One word: mellow. One mood: mellow. And God said, "Let there be light." But there was no light to be found.

Word to the wise: Don't give artistic license to people who lack artistry.

Making peace, nay, making friends with November.

Rare occasions do I feel free. Tonight is one of those occasions.

"Take your cigarettes, take your jokes. I'll find someone else who smokes."

I should be studying for my Cardio exam on Monday but motivation is sorely lacking. There's a Halloween special on HGTV, and I've been glancing at it from behind my computer screen. For some reason, looking at Facebook just makes me sad.

It's really bothering me that I don't know the indications for an emergency cricothyroidectomy versus an emergency tracheotomy.

Is it 2nd year yet?

Your result for The Lover Style Profile Test...

The Exotic Lover

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You know what microscopic disease-causing class that picture is of and can name the structure of its capsid.

You see neurons in soap suds in your shower.

You feel like vomiting and automatically lay in the rescue position

When drinking, you and your friends think that the increase in your GGT tomorrow is going to be hilarious!

You still do drugs, but at least you know what they do to you. And never fail to inform those you're doing them with.

You blame neurotransmitters for anything going wrong in your life

You can have a conversation about the abscess you drained today while eating cream of broccoli soup without any problem at all. Or for that matter, over any kind of meal.

You have named a dead person…and talked to them about your stresses while finding their lumbar plexus

You know that specialties are pre-defined by personality type.

The drama in your life now is worse than it ever was in high school.

When you go out with non-medical students, you're abnormally quiet, because you don't know what to talk about besides med school.

You can name the four people in your class who are the question-asker, the arguer, the bigshot doctor's son/daughter and the stoner/alkie/druggie who's never IN class.

You know countless dirty mnemonics for parts of the body, but couldn't tell anyone what the front-page headline today is.

Your life consists of three parts: studying, drinking, and sleeping.

You refer to the semesters you took organic chemistry as "The Good Old Days."

You consistently tell people that they just don't understand how bad it really is.

You know that, in theory, you have a family and friends, but you can't place the last time you saw them.

You don't bother dating because the divorce rate is 70% for physicians.

You constantly find yourself saying things like "I just have to get to spring break" or "I just have to get through Step 1."

You understand the complexities of the USMLE as well as internships, residencies, and fellowships.

You question every day if you should drop out and open a coffee shop, then realize that as soon as you were two semesters into med school, you were too far in debt to be anything but a doctor.

You're not really sure which professional organizations you're actually a member of, but you never joined the AMA.

People assume you know something when you tell them you're in med school, but you know that you haven't learned anything.

You've dissected a penis and can explain the way Viagra works.

People constantly ask what med school is like, and all you can think of to say is "It really sucks."

You've never had problems before, but 6 months into med school you're on birth control, an anti-depressant, an anxiolytic and sleep medication.

You can name 3 specialties you're interested in, then immediately rule two of them out because they don't pay well enough to pay off your debt.

Half your class is Asian of some sort. The other half is Jewish. All of us are completely nuts.

You can name at least three people whose parents pushed them into med school, when they really wanted to be a vet/beautician/teacher/etc.

A "study group" is you, your syllabus, and your red bull.

You assess beverages for amount of caffeine before buying only those with more caffeine than coffee. Then you explain to the cashier how caffeine works for you.

You've done physical exams on your roommate, boyfriend, girlfriend, and any close friends.

You think "AWESOME!" if someone keels over in front of you.

You're still excited to see "real patients."

You're pretty sure you used to be a normal social person, but now you can completely stop conversations by talking about the time that guy pissed and bled all over you during a code.

You speak only in acronyms and abbreviations; HIV, CMV, USMLE, Dx, Px.

You meet someone and have to put off a date for months because you're crazy busy.

Advisors tell you that you have to balance your life with med school, and then are baffled when you ask them how to do it.

You've been told by at least 2 mentors that you really don't want to go into medicine.

You've thought something like "what's another $10,000 in loans?"

You're really frightened by the thought of some of your classmates becoming doctors.

You go a week without sleeping with no problem at all.

Grey's Anatomy, House, Scrubs, Dr. 90210, Nip/Tuck and ER are your favorite shows, but you point out all the wrong things in them all the time.

You have diagnosed yourself or others with at least 5 rare diseases (PML, Kaposi's sarcoma, Measles, Rheumatic Heart Disease, etc.)

People talking to you for longer than 10 minutes start to get a glazed-over look while you wax poetic about kidney function. And you don't even notice.

You keep trying to "catch" the kidney on healthy patients, because Bates says you can. Nevermind that every doctor you know says you can't normally.

And now, THE CLINICAL YEARS:

You actually get jealous of your patients as you write them for benzos.

You've been squirted by all manner of body fluids and don't even flinch anymore.

You've seen or given a soap suds enema.

Every day, you smile and nod when the attending and residents again try to tell you that they walked uphill both ways to the ICU when they were in med school and that call NEVER ended before 36 hours.

If female, you've been asked at least 25 times when you'll be a nurse.

A patient has talked to you about their belief that the University of California in Pasadena is taking over the world, destroying China, and spreading cannabalism. And all you could think was "buddy, you've got more issues than just dopamine!"

A patient has threatened to kill you.

You know what Vitamin H and Vitamin A are.

You've gotten astonishingly good at dodging punches from delirious patients.

You've learned firsthand NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING THAT ISN'T BLUE!

Even if you don't have kids, you now know that if it can be urinated on, Baby Boy Smith will hit it.

You fall asleep at the table after 3 sips of a beer with friends.

The concept of dating these days only extends to residents and other hospital employees.

You haven't called a med school friend back for 6 weeks, and then, all you have to say is "I'm on surgery" and all is forgiven.

You remember during those first 3 weeks of your clerkships when you actually tried and advocated for patients.

Specialties requiring no patient contact are looking better and better.

Even when you're not on call, you start using it as an excuse with friends and family so you can go home and sleep.

You've slept for more than 24 hours straight.

You become an expert at how to look busy and do nothing.

You realize that there are WAY more gunners in your class then you ever thought!

You've been given so much conflicting feedback that you're really not sure WHAT to do to improve.

You've avoided studying for SHELF exams with the excuse, if I don't know it after 6 weeks, what's the point?

You realize that most of that work in the first two years was pretty much pointless.

You look at the first and second years or hear them say "dude, we're so going to the bar RIGHT after the exam" and you get a little nostalgic.

You look at the interns and think "my god, I don't want to be them."


(More will be added later, and hopefully they will be more amusing than these!)

I think this may become my new favorite website.

If you think that a kiss is all in the lips
C'mon, you got it all wrong, man
And if you think that our dance was all in the hips
Oh well, then do the twist
If you think holding hands is all in the fingers
Grab hold of the soul where the memory lingers and
Make sure to never do it with the singer
'Cause [she'll] tell everyone in the world


--The White Stripes

So I know that this is completely girly, but if you don't like it, you don't have to look at it.

I've always wanted a diamond engagement ring, but I don't want one mined by the De Beers Corporation (or any African diamond, really). My choice comes from the idea that African diamonds, even those certified non-conflict, are often mined dangerously through shaft mines. De Beers displays almost no human decency when dealing with their workers, who, if injured or disabled receive no sort of compensation. There's no way I could in good conscience wear a diamond that cost somebody a hand, a set of lungs, or worse.

I've been searching for non-African diamonds and finally came across www.brilliantearth.com, which sells socially and environmentally responsible diamonds from Canada. This is something close to my ideal stone and setting.

And thus ends the girliness.

A site about the 10 scariest places on earth.

I'm jealous of one of my classmates for having a 5-year borrowing privilege at U of M libraries. Does that make me a dork?

Oh, and don't believe anything you read.

This song just popped into my head tonight. I forgot how much I love Natalie Merchant's Ophelia album.

I GOT IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This girl's going to med school in August!

"Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?"


Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

"Be too self-respecting to lavish the love of the whole heart, soul, and strength, where such a gift is not wanted and would be despised.” -- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre