Downward Spiral Day

When I was in undergrad, I'd have days that I'd call "downward spiral" days. These were the days that I managed to convince myself that I would never get into med school and that the earth was, no doubt, spinning out of control and headed directly toward the sun, where we would all be engulfed and die instantly. This was usually brought on by a test or assignment grade in the 87-89% range instead of the required-for-med-school/required by my own crazy self-standard 97-100% range. Obviously we're all still alive and I managed to make it into med school, so my imaginary downward spiral never really resulted in much more than a few hours of self-loathing followed by picking myself up off the couch, dusting the cookie crumbs from my mouth and getting on with things.

I hadn't had a downward spiral day since my pre-med days.....until today. Well, this past week could be considered a downward spiral week. You see, this past module (Infectious Disease) was crap! I consistently score in the "High Satisfactory" range, or "B" to those lay people out there who don't understand our overly technical too-cool-to-use-letters-for-grades-med-school-grading lingo. This past block I got a "Satisfactory." JUST satisfactory. And for all of you out there who don't ascribe to the afore mentioned grading lingo, it's the grade letter after B. And I missed getting my standard grade by about 1%. On top of all this, the last module was 6 weeks - which gives me 6 weeks of letter-grade-after-B, thus derailing my course to a 3.00 for my first 2 years. I'll have to get "Superior" grades in the next 2 blocks to get a 3.00, so I guess it's still possible, but let me indulge in my downward spiral a little longer.

As if this grade debauchery wasn't enough, the powers that be made us take a standardized test over the subject matter covered in this ill-organized, ill-taught block. To make a long story short: I sucked it up! This is what really catapulted me into the spiral! After several minutes spent comparing my score to that of my peers and that of the rest of the 2nd year med students in the country, I've determined that I'm exceedingly average. Blah! Maybe even (gasp!) a bit below average. This is a lot to process for someone who is used to being in the top of EVERYTHING. For the love of PETE, I was in the 98 percentile in height and weight when I was a baby! I'm COMPETITIVE! The only thing I can compare this to is being a really great high school athlete. You don't question your talent because you regularly pummel your competition. Then you get to college - still really good, you win lots of awards and everyone continues to tell you how great you are. Then you go off to the NFL/NBA and all of a sudden people are pummeling YOU. Then you start to worry about getting cut!

Anyhow....I slept in today, ate a few too many no-bake cookies and watched some good, quality TV. Overall I'm feeling better. I think the spiral has slowed and has almost stopped completely. Now it's time to pick myself up and get on with it.

June

Oh, mexico
Sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moons so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right

I guess I'll have to go.......

Saturday

So this last block pretty much sucked. It's finally over though. Today I spent a little quality time at DSW, so that helped to take the edge off. I got a new pair of Rykas for my jazzercise class. I tried to look at other shoes, but made the mistake of taking Danny along with me and he started getting restless. He just doesn't understand the joy I feel meandering through rows of clearance shoes. Pretty, pretty shoes. Mmmmmm......shoes.

2 months....crap

I just looked at my blog and realized that it's been 2 months since I've updated. Which is okay, since maybe one other person reads it (hi Bethany).

Short run down of the past 2 months:
Took a test - did okay - didn't take retake - missed getting an A by .27% - heck
Christmas - good times

New Year's - wedding down town
Mom's birthday/Eva Taylor Garlich is born - headed to the hospital at 4:30am. Mom is neglected
Grandma's birthday - yummy dinner at Herford House
Took another test - bad day
Took the retake - worse day

And that brings us up to today - Jazzercise. I've been jazzercising since the first of the year. When your pants start getting tight, you just have to do something. When I signed up, they asked me where I'd heard about the class. I really wanted to say, "Oh, I heard THE GRINCH talking about it." But I didn't.

That is all....as you were (Bethany).

You may be a dork if....

I splattered something on my stove the other day that looked suspiciously like the blood smear of some poor soul with severe microcytic hypochromic anemia. Actually, I think you'd be dead if there were only two RBCs on your entire smear....but anyway.

Happy Birthday Pop

And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.





Thanksgiving day would have been Pop's 75th birthday. I wonder what kind of parties they have in heaven......

Boy, do I miss this guy.....

He was one cool cat.....

Happy Birthday Pop! I'm blowin' you a kiss!

-Sweetpea

Boy have I dropped the ball on this blogging thing. But it's my blog, so I can drop the ball if I want.

Well, we are officially finished with anatomy FOREVER! Unless you count relating anatomy to the diagnosis and treatment of patients....which is important. But anyhow...we are done with anatomy lab, dissections and tests FOREVER!

This last dissection unit was especially interesting as it involved the head and neck. Kind of weird to cut into someone's face/pull someone's scalp off/chisel into someone's orbital plate. The strangest parts, by far, were the review sessions where numerous human heads were pulled out of plastic bags. Only in medical school....or the mob I suppose.

So now that anatomy is over I have a ton of extra time on my hands....hence the blogging. I've become a podcaster as well. I really fought this, but after much evaluation, I've decided it's really the best way to go. I can sleep in a bit in the morning, watch Price is Right, then study the material from the previous day while my mind is still fresh. Then in the evening, I podcast the lectures from that day. This saves me all kinds of time (I no longer have to get ready in the morning, drive to school, find a parking spot, walk to class....) and the schedule seems to correspond better with how my brain works. And I don't take as many naps now that I get a little more sleep in the morning. My dad is still on me to go to class and "make connections" with my class mates, but I figure that's what Facebook is for, isn't it?