Whew… nice to just sit down and take a breather. Its funny having time to sit and post a blog in the middle of the day again. These last few weeks have been sooo hectic!

The coordinator on the project I’m working finally came back from vacation so I don’t have nearly as much work to do. I’M SO HAPPY. Really, the stress associated with my job just pretty much cut in half almost. I can now focus a lot more energy to writing my paper, which is good. I also will have more time to just relax and have a real summer!

Good times.

Wow… its July already?

Yeah, so…. wow.

Its July. June like… flew by.  Lots of things happened.

I’m doing a summer research program at my school. Its going well. I’m researching patient-level barriers to participation in smoking cessation programs, specifically in low-income African-American smokers. I am well on my way to getting published, which was my major goal for the summer so I’m happy. Even though I’m working hard. 

I’m getting started on the data analyses this week, which will end up being the meat of the paper. Unfortunately, I don’t know very much about advanced statistics so its a little bit of a challenge, but I think I’ll be alright.

Also, I’m helping out with a couple of pipeline programs. I help out with 2 programs, in addition to my summer research, which was actually supposed to be a 40 hour/wk commitment. I have the bad habit of over commiting myself. Sometimes I feel like I’m being stretched a million different directions, but I like what I’m doing. My research has a health disparities focus and the whole mentoring thing is a lot of fun. The students are pretty cool, and so SMART. It blows me.

So, I’m yeah a little bit busy, but also I’m gettin paid, which is nice. Its nice to have some money that isn’t loan money lol. Its also nice to not be bored. I had some classmates who’s projects didn’t exactly pan out for them, and I’m glad that that didn’t happen to me.

I’m also moving this month, which is exciting for me. I found a great deal on an apartment. Its so cute, and I really think I’m going to like living there. I’ve been searching for a spot for a couple of months now, so I’m really happy I found one. I took the house search really seriously because, honestly, I don’t want to have to move again, so I want to make sure I’m somewhere where I can be HAPPY.

Its such a cute little spot! Its got hardwood floors throughout, lots of sunlight, A DECK, and most importantly its very, VERY cheap. I really don’t feel like its lacking for quality due to the price. The living room is a little bit small, but its got a good sized kitchen, lots of light, lots of closets, and a really good sized bedroom.The size is like… perfect for me though. I’m excited.

My landlord speaks very limited English. I don’t know if that’s going to be a problem or not, but he calls me “Fruit”. Long story how that came about, but it makes things awkward sometimes.

But umm… yeah. That’s my life. In a blog post.

Tata for now!

Sick and shut in….

I caught the flu last week and spent the entire weekend sick and in bed. I’m just now recovering, but really it couldn’t have come at a worse time because I had sooo many things I wanted to do that just got pushed aside.

Oh well.

last final tomorrow

Yeah, so I’m here getting ready to begin studying for my last final of the YEAR. It feels so amazing to say that.

I cannot WAIT for tomorrow. I don’t even know what I’m going to do when I walk out of that room after the test. I wish I knew how to turn a cartwheel because I feel like that would be the most appropriate thing to do.

Tomorrow, I will be a second year medical student. Wowzers…..

Wow! I can’t believe I let so much time go by without updating! I guess I’ve been busy. I went home for an Memorial Day weekend to spend some time with my family, and I had so many things to do before I left, and now I gave to spend the next couple of days playing catch up.

Its the end of the quarter so things are both winding down and wrapping up, if that makes any sense lol.

I cannot WAIT for school to be over, though! All my friends in medical school have pretty much finished their first year for the most part. It seems like every day I see a new facebook status update with some going “YEAAAAH! FIRST YEAR FINISHED! THANK YOU JESUS!”

And I’m over here just chugging along lol.

But yeah.

I’m back in school. Back in Chicago. And its cold and rainy.

Sigh.

Medical Genetics Sucks.

Tis all.

Clinic Tonight, Neuro Tomorrow… I’m Excited!

I have a Neuro test tomorrow. I’m in the library now, about to begin my first leg of marathon studying. Then I’m going to clinic tonight, and when I get back, I’ll start my second leg. I’m excited about clinic tonight. I’ve trained myself to think of clinic as fun, as a stress reliever, as a form of relaxation.

Oh when I say clinic I mean the clinic the the medical school runs at the battered women’s shelter. I am on the board, and we have the obligation to lead clinic twice per quarter.It’s crazy how I somehow always manage to get clinic on the night before a test. Like, it almost never fails. Its okay though.

I’m sure that I’ll do well on Neuro tomorrow. To me, the material isn’t all that complicated, its just that its a lot of it. It was worse in the beginning of the year when I had like ZERO memorization skills. Now that I’ve developed some (through some SERIOUS trial and error) things aren’t nearly as bad.

TIP: One trick that I use to memorize details is that I make questions. Whenever I go through a slide or reading material, rather than just taking notes, I always create questions on whatever important points that I want to take away from the source. At the end of my first run through of material, I usually have like…70-100 questions to go through. I then quiz myself, and for whichever one’s I get wrong, I make sure to go back and re-read that section/slide. Then I go through the questions again. Its a quick and dirty way to practice for the test AND is especially helpful in remembering convoluted and random facts that are seemingly unrelated; you will constantly encounter stuff like that in medical school lol.

But yeah. For some reason doing questions just makes things stick better lol.

Anyways, enough of that. Gotta get back to studying.

On the side note. Me and The Boy are on the rocks. I’m so irritated with him now, its not even funny. But I’ll probably write more on that tomorrow, after I’ve slain The Beast that is Neuro Test #2.

Tata for now!

I still love the Weekends!

I had so much fun this past weekend! Yesterday we had a dinner party for two of our classmates. It was a great time. Around 20+ people came out to dinner, and we had this loooooong table set out for us. The food was just okay, though.

I don’t know if I’m cut out for the fancy-schmancy restaurant thing, to be perfectly honest. Every time I’ve gone to one, I just wasn’t that excited about the food. Give me my chain restaurants: Cheesecake Factory, Carrabas… and my take out joints:  Uncle Joe’s Jerk, Harold’s Chicken, Yum’s Chinese, and of course, my fast food: Popeye’s chicken, Mickey D’s, Checkers and I’m happy!

I am a woman of simple tastes, ya dig?

Anyways, afterwards we went out clubbing. I had a great time. Danced a lot. Got extreeeeemely tipsy! Afterwards, I decided to sleep over at The Boy’s house, which may not have been the best idea lol! We got up late this morning, ate some food and decided to do an assignment that we have due tomorrow. So the time comes for me to leave, and what do you know….. We WOULD see 3 of our classmates walking out of his building at the exact same time as us! And worse part is they all came to the party last night, and there I was wearing the exact same clothes from last night!

Walk of shame… and I’m not even in college!!! And nothing between us has even happened like that! We just like cuddling. He’s a great cuddler.

I guess it only an issue because we’re trying to keep things on the low. Since we have all the same friends and things, we’re trying to minimize the awkwardness.

And believe me, it was soooooo awkward! But that’s what comes with dating someone in your class I guess. Haha.

I can laugh about it now, but I’m certain I must have just looked PURPLE at the time cuz I’m SURE I was blushing lol.

Anyways, that’s that! I’m going to try to get my mind back into school mode. I have a very busy week ahead of me!

Lol…. so I passed the Epi midterm. It really wasn’t that bad, in hindsight.I just let myself get worked up about things sometimes lol.

I’m looking forward to the weekend though. Tonight I plan on going downtown to do some lightweight shopping. I need some jewelry and running shoes.

Tomorrow I’ll probably do a protein treatment on my hair and then do some studying for Neuro. In the evening, I have a birthday dinner that I organized for a couple of classmates. I’ve invited some old college friends and will probably be going out afterward so that will be fun.

Also the weather has been nice, so I’ve been in a pretty good mood.

Truthfully, school isn’t SO stressful this quarter, or maybe I just have a better handle on dealing with my stress, because I have been really busy. Who knows.

My summer research stuff has been going okay. I’ve even started some preliminary writing. If everything goes the way I want, I will have authored my first publication and will be working on my second by the end of the summer. I’m not going to be able to get first authorship on this one, but hopefully I’ll be able to get it on the second one.

What else is going on…. oh yeah. I’m going home next weekend! Exciting. I really need to get away. Chicago is fun, but its totally consuming. I just want to get some of my life back lol. Also, I will be attending my older sis’ graduation so that should be fun.

Yup. So  just one more month of school and then I’m freeeeeeeeeeeeeee….. to go and focus on research lol.

Ah well.

AAAAAAH!

I have an Epidemiology test in less than 2 hours, and I am freaking out!

What the heck???! I hate EPI!

Actually, I don’t hate it. I just don’t like my class. And we’ve been in school since the first of August. I am losing my drive. And my motivation.

School just keeps dragging on and I still have another month of this madness.

After that, I don’t even get a real break! I’ve got summer research crap.

*sobs*

Sometimes I really wonder what on earth POSSESSED me to sign myself up for this crap.

*sighs*