Yet another reason to love my school

I already received an email invitation to the school's book club! Faculty and students get together to discuss "real" books (not medical texts!) at faculty members' houses. The first book this year is going to be The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which is by Mark Haddon and is an unusual mystery in which the main character is an autistic teenager. I read it a few years ago and I thought it was excellent. I'm going to have to recover it from my mom (I lent it to her and never got it back, story of my life) and read it again.

AIDS Run/Walk

I like my class already. We haven't even met yet and people have already organized a team for the AIDS Run/Walk that's happening on 9/16 (the Saturday after we begin classes). I signed up and I think it sounds like a lot of fun!

If anyone out there would want to make a sponsorship donation, you can do it at this web page.

Just a Wednesday.

I spent most of the day getting my things together in preparation for the beginning of my move on Friday. I've been packing intermittently for a while, so it was pretty much just bringing things together from the different rooms they were in and stacking them all up in the living room. I was very disappointed to discover that our basement storage room has become quite moldy over the course of the summer. I wound up tossing a fair amount of things... though I admit that most of them were things I probably should have tossed regardless. (I'm a bit of a pack rat, you see.) I did tell P. (my bf) that he should really put anything he wants to keep down there in those Tupperware containers. Regular cardboard didn't quite cut it.

The current plan is that I'm going to take one carload down on Friday, get the keys, unload that stuff, drive back home. On Saturday morning I'm driving out to my mom's to help my little sister S. move into her dorm at college -- she's going to be a freshman. Then Sunday morning, my mom and I will drive her minivan, + or - my middle sister J., back here, load it up with some of the bulkier things I'm moving, and take that back down again. Then we'll drive back to Mom's house, I'll pick up my car, and drive back here. Depending on how much stuff I can fit, I may or may not make one more trip down during next week. P. will drive me down for my permanent residency :) probably on 9/9. Somewhere in there I'm going to stop at IKEA and buy anything I decide that I'm lacking.

In an unrelated but kinda cool bit of news, I got an email from a lady on ancestry.com. I'm very confused as to exactly how we are related but apparently we are. So that will be fun to sort out. :)

Introductory material and such things

Chances are, if you're reading this, you know who I am and what I'm up to. However, just in case you don't, I suppose I should provide a few biographical details.

Age: 32
Sex: F
Marital status: Divorced, currently attached (sort of -- this is a long story that I'm sure will be discussed in more detail at some point)
Education: BA in English, AS in Nursing
Occupation: medical student (well, I haven't officially started yet, but I'm trying to get used to the sound of it)
Former occupations: RN, CNA, unit secretary, optometric assistant, waitress, record store clerk
Hobbies: games of all sorts, reading, writing, singing (mostly in the shower), cooking, wine and spirit drinking, the Student Doctor Network.

The purpose of the blog is primarily to record my thoughts and experiences during medical school. If someone finds reading it helpful, interesting, funny, or simply a way to pass a few moments, then that's fantastic. But really, I'm writing it more for me.

OK, a little bitty real one.

I've managed to tweak the template into something resembling what I want, though it's taken me all night. (My HTML-fu is weak, sadly.)

I'm starting medical school two weeks from today. I'm starting my move on Friday. After the seemingly endless hurry-up-and-wait of the application process, things are finally beginning.

It's a good feeling. Scary, but good.

I know I'm going to be experiencing some stress in the upcoming months (and this may be a massive understatement). The picture above is from my recent and very relaxing Door County vacation that I want to make into my own personal zen magnet, bringing me peace and calm whenever I need it.

But for now, vacation's over. Time to sink my teeth in. I've been waiting a long time for this, and I'm hungry.

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