Ahhhhhh

K,

I am sorry for my reprieve. Things were crazy. For longer than things should ever be crazy for nonstop. I mean, at least give me a day's respite! That day was Sunday, for me, and it was fabulous. This early afternoon, I give you life news. But, later tonight, just you wait, you're in for KNITTING NEWS! Because there is much that has been knitted. Things that I never thought I would knit, that anyone would knit, I have knitted. And just like Justin did to sexy, I brought knitting back.

But first, I present you with, "My life."

I moved. That was....it was. I moved. Let's leave it there. I burned wool. In the stove, overnight actually, but there was still water in the pot that I'd left in the oven, which I'd left on. So when I went to work in the morning....didn't realize I was burning wool. When I came home and smoke was coming out from the doorframe....realized something was burning. Threw open the windows, off the oven, on with the fans, and promptly realized I was screwed. The next day my mom came to help me clean the smoke smell out of everything (burnt hair smell....burning human...yeah. Lovely.) Then the roomate came in and dropped off her cat. We FREAKED. No idea she was coming back. We thought I needed to be out of the apartment, packed up everything, I've never been so...not scared...but...feeling utterly screwed. Utterly screwed is probably the best way to put it. And so we were going to ionize the place to get the smell out, and couldn't now because the cat and the roommate were there. So....yeah. Don't do that. I still don't know if the place smells like smoke...I hope not. We cleaned hard core...as best as we could, but I don't know. I told them I burnt dinner, because I don't know that they would understand if I said I burnt wool. But I haven't heard anything back about it...so there's life.

Well, there's 3 days of it. Then I had to finish my research at work. I had 1 week left. I had everything to do. Interviews, transcriptions, data analysis, conclusions, write a presentation, let alone write the paper! Suffice it to say, I did everything except the paper in 2.5 weeks. Yup. Worked 1.5 weeks unpaid. Because life is like that. So I started summer work 1 day after graduating, and finished 0 days before I started Medical School Orientation. Which left me with exactly 4 days of vacation summer: the day I moved in, and Independence Day, and 2 days after Independence Day which I took off and ran around with my parents. So...yup. Not exactly what I wanted, but hopefully when I'm published it will pay off.

The last week when everything was due...my abstract, my practice presentation on Monday, my final, "I'm giving this in front of doctors, medical students, and world experts in my topic" presentation on Wednesday, I got sick. Bad sick. Stomach flu and I'm not really sure I exist anymore sick. Monday, I almost fainted during the practice. That was hard. I didn't eat anything all week that stayed down besides soda crackers and a little fruit. I was more worried, as I wrote, on Wednesday, about throwing up during my presentation than messing it up otherwise. But I got through it, and that was really happifying. Really happifying. (Seriously, the guy who literally wrote the book on my topic is in our department. It's the universally accepted major book in the subject. A bit intimidating.)

Thursday and Friday were orientation! Orienting! I think I also gave you a call on Wednesday or something, because I was definitely feeling the stress and lonliness, and you came through fo sho. Thanks. It really helped. And I've met some really nice people here so far. No known life-long chums yet, but that's just because you're the only one I've ever known to wear pasta on her head to let others know where to look for a friend, we don't typically do that at medical school. It's intimidating. Let's be honest. What did I think medical school would be? But it is. It's a lot of information, but absolutely zero busy work, all of it is extremely useful. It's weird learning something about nerves in anatomy and thinking, "This might be the last time they teach me this. After this, I'm responsible for it. Forever." It really gives you motivation to study so that you don't kill people. I feel like everything we went over in Biochem in 2 weeks I've learned here in 2 days. Literally. My notes, preprinted, because you can't write everything down that fast, are approximately 32 pages/day for biochem alone. Anatomy notes have the girth of a medium textbook. They throw random clinical bits in, and I'm now resonsible for them. Like where to place needle when removing fluid from the pulmonary cavity (inside the chest, outside the lungs). Fun stuff.

Off to study, but I'm showing you knitting later tonight! We like to knit, right! The pictures are at home, so I'll wait until then. But I know you're excited. I sure am.

Missing your pasta glory,
A