So for those that don't know... my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer just a couple of weeks ago. It is scary and stressful and well, I'm sure you can come up with plenty of other descriptive words......
He had his IV port put in on Friday, and he starts chemo this Wednesday. And instead of getting to be near him and help my sister with all of this, I am trying to study for my national board exam which is coming up in November. Guess how well that's going...

Anyway...

back to trying to study.......

On the same thought-wave as Beth. A shout out to both my dad and Jerris/Andy, the ever building men I have known.

http://xkcd.com/319/

Well, one more day of tests and then Vacation! I do believe that this is the first one that I've had in well, years, that I don't have plans for. Any ideas??

I'm thinking about playing tourist. You know.... buy a guidebook and do all of those things people do in Charleston that I've not gotten around to in the last three years. Which is just about everything.

So cast your vote. What should I do next week? Beach? Spring cleaning? Carriage ride? Random hitchiking trip to Tallahassee?

All I have to say is... "that was unexpected."



Not unfortunate or unpleasant or unlikely (I suppose), but unexpected none-the-less. Or so I like to tell myself.

This being mostly for my own benefit, I won't go into further details. But I will say yeah, that is exactly what every girl wants to hear as she walks out of a door. However, think about the last unexpected thing to happen to you that wasn't also either unfortunate or unpleasant. I hope you could come up with more events than I could.

Well, I am the worst blogger ever.

I am just about to finish up my 3rd yr here at MUSC...I can't believe that I will be a senior in a little over a month. It seems that I should know what I'm doing now...enough to teach the 'tricks' to the rising Juniors. Some days I feel ready, but mostly I still feel like I want someone over my shoulder saying "yes, you really are doing this right". Soon I have to start studying again for the National Boards, application for residency...and a new life in the Air Force. All a bit daunting.

Happy note... I have already blocked out days to go to Emmy and Jerris's wedding. YEAH!!! I miss people so much... while school is good and people are nice... most everyone is married (and never do anything) or not cool enough to like "Spaced", "Naruto" and other awsome things that the gang got me hooked on.

:(

But life is good. My nieces are healthy and growing, and the wisteria vines and azaleas are blooming to beat the band. Guess I can't complain too much that I miss my Landis/FSU friends. It is good to know that everyone is doing well.

Now to clean the house before going to see Run Fat Boy Run. Simon Pegg is just awsome.

Well, though I seemed to have fallen off the planet, I was actually fighting for my sanity as I was responsible for 26 credit hours this Spring, as well as preparing for my Part I of the National Board Exam.

I passed!! So I am deemed competant in the Basic Sciences and can now try my hand at real patients. I currently have 4 denture patients (immediates - which means I have to prepare the denture BEFORE they have their teeth pulled. Believe me hard work!!) as well as various other patients with issues best discussed later.

After my exam I spent the week at my sister's house in Colorado. I was able to hold the very cuddly Millie (Amelia Young Linder - 8 wks old now and oh so adorable) as well as play with Maggie (my 3 year old niece). Lots of fun, but my sister is going through Chemo again, and that is very tough on her family. Keep us in your prayers. Well, her mostly :) I can handle myself. -- Kung fu and all that jazz.

I earned my green belt in the spring. I then proceeded to get very rusty - and have to relearn a ton. Of course that is the way of the world.

My sorority sisters Carla and Francis are in town for the week, and I have been trying to entertain them by having them run free during the day, and taking them out at night. Tonight we went Salsa dancing. LOTS of FUN. I will have to go dancing more often. I was pitiful like all first time dancers, but several guys danced with me more than once, so I guess I didn't kill too many toes. One guy in particular kept trying to monopolize my time -- annoying -- but he knows about all of the dancing events in town, so I let him hang around. Not a bad guy I guess, but when you are out with your friends, you don't want anyone to monopolize your time but the people you brought with you :) I was able to wear a fun blue dress that I made this past year....one of the hardest things I have ever made - and probably a one-of-a-kind forever due to the difficulty of the pattern. I only wore it for an hour or so before slipping out of my dancing shoes and dress (in the restroom--dirty minds) into a tank top and skirt that were a little cooler and with less risk of "falling out" as the saying goes. :) I will have to find a great swingy skirt and high necked tank top to wear if I continue with such outings. It makes dancing much more fun if you aren't worried about how much cleavage you are showing (avoiding a "wardrobe malfunction" is the key here).

On sad news my favorite breakfast place has closed. They say it will become a Noodle and Sake bar, but it still hasn't morphed... Ah well what can you do. I suppose I will have to cook my own eggs and bacon from now on. I will certainly miss the beniets though.

Well there is the update...a new and thought provoking quote to come (from "THUD" by Terry Pratchett)...stay posted.

And another month passes. I did manage to live through another "singles awareness day" as a good friend of mine so aptly puts it. School is not so much fun. Nothing bad...just...bleh. Though I did a little dance when I made a 95 on a difficult class III prep. (that's a cutting out a simulated cavity between two front teeth---from the back side).

I went to an 80s prom last night put on by Delta Sigma dental fraternity. I put video up on my myspace page, and pictures on facebook if you can find me. That was more fun that I've had in a while. I actually watched Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion to get inspiration.

The only other major fun recently was seeing Enter the Haggis (www.enterthehaggis.org) on Sullivan's Island last month. The band was great, but the turnout, unfortunately, was not. I think there were 12 people in the entire bar. It was cold...but really for an awsome band that is NO EXCUSE. Though I did get free beer from the bartender. Go WindJammer! Despite my general aversion to beer I do really like Blue Moon. It is kind of like heppavise (sorry I can't spell german beer---it's the one you get with an orange stuck in it).

I suppose I can no longer put off studying for my Pharmacology test even though it seems hopeless. It took 5 hrs of studying to pass a single quiz. I'm sunk...all those durned names...most of which I can't pronounce, making it hard to keep them all straight.

Oh, I have found the best place for breakfast/brunch in Charleston. Marie Laveau's... yummy, and just a short walk from my house. Making it the most convienient thing in Charleston, short of my church which is also only a 5 minute walk from my front door.

And my second week of classes is now over. Bleh. I should be more excited. Last weekend I found a senior who likes Buffy as much as I do....of course after I suggested that we watch again this weekend I got an email saying, "That was fun, we should do it again...and I just want to be friends." It actually took me a few minutes to realize why my feelings had been hurt :) Isn't that supposed to be my line? Anyway, I have been spending way too many hours in front of the tv, watching nothing good, and am getting sick of myself. So this weekend I plan to get off my tucus (ie. butt) and do some studying and something fun. Something that doesn't involve shopping, since I bought 4 pairs of shoes the other day. They were on sale, I promise. Not that that makes it much better.

Any ideas?

Ah, so another new year has arrived. The fun of the holidays is over, and school begins again. Tomorrow. So much for sleeping late. I am not even going to try to pull a JackBoot and fill you in on New Year's/the end of last year. Too much to even begin...Suffice to say at Christmas there was snow. Lots of snow. So much snow I could not even go skiing. "You jest" you say. "No" says I. "I jest not".

Just a little snow, right? 

Can anyoe tell that I'm studying for Exams and really don't want to. I really just want to cry. Waaahhh!!! 

and it looks like my sad excuse of a program that I am finally figuring out is going the way of all such things...and I'll have to learn another new trick. I DONT WANNA.  

I so want to just run away..escape from the exams and quizzes and ..........GO OUT AND HAVE SOME FUN. 

I hate school it sucks...as in it sucks all the life out of you. or it does me anyway.  

At some point I am going to figure this out well enough to edit it back into something fun to read....Like with titles and stuff like andy... 'cause he is just so cool 

I am finally home. HOME. I flew back into town on Monday...started classes Tuesday...and am now sitting in a VERY boring Pathology class. It appears that my cats still remember me. Cinder hasn't been 5 feet from me since I got back...and if I am sitting/laying down I find him pressed against me in nothing flat. :) nice to know I'm still loved. 

Well I survived COT, and after a single day at home I was off to Tampa, FL. Three days there and then it was off for a whirlwind three days in Colorado, then back to Tampa. On Friday I am off to Ft. Myers Beach for a week. Yeah for family reunions. Then a swing through good ol' Tallahassee before heading home for a week then off to Colorado again for 3 weeks to round out my summer before school starts. 

I managed to live through COT in Alabama. I had planned to document the time...but they never left enough time in the day to do it!! I was up at 4 every morning and didn't get to sleep until 11 or 12 each night. Ah well. It involved running, marching, hot hot hot weather, and lots of reporting statements. Don't know what a reporting statement is?? Lucky you. :) Now I am continuing my summer travels (man do I miss my cats) in Florida. I am spending a few weeks with my best friend Anne, then off to Ft. Myers for my family reunion, home for a week or so, and then off to Colorado to complete my summer with my sister. Ah well I guess since it is my last summer off I should be making the most of it. But man do I miss my bed. And did I mention my cats?? Hehe... 

Off to sleep if the butterflies don't eat me from the inside I will be off the the airport at 5am. Oh the fun. Bleck. 

So ok. I am a little nervous. Shoot me. I take that back I am headed to a place where people have guns. Don't shoot me! :)