So I was cleaning a box out and found this piece of paper with a link on it and realized it was this blog.  I tried it out and lo!  Here I am, apparently.  I am just over 4 months away from graduating from med school.

Yesterday in between studying I finished John Grisham's The Associate.  I thought it was good in a fast and easy reading kind of way.  When I was younger I would not have liked the dangled endings, not at all.  I liked my books tidily cleaned up at the end - resolution was important to me back then.  These days, I don't mind it at all. I think it might be because of several reasons.  One, life rarely has tidy endings.  Being more maturer than I used to be, I can allow that untidiness to follow me into my entertainment and I don't get bothered by it so much.  Secondly, I have a much stronger sense of participation in the creative process that the author shares in writing his or her story.  By that I mean that if the main character gets dangled at the end I can come up with and settle upon a more agreeable resolution in my own mind and accept it.  So maybe in the end I'm not so much un-bothered by it as much as I am simply extending the writer's idea and ending it on my own terms.  If I care to think about it much at all.

I am studying neuropharmacology today, along with how to conduct a GI-focused history and exam.  I'll have an opportunity for a practical test on the latter in about a week and I'll need to practice for it.  Neuropharm is interesting, today's topics include antidepressants, sedatives and anxiolytics.  I'm going to also delve into cardiology, too.  Hopefully.  I'm shooting for about 10 hours of study today.  I've stopped going to classes except for when it's required.

Right now my goal is simply to stay current with the lectures from the day before (always trying to catch up to yesterday) and then catching up on Friday's lectures on Saturday, with time left over every day for review.  Time to study...

Wow! I just finished Anathem by Neal Stephenson. I had to skim the last hundred pages or so because I am kind of running out of time, what with 3 exams coming up but I couldn't put it down. After such a long and detailed run up to the end, the end felt rushed. I supposed that, as the author points out through one of his characters, that is a defining characteristic of 'emergent' situations and maybe that's all well and good. Well, it may have had something to do with my skimming. I enjoyed this book of his much more than any of the others I have tried to read. They've all been entertaining but this was much better, sort of a maturer version of his writing. After this I am tempted to check out the baroque cycle, but not for awhile.

I have a GI (gastrointestinal) test on Friday, a Surgical skills assessment (must get 90%!) on Friday and a pharmacology test a week from today, so I'd better get to work.

2nd year med school is much harder than 1st year but it is a lot more fun. Er...enjoyable...or...something. I think it is that the material is more about what I will do when I get into the clinics rather than leading up to that material, which is what 1st year is about.

I found out that I love tying knots. It's very therapeutic. You should try it!!

Wow! Long time no post!

I dropped into to look at NaNoWriMo and saw this blog was attached to my profile there and thought I'd better log into my blog and...blog...something.

Here it is!

I'm now a 2nd year med student and would love to hang around and write a much longer, more detailed post. But! I can't! I still have 5 lectures to summarize and review before the test tomorrow morning! And I am behind in pharmacology and OMM! I must hurry!

Maybe I'll post more some later time...

I have decided to go to Des Moines University. There are a lot of advantages to staying here in Des Moines. We'll keep our house (well, we'll keep it until we are too poor...), the kids get to keep their friends and my wife and I will be able to keep our friends, too. Des Moines is a pretty good place. Most of all, I am really thrilled to have the opportunity to go to school. Only 61 days left!

Because we've decided to stay, we have figured that it would be a good idea to try and finish the basement. I mentioned this to a 2nd year med student I know and he said he'd spent two years working as a framer and that he'd like to help. So he came over on Saturday and last night and now more than half of the work is done. I hope to finish the framing by Saturday night so I can start the electrical work on Monday. I think the electrical will take me about a week. Caulking and sealing, redistributing the insulation we have and the insulation we still need to buy will take another week. Then sheetrock will take, I'm guessing here, 4 weeks. Taping and mudding will take another 2 weeks, then we just have to hang doors, paint and trim and have some cheap carpet installed. I still don't know if we will have enough money for it all. I had to buy a framing nailer on Monday, since my first nailer bit the dust. It sure is fun, though, seeing it all go up.

Bad news this week! EVMS indicated in a letter that they would not be accepting me as a medical student. No matter that I knew I had a very small chance if getting in there, it was still disappointing.

Today I called the Wayne State admissions office for an update on my application and the woman I spoke with said that I was still on the wait list. I expect that I will be on the wait list for a long time and then maybe I will squeak in, towards when school starts, and maybe not. Meanwhile, we have decided to assume, for the time being, that we will be going to DMU. I am sort of relieved that the decision is made. I don't have to stress about whether I will get in here or there or whatever - I just have to get ready for school.

If we go to DMU, we will try to make arrangements to stay in our house, and maybe even put in an extra bathroom and two extra bedrooms. We'll have to wait and see, either way.

I called Wayne State University last week and was told I am still on the waitlist.

Last weekend I was in Virginia Beach and Norfolk for an interview at EVMS. It's the best school I have been interviewed at, yet. I expect to hear from them in another couple of weeks. My chances there are very, very slim, I think. But hope springs eternal!

The good thing, the very best thing...is that I am accepted at a school. It's a great school. I have a lot of friends who go there and one really good friend that graduated from there, it's just not my first choice. No matter what else happens, I will be going to medical school this fall.

Now I have to begin packing and getting the house ready to sell!