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| I went to my first drug rep dinner tonight. It was at a really fancy restaurant called the Lodge, and it's featured in a book of top "spectacular" restaurants in Texas. (Their word, not mine). The building used to be a mansion, and we had the dinner in this smaller cottage-type house adjacent to the mansion. Four courses: salad, orecchiette pasta with duck confit, salmon with pineapple salsa, and a "Nutella souffle-inspired flourless cake" which I would sum up in a word: "decadent." Top that off with a couple glasses of wine, and now I'm sitting here trying to "inspire" myself to study for my pharm final that's on Thursday. Let me tell you, life's hard at times. Chase got invited to this dinner by his residents who got rewarded with this dinner for the best attendance at lunch conferences. Whatever, a room full of doctors, a little promotional talk for a new insulin pen, and I get an excuse to stop studying for a few hours.
An aside: Gina gave me some gummy vitamin bears that tasted good, but now I have this chalky, nasty aftertaste that's bugging me.
Earlier today while studying, I looked out the window and saw one of the campus landscapers removing old flowers from some giant pots we have in front. I liked watching him work because you could tell he enjoyed doing what he was doing. He would carefully dig his trowel into the soil, lever the roots out, and gently shake out the soil from the root hairs before throwing the old flowers into a plastic bag. It seemed a job that could be hastily done, but he took a lot of great care in doing it. If the plant was still producing flowers, he placed it in a smaller pile on the truck bed. I wondered what he was going to do with the good ones - move them elsewhere? put them in his own garden at home? It made me want to garden. I couldn't help but think of the analogy of God separating the sheep and goats (which always made me wonder, what were so bad about goats and so good about sheep?) except in this case, he literally threw away the plants that weren't producing fruit and kept the ones that were. Anyways, that was my deep thought for the day.
By the way, this entry's for you, Paul Park. 
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| Yesterday a bunch of medical students were studying for our psychopathology exam at Starbucks. All of a sudden, a women came out of the adjacent Chick-fil-a and started walking around the parking lots and shouting things (I was inside studying, this is based on eyewitness accounts). She eventually made her way onto the street facing Starbucks (and overly-interested customers). People began to approach her (to help her and calm her down), and in response to this, she took off her clothes and began to roll around on the ground until EMS came, covered her in a yellow, plastic tarp, and took her away.
According to Chase, psychosis is when something inside a person is telling them an unconventional action in response to their environment is "a really good idea."
Needless to say, psychopath suddenly got a lot more interesting after that.
On a somewhat related note, I think public health efforts to reduce alcoholic intoxication and addiction should direct their marketing towards promoting the fact that alcohol causes impotence. I would think for all those men of machismo and frat boys who measure their studliness in pints, that might be a bigger blow than cirrhosis and chronic pancreatitis.
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| Back in the day, I used to sleep anywhere from 4-6 hours a night on average. Ever since high school probably. I even did the rare all-nighter a couple of times in my life. Of course, when I was on vacation or it was a weekend, I'd sleep in if I could. Don't get me wrong, I love sleep. Let me correct myself: my body loves sleep. Against my will, it seems at times. I'd almost like to self-diagnose myself as a narcoleptic except for the fact that I've never literally fallen asleep in mid-sentence or while driving. But I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, in almost any seemingly awkward and painfully contorted positions, in a matter of minutes. In the mornings, I usually found myself sprawled on my bed, the lights still on, and pens and papers crumpled 'neath my tired, weary body. There are a plethora of photos documenting my many sleeping positions. Naps were my forte, but mere little interruptions in my busy lifestyle.
Of course, I speak in past-tense because those days (or nights) are no longer. Thanks to the insistence of Chase, who's nagged and nagged (yes, I'm normally the nagger in the relationship, except when it comes to sleep), until I learned to turn the light off at a reasonable hour, crawl into bed, and snooze a solid 6-8 hours. I know, 8 hours?? some of you may ask incredulously. It's crazy, but now my body's loving the sleep, and it wants more. And I give it more. To most people I know, 7 hours is a luxury, but to me, it's becoming kind of normal. Now, to try to sleep less, my body doth protests. And those naps I spoke so fondly of? Pretty much non-existent (except for lazy Sunday afternoons...naps are so hard to run away from on those days).
I used to pride myself on the few hours that it seemed my body thrived on. It's kind of bragging rights if you're hanging out in the right circles (probably the overly-caffeinated, irritable, high-strung circle), to proudly gripe on how you only got a few hours of sleep the night before to cram in extra studying. But Chase does have a point - you do end up making better usage of the hours you are awake. And have I cut back on caffeine? No, but rather than it being the thing keeping me awake in the morning, it just makes me a more friendly person. It's like I do society a favor by starting my day with it, so out of courtesy, I won't desist on that.
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| It's the end of an era...Today was the last day of classes. Translation: the last day I'll have to sit in a lecture hall for a basic science course. I celebrated it by not going. Okay, playing hooky wasn't really an act of celebration (come on, that's so senior year of high school).
This week we also officially passed down the powers of AMWA officer-ship, and I finally reclaimed trunk space when I gave months of extracurricular-doo-dah to the upcoming president. I told her, "I'm not really a pack rat, but I was for AMWA because you never knew when something would come in handy one day." And it's true - for example, I used leftover Starbucks straws from an AMWA event for a Frontera health fair. I have to be honest - I like being in the helms of leadership. I like getting stressed, I like hating making phone calls and emailing, I love delegating, and I like giving little pep talks. To all that, Chase just rolls his eyes and thinks I should go into academic medicine so I can stay involved in "organizations" and "panels" and have "luncheons" and what not.
Now I just have to be in study mode for the next 8 weeks of my life. More or less. 2 weeks of final exams, 6 weeks of studying for the Step. Which will probably mean I'll update my xanga more.
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| There are moments when I come across someone or an event and think, "Man, I wish I was doing that!" Not that I'm not happy becoming a medical professional, but it's more of a pang of regret akin to wondering why I'm not more like Hermione when she's given the power to be in two places at once to accomplish more.
1.) For instance, top of the list, hands-down: Photographer. I think that's such a cool job if you get the acknowledgment. I think one of my favorite photographers is actually a guy who used to be in my high school class - Mark Mulligan. One of my favorite things about him and that makes me want to be a photographer is his ability to capture the right moment: a quick sideways glance, the peak of someone's astonishment, a raised eyebrow... what makes people people, essentially.
2.) Secondly, a writer. Novelist. I don't want to be like the high-grossing author who write trash. I don't mind a small devoted following. Only to be discovered and highly acclaimed after my death. Actually, that can be cross-applied to everything I list. It seems like such a great hurrah to life to be immortalized in that way. I mean, sure the accolades are good when you're alive, but the postmortem approach just seems so much more tragic and Romantic (with the capital "R").
3.) A Starbucks barista. Because not only are they some of the coolest people ever, you can really make anyone's day by giving them that free drink. Wave the cash away, give them a wink, and mouth, "Don't worry about it." And also it feels like a secret society such as when they close down all the Starbucks and force me to type away in the library like I'm in first-year all over again.
4.) A baker. Like on Ace of Cakes. Because I think being able to siphon out swirls of pastel icing is just a great skill to have in life that has cross-applications everywhere.
5.) A cheese maker. Oh, my gosh, I wish I could make cheese. Mozzarella. Chase and I have had more than one conversation on this. He's more of a hard cheese aficionado, but I think the actual process of making Mozzarella cheese looks so fun with their elasticity. Plus, I could own a herd of water buffalo (because as you may very well already know, real Mozzarella cheese is made from water buffalo milk.)
6.) A sommelier. Also known as a wine expert who knows how to pair a meal with excellent wine. I think a person looks so cool swirling that dark ruby elixir in his/her glass, peering through the liquid with scrutiny, taking a swig, and spitting it right back out. And all the while being respected by their peers.
I really could go on and on, but I supposed I've spent enough time on this. It's not like I couldn't do these things as a hobby, but certainly now is not the time to explore that. I gots to study.
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