Argh, I had written a few paragraphs on this yesterday at work, then I got distracted with an experiment. Left work a while later without publishing the post, thinking it would save it as a draft like my e-mail does, but no. It's gone. Oh well, I had wanted to see how many times my dad would remind me to blog before I actually did. I think it was 3 or 4 times, which is a record. Usually I get around to it after 1 or 2 reminders. I'm good at slacking.

This has been a great summer, and I'm sad to see it end. I went to two great weddings, had an awesome week at the beach with family, worked relatively hard on my first official research project at UMC, got moved in and settled in my new house, and survived the blistering summer heat of Jackson. Even got a decent bit of running in.

The experiments have been progressing nicely. It looks like we're going to have publishable results, which would be fantastic. One of the requirements for me to get my Ph.D. and move back into the 3rd year of medical school four years from now is that I have a first author publication. It would take a huge amount of pressure off of me (not that I've felt any), and then the next few years I could just focus on being productive in the lab without stressing about publications. A few more would be nice, of course, but not to have any more required would be awesome.

The deadline for the NIH F30 grant that the Physiology bigwigs are wanting me to apply for got pushed back from August 8 to December 8, so I really haven't been working on that at all. That's probably not a good thing, because it means that I'll have to be struggling with it during the semester. I plan on studying more this year, and I have some extracurricular responsibilities as well, so I'll be busy. It'll do me well.

I was incredibly fortunate with this whole house deal. It really is amazing how everything fell together. Three friends of mine moved in with me a few months ago, then one recently (and unexpectedly) got a job at MC as an assistant resident director, so he moved out. Within one week, I had another guy moved in. It was crazy how it happened so quickly. I had heard the boyfriend of a friend of mine from college needed a place to live, so he came and checked the place out. I had never met him, but he clicked with me and my roommates, so he moved in the next day! The more the merrier.

School is about to start up again! I haven't really thought about it at all this summer, but I had to order books the other day, and that always gets me excited. I thought that I would review some of material from last year's classes this summer, but I haven't even touched a school-related book once. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but I've been busy with other stuff. Won't worry about it.

I've been craving another beach trip, and it looks like things are falling in place for me to take the second week of school off to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with two good friends from my childhood in Turkey. Can't wait for that. Our school schedule this year is such that it allows you to take it easy for a few weeks before buckling down for a few hardcore weeks of studying, then a full week of tests. I loved the first year, but the second year should be even better.

Another big thing that I'm excited about is a new car! Ordered a Mustang, which should arrive in around 5 weeks. It's going to be pretty cool. My current car is quite old and has been making progressively more and more noise (squeaks, squeals, etc) recently. It never had any problems starting until yesterday, though. I don't know what the issue is, but I'm waiting on a tow truck to pick it up and take it to an auto repair shop. Hopefully it won't be anything major. My Chinese roommate wants to buy the car from me. He has an old V8 Cadillac that gets awful gas mileage and has everything going wrong. We'll see what happens...

The Jackson airport has free WiFi, so I figure I should blog while waiting for my delayed flight. I'm on my way up to Vermont for 4 days to be in the wedding of a good friend of mine. Obviously, I'm excited for him and look forward to spending time with him and his family, but another exciting thing is the weather! The heat has been rather oppressive in Mississippi of late, so I'll welcome the high of 60 that they are predicting for Vermont for today.

My flights go through Atlanta and New York en route to Burlington, which means 9 hours of total travel time. Last time I traveled I was spoiled by a direct flight from here to Chicago, so I'm not looking forward to this. I'm not crazy about long travel days, especially when I have no company.

The summer has been progressing nicely. Life in the lab has yet to get busy, but the rats (32) for my project arrived on Monday. I have eight rats each that range in age from 5 to 10 weeks. The oldest ones aren't too cute, but the young ones are still tiny and adorable. They remind me of the hamsters we used to breed, so I'd like to hold them and play with them, but am afraid that I'd get attached. Hopefully, the results from the project will be positive so their lives won't be in vain. :-)

One cool thing is that I've biking with some classmates of mine. There is a huge church with a large parking lot across the road from my house, so I've been out riding circles alone there a few times, and I went out on Monday and Wednesday with friends and rode about 25 miles each time. These guys are fairly serious bikers and they taught me a good bit about the basics of pacelining and about riding in a group in general. Because I haven't biked much, my quads limit my speed before I have any aerobic stress, but I was still able to stick with the guys without much difficulty. I think I'm addicted.

Nothing else of note to report on. Looking forward to a week at beach in North Carolina with family in a few weeks, followed by my brother's wedding here in town. He needs to go ahead and work on a nephew or niece for me.

Time for an update, I guess. It's been too long, as my Dad keeps reminding me.

School finished up nicely. I don't think I was as ready to be done as some people, but the changes in my schedule have been welcome. It was odd, though, having absolutely nothing to do the weekend after classes ended. I had asked my advisor if I could start in the lab the Monday immediately following finals, and I'm glad I did. I was starting to get bored. It would be nice if I were better able to just relax and do nothing, but I've never been able to do that. If I have things to do I don't mind having no school or work, but I can't just sit around and be distracted by a big screen TV all day.

Working in the lab has been interesting and enjoyable thus far. My advisor might just be the most laid back Ph.D. I've ever met, which makes the lab environment very relaxed. I appreciated something he told me the week before I started. He said that he wasn't going to be breathing down my neck all the time, but that he would be there to support me and answer questions. He knows that this is my career now, and that I am driven and want to get stuff done. The new research building that I'm working in is incredible in many ways, but the one disadvantage is that the office of my advisor is a good little distance away from the lab. So asking him questions isn't the most convenient thing to do. He's also very busy. Thankfully, there's an awesome Chinese postdoctoral fellow in the lab. I can't speak highly enough of him. He's a great teacher, he's patient, he's generous with his time, and he's skilled at doing animal surgeries. And we have something in common in that we both like food, a lot. He told me he could eat 15 or 20 eggs. That's kind of gross.

These first two weeks in the lab have mostly been taken up by reading and practicing a fairly difficult procedure which involves isolating and cannulating an arteriole from the gracilis muscle in rats. Most of it is microsurgery, and I love it. I'm ordering rats for my actual project this upcoming Tuesday. I'll be looking at the mechanisms by which blood flow to skeletal muscle tissue is impaired (exercise capacity is diminished as a result) in obese rats. The subject matter is interesting and the experiments are fun. I'm having a good time.

I've settled in at the new house along with one roommate, and am looking forward to my other two roommates moving in in about a month. When we're all moved in, it's going to be an American, a Brazilian, a Chinese, and a Zimbabwean. I was thinking about hanging our four flags outside the house. :-)

The summer should be a good one. World Cup, two weddings, beach week in North Carolina. No other big plans that I know of, but every day is an adventure!

Another week has passed in beautiful (weather-wise), springtime Jackson. Life is chugging right along nicely. One source of excitement is that baseball season is underway, although it doesn't look like my Astros will be any good. I'm no fair-weather fan so I'll be watching most of their games anyways. I haven't perfected the art of watching baseball and studying effectively at the same time, but I'm working on it. The Astros-Phillies game is open in another window as I type :-)

School is enjoyable as always. Neuroanatomy is the only class that currently requires much work, so the schedule is fairly light. It's hard to believe that the first year of med school is almost over! I guess that comes with getting old. My grandma always used to tell me that time flies by faster as you age, and I'm beginning to believe it. One thing that helps me to enjoy school more is going to the free clinic. Yes, it takes up time, and I'm not always in the mood to go. But afterwards I feel great every single time, and have never regretted going. I not only see the relevance of the stuff I'm learning in class, but it also motivates me to study for something other than doing well on a test. The more I know, the better care I will provide for the patients. Yesterday at the free clinic we were short again on medical students, so I got to see a few patients on my own. Thankfully, none of them had complex disorders.

I'm closing on my house in a little over two weeks. I went by the place today for the first time in almost a while, and it turns out that I have lots of nice flowers in the front and the back yard. Not sure how long they'll be in bloom, but I'm hoping it'll be for a while. They look very nice.

Our first intramural soccer game starts in about an hour. The games are being held over at Newell Field on the artificial turf, and I look forward to getting our butts kicked. That's probably a slight exaggeration, but sadly, it looks like our team will be mediocre at best. Lets just hope all of the other teams are as out of shape as most of us are. I'm going to go ahead and predict that the M2s will win the championship. For some reason all of the athletes ended up in that class.

Nothing much else is going on. I've seen a lot of good movies lately. Read and am reading a few good books.

I'm excited about this summer! Starting in the lab the Monday after school gets out. I'll be in two weddings. Doing some (hopefully) fun research. Good times!

So, a good bit has happened since I last posted.

Found a house, made an offer, signed the contract, then withdrew the offer after an inspection revealed problems. Found another house a few days later, had a great inspection, and am now waiting around to close on it on April 28. It's exciting. I have one of my classmates to thank for getting me to even consider buying a house. He is buying one, and he told me how easy the whole process is. He wasn't lying. Now let's just hope I can find another roommate (or two), and things will by hunky-dory.

Spring break has been a blast thus far. Went to Destin and chilled there for 4 days at the beginning of the week, and have been having hanging out, doing a whole lot of nothing since I've been back. When I'm busy, I always long for the breaks, but when the breaks come along, I get bored unless I have a lot to do. Anyways, I'm excited for the next few months of school. I've never really enjoyed neuro stuff all that much, but I'm hoping that will change now that I have to learn it in a lot more detail. When I blink it will be summer.

I haven't been running much recently, but I don't mind it too much. Have averaged about 25 miles a week for the past month, and I've been lifting weights more. I'm thinking I'll take it easy with the running until about mid-June, then start training for the Chicago Marathon (Oct. 10). Who knows, though, I could get re-motivated again next week and start running more. I'm enjoying doing the heavier weights for now, but I know that's not good for marathon training.

Went to the free clinic today. We stayed very late (past 6 PM), but it was one of my best JFC experiences thus far. There were a lot of patients, but only 4 medical students (two M3s, one M2, and me) and 2 premeds (normally there are 12 to 15 med students). Sooo, I ended up seeing a few patients all by myself. It went great with the patients, and I appreciated the fact that the upperclassmen medical students trusted me. I'm not sure if I was even technically allowed to do that, but nobody wanted to be there until 8 o'clock, so they said okay. Good times!

Another week, another blog. I should be sleeping right now, but Pops wants a post, so here goes nothing.

School continues as always. The workload has picked up slightly, but mostly it's just because I've been going to all of the Phys classes. Today I was at school for five hours, tomorrow it will be seven. That just gets old, but I told myself I wouldn't skip any of their classes, and I'm trying to stick with it. We recently finished up learning about the kidneys, and now we're on to the endocrine system. The kidney stuff was cool because it was so relevant to all of the disorders I see at the free clinic every weekend. Endocrine stuff has always fascinated me, so I'm enjoying that. Don't think I'd want to be an endocrinologist, however. Too much of a cerebral specialty, with very little in the way of procedures.

Still running. 62 miles last week, hoping to get 70 this week. There's a 5K this weekend, and it looks like it will be a fun one. A decent number of my classmates have told me that they are running it, so that will be a good time. I hope it doesn't end up being too cold or rainy or windy.

The interviews/elections for the free clinic were this evening. My top choice was the position of Research Chairman, and I was elected to it, along with an M2 friend of mine. Looks like we'll have a pretty solid Board of Directors next year, and I look forward to serving in that capacity. Three or four of my classmates were also elected to various positions.

I just finished up a decent book by Atul Gawande (general surgeon in Boston and professor at Harvard Medical School) called "The Checklist Manifesto." It's probably not as good as some of his other books, just because he doesn't say all that much, but the basic idea is great. He talks about the value of checklists. The book is full of examples and stories of where checklists have made a profound difference--particularly for safety--in the fields of medicine (surgery, in particular), aviation, construction, etc. Now I'm starting "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. It's about time, too. It came in the mail two weeks ago, and it's just been sitting on my desk. My roommate also loaned me a book called "The Great Influenza" by John Barry, which I'm reading. It's excellent.

Valentine's Day is coming up. What am I doing for it? Watching the movie, of course.

Time is flying as always, and I continue to get older and more decrepit. I'm not feeling the decrepit part, but I'm sure time is taking its toll on my joints and vessels and everything else it's supposed to affect.

Life is great, though. I tend to live in the moment, for the moment, and don't tend to dwell on the past much. That's why I always have trouble when I sit down and try to write one these posts. Nothing major ever sticks out in my mind. It's all a mush. Of course, I remember what's been going on, but I have to expend mental energy to remember the high points, or at least things that are "more interesting" than everything else.

Some people like to update their blogs every day and write about every single thing that happened to them on a particular day. I couldn't do that. I tend to take a more general, philosophical approach to blogging, and that takes energy as well. That's probably why I don't write on here much. And there always seems to be something more interesting to do. So know that if I am blogging, I have nothing better to do and am probably very bored.

Today was the least profitable day I've had for a while. I thought I was going to have class until 5 PM, but it turns out that I only had it until noon, so what do I do? Make the best of the free time I didn't know I would have? No, I didn't do a good job with that. Ended up piddling around for most of the afternoon, reading a little bit, watching a bit of TV, going to the store, etc. Before I knew it, it was 6:30 in the evening and I had to go work out and run. And I haven't done anything since the workout. Just one of those days I guess.

Tomorrow's schedule will be very light as well, but I hope to do a better job keeping myself occupied. It's difficult, as I discussed in my last post.

The last two weeks have been fun. In school, I thoroughly enjoyed re-learning all about the cardiovascular system, on the weekend I had a great time landscaping with classmates in a Habitat for Humanity project (even though it made me miss the Free Clinic), running has been going very well (excited about the 5K in town and half marathon in New Orleans), and I've had plenty of nice social events at various places with different people. Nothing extraordinary, but nothing simply ordinary.

Here I am, all excited about the new semester, motivated, ready to work hard. And there's nothing to do. Funny how that happens. I'm not complaining, but I don't like to be idle. I get bored quickly with inactivity, and while I don't necessarily want to be doing school all the time, it does tend to ward off boredom. So I've been making a great effort to be productive with my time, and the last 10 days have been fantastic in that regard. However, each passing day I find myself wasting just a little more time than the day before.

Okay, I exaggerated in that paragraph. School has been taking time, maybe even more than last semester, primarily because I've been attending classes. So that's three to four hours a day right there, and then some reading after class. That still leaves about 8 or 9 hours each day that I have to occupy. Am I in med school? I guess so, but most of the time it doesn't feel like it. Or maybe it's just that I don't feel like I thought I'd feel as a med student. I remember in college being freaked and excited at the same time, thinking that I'd be some sleep-deprived zombie with no life who has his head in a book for 12 hours a day. It's a good thing it's nothing like that, because I've found that I'm inept at studying for long periods of time unless I have a significant amount of pressure on me to do so (e.g. the day before a test).

As for as productivity, I've been keeping busy doing the things I said I was going to do in my last post. I'm in the midst of reading 5 books right now. I should probably just read one at a time, finish it, then get onto the next one, but for some reason I can't do that. I think I got that trait from my dad. If I open a book, I usually get interested and read a few chapters, then I'll end up picking up another one the next day and doing the same. Before I know it I'm reading a bunch of books and it takes forever to finish any of them. I'm actually doing well to just keep it at five.

I had a great day at the free clinic on Saturday. We had a fun group, and the two M3s let me talk to the patient and present the case to the doctor a few times. Working at the free clinic is really a great learning experience, and I absolutely love the patients. They're funny, respectful, grateful, non-compliant (hehe), and terrified of needles (deep down, who isn't?). My goal is to try and go every weekend this semester, except when I'm out of town for races (only once or twice) and for that conference in April. I know that's ambitious, but there's no reason (laziness, but that' not a good one) why I shouldn't be able to. It's a lot better than wasting time watching TV or browsing the internet.

The water crisis in Jackson has been a nuisance, but I don't want to complain about it. It made me realize that I've always taken running water for granted, when I know that many many people in this world don't have it. I'm blessed, and thankful for what I have, but I am happy that the water is back on. It makes life much less complicated.

I've been hanging out with Belhaven friends a good bit recently as well. That's been great. I don't like losing touch with people, especially when only live two miles away. It's always very interesting to me to see how relationships change over time. How I'll hang out with a certain group for a few months, then inexplicably won't see them for months, then I'll start hanging out with them again as if we never stopped. That happened more in college than it does now, but I think it will happen.

Another semester has begun! And, I might add, it's off to an auspicious start. The classes are interesting, the workload is light, and opportunities abound.

My goals for this semester are to work harder with school and be more involved on campus and with service.

In thinking about last semester, I realized that more than anything, I was trying to avoid stress. As if it were the plague. So I dabbled and procrastinated, and generally had a great time. Didn't really feel like a medical student at all (as far a busyness was concerned), and was proud of that silly fact. In retrospect, I realize that my mindset was foolish.

Grades aren't an issue for me at all. I'd be fine with continuing to get the grades I got last semester. Not superb, but they're adequate. The issue is with stewardship of my time. As I see it, I've been blessed with this tremendous opportunity to make a difference, and the least I can do is put forth my very best effort. I no longer want to view the minute details as unworthy of my attention. There's no way I can remember everything, but if I only see most of the material once, and some of it not at all, I won't learning like I should.

So I want to prioritize school more. But it just so happens that our schedule if fairly light this semester, so I'll still have a lot of free time. What to do with it?

Of course, I'll continue to run and work out. (An aside - I find it odd that some people are surprised when I answer in the affirmative when they ask me if I'm still running. Of course. I guess it's just a fad for some people. Oh well. Maybe it's the way I'm wired, but exercising will always be a significant part of my life, until I'm old and decrepit or mentally ill). I also want to read. Just random stuff, whatever I'm in the mood for on any particular day. I'd like to be very involved at the Free Clinic as well. I applied for a spot on the clinic's Board of Directors for next year, and we'll see how that pans out. There are about 10 different positions on the Board, and I told them I'd be happy to serve in any capacity, although my top three choices were research chairman, student volunteer coordinator, and physician volunteer coordinator.

A cool thing. An e-mail was sent out a while back to all the MD/PhD students here at school calling for two people to attend an APSA (American Physician Scientists Association) conference up in Chicago in late April. Of course, I'm a newbie and have no abstracts to present, so I didn't respond, thinking that upperclassmen would jump at the opportunity. A few days ago, got another e-mail literally begging two of us mudphuds to go. Apparently, our administrators really want our school to be represented at these things. So, I look at my schedule to see if April 23-25 in Chicago works for me. Three tests on the 26th. Not a problem (hehe). Let's go to Chicago!! All expenses paid travel and hotel stay (nice hotel, too!), plus the opportunity to hear big-name speakers from top schools around the country (one is Francis Collins). How could I turn that down? So, little old me, an M1, gets to go to a big conference. I'm excited.

I could go on, but it's tired and I'm late (for you, Dad)

Ta-ra then!

Busy times, so I'll update more when I have a chance. Doing no schoolwork on my trip forced me to hit the ground running upon my return, so I'm behind, but it's all good. I actually enjoy when I have to work hard and be efficient. It's like an adrenaline rush.

It's been a great week of relaxation. Med school is interesting like that. It's busy for a little while, and then it eases off. I don't mind the cycles, because there's never an intolerably long stretch of craziness. Two out of the however many weeks of school thus far have been busier than I would have liked, but overall, I can honestly say that I was busier for at least half of my college career than I've been during this first semester at UMC. Junior year at Belhaven I literally didn't have time to sleep much more than 6 hours a night. That's back when I was an overly ambitious, new pre-med doing everything. In med school thus far, I've realized that I'm pretty much going to get nothing done unless I have a test in the next few days. I try to study, but nothing really goes in. So I've been skimming notes as things are taught, then I cram for a few days before the test. It's not ideal, but it will have to do until I can get myself to do more when there is no pressure.

Next few days I'll be studying for our Biochem test on Wednesday, then directly after that I'll be embarking on my four-day road trip to Houston and Austin. As much as possible, I'm going to try and forget completely about studying during that time, but if Pedro needs to study some (which he probably will), we might hit up a bookstore for a couple of hours a day. For the most part, though, I hope to eat some good food (Texas de Brazil!), see the sights, take some pictures (if the digital camera I ordered gets here by Wednesday), and chill.

Let's see, what have I done last few weeks?

Hmm... Running has been going well. Last 3 weeks my mileage has been between 56 and 60 miles per week. A number of friends from Belhaven (including the men's and women's cross country teams) are going to be running the Madison Half Marathon on December 12, and I've challenged some of them to beat me. Should be a fun race, haha.

I've seen a number of movies, most of them mediocre. I watched New Moon on Friday night (there wasn't anything else out worth seeing that I hadn't seen), and it was shocking to see how crazed people were about it. The lines were insanely long, and when they started letting people into the theater, a lot of the females in line began squealing/screaming. Pretty ridiculous. There were a few women ahead of us in line probably in their fifties who were saying they couldn't wait to see Jacob shirtless. Weird.

I haven't been around the UMC campus too much recently. Physiology classes have started back up, but other than that and a few random mandatory classes and labs, I haven't been going to much. In hindsight, I am extremely happy that I wasn't elected president of our class. If I had been, I probably could not be this uninvolved without feeling guilty. The Free Clinic is always fun when I go, but more often than not, I'm the only one from my class there, so that doesn't help me socialize with the class. I definitely like all of my classmates, but I'm not going to go to class just to see people. And I enjoy studying with Belhaven friends because they're very laid back (e.g. Pedro, haha).

Anyways, I need to go to sleep. I have a mandatory Phys class at 8AM. I went to the early service at Church this morning, so this will be two consecutive days of waking up at 7. It's been a long time since that's happened (1st week of med school maybe?)

Things are chugging right along. Time is flying by, and that's fine with me. Every day that passes is getting me closer to Thanksgiving break and then the big one, Christmas! I'm not sick of school, I just really want to get out of Jackson and be spontaneous for a change.

During Thanksgiving break I'm loosely "planning" on either going to Atlanta for 4 days or to Houston and Austin for 2 days each. This'll be with Pedro, a friend of mine from Belhaven. See the sights, maybe go to a concert or two, maybe an NBA game, etc. Basically, the goal will be to get my mind off of med school for 4 days before we have to get back and start cramming for cumulative finals and board exams.

The last week has been the most hectic of med school for me thus far. It wasn't stressful, but I did study more than usual. And did it pay off? We'll see. I felt like the anatomy tests today went fairly well, but the grade improvement (if there is one) will probably not be big enough to justify the extra time spent studying.

So, after a good post-test workout and run, I was on my way to the store to do some shopping, and I got to thinking. Is there really any reason to go all out for As in classes? I don't think so. There's a huge amount of material covered on each exam, and in order to get an A on a test, you need to study a whole lot and know almost all of the material (unless you're lucky or the test happens to be easy). However, making a B on a test is not that difficult, and doesn't require nearly as much studying. This is because every test has a good number of easy questions, and then several questions that test minutiae that you probably won't know unless you've put a lot of work in. Yes, there are people in my class who study relentlessly and make all As. I'm happy for them. But I don't want to be like that. As for me, my goal will be to get a B in every class, have minimal stress, and still be a human being outside of medical school (which means taking part in the activities listed in prior blogs). I think this has been my mindset this whole semester, but I just hadn't thought about it. And I'm sure I'll get some As this semester and next, but that'll just be icing on the top of the cake. But no Cs. If that happened, I'd have to change things up.

So that's that. Nothing much of note has happened. I watched the New York City Marathon on Sunday morning, and that was highly motivational. I've made up my mind to run the New Orleans Half Marathon in late February, and then possibly the Boston Marathon in late April. I really want to run Boston, since that's THE marathon to do, but I don't want to go by myself. Finding someone to run it with would be ideal, but I'd settle for a friend who would just accompany me up there for a good time. I'm not in terrible shape right now, but I've just been maintaining a base of between 40 and 50 miles per week. Not really killing myself in workouts. Now I'm excited about running again. I might go out and run 10 tomorrow afternoon, because the weather is absolutely gorgeous here these days.

3 weeks since my last post. Not too bad, hehe. Things have been chugging along at the pretty good clip here in Jackson. Not a whole lot of variety in my life right now, other than the daily change in location of my studying. I've been alternating between home, the library, Books-a-million, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Cups, and the Belhaven Student Center. I'm going to tack on another few locations eventually, maybe the Lemuria bookstore and Sneaky Beans.

We're in the midst of the busiest few weeks of the semester, with the possible exception of the week before the anatomy board exam, and I like to think the worst is behind us. And to think that that's the worst it's going to get this year. HAH. It isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

Tests are a funny thing. At least that's the case in med school. You think you're prepared, and you don't do well, and then you think you're not prepared, and you do well. That's what happened to me with the anatomy tests today. Going in, I felt much better about the written test, but I think I ended up doing much better on the practical. The written just happened to test everything I didn't know. I'm going to estimate that I made educated guesses on close to half of the 70 questions, which means that I'd be content if I passed it. Normally, I don't like it if I'm not positive about an answer, but by the end of that test I had been guessing so often that it didn't even bother me any more. It was actually pretty funny.

I was in a good mood after the tests, probably because they were over, and headed over and got in a great 2-hour workout with Pedro, a Brazilian friend from Belhaven that I've been hanging out with a good bit recently.

So overall, things are going great. I'm enjoying most of my classes, getting plenty of sleep (little behind from last night, but I'm catching up tonight), running around 50 miles per week, working out three times a week, going to the movies every Friday, trying out one or two new restaurants each week with Pedro, and going to the Jackson Free Clinic about every other week. I'm certainly not at the top of the class, but that was never my goal. I feel like I'm learning the material, but at the same time having a balanced, enjoyable, low-stress life. God is very good, and He continues to sustain me. Church and CMDA on Tuesdays are always a great break from everything.

It's sad that there's no fall break in medical school. It would've been nice. So now I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, when I'll hopefully leave town for a few days. I have no idea where, but I'd love to just go somewhere random for 3 or 4 days and get completely out of this environment. Maybe go skiing. Hahah, that'd be awesome. We shall see. With such a scheduled lifestyle, it'd be very nice to be able to be completely spontaneous for a few days.

So that's that. Maybe I'll update on here more frequently.

Quick update on what's been going on, because I'm about to head out the door to hang out with a friend from Belhaven (Pedro!!).

It's been a good week. The biggest two things that happened, in my mind, were the first gross anatomy tests and the braces. The tests went fairly well. I did better than I thought I would do, considering how under prepared I felt the night before. I didn't get an A on the two tests combined, but it was close enough. What I did learn was that I need to review for a little while longer in the lab before the practical. Personally, I think I should be doing better on the practical portion than on the written (should be easier, if you're prepared!).

The braces haven't been as bad as I thought. Of course, a heightened sense of self-consciousness accompanied them, but I'm pretty much used to them now. It's funny, everyone has been sharing with me their stories with braces. One thing that frustrated me a whole lot was that I got a loose bracket last night (Friday), which means that I can't get in to get it fixed until Monday. I hope this doesn't happen much, because I was trying so hard to follow every single little rule they told me to (not eating cookies and chips is difficult!). I think I just brushed my teeth a little too vigorously. It's annoying because the bracket is still connected to the wire, but it keeps moving and flipping around. Oh well. Two years from now, I'll probably laugh when I remember how much this annoyed me.

Other than that it's been a fairly relaxing week. After anatomy, my brain was fried, so I haven't really been doing much of anything with regards to school since then. We basically have a three-day weekend (only one class on Monday), so I hope to get a decent bit accomplished.

We had our class elections this week, and I think we have some great officers. I gave my little presidential spiel, and I was honest with the class. I told them why I wanted to do the job, but that, if elected, I would only be able to serve a two-year term because of my MD/PhD status. They ended up choosing someone else, and I think they made the right decision. I was bummed for about 5 minutes when I found out, but that's about it. It would've been great to serve the class in that way, but honestly, I think my heart is more with the community. The free clinic is great when I go (haven't had as much time this semester as I would've liked), but I'm looking for other opportunities. I wish there were a community-outreach-related position that I could have run for, because that's what I'd love to get people interested in. It's too easy to become wrapped up in yourself in medical school.

So that's all I have to say today. Keep voting for the Children's hospital, please (10 times a day for the next month).

http://xbox.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/default.aspx

We're in second place now. If we get a new game room, I'm going up to play video games with the kids.

Alright, an update is overdue, I admit it. It's been a while, and blogging has been on the backburner for me, primarily because I feel like I have no interesting updates. Things are going great, but it's just been the same-old, same-old stuff.

Anatomy is my favorite class right now. I enjoy studying for it, and the labs are a blast. However, I have had a minor allergic reaction to formaldehyde, which is putting a small damper on things. I'm hoping that the issue will resolve itself shortly. Our first test isn't until two Mondays from now, so I probably be getting behind on it over the next few days in order to study for the upcoming Biochem and Genetics tests (this Tuesday). And I also have to travel to Tupelo tomorrow to run a marathon early on Sunday morning.

So my free time for the weekend will probably consist of the evening off tonight (probably go to the movies), driving to and from Tupelo, and running the marathon. Other than that, I'm going to try and get some good studying in.

Biochemistry isn't too bad. It's not uninteresting material, it's just that I don't feel like it's incredibly relevant to clinical medicine. I know it will help to understand diseases, but I think I could still be a competent doctor if I understood everything from a level above the biochemical level. I need to know this stuff for the big ol' STEP test, though, so I'll learn it, and try to do so happily.

Genetics is interesting to me, despite the fact that I've only attended 1 out of the 6 or 7 lectures we've had. I've been trying to wade through the 350 or so powerpoint slides that we'll be tested on on Tuesday, trying to figure out how much of it I want to learn. I would love to learn it all, but the class as a whole is only 2 percent of our overall grade for the year (biochemistry is 20%), and that will definitely be a factor in my studying.

I've barely thought about developmental anatomy so far. We have a test in it the same day as our anatomy test, so I'll be looking at it next week as well. Again, I know I should be interested in this material, but I'm really not. I think I could do fine without knowing a lot of it.

Physiology will be starting up in the next few weeks. I'm excited about that, both because I love the subject, and because I like all the professors that I've met in the department (except for one, who won't be teaching any of our classes).

Ever since we've started school, I've had this feeling that I want to do more than just study. I want to be involved in things outside of classroom work, and I think that I might just have a chance. We had a lunch today where the M2-M4 class officers came and spoke to us about their roles on campus and within the class. It's been odd, but I've had several people ask me over the last few days if I was going to be running for president. It threw me off, but not because I hadn't considered it before. I just figured that some of the older students in the class would want to do it, and I thought I'd defer to them. But I think I've decided I'm going to run. It's no big deal if I don't get it, and I think I'll run regardless of who runs against me. I'm totally fine if people don't vote for me, but I know that it's something I would enjoy doing, and it would be a great way to serve my fellow classmates.

So that's what I've been doing. School mostly, but also a healthy chunk of free time as well. Definitely enough to keep me sane. Plus, keeping up with the exercise and the 8 hours of sleep per night is invaluable.

I wrote this all very quickly, and I'm too lazy to proofread it right now, so I apologize for the inevitable errors that this blog entry is sure to contain.

So long.

Oh, and an addendum. I went to the orthodontist, and apparently I need braces. I know it's ten years late, and I'll be like a little kid, but whatever. My bite is slightly off on the left and right sides, and if I don't do something about it, apparently the enamel will wear on one side and create a lot of problems later on. So those are going on in 10 days. On the positive side, the orthodontist I happened to go to is a very strong Christian and I know his son, who plays soccer for Belhaven. He said that because I'm medical student, he's giving me a discount. And it's an incredible one.

So, medical school has begun, and it's not too bad. I'm actually starting to enjoy myself. There were a few moments here and there over the last few days where I thought to myself, "What the heck am I doing? I have nothing to look forward to over the next two years except studying. And lots of it." The few times I have felt like this have been immediately after finishing up looking at a book for a few hours. But then I get outside, or go for a run, or do pretty much anything except study, and my perspective returns and all is right in the world again.

It's just been a small adjustment getting back to studying after a year off. Today was great. There was a lecture on biochemisty where a ton of material was covered quickly, and I left feeling slightly confused. However, as soon as I looked at the slides myself, things began to click (maybe it was because I started remembering this stuff that I learned years ago), and I began to have fun. We still have a good bit of material to learn that will be included on our test next Wednesday, but I'm feeling much better about it.

On another note, I'm going to go to the Jackson Free Clinic again this Saturday. I'm looking forward to that. I've decided that I'm going to try and go as much as I can. I'd love it if I could make it over there almost every week (excluding the weekends prior to gross anatomy tests).

So that's how med school has been going thus far. I've been sleeping 8 hours a night and running and working out every day as well. Things are good. Praise God!

I love it how my dad always lets me know when it's time for me to update. It just requires a bit too much effort for me to do this on a regular basis, and there is always something more interesting to do.

It's been a fun week. I worked out a whole lot, which included a few miles of swimming, around 40 miles of biking, 65 miles of running, and three or four hours of weights. That may seem a bit much, and I'll be the first one to admit that, but I justify it by saying that once school starts I won't have the luxury of doing anything near that. I want to keep running, of course, and going to the gym, but it'll probably be more like 3 or 4 miles here, 6 miles there, etc. Just working around classes and studying. I'll still be doing marathons, so I can't slack off completely. This week I'll have a lot of free time, so I want to try and run 80 miles with no biking or swimming. That'll be an all-time high for me.

I capped off my summer lab rotations with a bang. Three out of five of the days I had to stay until 8 PM observing pig surgeries, which were interesting to say the least. I was the lab of a cool, young, Argentinian researcher, and I had a great time hanging out with him and his co-workers. He was friendly, knowledgeable, and willing to teach, even if he was a bit intense during the surgeries. I guess that comes with the territory. One second everything is honky-dory, and the next second things are going wrong and everybody is stressed and freaking out. Oh, the life of a surgeon. It does give you a bit of an adrenaline rush, though, and I like that.

So, my last week of freedom before I hit the grind. I'm looking forward to orientation. I fully expect the sessions to be soporific, but it'll be a nice time to get to know my classmates. And there will be free food, which is always good. I've ordered all the books I think I need, and most of them should be coming in tomorrow or the next day. I hope I'll actually use most of them so I don't feel like I've wasted a small fortune on paper.

I just realized that I totally neglected to tell you all about an incident that happened to me in Chicago last week, that, had it occurred in the company of anyone but close friends, would have been the most embarrassing moment of my life.

So I fly in to Chicago very early last Monday morning, after having only slept a few hours. My good friend who I would be staying with picks me up and we have a blast hanging out all day. Fast forward to midnight, and my friends start watching the movie Pulp Fiction in their dining room. Understandably, I'm worn out, so I lay down on their couch, thinking I'll fall asleep to the sound of the movie. I'm in the living room, which is attached to the dining room but separated by the bar/sink/counter portion of the kitchen. That may sound vague, but basically I was around the corner from the computer on which they were watching the movie.

In the middle of the night I wake up, fairly disoriented, but 100% sure that I am hearing hushed male voices outside of the window of the dining room. The voices are saying something to the effect of "Let's break in there and kill him" and "You ready to break the glass?" My heart starts racing, and in my groggy state I grab my phone off of the coffee table and run to the opposite side of the room, where there are stairs leading upstairs. As I run up the stairs, I'm dialing 911.

I enter one of the rooms upstairs, where the sister of one of my friends happens to be sleeping. As I talk to the police on the phone, trying to blurt out that there is a break-in in progress, I look out the window to see if I can see anybody outside of the downstairs window. I can't, but I figure they've already broken in, because I can hear the voices below us. I go to the door of the room I'm in and brace myself against it. Of course, my friend's sister is awake by now, and she is absolutely freaking out. Hyperventilating and everything. I know that we're in Wheaton, I tell the cops, but I'm not sure what the name of the street is. I ask my friend's sister - who lives there - what their address is, but in her hysterical state she can't remember. After a few seconds I somehow remember the address and give it to the emergency responder. At that moment, the battery of my phone dies. Well, that's great, I'm not even sure if they heard the address.

So this girl and I are in the room for about 30 more seconds, and I begin to think that it's a little weird that the burglars haven't come upstairs yet, because I know I can hear them downstairs. We listen more closely, and my friend's sister asks me, "Are they still watching Pulp Fiction down there?" I have no words to express how I feel over the next five seconds, but it was something like, OH, MY, GOSH. WOW. I can't believe my stupidity.

I run downstairs and see my friends chilling there watching the movie, and due to my groginess and lingering panic, my speech is incomprehensible. After a few seconds, I compose myself, and tell them I need a phone to call the cops back to tell them not to send officers. Of course, my friends are thinking I'm crazy, and one of them refuses to give me his phone because he doesn't want this going on his record. Kindly, my other friends gives me his phone. So I call the cops, and as I'm on the phone with them, about 4 police cars arrive outside of the house.

From then on it was embarrassing, about how you'd expect. After checking our IDs and getting my story, the cops just laughed when my friends told them they were watching Pulp Fiction. They thought I was a complete idiot, and I felt that way. At least they didn't give me a ticket.

So that was my story. Hopefully, it will never happen again, but hey, things could have been worse.

Other than that, nothing much of note to report on. Last week was a boring week in the lab. Not to much was going on, so I ended up reading for about 4 or 5 hours each of the days. Today was slow as well, but it looks like I'll get to learn how to do some molecular techniques later in the week, so that should be fun.

I'm sitting in the airport in Columbus, Ohio, about to board the plane to head back to Jackson. It's been quite a week, just what I needed.

On Monday morning I left Mississippi and headed up to Chicago for four days and spent time with a few friends that I grew up with in Turkey. We didn't really do anything exciting, but we enjoyed relaxing, running, playing Counter Strike, and riding on my friend's motorcycle. Good times. I have so many great memories with these guys, and it was nice to be able to speak Turkish again. These two guys are probably the most "Turkish" out of all of us American MKs that grew up over there. Hanging out with them is entertaining.

Friday morning we woke up early and drove six hours over here to Columbus for the wedding of a friend of ours who was also with us in Turkey. It was crazy and awesome to see him get married. I haven't stayed in touch with him nearly as much as I should have, but seeing each other took us back to the old days immediately. The rehearsal dinner was incredible. It was the old gang of 7 or 8 of us guys from Turkey sitting at one table, speaking Turkish, eating authentic Turkish food. After the meal we got all sweaty doing a traditional Turkish dance (Halay, tabii ki). It's funny, when I was in Turkey I didn't care much for a lot of the local things (music, dancing, etc.), but after having been in the States for these five years, I love them all. After the dinner we went out and got a few drinks for the bachelor party, and topped the night (or morning) off with a nice 4-mile run at 3:30 AM. Great times.

The wedding was sweet, with plenty of tears. Beautiful ceremony.

Now I'm heading back to Jackson. I don't feel ready to get back into the lab, but I know that if the vacation had been any longer, it would have even been more difficult. Three more weeks for me in the lab, then I start medical school! Craziness.

Had my first successful survival surgery today. It took me an hour and a half, but that included all of the suturing. I held the poor little rat and gave it some TLC for a while as it woke up. The research tech who works in the lab - who's been desensitized after doing the surgeries for two years - was looking at me like I was crazy. I'm fairly confident that the rat will still be alive and well tomorrow morning.