Finals week, again

Man, it's like being hit over the head with a metal bat, repeatedly.

So, last week was "screw amy" week. Not literally, rather figuratively. It started Monday morning at 7am, with out Intro to Outpatient exam, which was supposed to be multiple guess and was actually fill-in. I promptly failed, and am passing the course only due to a curve. The penalty for failure would have been staying here for another quarter of clinic... and I knew on Monday that I had failed and had to wait until Friday until he posted the curved grades. Talk about hand-over-eyes. Then there was the little "assembly" debacle: we are required to attend a certain # of these per quarter, and to sign in. Someone misplaced one of my sign-ins, and it's a good thing I caught it before it was too late or i'd have been behind a quarter on assembly credit. Nothing awful, just a huge pain. And a huge pain to correct. Then wednesday during my extremities adjusting exam, the instructor gave me a move that had not been taught in class, and I had to make something up. Fun... Scratched my way thru that one... good thing, as failing would have meant I could not take boards part 2 in march, and therefore would be delayed in taking part 4 licensing exam until a few months after graduation. Thursday was my Skeletal Rad lab exam, which was bitchin'... and my grade that I got back said I had barely passed, with a meager 7/10. Not really my style, and a definite WTF moment, as the four people I studied with for that exam got 9/10 or 10/10. OK whatever. Then, to polish my week off, I barely (by accident, actually) caught one of the last appointments to do an OSCE debrief, which I did not realize was mandatory, IE, do it or fail OSCEs (entry to outpatient clinic requirement) whether or not you passed the actual exam. Lucky on that one. Others were not. Plus, Moose was sick early in the week, and would not eat for a few days. And would not come up the stairs. And hobbled on her right rear leg, nearly fell over in the yard. And, I got scheduled at work for a weekend I was hoping to have free so that my friend Dave could come visit - gr.

Moose is acting better, maybe she just twisted her hip chasing the cat :) Today I found out that my skeletal rad grade was a clerical error - which makes me very happy. Right now it's finals, yet again. Tomorrow I have three exams, two more on Wed, then two more on Thurs, then I am free of exams and classes for a blessed four weeks!!!!!!!

If anybody has any good jokes or funnies, I could use them.

Moose and Billy videos

several of you have asked how the kids are doing... they're up to about the same:

Montana

there are some days when i'd really like to drop out of traditional society and start a commune in montana. in my pollyanna-like vision, it would be an ideal place where people treat one another kindly and with respect and honesty. I know that every now and again, a person is bound to bump into a lemon..... but frankly, it's hard to make lemonade of a selfish and manipulative person. it usually comes out a bit more acidic than you may wish.

Blue Man Group

While at Darcy and Chris' wedding reception, I had a conversation with Darcy's high school friend Aaron... and we struck a trade: Blue Man Group tickets for dindin :)

Aaron works for Blue Man, he does sound engineering for their road show. The road show stopped in Hot'Lanna this past weekend. So, my friend Matt and I picked Aaron and his friend Rick up and fed them some southern BBQ :) then we got to see the show!!


Aaron took us backstage before the show (ya a lucky schmoo i certainly am!!!). I tried to behave. I really did. But there were too many toys. And yes we played the instruments. Dude, seriously, did you even have to ask?















I have seen BMG once before in Chicago. I laughed so hard my abs hurt for two days. LOVED 'em!!!!! Some comparable hijinks ensued at Sunday's show, like the Freebird/Fire Extinguisher skit. Hit the lower left button to play:



And, tho they did not "paper" the entire auditorium as they did in Chicago, there was fun to be had with streamers at the end of the show:



We also got to meet the Blue Men. Unf my camera wasn't behaving but you get the picture!

Mt Yonah

When i first arrived in Atlanta, my coworker Frank told me about a place that had great moderate trad climbs but was quite a haul to hike into (about 3 miles uphill). I'm lazy. I prefer short intakes. So I wasn't so keen on it, and explored other stuff first. However, this past week after midterms, Webster called and said hey, wanna go to Yonah? Me, being fresh from a back injury, said... yeah, bring it on!

Here is Yonah. It's in North Georgia. The approach starts at the bottom. The cliff band is at the top.Note the fall colors. Leaves turn a little later down South. Sort of in keeping with, everything moves slower around here. The weather was stellar, 65 and sunny, south facing, no breeze to speak of. Oh yeah.



We did few moderate lines (5.5-5.6), which were like CANDY!!!!!!!!


Webster picked the last route of the day. He said something about, i think the climb is somewhere about here? The sun was setting. I should have known better. But at least the light hit a great timbre, as we created a 60 foot traverse to the left to try to find a set of anchors to rap from before night fully descended:









Well, suffice it to say we rappelled in fading twilight, and did the descent in the dark. Yay headlamps. But it was well worth it. For a little while, at least, I can have a deliciously fresh memory of mountain twilight:

Oh bloody hell

to borrow a phrase from my friend Russell, that is.

My home has always been open-door to friends and family. Lately this has included several wonderful stays from Moose's friends - much to the irritation of Bill the Cat. In the past while, we have hosted Michelle's pup Billy (who is no longer a pup, and is more Moose's size now!!!!! i told you so) Stacey's dog Ellie (boxer mix), Stoph and Maia's dog Guinness (very appropriately named black and tan shepherd-lab mix), and Kimmie's Rue (aka ru-ru, a black lab-weimie mix). Rue has stayed here several times, and Moose at Rue's house. They are good buddies. This has been well-established.

Which does not explain what I found when I came home from school this afternoon. Two happy, wriggling doggies (and one pissed-off tabby cat) looking for dinner, all is good in the world... until I look at the fridge, next to the dog dish. I see blood on the fridge. Not just a little dot, but rather multiple streaks of it. Sort of like, oh, a tail used as a paintbrush. Hm, that's wierd? So I filled the dog dishes, and turned around..... more blood. On the dishwasher. And all of the walls in the foyer, and the living room. O....kay. Both dogs are wriggling with joy at their food, no pain apparent, cat has been outside all day and seems intact, no missing limbs or appendages obvious. So, what the hell??

I let the kiddos outside, everyone is acting just fine. No limping, whimpers, nothing. Back inside, I tackle Ru, bc I'm pretty danged sure the blood is coming from her (for those of you know don't know, my dog Moose is not only an alpha dog, she is also a cannibal). I can't find any gashes, broken nails, no lacerations to her nose..... but there is a 1.5" long gash on her tail, at the tip, still moist with blood. Apparently SOMEONE was wagging her tail a little too vigorously in the presence of a sharp object as yet unidentified.

I am somewhat relieved that Ru's body did not bear the tooth puncture marks I was anticipating, but I have no idea what she hurt herself on. See, my house is the next thing to babyproof - all I have at knee level that may be dangerous is a coffee table and a fireplace hearth. So what the hell, did she slash her tail on my BIKE??


(Look at Moose's countenance. Anthropomorphic, I know, but doesn't she just look like she's saying, "i swear, i had nothing to do with it"?)





Anyways. It looks like I'll be scrubbing ALL of my walls a little sooner than anticipated. Or maybe I should just leave the blood there and call it abstract art?

huh?

i'm not entirely sure where my preconception came from but i've always assumed i was left-brained. You know, somewhat "logical"....

according to EIGHT tests i just took this is (reproducibly) not a good assumption. And i'm not just "kinda" right brained: I'm heavily right-brained, like, 70/30.

OK so yeah, it's kinda funny that I had to take eight separate, independent tests, both visual and verbal, to accommodate the idea that maybe i'm more emotional, imagination-driven, and symbolic, than logical and mathematical. You'd think I would have taken one test and said hm, that's interesting. Sort of suggests that was fighting an idea, doesn't it.

cripes, WHAT was my PhD in? Enzyme kinetics or something?? what was my postdoc work and biotech work in, hm, mathematical and quantitative description of enzyme behavior? and what field have I switched into? something to do with communication and establishing relationships (dr-patient), 3D and symbolic reasoning, perception of visual and tactile cues, and intuition? Perhaps one of the things I was fighting in my science career, was my own brain.

Oh I can't imagine how many of you are laughing right now. Hee hee hee. Hey sometimes it takes me a while :)

Rest assured, I'm laughing with you.

And yes, it's midterm week and I'm procrastinating. ;)

YEEEEEE HAAAAAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tek, you are my HERO!!!!!!!!!! Ya, OK, Francona, you're OK too :)

Ladies' Weekend, Ogunquit, Maine

I am blessed enough to have some truly wonderful and remarkable people in my life. When I went to Bates College, long long ago, I could not have imagined how it would shape me. One of the ways Bates influences me to this day is through my college friends, who I do not see often enough! Last weekend, I flew to Maine to spend the weekend with Kristen (aka Twinkletoes) and Jenn Moniz-Carpenter. Amy Bean Kelliher (aka ACBK) was to have joined us too, but her baby Matthew has been sick and she needed to stay with him. We missed her very much, and I look forward to the holidays, when I hope we can spend some time catching up :)

We stayed at The Cliff House, in Ogunquit, Maine. Thursday and Friday the weather was a little yucky, but Saturday morning was gorgeous:



The weekend was fun, relaxing, and theraputic. There's nothing like hanging out with friends you've known for 16 years - it's better than warm towels from the drier :) We ate, we drank coffee, we read trashy books, we went to the spa and then sat by the pool, we shopped, and we watched the Sox kick some tookus (Bye bye, Cleveland; hello, Rockies!). Well, "ate" isn't the proper word to describe Friday's dinner, JMC took us to Arrow, listed by Gourmet Mag as one of the top 50 restaurants in the US.... that was way more than just "eating!" I only aspire to be able to cook like that.

And now I'm broke beyond broke. But sometimes life quality issues trump fiscal conservancy... and besides, what's $600 when you're already $70K in the hole??

The only downside is that I had a big comprehensive clinical exam on Wednesday, on which I didn't do so well. We will see how it goes, but I think I crashed and burned on one of the four sections. My own fault, 100% - I knew full well that I was agreeing to be out of town the weekend before the exam, when I should have been studying. I can only hope that I was able to skim thru... because I am required to pass this exam to progress from Student Clinic to Outpatient Clinic. Well, the worst thing that can happen is that I will fail. I'll deal with that if and when I have to.

I did get my National Boards scores back for part I. That.... was not a crash and burn :)

As for now, I am off to a friend's house to catch The Game. We have a small cadre of Boston and New England expats here, it should be a fun gathering. Especially because the word SWEEP keeps coming up!!!!!!!!!!!!

Darcy and Chris' Wedding

In autumn of 2004, I introduced two of my favorite people and friends from two areas of my life to each other. On October 13th, they got married at a castle overlooking a beach on the Massachusetts coast, under crystalline skies in the crisp October air.

When they first met, the sparks between Darcy and Chris were nearly palpable. It was a random evening in the Boston Rock gym. Each sized the other up - and knowing them both well, I could almost hear the "hmmmmm!!!" from both. On their first date, Darcy and Chris went sledding. The next time I saw the two of them in the same place at the same time, a subtle shift had transpired - and frankly, the rest is history and future :)

A few pix of C and D:
























and me and Ms., or rather now Mrs. Darcy!



The wedding weekend was lovely, and it was a wonderful treat for me to be able to carve out time to zip up to New England to be there.

Darcy and Chris are currently in Playa del Carmen, hopefully napping on the beach or playing in the water, or enjoying a well-earned massage, or perhaps they haven't left the honeymoon suite?... Wedding planning (and execution!!) is no cup of tea!

When I arrived on Friday, the skies were overcast and spitting. Mother Nature had different plans for Saturday, however - the sun peeped over the horizon across the water and into my room at the inn at dawn, waking me up with a gentle orange-pink light:






















And the day got better from there. Caroline and I got to take a walk by the water, across the rocks. Note the deep blue sky!























From the Emerson Inn, we were taken over to the Castle Hill B&B, where Darcy was beginning preparations. Darcy and Caroline got their hair started, while I went for a walk with Darcy's cousin Reid to Crane Beach proper, a stretch of soft white sand.











On the way back, we bumped into Tom, who as usual tossed me around like a toy (yeah, I love it):

then I returned to the inn to have my hair done. Updo, lots of hairspray, only 19 bobbypins this time! apologies for the sideways picture, i assume you can turn your head if you wish...











The next pic is of Darcy's ladies in waiting: Brenda, Caroline, and me. Both Brenda Ulrich and Brenda Donald were due the week of the wedding (fertility symbols, anyone?) but thankfully neither baby made an appearance. Phew.


The wedding was magical, albeit a bit cold (about 55 degrees, with spaghetti straps and thinned blood from living in the south?) The pashminas that Darcy gave us were so comfy and soft, and were great to take the edge off of the cold!















I have no pictures of the ceremony, something about I didn't think it would be appropriate to stride down the aisle with a camera in hand... but I can tell you that Chris looked absolutely dashing, and Darcy looked so perfect. The dress she chose is so simple, so classy, so her; and her glow, I can't describe properly. Hopefully one of the "real" photographers caught that, and if I can snag pix, I will post those.

After the ceremony, I got to meet up with Andi Machl and his new lady Lisa, as well as Russell. It was lovely to catch up a bit! Russell and I danced a bit, which was so very fun, until I started to be clumsy.... two left feet sometimes, I tell you. And I wasn't even wearing heels to trip me, or drinking much. (for a change? it's this new leaf i've turned over!) It was so nice to catch up with Andi and Russell.

Sunday morning, we had brunch at the Emerson Inn: me, Brenda, Tom, Caroline, Bryan, Eileen, Mike, and Chris' brother David made an appearance too. I had one "hm" moment when I looked around the table and realized that none of us ladies had bothered to put on makeup - AH, i'm home!!!!!!!!!!!!

After brunch, Tom and Brenda drove me back to Boston, where I got to meet up with Michelle to climb for a while at Metro Rock. I had such a wonderful weekend visiting with Tom and Brenda - awesome quality time. I am looking forward to visiting again at Xmas, and meeting the new baby! Oh, Brenda, how are you ever going to manage with three boy children, the old one being far more outta control than the younger two?... ;)


It was a terrific bonus that my flight left so late and gave me some time to play!! Michelle and I climbed for a few hours, until my arms legs fingers ankles everything hurt, then headed for Logan. I got home nice and late to a Moose and Billy who had been so spoiled by Aryn and Tom that they hardly noticed I had been gone :)

I am so fortunate to have such wonderful people in my life. Some of my friends here in Atlanta and some of my family doesn't really "get" why I am drawn back to Boston. It's simple: while I enjoy my life here, New England is home, and I dearly miss being around people with whom I truly connect. I am not a Southerner and have no aspirations to be one, and could never do so anyways, as I do not care to understand or perfect the art of the backhanded slash with a smile.

And now I must go, I believe my red sox are playing. Wakefield is rested, hopefully the Sox will have a stronger showing than last night...

Too-short break

but very productive. I got to bike (a 12-hour race, at that!) and climb. I weeded, a LOT, and mowed. I replanted a tree shrub. I cleaned, organized, and moved furniture (in the living room). I finally finished the trim on the new window, and painted the crown molding in the living room to set off the latte-colored paint I put up in July to replace the former fuschia-magenta. I got new shoes, visited with friends, and cooked. I put in some time at REI and sold a few bikes. I slept. I ate. I caught up with friends up north on my slightly-frustrating cell phone.

Oh, and I got notice that I won a $7300 scholarship for writing an essay on the life and research of I.N. Toftness, a chiropractor who contributed to the growth and development of the field of chiropractic care. Yay!

Living room before and after:













































Today I headed out with my friend Webster to hike up Kennesaw Mountain, a molehill about 20 min north of here. It's actually a pretty little hike, about 3 mi round trip for the short version. The trail goes over the top of the "mountain" and runs the ridge, with views of downtown Atlanta. The weather was perfect, 80 with no humidity, yahoo! Now I will have the afternoon and evening to get my stuff together for classes starting tomorrow (at 7am), and to attend our cycling club has a potluck organizational meeting at dinner.

I forgot that since I started this blog in February, I had not put up pictures of my other favorite pink-ablating project: my room. Here's a before and after. I can't believe I lived in this room for a year and a half with pepto-bismol pink walls (also note the floral border, ugh!!!!!!). I kept meaning to get to it, but it was just easier to keep the lights off :) Finally, New Year's Eve, I realized that one resolution that I had not kept was to get RID of the pink in my bedroom. I decided that it was going, then and there. So, I stayed in that night - given New Years' past, my liver probably appreciated it :)

12 hours of Dauset

The morning began as a light mist, which made the trail..... well, slick as snot.

We had some carnage, but no one had to visit the ER, always good. Of our eight riders, four had wrecks which resulted in blood. Melissa's and Greg's were the best (they're OK, so I can say best! tho i bet they're both a little sore today)



This was Melissa's first race, and she rode very well and took it pretty aggressively, esp for the # of times she has been out on the trail (she just started this summer). She took a couple of hard falls, and got right up, dusted off, and kept going. She is made of steel, I tell ya!

The trail was a sweet, sweet loop with lots of turns, swoopdies, and just enough climbing to take it outta ya. Thankfully the mud dried up for the most part in time for my second lap. My second time around the loop, since I had seen it before, I took a little faster, and Siren and I had a fantastic time. My bike was just MADE for that kind of trail. Since the weather has now turned more bearable I intend to put Siren to good use :)

Ryan and Melissa spied a fantastic spot for us to set up our team tent, right next to the pond and away just a little from the main (noisy) staging area. I enjoyed a nap in my purple hammock (the one mom and dad brought me back from mexico!) and Moose enjoyed several dips in the water. All in all a very good day.


Don't bother asking about how we placed: both teams DQ'd due to emergency returns after wrecks. We finished the race nonetheless, just for fun :)

DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for now, at least, and that's all i care about

this has been a very yucky quarter. definitely the worst i have had here. i am so glad to kick it in the tookus on the way out. Buh-bye.

my ninth final was this morning at 8 (two friends were here at 630 to cram before the exam. Yeah, ME, up at 630 studying with friends). i've been flying by the seat of my pants all week. minimal prep time for each exam, try, the night before?? not my usual style but the lesson i can take from this week is that..... well, i guess i can do that! So SCREW all of this working so hard. Apparently it's completely superfluous.

I shouldn't speak so quick, i haven't seen four of my grades yet, but i think i'm in pretty good shape.

Today I am taking the day OFF!!!!!!! I got a haircut, and i think it's still long enough to do an updo for Darcy and Chris' big day :) I bought TWO pairs of shoes. Go, Payless! I also decided to really indulge, Aunt Cathy style, and I got a pedicure (i couldn't believe that it only costs $19 around here, i'm going to do that a lot more often now!!) I feel fabulous. Well, exhausted, but still fabulous.

I am headed out soon for lunch on a patio with Steph, Sherri, Kimmie, and Ashley. Yup, i'm wearing my new shoes :) Brown faux-suede 3" pumps with a small shoelace bow at the front. Twinkletoes, you may want to drop by Payless, these are really your style :)

Tomorrow i get to scramble for final arrangements for Saturday's 12-hour mountain bike race, to which our cycling club is sending two teams. Then I work in the evening. Then Saturday, I get to spend on my bike most of the day. Siren has been so lonely, she'll be happy to play in the mud! Our teams don't even intend to be competitive, we're all beaten to crap from the quarter we just finished. But boy, we're going to have a fun day :) Twelve people, three dogs, two teams, a grill, a tent, 80 degrees and sunny, and 15 miles of windy rollercoaster singletrack. Yay!

boards part 1 are over!

boards hurt. two days, six subject exams. several were a bit brutal. but the good news is that i think i did ok, so hopefully i won't have to repeat any of the exams!

Thank you SO MUCH to Aunt C, Suebee, Tracy, Rusty, Michelle, and Kristen for your words of encouragement - it meant a lot to me to get your messages. And Michelle, if you felt a brain-drain on Fri and Sat, that was just me channeling your alpha waves down to Atlanta so I could draw some extra wattage :)

Saturday evening, I went with my neighbors Aryn and Celeste and a bunch of other Lifers to see Dave Matthews in Piedmont Park, in downtown Atlanta! The Allman Brothers opened. 'Twas a great show. I guess I'm a Dave Matthews groupie - i've seen him 5 or 6 times that I can remember? The first show I saw was at Bates, in 1995 - get this, the event is actually logged on Wikipedia!!!!!!!!! Quote:

• Dave Matthews referred to a concert he performed at Bates in 1995 on the Charlie Rose Show, claiming that the concert "at this little college in Maine" sparked his career^[9].

Wow, do you guys believe that?? How many of you remember that concert? In the gym, no seats, just gym floor. I do believe some of you worked security!!!!!

Today I have just been existing. Trying to take a day to breathe, because it isn't over till the dog sings: I have a quiz tomorrow AM at 7, a project due on Thursday, and two lab finals on Friday. Then, next week, oh boy, final exams!! This is really unneccessarily yucky and really pretty brutal. By means of comparison, after my qualifying exam at MCW, I got to take a week off - then it was summer break, and I was just working in the lab. Kristen says that when she took boards for med school, they were scheduled so that students had a month off afterwards. Not so much for this place, i guess.........

Oh well. Here's another happy thought:




ps i was just perusing the rest of wikipedia's entry for Bates and holy cow look what i found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman_Day

Yay Buchholz!!!!!!!

a funny snippet from the yahoo article:

"...catcher Jason Varitek rose from his crouch to run to the mound. The rest of the Red Sox soon joined him there, and David Ortiz enveloped the rookie in a bear hug.

"He's somebody you don't want to see running at you, full-speed," Buchholz said.

Ah, I would have loved to have been at Fenway tonight..... Sox 10, Orioles nada! All i can say is that we'd better keep this Buchholz character :) Damn good job by him, that last pitch just sailed over the plate.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=bos

Did anyone else think that the Red Sox pigpile at the end of the game looked a little familiar? here's to hoping -

Funny that I already have plans to be in Boston twice in October...

a new friend

moose and billy and i have a new friend who has set up shop in the garden. She is a yellow garden spider. Rather large one, too, she's about 2" long. Freaked me out a little. So i took a pic to look up details on wikipedia, since i'm a nerd like that. Apparently yellow garden spiders are nonvenomous Georgia natives, and are capable of eating prey 200% their size. I think we'll keep her around. I could use some help with the arthropod wildlife around here :)

post-note: my friend Alex

On tuesday, my friend Alex came to me with a complaint of pain for the past six weeks in his back, along the distribution of a mid-thorax rib, with pain on inspiration. He asked whether I could do anything about it. The adjustment was a simple move, and it went well. After I adjusted him, his pain was gone and he could take in a full breath without pain. Obviously he was happy with this :)

Yesterday I was able to catch up with him again. Alex has not had pain since Tuesday, and has not needed to take any ibuprofin since I adjusted him. Plus, he has had three good nights of sleep.

Yay, I did something good!!!!!!!!

still studying...

no letup in immediate sight. Two exams tomorrow, somehow our instructors have spanned three weeks with midterms. Considering that the term is 11 weeks, and the last week is finals, that makes 3 of ten weeks spent just taking exams. Fun, huh?

My friend Steph and I were talking about school on Friday after our Skeletal Radiology exam. Both of us came back to school after time doing other things. Both of us were encouraged by our own chiropractors to pursue this career, and both of our chiropractors assured us that we would "sail through school with a 4.0, no problem!" We figured out that either chiropractic school has become more difficult in the 10-15 years since each of our chiropractors went thru it, or that our respective former chiropractors have very selective memories :) We also both came to the conclusion that had we KNOWN how difficult this was going to be, we may not have chosen this path. However, nearly $100,000 into debt, it's definitely too late to turn around.

I still know that the end-product of this process is what I want, though, and I know I just have to plow thru a lot of crap to get there. Today some really good stuff happened: I did nine adjustments, on six people total. Three of the adjustments had the result of my patient saying, wow!! That was awesome!! Two of my patients were no longer in pain after I adjusted them. (the others were not in pain to begin with...)

THIS is why I am in school. Because in essence, I am learning how to help people not hurt, by helping to solve a biomechanical problem rather than masking its symptom with a drug to numb the pain. I am learning to help people to *function* better. We are, after all, machines!

I feel so good knowing that after six weeks of pain, Alex's rib doesn't hurt. If when I talk with him on Friday, he tells me that he was able to get a good night's sleep because he didn't hurt, I might just jump for joy. When I adjusted Kate today, she got up and walked around and turned to me and said ah, that was so good, what the hell did you do, I'm walking differently and it doesn't hurt and it doesn't feel stuck! She said it just like I did when Dr. Franson adjusted me the same way, three years ago. A wow moment for me.

It's not as simple as that, though. I'll get back to y'all about more of what restoring proper motion and biomechanics does to the body in the long run. One clue to a single facet of the answer: When you sleep deeper because you're not in pain (increased REM sleep), your body is able to heal all of its little daily insults and injuries better (via growth hormone, which is released during REM sleep...) For now, I'm headed for sleep myself - I will be getting up at 4 to study for my 9am exam and my 1pm exam. Again with ugh.........

a belly laugh from Mike Hayward

This one's SO good I have to share it!! Thanks for the laugh, Mike :) though really, it's not entirely funny..................

--------------------

> Many will recall that, on July 8, 1947, witnesses claimed an unidentified
> object, with five aliens aboard, crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch
> just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident many say has
> long been covered up by the United States Air Force and the federal
> government.
>
> However, what you may NOT know, is that in the month of March 1948,
> exactly nine months later, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Bill
> O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Condoleezza Rice, and Dan Quayle were all born.
>
> See what happens when aliens breed with sheep?

Studying for Boards Part I

A more detailed synopsis of what it is to study for the afforementioned "Boards" - here's why things are pretty crazy for me right now. On top of my 25 credit hours and caring for four patients and a house, a yard/jungle, and a job, as well as studying for midterms this week and next, I have to review the following courses for Boards, all of which (and more) will be tested at the picayune detail level:

Anatomy and Physiology I
Histology
Osteology & Arthrology
Gross Anatomy I, visceral
Gross Anatomy II, musculoskeletal
Spinal Anatomy
Central Nervous System Anatomy
Peripheral Nervous System Anatomy
Anatomy of the Special Senses
Embryology & Organogenesis
Microbiology I, bacteriology
Microbiology II, virology and parasitology
Immunology
Pathology I
Pathology II
Visceral Physiology
Neurophysiology
Endocrinology

and oh, yeah, Biochem I and II. Thankfully that studying was fairly easy to knock off. Tho re-learning glycolysis and the TCA cycle again reminded me that studying for a test like this is an exercise in futility - it is unlikely that I will ever need, or find practical use for, 90% of the stuff that I will re-learn to pass boards.

The moment of truth, or rather, weekend of truth, is Sept 7-8-9th. Yes, they test on Sunday.

After Boards, though, I will be over the hump. (I hope?) Or at least through a really big, flaming hoop.

Folly Beach, SC

This past weekend, James and I went out to Folly Beach, just outside of Charleston, SC. I know, I know, what the hell am I doing out playing, I have studying to do (arrrrrrrrgh) but I was good, I studied in the car, and a bit on Sat afternoon.

But when I was not torturing myself by scraping my nose in textbooks, we had some fun. We took Ms Moose to a dog park, where she had some fun but definitely showed her age (i have some precious video of Moose swimming as a 2 yr old, let's just say she's not quite that fast anymore). We waited out a cool thunderstorm, then went surfing. Folly Beach is a prime southeastern surf spot, according to several surfer-dude friends of mine.

James did awesome! He caught a bunch of waves and rode 'em in to the shore. Me, not so much. I was craving the feeling i had in Waikiki in 2004, "oh my wow this is friggin awesome!!!!!", but i never got fully upright. I knelt a few times, crouched a few times, and *almost* stood up, but the waves were kinda short in duration (according to a few friends at school, that pretty much sums up E Coast surfing). Fun anyways. Not so bad, floating around in an ocean that was about 80+ degrees. (Very different from New England!!)

We also went out kayaking. While Moose has been out on several boats, OOOOOO boy!!!, she has never been in a kayak. Those of you who knew Moose at a young age are probably laughing right now, very loudly - Um, NO. AS IF!! But now, at her much more um sedentary age, she was quite content to hang in (yes, IN) the kayak - we got her in the kayak, without rolling in the slimy stinky low-tide mud would you believe, and got her turned around so she could lay down with her head on the gunnel. She was lovin' it.

The estuary hosted not only shrimpies, which hopped into the boat (really. One hijacked its way back to Atlanta) but also dolphins (look for the fin in the pic!!) I was quite nervous that Moose would want to jump in to go play, but thank dog I mean god, she didn't. I have no idea how we would have gotten her back into the kayak.

We had some fun. And now, I am ACK back at it. I will not count days until I am done with boards part I, but oh. It will be good.

On a positive note, I am making forward progress as a student intern in clinic... I have four patients, and I am on track to complete my requirements for this quarter five weeks early. Which, cough gasp, leaves me plenty of time to STUDY.

Did I mention that this sucks? Man, I thought studying for my qualifying exam at MCW was bad. Try doing that while taking 25 credits. UGH.

Climbing in Colorado: Garden of the Gods

Over break, I went to Colorado to climb with my friend Doug. We didn't get out climbing as much as I would have liked, but we did hit a few good areas: Garden of the Gods, El Dorado, and the Flatirons, outside of Boulder.

Garden of the Gods is a collection of unique red sandstone formations a la Sedona, sheer rock walls rising out of the sand. It is just due west of Colorado Springs, on the way to Pike's Peak.















It looks absolutely lovely, and there is a Falcon guidebook that suggests that it is eminently climbable. Um.............. yeah. I should have checked rockclimbing.com first. Oops. Chossy rock, manky or nonexistent pro.

We did do one route, Window Route, a 5.2 labelled a three-star classic. It is situated on the face and ridge of a gorgeous rock formation called Three Graces. Now, for those of you not familiar with climbing vernacular, 5.2 is translated as "really easy." Most people would do it without a rope. Me, I like safety, so I prefer to rope up. And a three-star 5.2? Where else ya gonna find that? What a great warmup!





I've never before had a 5.2 kick my ass. I'm almost embarassed to say it. But, truth is truth - and the truth is, I backed off from finishing it. Something about the unprotectable 30 foot runout over a ridge followed by a few stout bouldering moves (again, unprotected) to bellyflop over two successive sandstone fins, to try to find the (hidden) anchors on the opposite face of the fin. And, oh, did I mention manky pro, and a likely groundfall from about 50 feet?

Hm. Yeah. I dunno, might have been off-route :) i'm a bit famous for that.


Directly after we crawled down the chimney between the fins of the Three Graces to retreat from the route (kinda fun, see pic), Doug tried to lead up a 5.7. Again, it was not, in fact, a 5.7. We growled at the rock, and decided to bail on the Garden in favor of ElDo - figured that it was still very early in the day, if we drove up there we would skip the heat of the day and still make good use of daylight to tick off a few routes on better rock.

Regardless, the Garden is stunningly beautiful, and we had crystalline weather.

More on ElDo, the Flatirons, and other colorado adventures later. Right now I have to be good and write an essay for a scholarship application :)