How I Know I'm Not a Sadist

Today I had to go to the dentist to have a cavity filled. This annoys me enormously because anyone who knows me well can tell you that I brush for an obscene amount of time. Regardless, I don't have any real beef with going to the dentist. Now I can't remember the last time I had a filling done, but I don't have any horrible memories about having them done.

That changed today.

The dentist didn't do anything wrong, and the procedure didn't hurt. I just found myself surprisingly bothered by the noises. There were two main tones. A high pitched eeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeee noise, and lower grumbling of the same type of noise. I personally didn't really mind the lower toned of the two, but the high pitched one killed me. That might also be because the only time I did feel something was during the higher pitch. It may have just been the vibrations, but I could have sworn I felt a tingle once - which prompted my going "uuurrrrrgh!"

I had been thinking about doing a dentistry internship next semester to fulfill my last requirement, but after this I think I would rather not know what is going on in my mouth. But what I do know is that I could never go into dentistry simply because of the sheer anxiety I would put people through.

Food: Love/Hate Relationship

I've recently decided to start working out and eating right with the goal of looking hawt. And by "hawt" I mean not being a gangly 6'4, 200lbs twig with sags. I'm sorry for that image. So for the past month or so I've been lifting - eww, I hate saying that - every other day and been doing high reps and increasing weight and decreasing reps with each set.

I've now started following the advice of a book that I bought quite a while ago. I'm finding it hard to see how its plan is going to work. It tells me that I should only do one set of the heaviest weight for a maximum of 10 reps. If I can do 10 reps, then I should add more weight. I know this is the general theory for putting on muscle mass, as opposed to endurance. I feel like that's not enough work, but I'm going to go with it. It also has me only working out every other day, which I know is common work out protocol per muscle group.

I'm also going to follow its diet plan, because as we all known diet is really 80% of the equation. Since I want to ultimately gain weight - targeting about 20lbs. - I need to eat more than I burn. How many calories does it require me to eat a day? 3700 Calories!!! I don't know if I'm capable of that. I don't think I even eat 2000 Calories a day. We'll see how it goes, but I'm worried that I'm just going to get fat.

From a scientific point of view it all makes sense, as far as I know. Keeping a constantly supply of carbs (which turn to glycogen) available to the body so that metabolism stays high, and the body doesn't go to the muscles for energy. And also just making sure that I get enough protein to repair the muscles after working out.

I guess this will be another thing that I update about. (Whether you like it or not) I swear if you fail me Men's Health I'm going to kill you.

Long and Bumpy Ride

How silly of me to think that just because my application was submitted things were going to go smoothly.

I submitted my application about a week ago and I had never seen the transcript status change. It didn't even say that they had received it. So I shot an e-mail over to them asking, more or less, "WTF?!?!" They responded today simply saying, "Thank you for the correction - your account has been updated."

How long had my stuff been sitting there in error?!?!?! How much time was wasted when my GPA could have been calculated??? Uggggggghh. I guess I'm going to keep a sharp eye on these people, and basically anyone who has anything to do with my getting into medical school.

I swear to God that if this application isn't sitting in a pile at each of the schools I've applied to by September 1 heads are going to roll. Hear that advisor??? GET THE GOD FORSAKEN RECOMMENDATIONS SENT!!!!

omgomgomg

A coach where I work got a little worked up over something I didn't think was that big of a deal. He came into the trailer I work in - it's worse than it sounds - and asked me what he thought the deal was with his doctor asking him to come in to talk about lab results. It was a regular physical blood workup and they they didn't say it was urgent or anything. He was convinced that he had leukemia. I tried to reassure him that if it were something like that then he would probably feel sick, or they would tell him to come in right away. I said that it was more likely something like high cholesterol or high blood sugar.

After he got off the phone he looked visibly shaken. You could hear it in his voice. I felt so bad for him that he was getting so upset about it. The nurse insisted that it was nothing terrible and that the doctor does check ups with patients after blood work all the time. He was still convinced of leukemia. I guess I can see where he was coming from because I was convinced that my blood work was going to say I was diabetic just a couple of weeks ago.

End of Another Love

I can happily announce that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was totally fulfilling, and enormously entertaining. I hold tight to not talking about the book with people who have not read the book in attempts to keeping the ending under wraps for as long as possible. If you want spoilers then just go to Wikipedia jerks and quit bugging me.

I will say this though, JK Rowling did the impossible and made me tear up. I even shed one.

And the waiting begins...

You'll notice (I hope) that there is now a check mark next to "application." I finally finalized my personal statement, which I no doubt put too much effort into and have submitted my application to the AACOMAS.

What's next? Well my application is now being processed by the AACOMAS and once they verify that the courses I inputed are correct they will calculate my official cumulative and science GPAs. They will then send out my application to the schools I designated and I then hopefully will receive secondary applications from those nine schools. They should have the primary within 3-6 weeks. Hopefully 3, since I'm still fairly early applying.

My advisor also told me that the pre-health committee has finally started writing my letter of recommendation. I'm hoping that they'll finish that before the AACOMAS finishes processing my application. They send those directly to the schools I'm applying to.

I'm a little nervous because in the status of my application it says that they haven't received my transcripts from any of the schools I attended, even though I sent them out weeks ago. I'm going to assume for now that this isn't updated automatically and someone needs to physically verify that they have the transcripts from the right schools. I mean they didn't even know what schools I attended until I submitted this application.

My breathing is still calm. It's too early to start hyperventilating.

Freaking Cell Phones

I have such a love/hate relationship with Verizon Wireless.

I love it because I get reception almost everywhere I go, and very rarely ever have a dropped call. I also love it because basically everyone I know has Verizon, so I never need to worry about my minutes. I can honestly say that I do not keep track of my minutes at all.

I hate it because they don't let me do with my phone what I want to do. Specifically, they don't let me make my own ringtones. They tell you that your phone can play mp3 files, and it can. You just can't use those mp3 files as ringtones!!! I use to be able to use Mobile17 for all of my ringtone needs, but now Verizon has put a limit on how long they can be - 10 seconds. I mean granted I almost always pick up my phone within 10 seconds, but it cuts down on how cool it is. I wanted to hear the whole thing, not just the first 10 seconds over and over.

My contract ends in January '08. I really like the iPhone, but I don't trust AT&T Wireless. They don't have as stellar a reputation as Verizon in terms of service, and I've also heard really bad things about their wireless internet. And if I'm going to have a monthly subscription of $60 this internet better be sweet. But I also hear that an upgraded iPhone is on its way soon, and that AT&T is working on rectifying the slow internet problem. So I guess I'll see in January what I'm going to do about my cell phone.

Comment as you will. (Or should I say, won't)

Getting Hopes Up

You know this always, always, always happens to me. I'm getting my hopes up. After years of thinking that I wouldn't get in anywhere I'm starting to think that I might be able to get into my top choice school. It's not my top choice because of rank or anything, but because of location - about a 15 minute drive from my hometown, which is also the area I would like to do residency and live. Ugh.

My friend just told me that this guy from my college (and high school) got into said school with a 24 on the MCAT. Granted, I also think he had a considerably higher GPA than me, but hopefully the MCAT proves I'm capable. I also just realized that my personal statement makes me sound like I'm perfectly fitted for one of their customized curricula.

Just watch. The same thing that happened with every single one of my Organic Chem tests is going to happen. I'm going to get my hopes up and end up falling exactly where I would have predicted before the test.


In other news, I'm super excited about my upcoming senior year. My fall semester schedule is so clutch.

Monday: night class - Ireland: History/Politics
Tuesday: 9:30 - Bioethics; 11:00 Vertebrate Physiology
Wednesday: 2:00 - Vertebrate Physiology Lab (yay mice!)
Thursday: 11:00 - Vertebrate Physiology; night class - Human Nutrition
Friday: 9:30 - Bioethics

The one thing that obviously sucks is that I have only one class on Friday. And of course it's the morning after the biggest drinking night. And also it's my capping class... We'll see how that goes. But other than that my day normally doesn't start that early, and I have a TON of free day time. Plus, I'm super excited for every single one of my classes. (DORK!)

Oh, and also my apartment is fucking nassssssty. I'm so pumped to live there with only one roommate. (Who also happens to be one of my best friends at school and my roommate for the past 2.5 years) It's going to be sick.

You know, sometimes it's nice to get your hopes up. Because in the long run I think I would still feel like shit if I didn't get what I wanted, regardless of whether I thought I would or not.

Growing Up

I saw my internist today; NOT my pediatrician. It's so nice not to be the oldest person in the waiting room.

I really need to start remembering to not piss before going for my physical. I got into the bathroom and what a surprise, nothing. Wait no, it wasn't a surprise at all.

I then had my first EKG ever. That was pretty neat. They said it was normal. I guess I'm suppose to be happy about that, but it wasn't much of a learning experience. BUT I did have a heart murmur, which means that I get to go in again Tuesday for an echocardiogram. (!!!!!) I'm not at all worried about that, but at least it's another procedure that I've never had before.

I had a total n00b moment though. When the desk woman told me I had to schedule an echocardiogram I said, "But I already had that today, an EKG" And she rightfully reminded me that an EKG is an electrocardiogram. OMG the embarrassment. How could I forget such a thing. I literally turned red I think.

In other news, I've corrected my personal statement. I'm sticking more or less with the second one. And I took out anything that made is sounded like I struggled in my classes. (My transcript will do I fine job showing that) I'm justing waiting for my advisor to read it over and give it the okay. That'll only take a month....

Hope everyone had a great 4th!
Ciao!