Oy vey

I'm like a studying MACHINE! .... And it's no fun at all. :(

Happy (Early) Halloweenie

This second-half of the semester has brought with it the usual turmoil. I have about a million exams between now and Thanksgiving break, three presentations, and not enough time to do it all. As always, I kind of feel stressed (understatement???) and the urge to yank my eyes out has taken hold of me lately. But somehow I always make it to that glorious four-day weekend to eat lots of turkey and kick ass in Mariokart, so I guess this year will be no different. My life will just suck a little bit more than it has in weeks past, that's all.

Aside from that, I've had to pay car insurance, rent, and the cable bill within the last three days. So I pretty much feel like I'm passing money out--anyone else?? Anyone?

I used to see a bunch of turkeys just about everyday on my way to and from class. I live kind of out in the woods, so I see quite a bit of wildlife actually. Particularly, these two 10+ groups of turkeys that always want to cross the road as soon as I get close. The past few weeks I haven't seen them at all. I'm a little worried they became somebody's dinner.

I bought a candle. Studying is slightly less terrible when bathed in its soothing flame. :D

I went to my nursing home and had my own patient and everything. I was pretty nervous but it went just fine. There was a fourth-year pharmacy student there to help us out, and she was so smart OMG. The distance between me and her is just.... wow. I'm not sure how in the world two years could bring me that far, but I'm hopeful she's not unique.

Almost all the leaves have fallen here, and the mornings involve scraping frost off my car. I'm not so quick on the "leave earlier to make it to class on time" lesson, but I'll get there.

Have a Happy Halloween. :)

It's 25 degrees out? Really???

I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for this part of the year at all.

School woes

My nursing home visit yesterday didn't really go well. In fact, it didn't go at all. My partner and I arrived right on time, when we were promptly told that they had not prepared for us and therefore we would have to reschedule. This is irritating to me because I arranged this nearly a month ago, specifically picked this week because I have no exams, and now I have to go back next Monday, the day before my Pharmacology exam. As much as I hate studying, I was planning on studying then. *headdesk*

On top of that, my Microbiology & Immunology professor, Dr. Ryan, went on for sixty-five non-stop minutes about mycoplasma tuberculosis. Now, I'm a big nerd myself, so I appreciate a good discussion about bacteria every now and then, but sixty-five minutes??? By the time that was over, I was practically desperate to talk about ANYthing else. And I kind of wanted to jump off a building.

After Micro, I stopped outside of Dr. Boncher's lab, because in three weeks my partner and I are supposed to give a presentation about a new hypertension drug in front of her and my class. So we checked in to see what day we were supposed to present. Right next to our names, in bold and all capitals, she'd written SEE ME ASAP. This is never a good sign. We went and saw her and she said something like, "Oh gee, I signed you up for a drug which I had already assigned another group to do. So you'll have to pick something else."

Are you effing kidding me???? This wouldn't be a big deal or anything, but Tuesday afternoon I spent about three hours gathering, literally, ALL MY MATERIAL for that presentation. Once this week is over my exams will start again, and now that my nursing home visit has been pushed back, I won't have time for anything else. Now I have to start this friggin' thing all over from the horrible beginning. OMG OHGjdaslkjgfaklsjdfa;sldkj. *COMPLAINS*

Oh well. F you pharmacy school. I'll get you back one of these days.

Jim-Bugs

Jim-bo: "Hey I have a question; do you girls wash your new underwear before actually wearing them?"

O_O

Everything!

"The best thing that could happen would be for it not to happen." -- Dr. Ryan on the "Bird Flu"


Last Tuesday the Mom and Daddy-pants came allllll the way up to Big Rapids just to see me!! I was so excited!! The weather was very uncooperative, and most of the day we enjoyed cold, nasty rain. BOO. Upon reaching my house however, we all decided we wanted to drive to the west coast of Michigan to visit our favorite lighthouse, Little Sable Point, the most beautiful you ever will see!! We drove forever looking for the coast (we figured west would be a good start, but apparently they moved the damn thing on us!), the whole time with the same crap-ass rain. We finally got to the shore and, quite miraculously, the clouds parted and we had some Heaven-sent blue sky! The same exact thing happened last year! It's as if the sun always shines on it. ;) I've seen the lighthouse now three times, and each time has been just as enjoyable. It's like a painting it's so beautiful, and you can't take a bad picture of it. Unless you really suck balls, which I like to hope I don't. I uploaded everything I took to my Flickr gallery, if anyone wants to see more photos of it. :)

We stopped at an orchard to pick up Honey Crisp apples (the most delicious, OMG!), and then made the trip back to Big Rapids for some shopping and dinner. I was immensely sad to see them go home, but I had a wonderful time and I'll be happy to visit them in just a few weeks for Thanksgiving. :D

The rest of the week was spent studying of course. Generic and boring as usual. Ah, pharmacy school--you never let me down.

I had a great weekend too! I visited Mike up north, and we went to his high school's last home football game! It was great fun and I got to meet several of his fellow teachers. Benzi kicked ass too, but I must say it was weird being back on a high school football field. It made me realize it's been four and a half years since I graduated, and that's a long time. Suddenly it went from being just yesterday to "a long time ago." And my boyfriend is a friggin' teacher, for crying out loud. Geeeez. I'm so proud of him though, everyone just loves him there and he's doing so wonderful! :D

Saturday we spent several hours cleaning his new classroom and his office so it actually looks like his room now. He seemed very happy to get that accomplished. Then we drove to Traverse City for a dinner date, which was very nice. :) He bought a 4 X 8 foot sheet of plywood to make a podium out of, which we had to strap to his car (oh man, what a great story this will make) and drive thirty miles back to Benzonia. Let's just say lots of people passed us.

Sunday was my first experience with baking real cookies. Mike burned a nice portion of skin off his left hand, and I got cookie dough all over. How does Mom do it by herself???

This week is catch-up week for me, but it's nice to not have all the stress of upcoming exams. Tomorrow I'm visiting a nursing home to meet my very first patient ever! Geez, I'm a little nervous, but excited to take another step forward. :)

The Roller Coast

I had a great weekend. Great weekend. Between my mass amount of exams in the past week and a half, lack of sleep, and Mike adjusting to his new teaching lifestyle, we were both in bad need of a break from life and some time with each other. He, Beth and I went to Cedar Point on Saturday evening for their HalloWeekends event, and it was a blast! I used to be braver when it came to riding roller coasters back when I was younger, but I still road a few and had an awesome time. Mike and Beth went on the Top Thrill Dragster--the one that you go straight up at 120mph--and I definitely stayed firmly planted on the ground. Seemed like a good decision on my part! ;)

Today Mike and I just got to spend a relaxing day together, without teaching or pharmacy school or anything else. With so much going on in our separate lives lately, it sometimes gets harder to make time for each other. It was just what we needed though, and next weekend I'll be up in Benzonia helping him clean up his classroom! :D

This week I've got a lot of catch-up to do--not school-wise but social-wise!! I want to make a lot of phone calls and on Tuesday the Parents are coming up to visit me all day! I'm so excited! We'll be driving north a bit to see our favorite lighthouse. :) Other than that, just get ahead of the game in class. This marks the halfway point through the semester for me, and probably the last lull before finals and Christmas break. Oh my gosh, it feels like it goes so fast. And you know what I think about that? Gooooooooooooood. :D

Shrutiness!

Shruti is so damned quotable it's sick sometimes!

Me: "I could make a video. I'd call it, 'Pharmacy Girls Gone WILD!'"
Shruti: "AHAHAHAHA. I'd rather see, 'Pharmacy Girls Gettin' HIGH!' Seems more appropriate."

Dr. Potter: "I usually get to a point in test-writing when I sit back and say, 'Okay, it's time to throw in some easy ones.' I don't think I got to that point with this exam."
Student: "We noticed."

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I'm currently being bombarded with exams. It's like World War II or something. But once it's over, I'll have a glorious six whole days before my next exam, which means I can relax this weekend!! Cedar Point!!! *SQUEE*

Jimmy-bob

My landlord, Jim-bo (as I like to call him in private), lives upstairs in my house and Beth and I live downstairs. He's in his early forties we're pretty sure, and for the most part he's never home and doesn't bother us. In fact, he keeps the weirdest hours. He's usually up and long gone by the time I get up to get ready for class (and I have early classes everyday), and usually he doesn't come home until ten or so. It's a huge mystery, what he does all day. We have no idea. But we rarely see him, hear him, or come across him at all. It's kind of nice.

But we do come across him, and sometimes the encounters are... unusual.

First of all, he always has an alcoholic drink. Wine, a beer, a rum and coke, it never fails. I eventually started thinking judgmentally about this, and my thoughts went from "he has a little bit of a problem" to pretty much diagnosing him as a mild alcoholic (if there were such a thing?). You just don't drink by yourself. Don't do it. If you do, go into your bathroom, look in the mirror and say, "Self, you have a horrible problem." That will be the first step of many for you.

Secondly, he got divorced just a couple years ago, so now this house he used to share with his wife and daughter is empty with just him and... we sexy girls downstairs. So needless to say, he gets pretty lonely and sometimes it's obvious. Usually when he's really lonely is when he comes down to chat with us for a minute, about absolutely nothing, honestly. He's my landlord--not my buddy. He's a nice guy and I like him, but we're not chums, if you get my drift. So sometimes when he comes down to say hi, it's just downright awkward. And he never comes downstairs with the intent of asking us something, or telling us something. It's usually just a brief, awkward conversation (sometimes he even sits down--OMG) after which he goes back up to his spider hole, leaving Beth and I to gossip in heated whispers in his wake.

Yesterday was a new, very different encounter. I was studying in my room, which is right next to the laundry room doorway. We all share the laundry room of course, so whenever Jim comes down to wash his clothes, he has to look into my room because it's practically impossible not to if my door is open. So he comes down last night to do what I thought was laundry, but after passing the washing machine, the dryer, and continuing right on towards the refrigerator that Beth and I share alone, I realized he had different intentions. He opened up our fridge and promptly asked, "Are those you're mini-Diet Cokes? I'm out and I'm craving one. Can you spare?"

Alright. I'm not a selfish person, so I let him have one of course. But you have to realize that I'm very obsessive compulsive when it comes to things. For instance, every morning I take one of those miniature Cokes to class to help me wake up, and I buy enough every week for just one per day. Yesterday I had four left, one for every day for the rest of the week. Now, after Jim had his fill, I only had three. Which means one day gets sacrificed. Which day, OMG???

After taking the Coke, Jim did absolutely nothing else but go upstairs. Which meant one huge thing--he knew those Cokes were in there. That was the only reason he came down. This could only mean that he'd been in our refrigerator before, and checked out our stuff. I realize this is his house and he owns that fridge, but I'm paying him full rent every month, and the downstairs area as far as I'm concerned is mine so long as I'm paying for it. Anyway, he shouldn't be snooping in our fridge when he's got one of his own upstairs.

I tell all of this to Beth of course, and then she brings up that she's also missing two eggs. After confirming that I hadn't used them, we concluded there was only one culprit. I mean geez, we're a couple of broke-ass college kids with barely enough money to buy our own food, and our forty-something landlord is taking what he needs from our refrigerator. At first we just laughed it off, but the more I thought about it, the more angry I felt. I don't have a ton of money for food, so it's a big deal when someone eats my stuff. It's one thing for Beth and I to share amongst ourselves, but he didn't even ask.

Additionally (Oh Mrs. Forshee, how I love transition words!), while I was away helping Mike move this weekend, Jim-bo had some company over, and apparently there were like eight kids here or something ridiculous like that (glad I missed it). But Beth said she came out of her room because she heard some noise, and all of those rugrats were in my room! They were chilling out on my chair, huddling around my fish bowl and probably scaring the ba-Jesus out of poor Benzi.

*Grumble* So I guess I'll have to keep tabs on my food from now on, and close my bedroom door if I'm gone for the weekend so the hooligans aren't tempted again. *puffs*

And here's an AWARD for anyone who read that loooooooooooooong ass thing all the way through! :D