A Threadless sale! Wheee!

So, I spend way too much money buying T-shirts at Threadless: Nude No More (not nearly as much as I spend at Sephora, but that's another post for another day.) I opened my email this morning and gleefully discovered that they're having a sale - everything is $10. Woo! I love their shirt designs, and they fit well and wash well. Here's some of my favorites (i.e., the ones I own):

Robot Dance Contest

Reach for the Stars

Love*Rain

Some Choices Are Just Out of Reach, from the movie Last Kiss

(And look, even Zach Braff has this one!)

Nothing Rhymes With Orange

Go check them out - the sale runs until June 3rd. And if you use my link (http://www.threadless.com/?streetteam=ramblestrip) then I get $1.50 towards another shirt. :-)

SarahK is making me think of bloggable things

Like this post, which reminds me of that time that Scott was at my apartment and in the bathroom (actually, I think he might have been in the shower) and I only have one bathroom, and I had to pee in a jar. Have I just shared too much?*

And on this, the most gigantonormous post I've ever seen, she says that FrankJ thinks that Lipitor sounds like an alien name - I told her that she should see the cancer chemotherapy drugs or immunopharmacology. When I was trying to study those, I felt like I was reading notes in Martian. Gemtuzamab? Mylotarg? "I am Gemtuzamab, from the planet Mylotarg!" Here's what I know about those drugs - doxyrubicin and daunorubicin cause cardiotoxicity (I know that because "rubor" means red, and hearts are red. Reddish.) I know that bleomycin causes pulmonary fibrosis because "bleo" sounds like "blow". And I know that vincristine and vinblastine are vinca alkaloids and that they inhibit microtubules and work during mitosis. (I know that one just because I randomly memorized it.) And that's pretty much all I know about that.

From that same post, someone is telling FrankJ that he looks 17 (heh) and won't tell poor SarahK that she looks young (I tell her that she looks like Kate Hudson - I hope that helps.) We went to lunch at Subway once last semester, and I had a photo album with pictures from our first year of medical school in the backseat of my car. Todd and Michael were sitting in the back (with Christy in the front) and Todd was flipping through the album. He goes, "Wow, everybody looks so much OLDER since we started school!" Christy and I get identical looks of horror.

Us: Todd!
Todd: What? I mean, ALL of us look older.
Me: Nope, that's not better. Not better at all.
Todd: I mean, I'm sorry. We ALL look older - but you guys, you look, uh ...
Me: Todd, never tell a woman she looks older.

To his credit, he did apologize approximately 1,037 times in the next 24 hours. And then there was that guy in Walmart that time, when I was trying to buy an R-rated DVD and got carded (heh). My license still said "under 21" even though I wasn't, and of course the weight was laughably wrong. So I said, "Oh, I'm not under 21 anymore - and that weight isn't right anymore either, ha ha!" Clueless cashier boy goes, "*I* didn't say that." Boo.

I wish I got thousands of hits like Rachel Lucas. Or even an almost-thousand like SarahK. But I just don't have enough time to blog regularly enough. Ugh.

I have had a horrible week, pancreas-wise. More on that later.

American Idol - meh. More on that later too.

* I sterilized the jar afterwards, obviously.

I'm afraid I'm a hermit

Super-sekrit note to Christy - this will look familiar because I'm lazy.

I am having such trouble with my stupid panic attacks - they're totally keeping me from going anywhere for the past couple of days, and it's very annoying. Maybe I'll be better after the weekend - I just have trouble adjusting to a new situation (i.e., this class.) I'm printing the powerpoints from my school's USMLE website and hopefully will do okay by reading those and First Aid and doing Kaplan QBank questions. Sometimes I loathe myself.

I just read a mneuomic (which I first typed as pneumonic) in First Aid that amused me. It's for drugs that cause gynecomastia:

Spironolactone, Digitalis, Cimetidine, chronic Alcohol use, estrogens, Ketoconzaole: Some Drugs Create Awesome Knockers.

Hee.

Ugh, back to class

First of all, re: the comments on my last post - y'all are sweeties. *MWAH* And Oliver, no worries. Despite erroneous belief, I have absolutely no interest in married guys as anything other than friends. Thank you for your kind words, though - they put a little bounce in my step. Yours too, Chris - but you already knew that. :-) Also, Oliver, you have the same name as my cat.

So, I finished my 2nd year of medical school. Or, God and I finished my 2nd year. Now I (and God) have to pass the USMLE Step One exam in June, and my medical school offers a review course for us (meaning my class - not God and me. He doesn't need the class.) This great because I lack any and all motivation and have no study structure whatsoever. I would just sit in the midst of my review books, sobbing, and shouting at no one in particular, "Where do I start?? WHERE????" I don't think that's what you'd call a winning strategery (you know I love President Bush, but I also love that non-word.)

The bad thing about the review course is that it's 8AM-4PM (some days are 5PM), every day, until June 6th or somewhere thereabouts. Uuuuuuuugggghhhh. And tomorrow, to make things EXTRA fun, it's at 7:30AM. In general, I don't like to be conscious at 7:30AM. But oh well. My plan is to go to the review lectures, then read on those lecture topics that evening in my review books (BRS series, First Aid, Kaplan - whatever I feel like picking up) and doing the corresponding Kaplan QBank questions. I think I'll be all right. We took a practice Step One exam today, and other than being rusty in some areas (biochem, neuroscience, some anatomy) I think I did fairly well. It was heavy on microbiology, path, and pharm - micro being my bread & butter, and pharm and path being fairly fresh. The Lord has brought me this far, and I don't think He'll drop me now. Knowing that the Creator of all things is with you at all times and cares about your well-being? That's comforting. Especially when you're studying His design in depth. :-)

I had a week off between my mini-boards and this review course, and despite this weird sad feeling that I can't seem to shake (I think it might be because people I know are always doing things, and I'm never invited. I don't know why that is. I guess it could be because I don't drink - but you know, alcoholism on one side of the family and pancreatitis on the other doesn't exactly make me want to run for the EtOH. But it's more likely due to the fact that I'm boring, annoying, and remarkably forgettable. At least most people think that I'm a boring, annoying, and forgettable NICE person - yeah. MOST people. Some are misinformed and instead, think I'm horrible.) Oops, a little digression there. Anyway, I was mildly sad all week, but other than that, it was great. I stayed up late and slept in. I did my toenails. Went shopping. Spent several hours in the sun, working on my melanoma. I changed my hair. Rearranged my bedroom at the house, and gave it a good cleaning (I mean, "dusting the baseboards" kind of clean.) I did a bunch of laundry and bathed two kittens. I took bubble baths and read a bunch of magazines. I got completely engrossed in The Kite Runner (which is fabulous, by the way.) I watched movies and ridiculous exposes on famous people on E!. I took naps. It was great. I can't wait until I can do it again after June 13th!

Pay no attention to the T-shirt - it's at least 13 years old

Thanks to Ron at Ron & Associates, I now have a spiffy new haircut. I felt like my hair didn't really look like anything, and since Ron does such a great job on Christy's hair, I made an appointment. I ended up with pretty much exactly what I wanted. I don't normally just sit around and take pictures of myself, but I wanted the new hair pictures for posterity.

You are everything to someone

Dad sent this to me, and since several of them apply to my life at the moment, I thought I'd post it. You know, because I liked it. I usually find these kinds of things cheesy, but I liked most of this one. It helps a person with no self-esteem (like me) to think these kinds of things sometimes - whether they're true or not!

Sometimes I used my blog as a personal diary, a place to rant, someplace to keep links to websites I want to remember later, or a sort of filing cabinet for things like this that I want to be able to find at a future time. Oh, and to connect with all of you fine folk, of course. Speaking of you fine folk - you should comment more. Let me know you're reading, say hi - something. It would make me happy. :-)

• Someone is very proud of you
• Someone is thinking of you
• Someone cares about you
• Someone misses you
• Someone wants to talk to you
• Someone wants to be where you are
• Someone hopes you aren't in trouble
• Someone is thankful for the support you have provided
• Someone wants to hold your hand
• Someone hopes everything turns out all right
• Someone wants you to be happy
• Someone wants you to find them
• Someone is celebrating your successes
• Someone wants to give you a gift
• Someone thinks you ARE a gift
• Someone hopes you are not too cold, or too hot
• Someone wants to hug you
• Someone loves you
• Someone admires your strength
• Someone is thinking of you and smiling
• Someone wants to be your shoulder to cry on
• Someone wants to go out with you and just have fun
• Someone thinks the world of you
• Someone wants to protect you
• Someone would do anything for you
• Someone wants to be forgiven
• Someone is grateful for your forgiveness
• Someone wants to laugh with you about old times
• Someone remembers you and wishes you were there
• Someone needs to know that your love is unconditional
• Someone values your advice
• Someone wants to tell you how much they care
• Someone wants to stay up late watching old movies with you
• Someone wants to share their dreams with you
• Someone wants to hold you in their arms
• Someone wants YOU to hold them in YOUR arms
• Someone treasures your spirit
• Someone wishes they could stop time because of you
• Someone can't wait to see you
• Someone wishes that things didn't have to change
• Someone loves you for who you are
• Someone loves the way you make them feel
• Someone wants to be with you
• Someone has a song that reminds them of you
• Someone wants you to know they are there for you
• Someone is glad that you're their friend
• Someone wants to be your friend
• Someone stayed up all night thinking about you
• Someone is alive because of you
• Someone is wishing that you would notice them
• Someone wants to get to know you better
• Someone believes that you are their soul mate
• Someone wants to be near you
• Someone misses your guidance and advice
• Someone values your guidance and advice
• Someone has faith in you
• Someone trusts you
• Someone needs your support
• Someone needs you to have faith in them
• Someone needs you to let them be your friend
• Someone will cry when they read this

Oh, and I got a new haircut. I'll put some pictures up later.

Diagnosis Wenckebach

Oh my goodness - I love dorky medical students. This is hilarious.

And if you're curious, here's some Wenckebach info (it's a Type I second degree heart block, with a prolonged P-R interval and a "dropped" QRS - which I just learned from Wikipedia. Heh.)

Reasons Why I Want Christy to Guest Blog

You guys know I'm trying to cajole my medical school BFF (BMF?) to blog here - until I finally twist her arm, I'll just post things FOR her. I ALWAYS get my way! Mwahahahaha! So on Tuesday, she and I were watching American Idol (because we had our Pharmacology miniboard/final exam that day, and we totally took the evening off) and she said, "I have a small to medium to large to extra-large crush on Simon Cowell." That made me laugh. I have the same type of crush on Simon Cowell - it's something about angry/arrogant British guys (see Laurie, Hugh) who is Christy's other husband. That is all.

Postpourri

Dang, y'all. I have been so busy/tired these past couple of weeks. The good news is, I'm finished with Pharmacology (and the miniboard? It was not so bad. If I had studied as hard as I should have, it wouldn't have been bad at all.) I'm finished with Genetics (the 2-hour class that thought it was a 6-hour class.) I'm almost finished with Patient Care (I just have to write a freaking page-and-a-half HPI that I've been putting off and putting off, and do my OSCE - my "observed physical exam" - and that one's done.) So basically, I'm finished with my 2nd year, guys. I can't believe it. I may come back and be all philosophical and wax poetic or something after it's all over - after I take a nap, that is. Oh, and there's still the big, gigantonormous, scary and evil monster that is the USMLE Step One (dum-dum-dummmmmMMMMMM), but shhhhhh. I'm pretending it's not real.

Anyway, I was just going through a batch of Pathology/Pathophysiology questions from Kaplan's QBank, in preparation for my Pathology miniboard on Friday. I also had Facebook open in another window, because, well, you know. I'm easily distracted - and the thing about Facebook is that it must be checked every 7 seconds or so, lest someone's life EXPLODE and you don't know until a minute later. Or maybe someone will post PICTURES. Or leave you a COMMENT. Or CHANGE THEIR STATUS. It's just all very urgent, see. If you're not on the Facebook bandwagon, you should jump on. It's great fun, if you like the "keeping up with the lives of people you know" kind of thing.

I had a page of search results open - I was looking for people who graduated from my undergrad university with a biology degree around the time that I did, because I MUST amass more friends, see. And I ran across this guy in my search results, and I had to screencap him and bring it over here, because - in my endless studying, caffeine-drinking, Vicodin-influenced stupor (hey, I have chronic pancreatitis, which hurts like a mo-fo and flares up in times of stress. What do you want me to do?) the picture looked to me like a bride and groom standing in front of an altar, with their backs to the camera. Instead, it's this:

I have [Dr. Cox] coooooo-mmmmm-pleeeeeETE-ly [/Dr. Cox] lost my mind. It's just gone - gone like, well, something else that is long gone. I forgot what else it was that I was going to say was long gone. Probably my vocabulary.

One more thing - I love these Nine West Liatris shoes so very much. When I go to Macy's, I actually go *visit* them. Someone buy them for me? Please?