Hey all! I know it has been a bit since you heard from me, and for once, it's not because I am a huge slacker. I AM a huge slacker still, but I really haven't had much newsworthy to post. I am just following along the med school groove: go to class in the mornings and sometimes the afternoons, study, go home and play with Buttercup, hang out with Alex for two seconds, sleep, and repeat (with an exam thrown in every other week). I have a feeling that is going to change a lot in the next few weeks with my new clinical class starting and Gross Anatomy around the corner!

I am really looking forward to my service learning project. I am going to be learning a brief intervention technique to screen trauma patients for alcohol abuse at the Washington Hospital Center (the largest hospital in DC) and then using it to screen actual patients! I get to go around the hospital in scrubs, instead of sticking out like a sore thumb in my short white coat, get to "play with some electronic shit" (my advisor's words, not mine), and hopefully even get a publication out of the whole thing. Bottom line, I think it's going to be awesome!

Second exciting thing is that I am almost done with the biochem modules :) The saved the "best" for last with the genetics (oh, I'm sorry, the Development, Molecular and Human Genetics) module and it is really difficult for me to know what to study for Monday's upcoming exam. Happily, it's a lot of clinically relevant techniques, abnormalities, etc., so it's a lot more interesting than learning about homologous recombination double strand break repair, but because it is illustrated best by examples of diseases, I am having some trouble studying for it. We'll see. I cannot wait until Cardio-Pulmonary (and Gross) starts the first week of November :)

Stay tuned!

The Wedding!

I totally stole this photo from Lindsey's facebook album cuz I somehow forgot my camera in the rush to get out the door on Friday morning and I haven't got pictures from the girls yet! These are the awesome sweatshirts Nicole stitched for us (they are so flawless, I can't believe how crafty she is!).

I'm just going to quit the initial apology before every blog (I guess this is the last one) since it's going to be a while before I become conscientious about blogging again. It seems like I have had crazy (but usually fun, although exams are certainly exempted from this designation) things going ever since Alex moved out here and I just have not managed to juggle all of those and being a regular blogger...yet. Patience, people.

That said, I wanted to finally tell those of you who hadn't heard about it yet how much fun Grant and Nicole's wedding was (be sure to click on that link to check out the photographer's blog and her absolutely gorgeous pictures of the day in question)! It was a pretty hectic weekend, with all of Friday and all of Sunday pretty much devoted to bi-coastal travel. The Saturday in between was fantastic though, so it totally made up for all the length and lethargy of the rest of the time!

Friday was the night of the rehearsal dinner and it was still fun despite my jet lag and the fact that Oregon is a lot colder this time of year than DC. I got to finally meet the other out of town bridesmaid, Jess, who is super nice and sweet by the way, as well as see Teresa, a friend of ours that Nicole and I have known since we were 13! The other bridesmaids, Lindsey (she is such a sweetie, I wish we had the chance to get to know each other better :) and Janelle (who I have actually known for a super long time, we played sports together in high school...hurdler pride!), are super fun too, so it was great getting to hang out with them. Janelle is also the proud owner of a golden retriever, Jack, who is about a month older than Miss Buttercup, so we swapped stories and commiserated about the ups and downs of our furry friends.

After being awake for about 22 hours on Friday (we started at 3:30 in the morning here and didn't get to sleep until after 11 on the west coast), I woke up on Saturday morning, some time after 7, feeling energized and so excited to help with getting the ceremony and reception set up. I had been teased by little bits and pieces of Nicole's vision for the big day and I knew she had put a tremendous amount of effort into making most of the stuff by hand, so I was more than ready to see it all come together! After a much needed coffee boost, courtesy of Starbucks, we headed over to Maureen's (Nicole's mom) rental house to pick up and transport all of the stuff. It was basically a whole garage worth of dishes, table runners, candles, tree stumps, etc. etc., but between the entire bridal party and our dates, plus some of Nicole's fam, we got several cars loaded up and headed out to Aspen Hall in no time.

Getting everything in its proper place went swimmingly, thanks to our numbers and Nicole's organization skills (way to rock those diagrams!) and before I knew it, be were leaving the hall to go get ready for the wedding. It was a little cold waiting outside for the posed photos and during the ceremony, but the important thing was that it was dry :) The ceremony was definitely the coolest one I have ever experienced, and not just because this is the first wedding where I really knew the people getting married. The former head of the human physiology department at U of O, Dr. Klug, officiated the ceremony and since both Grant and Nicole had been in the dept., he knew the two of them so well and made the ceremony very personal. Plus, he was just a funny guy! Nicole and Grant's vows were amazing, as I alluded to in my last blog. I have never thought about writing my own vows- I always thought it would be too personal to say them in front of all my family and friends, and I was never sure I would be able to find the right words to accurately convey how I feel about the man I'm about to marry- but now that I have heard it done well, I have to say it sounds more appealing now.

Onto the reception! It was just a giant party, basically. I got to spend some time with my high school friends, Jill and Katie, who made the trek down from Portland for the big day (there's a really cute B/W pic of Jill on the photographer's blog, by the way). They had Pizzicato cater (delicious!!) and shortly after dinner, it was onto the dance floor! Alex and I had never really danced together before (hard to believe when we have been dating for over two years, but we have never been out dancing or really to very many parties together), but we had SO much fun! We were so busy cutting a rug that we somehow missed wedding cake (which made me sad when I realized it the next day)! After that, Jess and Jon gave us a ride back to the house so we could take a short nap and get up at four to start the trek back to DC. I was bummed that we missed the after party at McMenamins and the send-off brunch on Sunday afternoon, but I was so glad we made it to the main event :) In Portland, my sister, Katie, met us at the airport, so we could hang out for a little bit during our layover. Strangely enough, we ran into Nicole's aunt and uncle- they had left the wedding right after the ceremony to drive back up to Portland because John (her uncle, obviously) was catching a flight to Africa that morning! Small world that we happened to cross paths in PDX, right? When we made it back home, we had a little time to unpack, greet our pup (thanks again for looking after her, Catherine!), and get some sleep before work and school (make that an exam!) began bright and early the next morning.

Success

Well, I'm ridiculous. There's no way around that. I think the last time I wrote, I had just finished my first module. Now I'm about halfway through the second, which has presented new challenges, many of which I think are here to stay because they are just a fact of life when it comes to med school. However, I have adapted and I feel confident that with frequent adjustments based on determining what is effective and what is not, I will be able to continue being successful. One of those obstacles wasn't much of an obstacle at all: it was the fear of knowing I wouldn't be able to study over this past weekend because I went to Oregon for Nicole and Grant's wedding (congratulations, kids!...and more on that later) and that proved to be an incredible motivator. So if anyone wants me to be in a wedding or has some other sort of all weekend-long plans (oh, and wants to pay for me to get there since I am broke as a joke!), bring it on because it forced me to be a dilligent studier (student?!) these past two weeks! Many of the study habits I picked up out of this fear of being ill-prepared come September 19 (the day we flew out of DC), like reading last year's MNTS notes on the bus to class and writing out notecards, I think I will end up retaining because they were just good ideas. It's just that now it's possible for me to be doing this blog entry at the moment because I have de-emphasized the study-like-a-lunatic-in-the-afternoons aspect.

Earlier I used the word success and I just thought I'd take a moment to reflect on how that word has now become a sort of relative term for me. For those of you who don't know (and I promise you, I ain't bragging, I'm just trying to provide a framework), I was one of my high school's valedictorians and I played three sports for most of my high school career as well. Then college came along and while it took me a while to adjust to the new challenges it presented, I was eventually able to make those improvements and continue to be successful academicallly (I graduated with honors) as well as balance extracurricular activities and a part-time job in a lab. Before I got to med school, I envisioned things progressing in much the same way because until now, that's what I have always done. I quickly realized, however, that if I were to hold myself to that same standard of getting one of the best grades in the class, I would be entering into a group with which I have no desire to belong.

Oh, the gunners. If you're unfamiliar with that term, a "gunner" in med school is one of those crazies willing to devote their ENTIRE waking lives to getting those few extra questions (seriously, like two or three!) right on the exam that separates the high passers (which does not even appear on your transcript, I might add!) and honors from the passers. Because unlike in college (or at least the university I went to), getting a 93% on an exam does not even grant you high pass (A- to B+ range) privileges when the average is an 88%. My friend Liz joked a few weeks ago that they should put a disclaimer on her transcript indicating that "pass" actually means that she got >85% of the exam questions right and I could not agree more. In college, if 8 people in a class earned an A, they got As. If everyone in the class got an A (which did not happen, I can assure you!), everyone got an A. I knew med school classes would be graded on a curve, but I did not anticipate just how much I would miss the grading scale I grew up with!

To make a long story longer, my point in bringing all of this up is that I will now be defining success a little differently than I have previously in my life. For me, I will continue to strive to correctly answer 90% or greater of the questions posed to me on an exam. The grade I get (which will most likely be one of those "mediocre" passes), does not really matter. I don't feel the need to honor or even high pass all of my classes and if that means not being the world's youngest neurosurgeon to become chief of surgery, I'm okay with that (I don't even want to be a neurosurgeon anyway). I am confident that I will be able to do what I want in medicine if I stick to that. So, that's Patty's new philosophy on how to succeed in medical school while still hopefully making plenty of room in her schedule to spend time with a boyfriend who makes her very happy, to take care of a puppy who borders on driving her completely nuts (though in a very adorable way), to keep in touch with all of her friends and family, both near and extremely far away, and to occasionally eschew studying the weekend before an exam to be there when one of her friends leaves single life and takes up a new one with a man who makes her very happy (and both of whom write such wonderful vows, it makes you [want to] cry).

I have put off studying the urea cycle for too long now, I'm afraid, so you'll all have to wait in suspense to hear how it was in Bend!

Hello Weekend!

Well, I made it. One module down, nine to go (until first year is over, that is). I don't really feel super great about the exam, but I also doubt that I failed it ("failing" at Georgetown is getting a score more than two standard deviations below the mean or 60%, whichever is higher). I could be wrong though- the average of the last exam was an A- (with a SD of about 4). That means that if you got a B-, technically you failed, but our course director assured us that no one who answers 80% of the questions correctly on an exam will fail the course. I highly doubt that the average will be anywhere near that high on this exam, considering that everyone I talked to before was feeling nervous about the material and most people I talked to afterward felt about as confident as I did (which is to say, not very).

In addition to putting that module behind me (and enjoying the evaluation of each of the lecturers I had probably more than I should!), I have been relishing this completely free weekend, a rare situation in med school. Yesterday, God came down in rain/flooding form, so Alex and I went on a cleaning spree and the house looks fantastic! After that, we braved the rain to take care of some grocery shopping and then enjoyed some relaxing down time (complete with nap!) before heading over to my friend Jon's house for stir fry/game night. We only played Apples to Apples because it was kind of a large group (which is very fun in and of itself, but the game night portion of the evening was definitely downplayed), but the food was delicious and it was nice chitchatting and getting to know some of my classmates a bit more. Plus, Alex and I have had very few opportunities to go do things with a big group and I have to say I enjoyed showing him off!

Today we slept in and had a relaxing brunch (our old standby of Crescent rolls and five-minute eggs...always so good!). In a bit, we're going to head to the beach (which will hopefully go a lot more smoothly this time) and Alex has a work dinner in the evening where I'm going to meet at least one of his labmates, another postdoc named Michelle, so hopefully that will be fun.

I'm Sorry!

I'm not sure if anyone out there is still reading this blog of mine since the comment situation, which already was not awesome (FYI: not awesome is a phrase of mine and the two words should always be considered together...otherwise it just sounds like I am using poor English, which would be unacceptable), has become pretty much nonexistent, but I am still alive and well! Further apologies to those of you out there whose emails I haven't yet answered and whose phone calls I have yet to return- I have not forgotten about you! I have simply had my first real brush with a poorly organized lecturer and it could not have come at a more inconvenient time. Last week was pretty crazy getting ready for Alex's move and Tricia and Justin's brief visit. Add in some relationship drama, a dog, my first Starfarer experience, a restaurant that doesn't indicate on its website that it's closed for the holiday weekend, a trip to Ikea, four consecutive loads of laundry, wandering around Annapolis trying to find a beach, locking the keys in the trunk of the car, trying to have your boyfriend pose as your dad on the phone (related to AAA and the last item on the list), God knows what else, and trying to teach yourself all the material you covered in a week (which was a lot more than we have covered in previous weeks, let me tell you!) and you have a lack of blogging on my part.

The good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel: the exam is on Friday and it marks the end of the first module as well. The bad news is that the exam is on Friday and I still need to do a lot of studying until then. Let this be a lesson to me: I really should try to pre-read lecture notes so that I come to class with a vague idea of what the professor is trying to communicate and clarify any questions the day of the lecture so that I don't have a scary cloud of unknown concepts floating above my head...I'll let you know how it goes.

Update

Not much new to report, but I thought I'd add an update anyway. I can't believe my first exam is on Monday- I just started school! There is a fair amount of material that we've gone over, though (pretty equivalent to what I did in one quarter of biochem), so it's probably better in terms of avoiding information overload. Chelly and I have a lil study plan semi-worked out, so hopefully it serves us well.

Since I last wrote, I have:

* (Finally) found the route to school I think I'm going to use. Instead of a series of shorter bus/metro rides that lead to an overall shorter time in transit, I have opted for one bus that takes me directly to school, even though it takes longer and can run late in the morning. It is a lot cheaper, plus it gives me time to go over my notes and I don't even notice the length of my commute. In the words of Ross, "I've been given the gift of time!"

* Had people over to the new house for the first time. Catherine, Katie, and Chelly came over for a dinner of mini burgers with hummus and couscous salad, which was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. It would not have been nearly as good, however, if it wasn't for the excellent wine provided by Catherine or the delicious dessert Chelly made (hers was much prettier than the one in the picture!). After that, we watched Across the Universe, which was soooo good, especially if you are a Beatles fan. I never knew I could like musicals, but I guess it's possible if you really love the music! I was pretty much hooked from the opening, when the main character, Jude, starts singing, "Girl" ("is there anybody going to listen to my story...").

* Had the pleasure of helping Buttercup through kind of a rough week. She got stung by some sort of insect and her snout and the skin around her eyes starting swelling up on Monday, but luckily a lil Benadryl sorted her out. Then today I came home from school to a very pungent, unpleasant odor. It seems when I had been less attentive than clearly (now, that is) I should have been in the backyard either yesterday evening or this morning, during which time she inhaled a large quantity of grass and other plant materials, which needless to say did not sit well with her digestive tract. That was a fun mess to clean up. The silver lining is that she has been pretty subdued and "snugglish," as Alex would say. Hopefully that is the last of the problems she's going to be having for a while. Poor thing!

* Discovered the cutest Italian cafe a few blocks from where I live! The food (at least the grilled ham & swiss ciabatta sandwich with tomato spread I enjoyed) was so delicious and it seems like such a nice place to study. I can definitely see myself succumbing to the temptation of all the baked goods on display as well!

* Had my first bad lectures. The first three professors were so good, they set the bar pretty high and gave me (false) reassurance that all of them would be as good. It was pretty painful, mainly because I was used to the other professors interacting with the material and the class a lot more. Word on the street from Chelly's big sib is that the last two lecturers for this class are good, which is a relief, especially since I really like action potentials and I wouldn't want someone ruining them for me (like I had cell junctions and kinesin/dynein ruined).

* Booked my tickets to Nicole and Grant's wedding- finally!

* Gone to the hospital and observed a classmate of mine interview a real life patient! Her story was so inspirational and she had such a positive attitude toward the management of her illness- I wish every patient would have some of her in them :)

Well, I think that gives you a good idea of what I've been up to! Wish me luck with my studying and on the exam!

I Survived My First Week :)

Of course I did. That would be pretty sad if I quit so early in the game, but I suppose the occasional person does freak out once school starts and decides s/he has bitten off more than can be chewed. But not only did I survive, I really enjoyed myself. I knew that I was anxious to get back in the classroom, but I could not truly appreciate how much I missed being in school until classes actually started. It's been nice because my first science class, MCP (Molecular and Cellular Physiology), is mainly covering concepts I already learned in undergrad biochem and cell phys (thanks Drs. Minderhout, Loertscher, and Bourns!). That has been a really nice transition to the faster pace of med school classes and fortunately should continue to the next class MST (Metabolism and Signal Transduction) because it's more biochem and cell phys for the most part. I am also really enjoying my clinical class, PPB (Physicians, Patients, and Behavior), because for one afternoon each week, we get to don our white coats, adhere to the strict dress code in the hospital, and take turns interviewing actual patients about their time in the hospital and how it's affected their lives and families (!). I have also (hopefully) found a study group as well. Several girls (and Duncan) I was sitting with at lunch on Friday expressed a desire to get together to go over material, which was super exciting for me, because I absolutely thrive in the group setting. So today I am going over the class notes and those provided by the student note-taking service by myself and we are all meeting up this afternoon for our first session. Yay!

In other news, I did still manage to have fun this weekend. Catherine invited me to go to the Counting Crows concert (also with Maroon 5 and Sara Bareilles) yesterday, which was at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA. We got there a little early and prefunked with some well-mixed drinks made by Catherine (the margaritas) and Pamela (the cosmos). I even got talked into taking a shot of tequila and those are not as bad as I remember them...interesting. I provided some munchies, which included some brie with french bread (fancy, I know). We were stuck in the will call line and missed most of Sara Bareilles' literally 15 minute set, including "Love Song," which was pretty sad, and Adam Duritz was wasted and messed up "Mr. Jones," which was extremely disappointing, but even with the negatives, it was a really fun night and a really cool venue to check out a concert. He did manage to pull it together for the last couple of songs, including "Hanging Around," and Maroon 5, who I have seen in concert before, always puts on an awesome show and did not disappoint. They even freestyled a little and played some "I Don't Want to Fall in Love," by Chris Issak. The weather was absolutely perfect as well and it was so fun getting to spend some QT with Katie, Catherine, and Pamela, who I met for the first time last night and is yet another Michigander I have encountered in the two weeks I've been here.

The Great Outdoors

So, some of you may have already heard that my older sister, Katie, hooked me up with a friend of hers who lives in DC named Catherine. She (Catherine with a "C," that is) has been so sweet to me thus far, empathizing about the ridiculousness of my Washington Gas fiasco last week and inviting me to happy hour (which I missed because of scheduling issues, unfortunately). We were finally able to meet face to face on Sunday when she invited me to go hiking with her and some other recent transplants to the DC area in Potomac, MD. It's only about twenty minutes away and so beautiful!

It was unlike any hike I had been on back home, with few steep inclines and lots of scrambling up, down, and around rocks. So much fun! We went out for brunch afterward in Mount Pleasant and I also got to check out Columbia Heights, an area of DC I had yet to experience and a place I think I would love living in.

I am looking forward to doing more with these lovely ladies in the future!

12 Types of Med Students

I first saw this when I began reading this blog and I was highly amused. I think I have met several of these types already (the overly academic, the gunner, the missing, the crier, the questionable admission, the one-track mind). Check it out and let me know which one you think I am!

http://theunderweardrawer.homestead.com/twelvemedstudents.html

I am a Med Student!

I know I should have been better about posting since I got the internet back on Thursday, but with the White Coat Ceremony yesterday (that's me and fellow orphan/class of 2012 med student Chelly) and getting my driver's license changed to a DC license/registering to vote today, I have not had the energy to put together a decent blog until now. And all because the bus system has proved to be on the unreliable side of things. I should be at Kelly Times Irish Pub right now, but instead I find myself with my laptop propped on my lap, adorable puppy knawing contentedly on her rope toy at my feet, and men's swimming on in the background.

More about the white coat. We had been told that receiving our white coat and reciting the Hippocratic Oath for the first time would make us feel different and it's true. While I still felt uneasy when strangers would see me in my coat and congratulate me, even though I haven't done anything yet, receiving it made me finally feel like I am officially a medical student, even though I haven't gone to any classes yet. The rest of the week felt monotonous at times, especially during some of the more presentation heavy days.

As for the rest of things, I am feeling much better now that all the utilities are all up and running. The lack of internet access was particularly frustrating because it was exacerbating the feeling of isolation and loneliness that always comes with moving to a new place, it was making the navigation of public transportation all the more challenging, and it was making it difficult to look at class materials. The key to not feeling overwhelmed about being new to DC is to keep busy, which will probably be accomplished pretty easily once school starts. For now, it's okay. I wish Alex and I could be exploring the city together, instead of being forced to interact mainly through marathon phone conversations most nights. Happily, he will be here in less than three weeks, but it is feeling like an eternity at the moment.

I guess that's it for now. Stay tuned for my upcoming misadventures!

We Have Arrived!

As many of you have already heard and as is probably inevitable with any move, especially one of a distance such as that from Ann Arbor to Washington, we hit a few speed bumps on our way to getting settled. Perhaps the most irritating was our encounter with Washington Gas (that's for anyone wanting to complain about their terrible excuse for "customer service"). In brief, someone came to turn on our gas while we were home and did not bother to knock on the door, thus causing our all-night drive from Ann Arbor to be made in vain. Attempts to reschedule the appointment on Saturday were thwarted by incompetent "customer service representatives," resulting in my missing a pre-orientation BBQ today since I had to wait for the gas man (as I like to refer to him). Happily, it has been turned on now, so I will be able to run the dishwasher and enjoy a hot shower for the first time since arriving. (Those cold ones are brrr!, refreshing!) The next hiccup was that our internet went out shortly after the Comcast technician left on Saturday afternoon and we have been unable to get it back since then (and three subsequent calls to Comcast). I am hoping it comes back this evening or tomorrow. Thus, I am at a Starbucks at the moment, taking advantage of their T-Mobile HotSpot. It feels so good connecting with the outside world again! We had to make a trip to the Ikea in College Park to pick up the midbeam for our bed (among other things) since we forgot to buy one with our home delivery order and thus tried out our sofa bed that first night (super comfy for those of you thinking about coming for a visit!). There were other, smaller problems along the way as well, but overall it went okay.

Alex left this morning (at 4:15 to be exact), so that has been really difficult. The place looks so great (check out some pictures here), but we only got to enjoy it together for a few hours. I know it will get easier once orientation starts tomorrow and he'll have a lot of work to keep him busy, but four weeks is by far the longest amount of time we've had to spend apart.

Okay, I'm off now. I hope to post something again soon, but the tech people at Comcast get the final say on that!

Eh...What's Up, Doc?

As a cure for the packing burnout I began to suffer this afternoon (and to procrastinate further on my moving goals for the day), I decided to give Buttercup a carrot and see how she liked it. I have been giving her sliced up pieces of carrot lately when I am snacking on them, but today I thought it would be fun to see what she'd do with a whole one. Turns out she can put it away in less than two minutes, no problem. This video is less entertaining than it would be if my commentary was picked up by the mike (well, in my opinion anyway), but I still think she's pretty fun to watch (she is a lil camera shy, I think, cuz she always gets this self-conscious expression on her face):

It Has Begun!

Yes, after much excuse-making and avoidance over the weekend, the fun of packing up all of our crap has commenced. For some reason, whenever I am moving, I feel like packing up my DVDs, CDs, and books is going to be the most frustrating part, so I always start with those. It takes all of ten minutes, even though I have a fair number of books. Then I have to do the stuff I really dislike, like deciding which clothes to get rid of, packing up all my shoes, and going through all my desk drawers (which I haven't done since the last time I moved). My goals for today involved attacking the upstairs (which is basically our bedroom). I managed to get all my clothes together in one room (I still hadn't retrieved my summer clothes from storage and there were several bags tagged for the Salvation Army ages ago down there as well) and then I proceeded to organize them: five bags for SA (and I even dropped them off there!); two suitcases containing the majority of my clothes, minus sweatshirts, workout clothes, pajamas (all of which made their way into various boxes), those in the to-be-cleaned pile that is my laundry basket, a few things for the rest of the week, and of course, shoes (which get their own box); packing up towels, sheets, and blankets; and finding homes for miscellaneous books and the like that weren't already in boxes. Since I already took care of the DVDs, CDs, and books yesterday, as well as the breakables, the upstairs is in pretty good shape. Alex has his clothes to sort out and I haven't started on my toiletries or bathroom stuff yet since I will be using a lot of it between now and Thursday, but it's looking good. The venture down in the storage unit forced me to clear out and pack up a lot of that stuff too, so it's really just the aforementioned things and the downstairs. That is going to be a bitch...for Alex, anyway. He has crammed so much fishing equipment into our pantry/broom closet. I do not envy him that job! Anyhoo, stay tuned for more updates on our sanity status as the big move looms ever closer.

And here's Buttercup, amidst the deluge of clothing (all gone now!). She was pretty much overwhelmed by what she saw and that I continued bringing stuff into the house from the storage room (not that she knew it was coming from there...it probably seemed like magic to her).

After a while of making sure she was constantly in my way, her puppiness took over and she had to grab a nap (or two). Though if she smelled food or sensed I was heading upstairs again, her "I'm going to miss out" sensors were activated and she just had to check back in with me.

Well, it's a mere six days until we move (although technically we are leaving late on Thursday evening/early on Friday morning, so we will be in DC in six days) and we're starting to get a game plan together for how to best pack up all of our crapola. Rental reservation from Budget Trucks: check (I highly recommend checking out retailmenot.com, people, for coupons on all kinds of stuff- we saved roughly $120 on our truck through this bad boy!). Furniture purchased from Ikea and home delivery scheduled for Thursday: check (since we are heading out a day later than we anticipated, we decided to get our stuff before the move so that we would only have to focus on unloading and assembly in DC). Pick up a bunch of good boxes from U-Haul: check (did you know that these establishments are often little more than add-ons to your friendly neighborhood gas stations? You can rent trucks and buy boxes from BP- who knew?!). Now for the dreaded task of actually putting things in the boxes...stay tuned for pictures of our fun with that!

Of note: Alex and I have survived for two whole years as a couple as of yesterday. We don't have much money and he's exhausted all the time from working crazy hours, but we did manage to eat some yummy German food at the Heidelberg downtown (I love knackwurst, red cabbage, and apple compote, among other things!) and check out Stepbrothers (so ridiculous, it's hilarious) in honor of this milestone.

I am so used to the day slipping away from me. Even when I didn't have the busiest days in the lab (hello, Blogger, Facebook, and NY Times Sunday Magazine!), it always seemed like the evenings were over before I knew it, between making dinner, taking the dog to the park or for a walk, and some sort of errand or other that could not wait for another day. In preparation for starting med school, moving to DC, and leaving my job, the days (and evenings) have been especially packed these last few weeks. Now that I have finished serving time at the lab (which I think is really the best way to describe that experience), I don't know quite what to do with myself! I have still been getting up at my normal time because I don't want to be out of the habit of it, I have made a to-do list for these two weeks, and each day I work out a kind of agenda so that I feel like there is some structure to the day, but it's day three and I am already feeling a little antsy!

Here is what I have done today (as though you care!):

just after 7: Got up and took care of Buttercup things (first bathroom break of the day, breakfast in her Kong, hanging out outside, etc.), made coffee, ate cereal
8:00: woke up the sleepy head
just after 9: packed his lunch and sent him off to work (isn't he lucky?!)
9:15-10:45 (seriously!): tried to figure out how to buy a student metro pass, only to discover that the $26/month unlimited bus and rail pass I had in mind is only for elementary and secondary students- unfair, especially since their parents are paying for it!
11-12:30: started watching Batman Begins (I couldn't help it!) and ate lunch (leftover pitas, yum!)
12:30-1:15: Buttercup woke up from her torpor, so we went for a walk- I made her work too!
1:15-2:20: finished Batman
2:30-3:00: checked email and looked up info on Ikea home delivery & credit card
what I will be doing: finishing up this blog, reviewing some biochem notes, and (hopefully) going for a run (I am still sore from my first foray into getting back in shape on Monday- in which I got caught in a deluge of rain too...which was actually quite nice)

I would so NOT survive as a stay at home mom or someone who works from home!





This is on the menu for today- delicious!

I Loved...

I don't know how many of you went to the movie theatre this weekend to check out the latest Batman, but if you haven't and you're in the mood for an adventure (you can ask Alex, the first words out of my mouth on the way to the car on Sunday were, "I feel like I just got off a ride!"), you simply must check it out. It was not the typical superhero movie. It was a lot darker, funnier, and deeper than anything I had seen before. I must admit, I really enjoy superhero movies of most kinds (my favorite movie so far this year, before The Dark Knight, was Ironman- it's worth mentioning that I didn't get to see Sex and the City or Indiana Jones), Batman is by far my favorite of these movies (ask my little sister how many times we've seen Batman Forever!), and if you've been reading my blog, you know I am quite the Christian Bale fan. To say that I am (heavily) biased is more than adequate. However, I do think you might enjoy even if you aren't the biggest superhero fan, if you never really "got" Batman before this, or if you have no opinion of Christian Bale (although, ladies, do go out and rent Batman Begins if you haven't already seen it because they didn't feel the need to show off his muscular physique in this one!). True, I would have probably enjoyed this movie simply because of my aforementioned biases, but what really made it such a great moviegoing experience for me was Heath Ledger's stellar performance as the Joker and the conception of that character in general, its commentary on the definition and expectations of a hero, and the examination of chaos theory and morality (I know, I'm a HUGE nerd!). I would love to have a cool discussion about this, so please comment away (and check this out for some really interesting thoughts about the moral instinct, especially the trolley car thought experiment on page 2 since that's how I connected the dots between The Dark Knight and this article...and no, I have not abandoned becoming a surgeon in favor of psychiatry yet). That is all.

Seriously?!

This has to be a joke, right? Someone please investigate this matter and tell me where and when the retraction will be printed.

My Typology

As part of orientation (it hasn't emerged just how it will fit in, although I can venture an educated guess), I was asked to take this quiz to see what type of Jung personality I have. It was pretty fun and I always enjoy seeing how I stack up on these things (you should check it out too and learn something about yourself today!). The official result is that I am a:

• slightly expressed introvert
  
• slightly expressed intuitive personality
  
• distinctively expressed feeling personality
  
• distinctively expressed judging personality

Not surprisingly, I was put in the idealist category! More specifically, I am an idealist counselor. One of the suggested careers was that of a psychiatrist- over the last few years, I have thought more and more that that would be a good career choice for me and apparently Jung agrees. I'm curious, do you think this is an accurate picture of me? I think it's pretty true, but I want to know what those on the outside of this mind of mine think, so I better see some comments, people!

Last Week!

In case you haven't been checking my countdown regularly, I just thought I would remind everyone that this is my last week in the lab- EVER! I cannot truly express my excitement at the moment, but it feels very liberating knowing that only four more days after today will be spent toiling away at a job I can't stand, working with (some) people who have no idea how to organize themselves, and just counting the hours until I can go home to my puppy, good book, and wonderful boyfriend. YAY!

Happy Fourth of July (Sans Fireworks)!

Well, I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. I have been so caught up in getting things ready for school and the move that Independence Day just snuck up on me this year. Last year, Alex and I made a concerted effort to find a place that does a proper firework show and we didn't even end up going to the closest one we found because it was supposed to rain and we figured it would be really crowded. We decided a good solution was to go to a Tigers game and had fully intended to do so this year. But, with the aforementioned sneaking by the Fourth and our desire to have a BBQ outweighing our desire to see the fireworks, we opted for our little spot on Barton Pond instead. No fighting for a spot with a grill, just enjoying the gorgeous weather and an extra day off.

Before that, we went to Ikea, a place I already knew I loved, to pick out some essentials for our new home. We were so good about refraining from buying anything now (we're going to keep our moving truck for an extra day after arriving in DC so that we can get all the stuff we selected) and I'm really pleased with the things we found. So even though we won't have a fully furnished house at first (that's a lot of fs!), we will have a sofa bed and two chairs for the living room, a dining room table with four chairs, and a new bed and mattress, which is reason enough to celebrate considering what a P.O.S. our current bed is.

Alex had to work a little on both Saturday and Sunday (boo!), but we went to this park on Sunday evening. We did some swimming (Alex, Buttercup, me), reading (me), and fishing (Alex) and since our spot was far enough away from other people, Buttercup had her first real taste of off-leash freedom- she was a fan! Doesn't she look like she's on the hunt in this picture? I love it!I also think it's so adorable how much of an interest she has taken in fish- she's the perfect dog for Alex. Here she is admiring Alex's crappie.