Signature Photo

I've come to the realization that I take a lot of photos of my luggage. So, I'm sticking to tradition:

here's the craziness that I'm dealing with right now. I always finish packing, have my brother weigh each bag, find that each bag is overweight. Then, I unpack, get rid of things I really don't need, then repack. Repeat about 2 more times until I call my mother, an expert packer (due to us moving a bit) and she gets it done in no time.

Why waste the time, then, if she can do it faster? Pride. I'm almost 25. You'd think I could pack a few suitcases by now, especially since I've been doing this for almost 2 years.

Agh.

p.s. those are my brother's nasty feet in the upper right corner. Good thing he doesn't read my blog!! =)

Dad's Roadster Update

He's working on the interior and all. Next big project is painting. He's actually run it up and down our driveway. I sat in it myself. I must say, I'm pretty impressed.

Christmas Decorations

I realize that I haven't been taking Christmas decorations. I should have taken a pic of a fire in our fireplace. The mantle is all nicely decorated, but this pic will do.

New Year's Motto

Instead of coming up with New Year's Resolutions, which I'm bound to break (since I always list 5-10), I'm going to stick to a motto that I've made up that would otherwise encompass all of my resolutions:
Decisions are made, plans are set, get ready for some action.

--> some people know what i'm talking about.

Running Out of Time

My last few days here are going by quickly. I was able to see my best friend who I haven't seen in the longest time. We talked for almost 6 hours at Panera before I realized how late it was and I still had to get a haircut today. The majority of my AUC friends are males, so I miss having "girl talk," which is what B and I did today over warm coffee. (And to my friends who are reading this and are wondering if your name was brought up, it probably was =)

Since today is almost over, I have 2 days left to say goodbye to family and get (started) packing, and help with my sister who's sick. To L & D: sorry about the craziness this holiday and that we couldn't see each other. =(

To AUC students and friends: have a wonderful New Year's (don't go too crazy!!) and have a safe flight. See you on the island in a few days.

New Diet Info

I watched a very interesting documentary on diets tonight. A few facts really stood out that I thought people should know:

1. Chocolate is good for you...but only dark chocolate
2. Drinking 1-2 sodas per day increases your risk by 33% of becoming obese. Drinking 1-2 DIET sodas per day increases your risk by 55%. Apparently, the artificial sweetners are worse for you than it was originally thought. So much for my trying to be healthy and stick to my diet dr. pepper
3. A common misconception and advice that many physicians give cancer patients is to eat heavy sweets in order to keep their weight up. Examples include cakes, ice cream, etc. Cancer cells actually thrive on sugars, so eating sweets is actually decreasing the efficacy of the chemotherapy.

Just some random new facts to throw out there =)

Sunset

Being the poor photographer that I am, I wasn't able to take a good pic of the bright red sky that I saw.

Cloudy Days

This is a view from my back deck early one morning this week. It's been cloudy and colder all week. We're about to get hit with a cold front that's going to dump more snow over Denver, but we'll only see rain.

Brrrr

Okay, so I lost my camera again, so I'll be without pics for a few days.

Today was my last Christmas party. With less than a week before I leave, it's time to run some errands, see some good friends, and get things back into order before I get stuck in SXM for the next several months.

I've talked to friends and family and when they ask, I tell them truthfully that I'm ready to come back to school. You spend so much time studying, that when you stop, you don't know what to do with yourself. After almost 2 weeks of doing nothing but relaxing, I'm actually restless, and dare I say, bored.

I enjoyed Christmas yesterday with my entire family. My aunt, a nurse, wanted to see my new "toys" for ICM, so I showed her everything and even took blood pressures of several relatives. I even used my tuner to check bone and air conduction for hearing loss (something that is learned back in 3rd semester in neuro).

None of this may be truly interesting, but my aunt, who reads my blog, said that she'd bet that I would post all of this, so I decided to comply.

Christmas Eve is Upon Us

Much to my dismay, I had to go out briefly today. Not so much for myself, but for my brother. The kid is 20, but, being the typical male, has no idea what to get for anyone, so I agreed to help out and bought some presents for him. What a minute. I charged those on my card. I need to go see him about payment. :) Can you believe he expected me to wrap them for him as well? Yea, right!

Christmas Eve is tomorrow, which means the holiday begins for my family. Since it's Sunday, I still have regular church service in the morning. This will follow by a flurry of activities, including making sure the house is clean, the platter of cookies is presentable, the shrimp (yes, shrimp) is ready for that night, etc. At 6pm, I have a candle light service to attend with my entire family, followed by dinner, formal family photos, and some gift exchanges at my grandmother's. We typically don't get home until after midnight.

Christmas day, my brother still wakes everyone up, although, since we're older, it's no longer at 7am (Thank goodness!). We open presents, just the 5 of us, and have pineapples for breakfast (another weird tradition). Then, it's time to get the spiral, honey-baked ham ready for the early meal that we have when my entire dad's side of the family arrives for more eating and gift exchanges.

Sadly, there will be no white Christmas this year...it's too warm for snow. I have to say I'm disappointed. I'm sure those in Denver wouldn't have minded if that cold front that dumped so much snow over on them wound up on the east coast.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Correction

My sister's not as smart as I thought she was. I had previously posted that she is ranked #3 at U. Of MD law school, but I was wrong (how I got that number, I don't know...I blame my mother). Apparently, she's number 11, but that still puts her in the top 5%.

Why am I posting this? I was asked to make this correction by my own sister. She said that the truth should be posted. Kind of ironic, coming from a soon-to-be lawyer.

Here's the pic of my gingerbread creation. Sadly, I'm no Martha Stewart this year
:(

Edible House

Hurray! I finally found my camera so I can start taking pics again. Since I've been home, I have been slightly absent minded, due to my being like Stretch Armstrong, being pulled in every direction. I have spent the past several days searching every room for my camera. I even looked in my piano bench where I store my sheet music. I ended up finding it under some wrapping paper in my basement, the official wrapping area (tradition is to wrap on top of our pool table).

So, what's new with me? Well, it's starting to get really cold. It's been in the 60's since I've been home, so it hasn't been too bad (but then again, that's still a 20 degree drop from SXM). It's now dropping to 40's, with even colder weather on the way. Today, the clouds looked threatening...if it had been cold enough, it would have snowed. I miss snow, so I'm hoping that we'll get some while I'm here.

I spent today running errands, but the good news is, I'm finished Christmas shopping. Tomorrow is reserved for wrapping, baking, and running any last minute errands that I forgot. Saturday is last LAST minute errands. Sunday is "go time." I have Christmas eve candlelight services to attend (so pretty and humbling) and then it's a big dinner at my grandmother's. This follows Christmas day at my house and on the 26th, party at my aunt's. (My family is huge). I thrive on this time of year, although i have to admit that I have not been as cheerful as I normally am. I am trying to correct this. I started with purchasing a gingerbread house kit (it's actually a tree). I'm posting a pic of this, although I'm embarrassed at how it turned out. In the past years, I have always made a gingerbread house by scratch, but I just felt too tired to make my own dough and icing. Nevertheless, this will serve as a centerpiece on our island for Christmas day. (if anyone makes fun of it, I'll say my kid cousin did it).

I still have so much more to do. I haven't even unpacked...I'm still living out of my suitcases. Because my winter clothes were already here, I have no use for the things in my suitcases, so they have pretty much stayed right where I left them a week ago in the living room. I suppose I should get the books, notes,etc out.

I saw my sister for the first time tonight. We went out to dinner with my parents. She just finished up her 3rd semester in law school. I'm proud to say that she's 3rd in her class, and we're awaiting to see if she has been chosen to be published in a law journal or not.

p.s. this is an edit: I cant' seem to upload the pic of my gingerbread creation. As soon as I can, I'll upload it as a new post.

Juggler

Just call me a juggler, because I'm handling it all!

I've got wrapping and baking going on, as well as studying (gasp!) for comp...I've started reviewing Biochem. Key words: started. Haven't accomplished much.

Today, I drove down to Johns Hopkins and purchased all the medical equipment that I need for ICM for next semester. Cost a hefty $700. Ouch.

I'm enjoying seeing everyone, though it really wears me out. This weekend, though, I didn't do anything, which was a strange feeling, since I'm used to "go, go, go" with studying. I almost felt guilty for doing absolutely nothing. Almost.

Finally!

I'm home, after a long semester. I am officially a 5th semester (yea!!!)

I've been busy...sleeping. Now, the frantic Christmas rush sets in as I need to finish Christmas shopping, baking cookies, and spreading Christmas cheer. :)

It's good to be home. I thought that I would enjoy the change in weather, but I was wrong. It's so cold here (mid 60's)...coming from SXM, that's a big temperature change. It's actually not supposed to be this warm: normally, it's in the 30's.

I need to start taking pics and posting them, but I'm thankful that I can at least post this. My dial-up at home (gasp! dial up!) doesn't even let me log on...i had to go to a friend's house and tap into a neighbor's wireless to even post this. Is that even legal? Crap.

I know I have to start worrying about comp, but I don't want to even think about school right now. My brain reached it's max capacity a while ago and needs a break.

All in all, it's been a good break so far. It's nice to have home cooked food and to be catered (and the center of attention) but that won't last too long, I'm sure.

Heading Home

In just a few short hours, I will finally be on a plane that gets me off of this island and back home to my family. yea!!!

Last night, after my last exam (and sleeping for a bit), I had dinner and saw a Christmas movie: Deck the Halls. Pretty funny, actually, with Matthew Broderick and Danny DiVito. I would reccomend seeing it.

Now, as I'm surrounded by trash bags of perishable items that have to be thrown out, as well as opened suitcases, I realize that I need to finish up...I only have 2 hours before I head to the airport.

See everyone at home in just a few hours!!

R.I.P.

Here's the unexpected guest that I had to deal with last night. Yucky. I was completely grossed out. It took half a can of RAID to kill this thing.

2 exams down, 1 to go!

Long weekend

I had my last 2 lectures today (whoo-hoo). Now, I just have to get through a very long weekend, as my first final isn't until Monday (and it's pharm of all of them). Coffee is my friend.

I don't go home until Thursday, but the countdown has begun (it began the first day of the semester, actually). Looking forward to the holidays at home.

My posting will be sporatic until after finals, but during the break, i'll be studying for comp and the shelves that I take when I get back. So between that, and my family antics that are bound to pop up, I'll have a lot to write about.

Back to the grind...

Missing...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I'm missing being able to have sleep. Rephrase...having the time to sleep. Finals are just around the corner, and I"m trying to go all out (as possible). In fact, tomorrow's technically the first one: med pysch lab final. Then, nothing until Monday (pharm cummulative final).

I've had so much coffee the past couple of days, I'm surprised I don't have a tremor going on. (You know that too much coffee actually causes anxiety and mood swings? Not good to put this into the hands of AUC students during finals...)

HALLELUJAH!

This has been one crazy weekend. Friday, no water for half the day. Saturday, no water OR electricity for half the night. Sunday and Monday, no internet or phones. But it's back! My connection to the outside (REAL) world is back.

I have missed the internet so bad. And a working phone. Ahhhh..... let the choir sing praises to this little island miracle!

You're Back

The lights, the AC,the internet, it's all back.
After experiencing the predicatable power outage that occurs at the end of every semester, I have my comforts back. I attempted to study by candlelight, which didn't work. I attempted to study at school, which didn't work. I came home to wash my hair with a water bottle, and bam, the lights came back on. Still no water, but I'm sure that will come shortly.

Still Going

They're still adding levels!! My view continues to diminish.

If you look, the apartments are going to be pretty small width-wise, but will be very long. It looks like they'll only have a very small window in the front. Maybe they'll have some in the back,too.

Break time

I've been studying all day, so when it was time to get up and stretch my legs, I saw some pretty cool clouds out: pink from the sunset. I also took a pic of the moon that is already out, even though the sun is still setting. While all this is going on, it started to rain.

As a side note, I saw the gym today. I stopped by after my morning run, and I have to say, it's a decent gym. Several treadmills, elipitical machines, bikes, and pleanty of weights. Since it's open 24 hours a day, I'll go and work out for a half hour later tonight when my mind turns to mush from my studies.

Go Figure

So, I'm still up, studying away for finals. Right now, I'm working on med psych, since we have a mock exam on Monday to get us ready for our lab final that's on Wednesday. Since it's on DSM (psychiatric diseases), of course, every one that I study, I feel it pertains to me. So, I'm doing a lot of self diagnosing. So far, I have Panic Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder,and a slew of other things. It figures that I finally get to hypochondriasis, and of course, I have that, too. Bring out the white strapped coat and put me in a foamed-wall room!

I don't like lab exams. I really don't get much out of them, since they are not even set up to mimic the USMLE. Anatomy was like that for me: I think my class was the last to have fill-in-the-blanks. Kudos to the 3rd semesters who are studying for Micro lab final this weekend. Again, that final is fill-in-the-blank. While that exam material seems overwhelming, it's not too bad, since for a lot of the questions, there are multiple correct answers. Have faith, 3rd semesters!!

Back I go. What's that saying? Hitting the books? I'm not hitting anything, though...just breaking pencil points and running out of ink. Hey, give me a break. It's getting really late.

Okay, here's another one from Australia. Apparently, this guy synchronizes his lights to music.

Christmas Lights

click on this link to check out homes all around the world that are decorated for the holidays. You can even vote for your favorites. This one is located in Woodbridge, VA. I liked a lot of them, but I must say that the ones from MD were weak.

Weather

It's been another windy day today. I like this weather, though, b/c it's like the fall weather that I'm used to back home. I called home today, to find out that they are having an abnormally warm day: it's in the 70's. There's supposed to be a drastic change over the weekend, however, as snow flurries are being called for on Monday. I'm a little jealous of that. I can't wait to see snow when I go home.