Vacation

I have now had the opportunity to be out of school for a week and a half, and it's kind of crazy how much time that seems to have taken as compared to the previous week and a half (which seemed to take no time at all).  This past weekend I traveled with my family to Arizona for my cousin's wedding, and this week I am spending the majority of my time helping my mom and sister prepare for her graduation party this weekend.  You honestly wouldn't think it was that big of a deal, but honestly--there's more to do than I would've thought possible.  This week, in fact, is a veritable maze of activities to get through--last night was commencement, tonight my (other) sister graduates from her technical school, Friday is the youngest sister's birthday, Saturday is commencement, and Sunday is the graduation party.  Then, on Monday, I'll be starting my externship at 8:30am.  After that, I'm sure the updates will probably be a lot more often--and, hopefully, a lot more interesting. 

Random side note:  I re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the plane this weekend, and finished it in bed this morning.  Maybe this is sad, but I seriously get intensely emotional every time I finish the book.  It's weird how the experiences with which we grow up become such a part of us, even when they're fictional.  For me, HP brought my family together during the busiest years of our lives, and when the 7th book ended, I think we all mourned a little for the loss of a friend.   Thankfully I can revisit all the books whenever I want and get the whole experience all over again. :-)

Ok, cheesiness over for today.  Time to pick up middle sister from school before I get thundered on. 

So, I survived.

This post probably would have made much more sense to write on Friday, when I actually was celebrating the joy of being done with finals and with M1 year, but at that point I was so exhausted and mentally drained that the sheer thought of writing about what had just happened was enough to make me ill.  Today, however, I woke up at 10:00 to a gorgeous sunny morning and don't have to do anything but go eat lunch and go to the grocery, so writing is much more palatable. 

The thing about finals is, they really weren't all that hard.  In fact, a lot of it was easier than our previous tests.  It's just that they're so long, and so draining in terms of nervous energy.  The way they work our test days is an effort to simulate the experience we'll have taking the boards next summer (oh my god...next summer.  That's scary.).  Essentially, for the boards, we have 7 one-hour blocks of time with something like 48 questions each and 60 minutes in which to complete them.  You get a total of an hour break throughout the day, which can be taken in whatever increments you like--ten minutes after each section, or you can skip some and use more for lunch, etc.  At school, they attempt to emulate this by having us take our exams in 6 one-hour blocks with fifteen minute breaks between each (although we take a 45 minute break for lunch).  The problem here is that in the boards, if you finish a section early, you can add to your break time, or you can just forge ahead and get done early.  On test days at school, if you finish early, you get the added bonus of just sitting around outside the test room for all that extra time, thinking of all the things you probably got wrong on the previous section.  They also put fewer questions on each exam (only about 30), so it's really common that people get done early.  I took about half an hour for each section, which meant I had a good 45 minutes between every block.  I was actually waiting to take tests longer than I was taking them.  Which gets kind of tiring.  

The good news is, I did really well on all my tests, although I left the first section sure that I had failed and was going to die.  Of course, I didn't, and I ended up getting good enough scores to get Honors in physio and biochem.  Hooray!  Then I went home, sat around, and ended up going over to my parents' house for dinner and a glass of wine, and then the whole family went to see Star Trek (which is awesome.  If you haven't seen it, go now.  Now!).  I was lucky enough to spend pretty much the entire rest of the weekend with D, which was a first since he just started his new job and finally has weekends off now.  It was lovely--we went shopping, got him a new phone, watched a movie, grilled out with some friends...it's the life I never knew existed outside of medicine and crazy work schedules.  If every summer weekend is like this one...well, it's going to be an awesome summer. 

Made It!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pass out and wake up in a week.  

Finals

Whoa, Grey's!  Seriously?!  That was ridiculous.  Also, made it quite impossible for me to relax last night like I should have.  Whoa.  Anybody else? 

Finals today.  I feel pretty good, although doing a couple practice problems last night I had a miniature freak-out wherein I came to the conclusion that I didn't know the heart as well as I thought and proceeded to feel the need to get up this morning and do specific questions for heart and circulation physiology...don't know if that was such a good idea or not.  I'm sure the info is all up there if I just relax.  Off for 6 one-hour blocks of exam.  Wish me luck!  

Too Early

It's 7:15am on a Tuesday morning and here I sit, preparing to study.  This is the only thing I hate about test weeks...there's so much to be done that I never feel finished.  I can stop for the day when I get too tired to continue, but it just makes the next day feel more pressured.  My original study goal was to finish all my flashcards yesterday, but with Mother's Day on Sunday and the migraines of the end of last week, things didn't go as planned and if I'm going to finish today, that will men 5 sections of biochem and 6 of GI physiology by the end of the day.  I'm hoping for most of that--I was pretty productive yesterday and felt good about it, so maybe the trend will continue.  As long as I have two pretty solid days for practice problems, that should do.  Right now I just feel like this test, more than others, is a mish-mash of mumbo jumbo in my head--it's like alphabet soup, and remembering what every single combination of letters stands for is what I worry about.  Ah, well.  It'll be over Friday. 

El Fin

I watched the finale of Scrubs last night, and it was so, so, so, so indescribably perfect.  The final sequence of "what might happen" set to Peter Gabriel's The Book of Love was possibly the best way anyone has ever come up with to end a show.  If they decide to bring it back next year, I won't watch, because to me, this was the epitome of an ending.  Don't know if there are any other Scrubs fans out there, but I sure hope so.  It's a fabulous show--I own every season and I could pull any of them out at just about any time and love them all over again.  I mean really--I cried.  Maybe I'm just a sentimental fool, but I think if you watch you'll agree with me. 

In other news, we are officially in the throes of finals week and I am officially getting tension headaches every day from staring at my computer too much, so I may not update a bunch this week.  Then again, I might, just to procrastinate.  I'm hoping to get an out this weekend with Mother's Day and with D wanting to see the new Star Trek movie (which, admittedly, looks pretty awesome).  

Final thoughts for the day--please keep my wonderful grandmother in your prayers, as her heart has begun giving her some problems again recently.  She is almost 86 years old, tough as nails and awesome in every way, but she has elected not to have bypass or any other open-heart surgery should anything go seriously wrong, which has us all rather worried about her current state.  She has a valve that leaks and has gotten progressively worse, and she is not a candidate for replacement.  As a medical student, it is the most maddening thing of all to know exactly how someone (most especially someone I love) will die, and to know that there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it except wait (for who knows how long--days, or years) and make her as comfortable as possible when things get bad.  I think my mom is at peace with the idea of her (eventual, maybe sooner, maybe later) passing, but talking to my mom I find it hard to find that same acceptance.  She and my grandfather are the rocks of my family, and to think of losing them...well, I'll just ask for your thoughts.  

Living Space

Spent much of this weekend doing some things around the house.  Yesterday my mom got new living room furniture delivered, which meant that we inherited a couch, leather recliner, and chest/coffee table for our house.  The couch went out on our breezeway/porch, which we also finally (only a year after buying the dang place) decorated as a result.  It looks lovely--if very "man cave" esque (D loves Guinness and pub stuff, and since I've been very accommodating elsewhere in the house, I told him I refused to put all that up anywhere but the porch, which is more of a party room anyway).  We also, in effort to make room for the chest and recliner, rearranged our living room furniture and it looks so much better now--much less college apartment and much more welcoming and homey.  The house actually opens up into the living room when you come in the door now, rather than the living space being pretty much closed off by the position of the sofa. 

In celebration of all the new-ness and the "house feeling like a home"-ness, we had a few friends over for a party (and also watched the horses run in circles--what a Derby, by the way).  Everybody chipped in, we grilled out on our deck and ate on the porch/breezeway and then played board games and watched movies in the newly-arranged living room, and it was fabulous.  As D and I both put it, this is exactly the kind of day  we pictured having when we bought a house, and it's finally come together enough for that to happen.  It really was just a fun time, but it felt like such a huge success.  

Now, the next two weeks will be a spring to the finish--but for once, I feel more than up to the task.  And comfortable doing all the studying in my lovely house!

And then there was one...

One week.  ONE WEEK left.  Of classes, anyway.  Then I have to study like a mad woman for a week and take a day-long exam, for which I have zero to no motivation to study, but hey, that's all I've got to survive.  Then it's sweet freedom until August.  Makes me wonder how much more burned out I'll be next year, when studying for finals will only be prelude to the much more insane studying for step 1.  It's just such a happy thought to look forward to, isn't it? 

Today, though, there is much to be grateful for.  We have a pseudo-holiday today, which means no class.  Which means it is 11 in the morning and I am still sitting in bed with my dog, playing on the computer.  Shortly, I will get up, put on some clothes, drop a check off at the bank and go to the gym.  After that, I plan to come home, have lunch, study the past couple of days' worth of biochem, and maybe start reviewing some physio (but only if I feel like it).  D will get done with work at 6, and after that I plan on doing absolutely whatever I feel like.  It's the little things.