing. Such little machinery going on beneath our skin. I pocketed my smears, although I have no idea what I'll do with them now.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
If you get through all the nonsense at the first of this post, you'll get to hear about me drawing blood.
I used to have a test tomorrow, but then it was pushed to friday. Ultimately it doesn't make much of a difference because I'm working tomorrow, but it is a bit of a relief...enough of one that I'm writing on here instead of studying...and that I went to dinner tonight with friends instead of studying. Man I love the meatloaf at that pub. I did study before though, and that's something. I really enjoy Microbiology actually, and I don't mind studying for it because it's interesting. But it does tend to make me paranoid. When you spend a year learning about all the different diseases you can get, and what organisms cause them, and all of the everday places you can pick them up... Well, there you go. Right now I'm learning about moulds, which is kind of nice because we do allergen testing at my work for most of them, so I already know the names of the species and genus's for many. And our lab for that class this week consisted of us making slides of molds we obtained from sandwiches, cheese, and random things people brought in. My favorite by far was the Alternaria growing on a pumpkin someone brought it. It looked like little caveman clubs growing off of wood. There's probably a better way I could have described that to do it justice, but I'm not willing to take the effort of making that into sense.
Today was actually a pretty enjoyable day at school, if you take out most of the anxiety ridden moments that preceded the Hematology test I had last. It was my final, I didn't feel ready for it, and I'm really bad at knowing what it is she'll put on there. There's so much to remember, and she has a lot of non multiple choice stuff on there. A lot of diagnosing people and listing the etiology and mechanisms of diseases, and further testing to confirm the diagnosis, and symptoms and treatments and stuff. It's a face full. But that's over with and I'm fine. What I really want to write about is my Intro to Lab lab today.
We finally got to do some phlebotomy today. Very basic stuff, but still pretty cool. Earlier on they broke everyone else in the program up into two groups, so it would be more managable to handle all of us and give us the support and encouragement we needed but could not get with there being so many of us. Not that 32 is a paricularly massive number, but it's more than 2. Anyway, Worm ended up in the group that had that rotation last week and the week before, and Steven and I didn't have it until today. There are three of us in our little posse, which consists of we who work at ACME in the Immunology lab. It took quite the lengthy interview process--wherein I had to commendate my skills and capabilities--before I convinced him to let me stick a needle into his arm. Apparently he has a problem with people drawing his blood, the big baby. I had to point out my steady hands during pipette calibrations, and also my extremely visible veins, which made it easy on both of us where drawing blood was concerned. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty awesome at tying a tourniquet. I actually wasn't so much the first day we did it weeks ago, and we haven't done it since, but for some reason I could today. Maybe it's because someone up there knew Steven would freak out if I showed any signs of weakness today, as to my drawing abilities. But yeah, things went off without a hitch. We both practiced on the fake arm and our techniques were fine the first time, so we moved right onto actual arms. Two of our friends, who are in the other ACME posse, Jacob and Noel, did not fare so well. They both had to practice on the arm one more time, which to be fair was probably because they tried before us, and we got the benefit of learning from their mistakes. But it was awesome watching them draw blood after we were done drawing each others--I don't think I've laughed that hard for a while. I drew first of all of our bay, and it went pretty well. It wasn't perfect, but thanks to Steven's massive veins so close to the surface, I would have had to poke his arm with my eyes closed to miss the mark. Actually, because we were encouraged to not look at the veins, but to instead "feel" them with our "feely" finger (a.k.a. the pointer finger due to it's delicate nerve endings), I bet I could have still got it with my eyes closed. Steven was so worried about hurting me though, and thus his hands were shaking like crazy before and whilst the needle was in my arm. I kept telling him I could care less, but it didn't seem to make a difference; I mean, it was such a small needle, and with that needles don't bother me, and that I donate blood frequently enough and with a much larger needle in my arm--the fact of the matter is that he would have had to stick the needle straight into my median nerve for me to have felt it. Noel drew Jacob's blood after Steven, and it was farely awesome. She had the needle in his arm before she warned him that he was about to "feel a little stick" (we're supposed to warn the person by telling them that before we actually do anything). He was like, "okay..." She didn't so much get his vein as she did not get his vein, but she did leave the tourniquet on his arm for far too long. I have to give him props for being really calm while these events unfolded. So he mentioned that his arm was starting to hurt and the tourniquet came off after the needle came out (a big don't), and Noel quickly grabbed what she thought was a swab, but was actually an alcohol wipe. I think each of them noted in their heads that it was wet before the realization came that something was not quite right, and at that point Noel got the real swab and switched it. But not before exacting it's tole. I don't think it hurt a lot, but I would imagine it stinging at least a little. Jacob's needle went through Noel's vein, spurted a little in the tube as he pulled it out a bit, and stopped when he pulled it out too much only to reconvene it's exit through the skin of her arm. Again, full marks for professionalism. He's the guy that would draw your blood and could completely mutilate your arm with a needle while doing so, and the only thing you'd think afterwards is, "wow, what a nice guy that was that drew my blood." All in all it was a wonderful learning experience for all of us.
This is Noel trying very hard to evade Jacob's swinging fist, which I don't think he realized was so wildly out of control while trying to tie that tourniquet. And of course Steven and Jacob smiling in anticipation.
This is me and Steven with the tube of my blood after I got got. And there's Jacob and Noel again, with him wafting the alcohol wiped area dry--very important stuff. If you see a blond lady in the background, that's Donna, one of our lab teaching assistants. She likes us the best.
Today was actually a pretty enjoyable day at school, if you take out most of the anxiety ridden moments that preceded the Hematology test I had last. It was my final, I didn't feel ready for it, and I'm really bad at knowing what it is she'll put on there. There's so much to remember, and she has a lot of non multiple choice stuff on there. A lot of diagnosing people and listing the etiology and mechanisms of diseases, and further testing to confirm the diagnosis, and symptoms and treatments and stuff. It's a face full. But that's over with and I'm fine. What I really want to write about is my Intro to Lab lab today.
We finally got to do some phlebotomy today. Very basic stuff, but still pretty cool. Earlier on they broke everyone else in the program up into two groups, so it would be more managable to handle all of us and give us the support and encouragement we needed but could not get with there being so many of us. Not that 32 is a paricularly massive number, but it's more than 2. Anyway, Worm ended up in the group that had that rotation last week and the week before, and Steven and I didn't have it until today. There are three of us in our little posse, which consists of we who work at ACME in the Immunology lab. It took quite the lengthy interview process--wherein I had to commendate my skills and capabilities--before I convinced him to let me stick a needle into his arm. Apparently he has a problem with people drawing his blood, the big baby. I had to point out my steady hands during pipette calibrations, and also my extremely visible veins, which made it easy on both of us where drawing blood was concerned. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty awesome at tying a tourniquet. I actually wasn't so much the first day we did it weeks ago, and we haven't done it since, but for some reason I could today. Maybe it's because someone up there knew Steven would freak out if I showed any signs of weakness today, as to my drawing abilities. But yeah, things went off without a hitch. We both practiced on the fake arm and our techniques were fine the first time, so we moved right onto actual arms. Two of our friends, who are in the other ACME posse, Jacob and Noel, did not fare so well. They both had to practice on the arm one more time, which to be fair was probably because they tried before us, and we got the benefit of learning from their mistakes. But it was awesome watching them draw blood after we were done drawing each others--I don't think I've laughed that hard for a while. I drew first of all of our bay, and it went pretty well. It wasn't perfect, but thanks to Steven's massive veins so close to the surface, I would have had to poke his arm with my eyes closed to miss the mark. Actually, because we were encouraged to not look at the veins, but to instead "feel" them with our "feely" finger (a.k.a. the pointer finger due to it's delicate nerve endings), I bet I could have still got it with my eyes closed. Steven was so worried about hurting me though, and thus his hands were shaking like crazy before and whilst the needle was in my arm. I kept telling him I could care less, but it didn't seem to make a difference; I mean, it was such a small needle, and with that needles don't bother me, and that I donate blood frequently enough and with a much larger needle in my arm--the fact of the matter is that he would have had to stick the needle straight into my median nerve for me to have felt it. Noel drew Jacob's blood after Steven, and it was farely awesome. She had the needle in his arm before she warned him that he was about to "feel a little stick" (we're supposed to warn the person by telling them that before we actually do anything). He was like, "okay..." She didn't so much get his vein as she did not get his vein, but she did leave the tourniquet on his arm for far too long. I have to give him props for being really calm while these events unfolded. So he mentioned that his arm was starting to hurt and the tourniquet came off after the needle came out (a big don't), and Noel quickly grabbed what she thought was a swab, but was actually an alcohol wipe. I think each of them noted in their heads that it was wet before the realization came that something was not quite right, and at that point Noel got the real swab and switched it. But not before exacting it's tole. I don't think it hurt a lot, but I would imagine it stinging at least a little. Jacob's needle went through Noel's vein, spurted a little in the tube as he pulled it out a bit, and stopped when he pulled it out too much only to reconvene it's exit through the skin of her arm. Again, full marks for professionalism. He's the guy that would draw your blood and could completely mutilate your arm with a needle while doing so, and the only thing you'd think afterwards is, "wow, what a nice guy that was that drew my blood." All in all it was a wonderful learning experience for all of us.
This is Noel trying very hard to evade Jacob's swinging fist, which I don't think he realized was so wildly out of control while trying to tie that tourniquet. And of course Steven and Jacob smiling in anticipation. 
This is me and Steven with the tube of my blood after I got got. And there's Jacob and Noel again, with him wafting the alcohol wiped area dry--very important stuff. If you see a blond lady in the background, that's Donna, one of our lab teaching assistants. She likes us the best.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Leukemia Shmemia
I am officially sick of school. I have been to a degree almost since the beginning of school, but now I've really had it. I can't take it anymore! Only I will. But just know I'm ready to be done. I have my last Hematology Practical on Wednesday, and did I mention I'm not ready? Partially because of procrastination, and not enough time to study even if I hadn't, and partially because when I do study I'm too anxious to remember anything for this class. This class makes me anxious. And if I do badly I might have to retake it. I would hate to be put on probation, especially when Heme II starts next week. I don't even know how that would work out. I can't take this class again because I could not stand to. Hopefully I'm just working myself up, and when it comes down to it things will work out. But I do have a practical, a lot of differential cell counts to perform, and an Immunology compresensive final...all to be completed this week.
And so it stands to reason that I spent no time this weekend studying. This is how I'm doing so well in that class. I visited family, watched tv, I cleaned my house, I cut up 10 lbs of chicken breasts my mother sent me home with, went to a concert, I caught up with some friends that live in Provo, I watched a session of conference I missed, and today I went to the movies with friends at the dollar theater, then went to Graywhale to buy music. It's not really my fault they had a buy 2 get 1 free music sale I couldn't miss. And I went to breakfast at V.I. with Worm. I have work tomorrow, which makes me sad, but I got part of Thursday off to study, so we'll see how that works out. Wednesday should be pretty ghastly in and of itself. And so I end this post to instead study slides of leukemias that I will need to be able to identify comfortably in two days time.
And so it stands to reason that I spent no time this weekend studying. This is how I'm doing so well in that class. I visited family, watched tv, I cleaned my house, I cut up 10 lbs of chicken breasts my mother sent me home with, went to a concert, I caught up with some friends that live in Provo, I watched a session of conference I missed, and today I went to the movies with friends at the dollar theater, then went to Graywhale to buy music. It's not really my fault they had a buy 2 get 1 free music sale I couldn't miss. And I went to breakfast at V.I. with Worm. I have work tomorrow, which makes me sad, but I got part of Thursday off to study, so we'll see how that works out. Wednesday should be pretty ghastly in and of itself. And so I end this post to instead study slides of leukemias that I will need to be able to identify comfortably in two days time.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Stupidity At Its Finest
It's 10:29 pm. I have a test tomorrow morning. It's in my hardest subject, and I performed less than admirably in the last two exams, so I really have to do well for my self esteem and for my work to pay for my school and for my school to not put me on probation. I studied, and I should study some more, but I really don't want to study anymore. I hate it. But I do need to study some more before I can call it a night.
In the mean while...
*These are both pictures walking to our car after the race, which took FOR-EV-ER*
So I ran this half-marathon this past weekend in Moab. I've known about it for months--because I was talked into doing it a while ago--and because it cost 60 bucks I had to go through with it. It was doubtful that I'd ever get as ready as I should for such a thing, but I think even I managed to more than magnificantly eclipse those expectations with my entire lack of readiness and ability. Basically I went into it without having exercised in any way for about 3 months or more. Not only did I not find the time to run, but I've been so busy with school that I haven't made it out to Ultimate Frisbee in forever either. Then let's not forget my stellar eating habits...Whoa buddy. Basically my good friend Worm and I have a theory. To do our best when it comes to studying, we need brain food (aka. barely edible junk). So we head to our friendly neighborhood grocier and buy mass amounts of soda, candy, and all other types of "food" we can find that fit into the category of having no nutritive value whatsoever. After a hard night of cramming we take our test(s), then reward ourselves for getting through such a trial with exactly the kinds of things we deserve; for myself personally it's gummy coke bottles, peanut butter m&m's, really anything chocolate, orange soda... I can see the pictures forming in everyone's heads of how this all goes down.
Actually it wasn't that bad. In a perfect world I would have gotten what I deserved, and for the record I did have really painfully sore legs the next day and for the next 2 days following, but my experience overall was very positive. (Also, I did go running once before the race, the week prior, and I ran for 6 miles and felt pretty good the whole time.) So for the record, I'm glad I did the race because I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the day where I can actually run one after training. For starters, the scenery in Southern Utah is beautiful. It was a little cold, as it's now October, and the day before the race had me worried with all the wind and rain, but come the next morning it was perfect. A little nippy to begin with, but that's what happens at 730 in the morning. But, once I started running things were good. It was nice and overcast the whole time, which happens to be perfect running conditions, and only in the last mile did the sun come out thereby making me consider the possibility of taking off my long sleeved shirt. I didn't, because at that point I was pondering on the unthought of situation I then found myself in, that is, one where all of the muscles in both of my calves decided to seize up. That's never happened to me running ever. Of course, even in distance in high school I've never run that far all at one time, but it took me by surprise. I made it through 8 miles and I felt great and like I could run 8 more, then it started getting all hill-y for the next 2-3 miles and my legs didn't like that at all. At mile 10 I managed to tweak my left knee pretty good as my body put weight on it coming down a hill in an unexpected way. It kind of twisted out somewhat more than it was meant to laterally rotate in the joint, and away from the place where my medial collateral ligament really should have held it in. At that point I had to stop and walk a little bit. I was more than surprised that I hadn't walked up to that point. True, my slow but uniform pace to that point could hardly be described as true "running" as it was more akin to "creaping along," but it was at least faster than my walk. The last 2 miles were downhill. They had these ladies playing those big 'ol tribal drums at the top of the mountain there as we passed. It was pretty cool.
I had been so excited up to that point at the prospect of running downhill (that was always what I was good at in cross country), and I actually hadn't counted the last 2 miles as actual miles while I was willing myself forward, because I thought there'd be nothing to them. Come to find out they were the hardest 2 miles of the whole thing. My calves teamed with my knee made downhill an agonizing and traumatic occurance. I could not for the life of me kick it in for the last mile. It was all I could do to keep going and not slow down. Think of running with 2 charlie horses at once--that was it in a nutshell. I conceed that I deserved it, but it was unpleasant all the same. When I finally stopped, there was Villnave with bananas and bread for me (that was agreed upon beforehand as we knew she'd be much faster than the rest of us), and one Joel minus the poster he should have made. Tarris and Rachel were wandering about still having finished 14 minutes prior to myself (I came in with a leisurely 2 hrs and 24 min), so I walked with Joel to look for them, and for an excuse to not stop moving knowing that when I stopped it would be permanent. The bread was really good, and reminded me of somewhere in between a roll, a cinnamon role, and a scone. There was cinnamon in there, and that's all I really noticed. It was actually more of a joke than anything that Villnave should stand at the finish line holding food for all of us slow folks--mainly myself as Tarris and Rachel were actually in shape--but she was nice enough to actually do so. I finished, she exclaimed "I brought you bread!" and I replied "I hurt." That's how it all went down. Then we gathered up all the free food stuffs we could that were assembled there for us, and trekked our merry ways the 2 miles it would then take us to get to our cars. We went to a coffee shop for breakfast and I bought hot chocolate, then we spent the next 4 hours in a car driving back to Salt Lake so I could work that night. I managed to spill the hot chocolate everywhere in the car, but other than that we made it back safely and quickly without a hitch.
(Just a note: I have no time to use the little brainpower left to me after a draining semester of school to come up with aliases for people anymore, so I'm heretofore just saying it like it is, and if anyone gets kidnapped by strangers on the internet...It's not my fault. I will of course retain those I already have, for what it's worth and for laziness's sake. Not that laziness needs my help, but we're good friends laziness and I.)
I guess I should mention that the race was on a sunday, and we went down Saturday morning so that we could boulder and hang out at arches before I potentially killed myself the next day. It was super windy, and I got a lot of red dirt in my eyes, ears, mouth... I wasn't much good as I was the only inexperienced climber in our group. My friend Tarris from work organized this whole trip, and her almost-sister-in-law Rachel (a personal trainer), and her Swiss friend Joel who she knew from when they both started climbing some 10 years ago, came as well. They were really amazing to watch maneuver about these huge boulders from crevice to crevice. Rachel mostly slept on the boulderin pad, but Tarris and Joel were freaking amazing and made me want to get back into shape, because it looked like that much fun. I wish my legs were strong enough to support all of my weight poised on a small crack in a rock, but I rely too much on my arms for stability. And my arms are pretty devoid of muscle at this point.
After that we decided to go to the national park that is our backyard. We wanted to hike to the Delicate Arch, but by that time it was just as windy and pouring rain as well. At one point the rain hit a lull and we hoofed it to the View point. It was still pretty amazing to look at, and the sky was still beautiful with night coming on and it being moderately overcast. We then left to get some food. After walking about trying to find the place with the least amount of wait we ended up at Jay's Pasta (?) and whatever I got was the best. It was tortellini and chicken in a creamy pesto alfredo sauce. It came out green and literally boiling around my pasta. It took a while before I could get it cool enough to eat, but it was amazingly good. Whilst we ate we fastidiously called around town looking for a hotel room. The plan was to camp, but once there we decided that sleeping outside in the cold on the hard floor was not the way to spend the night before a half-marathon. Everyone was booked, and finally we called the hotel where we registered--which also happened to be the place where the busses would pick us up and carry us to the start of the race up the mountain--thinking they had to be the first place that filled up. We ended up getting their very last room, and felt pretty fortunate about it. I have to say, the pillow was really comfortable, and I got a shoulder massage with some SoreNoMore gel before I went to bed, so I felt pretty good and had about as nice a sleep as I possibly could. Tarris was forsightful and generous enough to insist upon bringing me some running clothes that were all about not chafing, so that was nice. I think my shoes I ran in had only been run in that 6 miles prior to this race, so that too was not in my favor, but I obviously got through all of this fine and feeling famously, until the next morning that is. Work was okay, but boring, and I was tired so I left early.
You'll be glad to know that I'm finally to the point where I can walk down stairs again without looking like an invalid, and hopefully by Saturday I'll be able to make it out to the frisbee field having promised to be there this week.
*This is Tarris, Rachel, Joel and I at Arches on a rather blustery day. I might be the one 2nd closest to the camera*
In the mean while...
*These are both pictures walking to our car after the race, which took FOR-EV-ER*
So I ran this half-marathon this past weekend in Moab. I've known about it for months--because I was talked into doing it a while ago--and because it cost 60 bucks I had to go through with it. It was doubtful that I'd ever get as ready as I should for such a thing, but I think even I managed to more than magnificantly eclipse those expectations with my entire lack of readiness and ability. Basically I went into it without having exercised in any way for about 3 months or more. Not only did I not find the time to run, but I've been so busy with school that I haven't made it out to Ultimate Frisbee in forever either. Then let's not forget my stellar eating habits...Whoa buddy. Basically my good friend Worm and I have a theory. To do our best when it comes to studying, we need brain food (aka. barely edible junk). So we head to our friendly neighborhood grocier and buy mass amounts of soda, candy, and all other types of "food" we can find that fit into the category of having no nutritive value whatsoever. After a hard night of cramming we take our test(s), then reward ourselves for getting through such a trial with exactly the kinds of things we deserve; for myself personally it's gummy coke bottles, peanut butter m&m's, really anything chocolate, orange soda... I can see the pictures forming in everyone's heads of how this all goes down.
Actually it wasn't that bad. In a perfect world I would have gotten what I deserved, and for the record I did have really painfully sore legs the next day and for the next 2 days following, but my experience overall was very positive. (Also, I did go running once before the race, the week prior, and I ran for 6 miles and felt pretty good the whole time.) So for the record, I'm glad I did the race because I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the day where I can actually run one after training. For starters, the scenery in Southern Utah is beautiful. It was a little cold, as it's now October, and the day before the race had me worried with all the wind and rain, but come the next morning it was perfect. A little nippy to begin with, but that's what happens at 730 in the morning. But, once I started running things were good. It was nice and overcast the whole time, which happens to be perfect running conditions, and only in the last mile did the sun come out thereby making me consider the possibility of taking off my long sleeved shirt. I didn't, because at that point I was pondering on the unthought of situation I then found myself in, that is, one where all of the muscles in both of my calves decided to seize up. That's never happened to me running ever. Of course, even in distance in high school I've never run that far all at one time, but it took me by surprise. I made it through 8 miles and I felt great and like I could run 8 more, then it started getting all hill-y for the next 2-3 miles and my legs didn't like that at all. At mile 10 I managed to tweak my left knee pretty good as my body put weight on it coming down a hill in an unexpected way. It kind of twisted out somewhat more than it was meant to laterally rotate in the joint, and away from the place where my medial collateral ligament really should have held it in. At that point I had to stop and walk a little bit. I was more than surprised that I hadn't walked up to that point. True, my slow but uniform pace to that point could hardly be described as true "running" as it was more akin to "creaping along," but it was at least faster than my walk. The last 2 miles were downhill. They had these ladies playing those big 'ol tribal drums at the top of the mountain there as we passed. It was pretty cool.
I had been so excited up to that point at the prospect of running downhill (that was always what I was good at in cross country), and I actually hadn't counted the last 2 miles as actual miles while I was willing myself forward, because I thought there'd be nothing to them. Come to find out they were the hardest 2 miles of the whole thing. My calves teamed with my knee made downhill an agonizing and traumatic occurance. I could not for the life of me kick it in for the last mile. It was all I could do to keep going and not slow down. Think of running with 2 charlie horses at once--that was it in a nutshell. I conceed that I deserved it, but it was unpleasant all the same. When I finally stopped, there was Villnave with bananas and bread for me (that was agreed upon beforehand as we knew she'd be much faster than the rest of us), and one Joel minus the poster he should have made. Tarris and Rachel were wandering about still having finished 14 minutes prior to myself (I came in with a leisurely 2 hrs and 24 min), so I walked with Joel to look for them, and for an excuse to not stop moving knowing that when I stopped it would be permanent. The bread was really good, and reminded me of somewhere in between a roll, a cinnamon role, and a scone. There was cinnamon in there, and that's all I really noticed. It was actually more of a joke than anything that Villnave should stand at the finish line holding food for all of us slow folks--mainly myself as Tarris and Rachel were actually in shape--but she was nice enough to actually do so. I finished, she exclaimed "I brought you bread!" and I replied "I hurt." That's how it all went down. Then we gathered up all the free food stuffs we could that were assembled there for us, and trekked our merry ways the 2 miles it would then take us to get to our cars. We went to a coffee shop for breakfast and I bought hot chocolate, then we spent the next 4 hours in a car driving back to Salt Lake so I could work that night. I managed to spill the hot chocolate everywhere in the car, but other than that we made it back safely and quickly without a hitch.
(Just a note: I have no time to use the little brainpower left to me after a draining semester of school to come up with aliases for people anymore, so I'm heretofore just saying it like it is, and if anyone gets kidnapped by strangers on the internet...It's not my fault. I will of course retain those I already have, for what it's worth and for laziness's sake. Not that laziness needs my help, but we're good friends laziness and I.)
I guess I should mention that the race was on a sunday, and we went down Saturday morning so that we could boulder and hang out at arches before I potentially killed myself the next day. It was super windy, and I got a lot of red dirt in my eyes, ears, mouth... I wasn't much good as I was the only inexperienced climber in our group. My friend Tarris from work organized this whole trip, and her almost-sister-in-law Rachel (a personal trainer), and her Swiss friend Joel who she knew from when they both started climbing some 10 years ago, came as well. They were really amazing to watch maneuver about these huge boulders from crevice to crevice. Rachel mostly slept on the boulderin pad, but Tarris and Joel were freaking amazing and made me want to get back into shape, because it looked like that much fun. I wish my legs were strong enough to support all of my weight poised on a small crack in a rock, but I rely too much on my arms for stability. And my arms are pretty devoid of muscle at this point.
After that we decided to go to the national park that is our backyard. We wanted to hike to the Delicate Arch, but by that time it was just as windy and pouring rain as well. At one point the rain hit a lull and we hoofed it to the View point. It was still pretty amazing to look at, and the sky was still beautiful with night coming on and it being moderately overcast. We then left to get some food. After walking about trying to find the place with the least amount of wait we ended up at Jay's Pasta (?) and whatever I got was the best. It was tortellini and chicken in a creamy pesto alfredo sauce. It came out green and literally boiling around my pasta. It took a while before I could get it cool enough to eat, but it was amazingly good. Whilst we ate we fastidiously called around town looking for a hotel room. The plan was to camp, but once there we decided that sleeping outside in the cold on the hard floor was not the way to spend the night before a half-marathon. Everyone was booked, and finally we called the hotel where we registered--which also happened to be the place where the busses would pick us up and carry us to the start of the race up the mountain--thinking they had to be the first place that filled up. We ended up getting their very last room, and felt pretty fortunate about it. I have to say, the pillow was really comfortable, and I got a shoulder massage with some SoreNoMore gel before I went to bed, so I felt pretty good and had about as nice a sleep as I possibly could. Tarris was forsightful and generous enough to insist upon bringing me some running clothes that were all about not chafing, so that was nice. I think my shoes I ran in had only been run in that 6 miles prior to this race, so that too was not in my favor, but I obviously got through all of this fine and feeling famously, until the next morning that is. Work was okay, but boring, and I was tired so I left early.
You'll be glad to know that I'm finally to the point where I can walk down stairs again without looking like an invalid, and hopefully by Saturday I'll be able to make it out to the frisbee field having promised to be there this week.
*This is Tarris, Rachel, Joel and I at Arches on a rather blustery day. I might be the one 2nd closest to the camera*
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Hah hah...I am such a sucker. So I just bought "Hip Hop Abs" from off the tv. I've never ordered from an infomercial before, and I wondered what it'd be like, and I figured this would work out nicely. They're so good at just vacuuming you in. So, with my love handles, zero exercise lately, and a lack of any dancing skills I decided, "why not?" So yeah, there you go. We'll see if anything happens, but I'm not placing any bets on it. My mother will probably kill me when it gets to their house. I hope it doesn't have anything written on the outside. My parents are used to getting cds for me in the mail, but I do owe them money for my car still... Yeah, she'll most likely skewer me.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
A Life
Oh, so many things to write about.
Let's see...my English skills are rapidly deteriorating. I blame this on school, because I can, and I think that's about right. I'm in a constant state of worrying about having to think, and with that kind of pressure I don't. Half the time even I don't know what I'm saying. I have two good friends--Guy and Stevie Boy--who are in my same school program, and we're all starting to show similar signs of digression. A few weeks ago Guy accidentally said "we're Scienticians" instead of scientists. I think that about sums it up.
Speaking of language that doesn't quite add up, we had someone other than our professor teaching our immunology class today, as is the case quite often for some bizarre reason, and she had a Russian accent. Consequently we learned about "wiruses and antibois" today. Mostly I just sat there looking over my Microbiology notes and eating gummy soda. I eat nothing but junk lately, very literally. Guy and I buy mass amounts of Mountain Dew and rootbeer or cream soda (mainly), and then they end up in my fridge--because my house is more condusive to studying as I live with girls and not 7 guys--and then I drink them because they're there. Also, the hospital cafeteria fails to impress me with meals, and I don't like eating food that isn't good; unfortunately they happen to have amazing gormet desserts, so I eat them instead. Their pecan pie is amazing, they've had all of these different kinds of cheesecakes varying with the days, tiramisu...and they all come with freshly whipped cream and a strawberry/raspberry/pirouette. I have absolutely no restraint.
So I really need to step up as far as studying goes. The time put into it isn't as much a problem as the quality of studying. I have so many tests that I just don't want to study most of the time, and that's my mindset when I do. I've been settling for mediocracy pretty much from the beginning. The problem with this is that once you stop shooting for the stars, you tend to shoot yourself in the foot instead. My last two tests have made me see the light. I will be spending at least some of my fall break next week catching up on stuff I should have learned better by now.
I really am excited for fall break. I have a myriad of uneventful and somewhat trivial things planned. I'm so excited to not have to plan on doing anything for once. I mean, I have some plans, but mostly I'm planning for some much needed "nothing" time. For once I don't work or go to school. The last few fall breaks and spring breaks I've worked. I do work one day in the week, and this weekend is Conference--for these reasons, and my lack of money, I'm not going to Washington like I was thinking of doing (sorry Duckling!)
Speaking of work: I'm still training on the MMV's. You're probably wondering, "still?" because I'm pretty sure I never mentioned the MMV's before. Measles, Mumps, Veriscella. I love that once you get started you just babysit, and you're not expected to build anything more onto your run, and you don't have to deal with samples they didn't send enough samples for (you do that before, and there's such a small amount needed in the first place...). However, the machine is ancient and has a mind of its own, and thus it will randomly stop working whenever it feels like it, and maybe will pick up where it left off if you hurry and turn it off and back on. Very technical, I know. And even if it doesn't stop running, it fails runs a lot. If the calibrators and controls come in out of range, which they do often, you rerun everything. So far (that is, since I've been training) the amount of run failures have exceeded run passes. But despite this, Seahawk (my new night person, who is on the ball and really just makes me laugh) is back from his honeymoon and I'm no longer running the ship by myself. Also, I'm being trained by Tybot, who is quite possibly my favorite person ever. Think of the dryest sense of humor possible, then of random comments whose origins are baffling, and the occasional hassling of someone entirely laid back. At first you're like, "what the..?" but then anything less is far inferior to working conditions. With him and Texas working on the same bench as me...well, I really like my job right now, even if it is stressful.
Miracle of all miracles, my fish has not died yet. He's such a trooper. In case you were wondering, our tank filter broke, and we noticed it and also that our angelfish had lost it's black stripes and had red rimmed eyes. They're especially fragile to environmental stress, but I think they could potentially live a decade. After talking to some people and reading up on it, I found that they usually don't come back after the stress has gotten to them initially, but he is looking much better. He has some stripes and his eyes look better. He could still die tomorrow for all I know, but I hope not. Walsh is my favorite. We also got this puffer fish that's tiny beyond belief, and he's stirred up the atmosphere of the tank quite a bit. We named him Butch. He's maybe the size of a horse fly. He seems to scare our shark, who used to hide in the driftwood, but now Butch steals his spot half the time and Randall just looks longingly into the wood. Xavier our catfish actually swims around now instead of hiding unseen all day behind the driftwood. Unrelated to Butch, Blaird no longer swims around after Phineas and Ellis (our striped budgies) thinking he's one of them instead of the ugly orange/green fish he is (all three are schooling fish, but we neglected to get Blaird a friend). So you can see just how sad my life is right now, when the most excitement relating to my life has to do with my fish.
Speaking of excitement: the sophisticated technology that goes into holding my mattress up (several pieces of ply-board) has given up its integrity in the middle, and I'm sinking even as I write this.
----------line of time-------it is now 2:32 am on October the 5th-------
So I'm studying for 2 tests I have tomorrow. I didn't work today, though it's my off week, because I worked for Something McVillnavekins last week (my opposite and I share the first same name, so we go by last names). After tomorrow I have a lovely week off from school and work. I think a considerable part may be devoted to studying, but it will nice to be studying instead of cramming for once. But for right now I'm cramming. I don't care as much as I should about immunology, and I'm almost done looking over the slides from class (that's all the effort I'm willing to put forward). That class is all about luck and mercy anyway. On the other hand, I've looked over microbiology quite a bit, but I think I need to go over it all again as well. There are a lot of different bacteria that cause various diseases, and right now I need to memorize the species and genuses of all gram negative bacteria, how to identify them, what they cause, and what media and reagents are specifically are needed for each. I think I have the chart of identification down, but I'd better make sure. I have about 4 hours till I have to go to school, so I'd better get back to work. I already had a 2 hour nap, so hopefully I'll be able to make it through work tomorrow after school.
Let's see...my English skills are rapidly deteriorating. I blame this on school, because I can, and I think that's about right. I'm in a constant state of worrying about having to think, and with that kind of pressure I don't. Half the time even I don't know what I'm saying. I have two good friends--Guy and Stevie Boy--who are in my same school program, and we're all starting to show similar signs of digression. A few weeks ago Guy accidentally said "we're Scienticians" instead of scientists. I think that about sums it up.
Speaking of language that doesn't quite add up, we had someone other than our professor teaching our immunology class today, as is the case quite often for some bizarre reason, and she had a Russian accent. Consequently we learned about "wiruses and antibois" today. Mostly I just sat there looking over my Microbiology notes and eating gummy soda. I eat nothing but junk lately, very literally. Guy and I buy mass amounts of Mountain Dew and rootbeer or cream soda (mainly), and then they end up in my fridge--because my house is more condusive to studying as I live with girls and not 7 guys--and then I drink them because they're there. Also, the hospital cafeteria fails to impress me with meals, and I don't like eating food that isn't good; unfortunately they happen to have amazing gormet desserts, so I eat them instead. Their pecan pie is amazing, they've had all of these different kinds of cheesecakes varying with the days, tiramisu...and they all come with freshly whipped cream and a strawberry/raspberry/pirouette. I have absolutely no restraint.
So I really need to step up as far as studying goes. The time put into it isn't as much a problem as the quality of studying. I have so many tests that I just don't want to study most of the time, and that's my mindset when I do. I've been settling for mediocracy pretty much from the beginning. The problem with this is that once you stop shooting for the stars, you tend to shoot yourself in the foot instead. My last two tests have made me see the light. I will be spending at least some of my fall break next week catching up on stuff I should have learned better by now.
I really am excited for fall break. I have a myriad of uneventful and somewhat trivial things planned. I'm so excited to not have to plan on doing anything for once. I mean, I have some plans, but mostly I'm planning for some much needed "nothing" time. For once I don't work or go to school. The last few fall breaks and spring breaks I've worked. I do work one day in the week, and this weekend is Conference--for these reasons, and my lack of money, I'm not going to Washington like I was thinking of doing (sorry Duckling!)
Speaking of work: I'm still training on the MMV's. You're probably wondering, "still?" because I'm pretty sure I never mentioned the MMV's before. Measles, Mumps, Veriscella. I love that once you get started you just babysit, and you're not expected to build anything more onto your run, and you don't have to deal with samples they didn't send enough samples for (you do that before, and there's such a small amount needed in the first place...). However, the machine is ancient and has a mind of its own, and thus it will randomly stop working whenever it feels like it, and maybe will pick up where it left off if you hurry and turn it off and back on. Very technical, I know. And even if it doesn't stop running, it fails runs a lot. If the calibrators and controls come in out of range, which they do often, you rerun everything. So far (that is, since I've been training) the amount of run failures have exceeded run passes. But despite this, Seahawk (my new night person, who is on the ball and really just makes me laugh) is back from his honeymoon and I'm no longer running the ship by myself. Also, I'm being trained by Tybot, who is quite possibly my favorite person ever. Think of the dryest sense of humor possible, then of random comments whose origins are baffling, and the occasional hassling of someone entirely laid back. At first you're like, "what the..?" but then anything less is far inferior to working conditions. With him and Texas working on the same bench as me...well, I really like my job right now, even if it is stressful.
Miracle of all miracles, my fish has not died yet. He's such a trooper. In case you were wondering, our tank filter broke, and we noticed it and also that our angelfish had lost it's black stripes and had red rimmed eyes. They're especially fragile to environmental stress, but I think they could potentially live a decade. After talking to some people and reading up on it, I found that they usually don't come back after the stress has gotten to them initially, but he is looking much better. He has some stripes and his eyes look better. He could still die tomorrow for all I know, but I hope not. Walsh is my favorite. We also got this puffer fish that's tiny beyond belief, and he's stirred up the atmosphere of the tank quite a bit. We named him Butch. He's maybe the size of a horse fly. He seems to scare our shark, who used to hide in the driftwood, but now Butch steals his spot half the time and Randall just looks longingly into the wood. Xavier our catfish actually swims around now instead of hiding unseen all day behind the driftwood. Unrelated to Butch, Blaird no longer swims around after Phineas and Ellis (our striped budgies) thinking he's one of them instead of the ugly orange/green fish he is (all three are schooling fish, but we neglected to get Blaird a friend). So you can see just how sad my life is right now, when the most excitement relating to my life has to do with my fish.
Speaking of excitement: the sophisticated technology that goes into holding my mattress up (several pieces of ply-board) has given up its integrity in the middle, and I'm sinking even as I write this.
----------line of time-------it is now 2:32 am on October the 5th-------
So I'm studying for 2 tests I have tomorrow. I didn't work today, though it's my off week, because I worked for Something McVillnavekins last week (my opposite and I share the first same name, so we go by last names). After tomorrow I have a lovely week off from school and work. I think a considerable part may be devoted to studying, but it will nice to be studying instead of cramming for once. But for right now I'm cramming. I don't care as much as I should about immunology, and I'm almost done looking over the slides from class (that's all the effort I'm willing to put forward). That class is all about luck and mercy anyway. On the other hand, I've looked over microbiology quite a bit, but I think I need to go over it all again as well. There are a lot of different bacteria that cause various diseases, and right now I need to memorize the species and genuses of all gram negative bacteria, how to identify them, what they cause, and what media and reagents are specifically are needed for each. I think I have the chart of identification down, but I'd better make sure. I have about 4 hours till I have to go to school, so I'd better get back to work. I already had a 2 hour nap, so hopefully I'll be able to make it through work tomorrow after school.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Another Thing
So I'm still alive. Barely.
I never realized school would be so intensive. I knew it would be tricky and moderately hard (especially working full time), but I never knew there would be so much testing involved.
So on my On-week this is how it goes: I wake up at 730 (which is later than I should, but I can't make myself get out of bed before then, whether I'm awake or not). So I get up and rush to get ready in the morning so that I can drive to work and catch the 8 am shuttle to school. School goes from 830 am to 230-330 usually, and till noon on Thursday/Friday, but regardless of the day I go straight to work afterwards on the shuttle. On days that I get out later I'm behind in hours, and on the two days I get off early I'm making up work for those hours I didn't get...and so all said and done I get off from work at about 1230 am every day I work. Then I go home and take a shower, then I pass out and wake up in 6 or so hours for the next day of school.
I have no time to myself to even think. I don't have time to study, to hang out, to read my scriptures (I listen to them at work on my ipod), to run (I have a half marathon coming up in October that should be interesting)... And they're cross training me at work, which wouldn't be a big deal if they had people to cover the up front stuff I don't have time to do while training. As it is, there are two of us at night to run our respective instruments and to split the remainder of our time bringing in samples to lab, splitting tubes of samples that have different tests on them, sending samples to storage, and filing SPEPS. It's a lot more work than it sounds like, and the person I work with at night is a total greenie. I think that's what I'll name him. He's awesome, but he's new and can only do so much given that. He's actually awesome, but the old night person who is now the day person on his/our instrument, is a total slacker. He does what he has to, and nothing more. It drives me crazy. So I'm trying to help Greenie, train, and we're both doing all this stuff that they really should hire a third person to do at night which is frustrating. I need to talk to my supervisor.
School is another thing. We have 2-4 tests a week. This is not easy material either. Hematology, Immunology, Microbiology...We're accountable for everything mentioned or even eluded to. Plus we have labs with all of them, which are time consuming. My Basic Immunology (I have a Clinical Immunology class as well) professor is an evil dictator (which I'll get into on another day). So on my On-weeks I struggle through, and on my Off-weeks I spend myself cramming for tests I have the next day and which it's the first time I've even looked at the material. Those rare days I have off with no school (saturday/sunday on my off-weeks) I spend studying for the tests I have on my on week. This is hard considering for some classes the material taught on the day before the test will still be covered on the test. So I've acquired a myriad of grades, none of them failing (I have to get C's to not fail out of the program), and we'll see how this all goes. Next year will be cake actually. It will be all clinical rotations and no testing, so the days will be long but not intellectually taxing. Just draining. I can live with that after this year so far. I can't believe it's only been less than a month. It feels like ages. I have my Clinical Immunology final on Wednesday. I think that's why so many tests. We have a bunch of classes that only go part of the semester, but to be certified at the end of our program we will be taking tests designed by the state, not our professors, which is why they're cramming so much knowledge into our courses.
Luckily I went into this program with two friends. Worm is on my on-week, so though I see both friends the same amount of time at school (which is a long amount of time), I'm actually able to study with him. Plus Steven is married and the little free time he has is spent with his newly pregnant wife. We're all happy to see each other suffer with us. Steven stresses out a lot, and has reason to with so much on his plate. He's kind of my opposite, so he has the same amount of crap to deal with as I, with the added problem of a family to worry about. Worm, who I will now refer to as "Guy" after finding out that this is his legitimate middle name, is the most lax person I've ever come across in all of my years. It's impossible to be stressed out around him much, because the concept is foreign to him. He's also super cynical, and is me essentially in guy form. We bring out the cynicism in each other, and are ultimately more cynicism than ever will be present in one room at the same time. We can say anything to each other without worry of the other taking it badly, and others are often baffled by how seemingly rude our humor is towards each other without any insult being taken. We also talk about stupid and random things that come into our heads suddenly, and It's altogether a refreshing thing. He's kind of keeping me sane right now. Plus it's just always good to have a study buddy to learn more. We generally go buy mass amounts of sugar and caffeine, then takes random breaks to reward ourselves while studying to places we feel like going on whims. Like the 7/11 for slurpees or Graywhales to buy myself cds. The best thing is that I have no romantic interests in him in the slightest. That I think is why it's so easy to talk to him. I LOVE guy friends like that. I don't have to be inhibited in any way in what I say, because there's not even a glimmer of a spark there. I did realize that I will not have a glimmer of a dating life for at least the next year, which is depressing. I'll live, but I'll come out of this whole experience very much isolated...more than I already was. I wish there were cute guys in this program, because we all spend so much time together, but there are only 32 people total, so the odds weren't good to begin with. Considering half are girls and many of the guys are married...not so much. I do have a slight crush on this one kid, but it is just that; slight. Most of the time I can't so much decide if I have a crush on him after all, and then sometimes I do. Whatever.
So that's my uneventful eventful life in a nut shell. A truly crappy nut. A walnut? I'm not a huge fan of walnuts in the shell. Or walnuts not incorporated into something with sugar in it actually. Man I should really go to sleep right now. I have a practical exam tomorrow I'm not studying for right now. Guy came over tonight to study, and we ended up taking brownies to people we know after we each consumed 3 of them. It was partially to be nice, partially so we wouldn't get hugely obese from our horrible newly acquired habits of eating nothing but junk, and partially to get out of studying. So basically it worked on all accounts. I think we've just needed a break lately though. After cramming for our 3rd test in a row this past week we reached delirium. He would ask me questions he knew I didn't know the answers to, I would make up my own snide definitions, he would respond snidely, and we would laugh with no control over it whatsoever. At one point I snorted and we laughed about it for 20 minutes. That's how burnt out we were at that point. I'm super excited for Fall Break incidentally.
I never realized school would be so intensive. I knew it would be tricky and moderately hard (especially working full time), but I never knew there would be so much testing involved.
So on my On-week this is how it goes: I wake up at 730 (which is later than I should, but I can't make myself get out of bed before then, whether I'm awake or not). So I get up and rush to get ready in the morning so that I can drive to work and catch the 8 am shuttle to school. School goes from 830 am to 230-330 usually, and till noon on Thursday/Friday, but regardless of the day I go straight to work afterwards on the shuttle. On days that I get out later I'm behind in hours, and on the two days I get off early I'm making up work for those hours I didn't get...and so all said and done I get off from work at about 1230 am every day I work. Then I go home and take a shower, then I pass out and wake up in 6 or so hours for the next day of school.
I have no time to myself to even think. I don't have time to study, to hang out, to read my scriptures (I listen to them at work on my ipod), to run (I have a half marathon coming up in October that should be interesting)... And they're cross training me at work, which wouldn't be a big deal if they had people to cover the up front stuff I don't have time to do while training. As it is, there are two of us at night to run our respective instruments and to split the remainder of our time bringing in samples to lab, splitting tubes of samples that have different tests on them, sending samples to storage, and filing SPEPS. It's a lot more work than it sounds like, and the person I work with at night is a total greenie. I think that's what I'll name him. He's awesome, but he's new and can only do so much given that. He's actually awesome, but the old night person who is now the day person on his/our instrument, is a total slacker. He does what he has to, and nothing more. It drives me crazy. So I'm trying to help Greenie, train, and we're both doing all this stuff that they really should hire a third person to do at night which is frustrating. I need to talk to my supervisor.
School is another thing. We have 2-4 tests a week. This is not easy material either. Hematology, Immunology, Microbiology...We're accountable for everything mentioned or even eluded to. Plus we have labs with all of them, which are time consuming. My Basic Immunology (I have a Clinical Immunology class as well) professor is an evil dictator (which I'll get into on another day). So on my On-weeks I struggle through, and on my Off-weeks I spend myself cramming for tests I have the next day and which it's the first time I've even looked at the material. Those rare days I have off with no school (saturday/sunday on my off-weeks) I spend studying for the tests I have on my on week. This is hard considering for some classes the material taught on the day before the test will still be covered on the test. So I've acquired a myriad of grades, none of them failing (I have to get C's to not fail out of the program), and we'll see how this all goes. Next year will be cake actually. It will be all clinical rotations and no testing, so the days will be long but not intellectually taxing. Just draining. I can live with that after this year so far. I can't believe it's only been less than a month. It feels like ages. I have my Clinical Immunology final on Wednesday. I think that's why so many tests. We have a bunch of classes that only go part of the semester, but to be certified at the end of our program we will be taking tests designed by the state, not our professors, which is why they're cramming so much knowledge into our courses.
Luckily I went into this program with two friends. Worm is on my on-week, so though I see both friends the same amount of time at school (which is a long amount of time), I'm actually able to study with him. Plus Steven is married and the little free time he has is spent with his newly pregnant wife. We're all happy to see each other suffer with us. Steven stresses out a lot, and has reason to with so much on his plate. He's kind of my opposite, so he has the same amount of crap to deal with as I, with the added problem of a family to worry about. Worm, who I will now refer to as "Guy" after finding out that this is his legitimate middle name, is the most lax person I've ever come across in all of my years. It's impossible to be stressed out around him much, because the concept is foreign to him. He's also super cynical, and is me essentially in guy form. We bring out the cynicism in each other, and are ultimately more cynicism than ever will be present in one room at the same time. We can say anything to each other without worry of the other taking it badly, and others are often baffled by how seemingly rude our humor is towards each other without any insult being taken. We also talk about stupid and random things that come into our heads suddenly, and It's altogether a refreshing thing. He's kind of keeping me sane right now. Plus it's just always good to have a study buddy to learn more. We generally go buy mass amounts of sugar and caffeine, then takes random breaks to reward ourselves while studying to places we feel like going on whims. Like the 7/11 for slurpees or Graywhales to buy myself cds. The best thing is that I have no romantic interests in him in the slightest. That I think is why it's so easy to talk to him. I LOVE guy friends like that. I don't have to be inhibited in any way in what I say, because there's not even a glimmer of a spark there. I did realize that I will not have a glimmer of a dating life for at least the next year, which is depressing. I'll live, but I'll come out of this whole experience very much isolated...more than I already was. I wish there were cute guys in this program, because we all spend so much time together, but there are only 32 people total, so the odds weren't good to begin with. Considering half are girls and many of the guys are married...not so much. I do have a slight crush on this one kid, but it is just that; slight. Most of the time I can't so much decide if I have a crush on him after all, and then sometimes I do. Whatever.
So that's my uneventful eventful life in a nut shell. A truly crappy nut. A walnut? I'm not a huge fan of walnuts in the shell. Or walnuts not incorporated into something with sugar in it actually. Man I should really go to sleep right now. I have a practical exam tomorrow I'm not studying for right now. Guy came over tonight to study, and we ended up taking brownies to people we know after we each consumed 3 of them. It was partially to be nice, partially so we wouldn't get hugely obese from our horrible newly acquired habits of eating nothing but junk, and partially to get out of studying. So basically it worked on all accounts. I think we've just needed a break lately though. After cramming for our 3rd test in a row this past week we reached delirium. He would ask me questions he knew I didn't know the answers to, I would make up my own snide definitions, he would respond snidely, and we would laugh with no control over it whatsoever. At one point I snorted and we laughed about it for 20 minutes. That's how burnt out we were at that point. I'm super excited for Fall Break incidentally.
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