Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Well, it stopped raining for awhile and I had nice weather on my drive to meet Nick, my T3 who went over my phase 2 exam and taught me about the stuff I'll have to do next year. It took 2 hours but since I learned how to do the admission note, it was time well spent. Wiese was very generous with his grading so I ended up with 100% but he was grading more for the process rather than the right answer but I got both so hey, double bonus for me. I just hope I can do that well next year. It's all a learning process and it turns out that for the first month, we're not expected to be good at anything so that's even more to be happy about! It's going to be fun next year!
Now there's another thunderstorm and after a quick flash of lightning, there was a very very very very loud and long crash of thunder that shook the walls. I miss the light rains of Eugene. It better be nice tomorrow!
~me~ at 6:30 PM

It's raining today. That sucks. What also sucks is that I have to go uptown to meet my 3rd year preceptor to go over my phase 2 exam and then to discuss the fun events awaiting me come july. That part isn't so bad but I hate driving in thunderstorms. Hopefully it will calm down by 5 but the radar doesn't look to hopeful since it's only clouds over the entire state. Oh and the thought of having to parallel park also sends shivers down my spine. I'll just drive around until I find an easy pull in spot. I bought a bunch of books yesterday. I got the 50th anniversary copy of Animal Farm (I like that book) and a couple of c.s. lewis books in the space trilogy (the 3rd isn't out from this particular publisher yet). Last night I ended up being the only one from my school at the church thing so I felt abandoned and annoyed since they're the reasons why I agreed to go in the first place. It's so weird listening to people who seem to be overly religious. One guy kept saying "in the scriptures..." and that started to get a bit annoying especially since he was so soft spoken that it was hard to hear what he was saying. It seems like most of these new people I met have ceased to challenge the idea of how true the biblical accounts of the bible are once they decided to believe in everything the church tells them to believe and that everything is black and white. At one point people started to refute evolution. I didn't say anything in defense of it since it seemed futile. There have been very religious people who have been the biggest supporters of evolution and wrote about it in support but since I couldn't think of any names, I just kept quiet. Oh and apparently no belief in god means that you live with satan but if you don't believe in god, how can you believe in his enemy? If no heaven, then there can be no hell. You can't know one without knowing or believing in the other just as you can't truely know hot if you've never felt cold or hate someone unless you've once loved them. I realized though that as little as I've gone to church since getting confirmed in high school, it doesn't feel right unless certain things happen or don't happen at a mass (like communion - I like that cracker). These nondenominational churches seem to be too theatrical for my tastes to the point that it feels fake. And yet the catholic church that I went to last year for ash wednesday with Amber and Ricky seemed too strict and rigid compared to the one back home. I guess the best example of this is when during the senatorial election, the candidates often resorted to accusing each other of not being proper catholics. Maybe it's a southern thing.
~me~ at 1:29 PM

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Today I met up with Dr. Long and his wife, Judy. I never realize how little impressive my med school building is until I have to show it to people. We skipped the embryology collection (babies in jars) since we were going to lunch after and we also skipped the hallway of body parts (body parts in jars) and really, those are the most intriguing things in the med school. But we then had a very yummy lunch at Lebanon's Cafe and caught up on what's been happening. Apparently many of his students come to tell him family members have died or are dying around exam times and that at one point, someone told him her dog died. This was after I told him how I got an absence excused for pharm lab since I completely forgot about it (Dr. Kahn's response: "hey, it happens to all of us at one point. No problem!").
Tonight I'm going to the Alpha Dinner thing at Tristan's church with a bunch of my classmates. I figure it's about time I learn a little about this catholic thing...not that I didn't learn anything from all those years of sunday school...But since Tristan and Shannon have been asking me if I wanted to go to church with them all the time, I thought I'd go to this. They think many people need to be saved. I guess that's the way non catholic christian people think. Eh, it's been interesting so far and it's free with free yummy food so why not!
~me~ at 5:21 PM

Monday, March 24, 2003

Hmmm...so far most deaths of coalition forces have been from "friendly fire." And I guess a us soldier attacked his own (missed most of the details on that one since I was outside enjoying the lovely warm weather). On today's agenda is to go shopping. I need a dress for Cadaver Ball next week and a purse to match the dress I'm wearing to the LSU scut monkey ball. Jeff told Heather that he would go if I agreed to go with him so I said I'd go. It should be interesting since even though it's just another group of med students, it's people I've never met before (including a former Miss Louisiana). And apparently I need to replace my filter for my AC vent every 3 months and since it's been over a year, I'm going to do that today. I will also work on pathology and look over some study questions for the board exam. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Dr. Long and his wife to give them a short tour of the school and then go to lunch. Dr. Long was one of my favorite profs at Oregon and he's here for the annual American Chemical Society meeting. Well, I'm off to start the day!

~me~ at 9:34 AM